Tag Archives: nuisance calls

Get these best insider tips from the IRS to avoid tax scams

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Tax season is here and opportunists are again determined as ever to victimize wage earners, steal their identities and much-anticipated tax refunds.

Your Social security number, name and date of birth – that’s all a scammer needs – as easy and as low risk as that. Once they have a Social Security number in hand, the scammers can file a phony tax return in the victim’s name, claim a large refund and have it sent to a false address.

Last year, the IRS caught more than 1.8 million fake tax returns and prevented more than $12 billion in fraudulent refunds. It is estimated that about $21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the next five years can even be issued to scammers.

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The tellows app caller identification for Android and iOS – the smartphone app to identify nuisance callers!

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With the tellows app, you can now identify unknown callers!

The app will tell you real-time if the call is trustworthy or not. On the first ring of your phone, the tellows score will appear in order to help you decide whether to answer the phone or cancel it – 7 to 9 being the most untrustworthy numbers. The app also allows you to read the comments of users about this number. Post your own complaints through this app so you can also warn others. The service is free of charge.

The only requirement is of course, aside from internet access, is an Android Smartphone or an iPhone.
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What You Need to Know: A Review of the FCC Rules

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Let’s try to review the facts and take a look at some important guidelines set by the Federal Communications Commission on telemarketing and autodialers.

1. Telemarketers are REQUIRED to give his or her name, company, telephone number or address where he or she can be contacted. You should expect these details on the initial part of the call.

In the tellows Call Guideline, you are given a script with a set of questions which you can use to verify information about the telemarketer.

2. No phone solicitation/ telemarketing is allowed before 8 am or after 9 pm.

3. As soon as you ask the telemarketer to include you in the do-not-call list, they should comply and you shouldn’t be receiving any more calls from them! At least for the next 5 years (read below).

4. The telemarketer must honor your do-not-call request for five years and you must repeat your request once you get the same call after the period.

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Our weekly Top 3 plus more info on where to Report a Scam

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Before we give you our Most Annoying Numbers for the week, here’s a list of institutions that can help you deal with a scam:

1. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has consumer advisories on international and text message scams.

2. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides information on phone scams and spam.

3. The National Fraud Information Center (NFIC) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

4. All major U.S. wireless companies can help you with their spam blocking technologies.

And so this week for our top 3, we have a Spanish autodialer with 11 comments and 2085 search requests; we have a spammer looking for k.smith because her debit card has been locked, and lastly, we have our resident caller telling you to claim your Royal Caribbean or Carnival Cruise prize. Remember guys, don’t fall for it!

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Make your smartphone even Smarter with the tellows Android app!

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Receiving a lot of unwanted calls lately? Seems like your DNC isn’t working? Well, we finally have the solution for you!

You can now download the tellows Android app for caller identification. It’s a sure way to a peaceful life! The app will tell you real-time if the call is trustworthy or not. This will save you time since you don’t need to check the number in the internet. On the first ring of your phone, the tellows Score will automatically appear in order to help you decide whether to answer the phone or cancel it – 7 to 9 being the most untrustworthy numbers. Caller identification has never been this easy!

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Don’t be a victim! Our Top 3 scam clichés for the week

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I remember this Hollywood film Compliance, I couldn’t sleep after watching it. It’s about this prank caller who phoned the manager of a fast food chain and introduced himself as a police officer. He asked the manager to strip search one of her female employees because she allegedly stole something. The manager believed it and followed everything the caller asked her to do. The scam call ended up as a sexual harassment case. This film is based on a true story and apparently, there were over 70 similar incidents that already occurred in 30 U.S. States.

After seeing this movie, you will never again talk to strangers! Yes, we’ve heard that from our mothers when we were kids, but still, this comes in handy every time we face the dangerous world out there.

Based on true accounts of our tellows users, our top three for the week go like this: 1) caller tells you they found your lost debit card and then will ask you to confirm the number to them, the next thing you knew, they’re already using your debit card number for different transactions; 2) scam call pretending to be a representative of Nova Scotia informing you that you just won a free cruise but they first need your bank account details to make sure that they are talking to the right person; 3) another Caribbean spam caller, this time from Montserrat.

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News from the Caribbean – Grenada’s Haven for Sex Scam Callers

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It’s one of those late night calls that you were not able to pick up. You called back early in the morning thinking that it was an emergency. Unfortunately, you heard obscene moaning and realized it’s a scam. Then your phone bill arrives, and there goes an extra $100 charge.

Due to the huge amount of complaints received, police departments across Utah are warning people not to answer and not to call back numbers from the 473 area code. Apparently, some residents in the area who just picked up the phone and did not even return the call were getting a $19.95 charge on their phone bill.

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Pests of the Caribbean – The Tide of Grenadian Nuisance Calls

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For some the Caribbean Sea equals paradise, for others, the sole notion of the Grenadian area code 473 forebodes only waking nights and sleepless nightmares. A new phone-fiend has arisen on the small island of Grenada in the Caribbean Sea and pesters unwitting people with dozens of silent calls a day.

Our fellow tellows users complain about an increasing number of automated calls from Grenada. Usually the calls are most numerous in the morning, yet afternoon calls and bellowing phones at night were reported as well. Yet no one actually ever talked to the caller. The tellows user thereby conclude that the callers agenda is primarily aimed at tricking people into calling back.

Danglt reported the number 4735209795:

Seems to be a ping call from grenada. Even without any fees for a service number the reaming fee will be high enough to cost you some dollars

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The Tellows Top 3: Calls Making You Cranky This Week!

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This week’s batch all want your card details if the truth be told. Fight back by quite simply not giving them up. Here are some sneaky new adversaries on the scene to look out for…

A new entrant to the IRS scam arena (someone stop these guys already!) is 5303802641. Highly active within the last week, they’ve got a tellows score of 7 (possibly due to one misunderstanding of the scoring system – remember, 1 means TRUSTWORTHY!) and have no respect for public holidays!

Dan’s got his detective hat on…

This dumb scammer calls me on Thanksgiving day pretending to be an IRS lawyer claiming that I have an ‘Tax deficiency’ issue. What kind of idiot will believe an IRS lawyer works on Thanksgiving day and will call his ‘client’??

Very true. People calling you out of the blue about a ‘legal issue’ is more often than not quite fishy!

On the other end of the credibility spectrum is the gentleman (note the irony) calling from 3362286986. This is a guy who ostensibly really takes offence to non-credit-card-owners; he really flies off the handle if you don’t give him the answer he’s looking for. We’re not sure if he’s working ‘freelance’ or is part of a larger agency but he intersperses his survey questions with other, rather inappropriate enquiries.

Darron indignantly tell us about his experience…

I finally picked up from this number and some guy wouldn’t tell me who or where he was calling from. then I asked to be taken off his calling list and was then called several names and asked to give him a kiss. he said are you drunk? he really irritated me do not listen to him!!!!!

Cold-call flirting is a new one on us but this is exactly what this guy is doing… Albeit ineptly. And angrily.

Check out the link above for a few more entertaining stories.

With a tellows score of 8, 8608227440 is offering ‘better credit card rates’ and has absolutely no explanation of how it’s doing so.

Luckily, Aurora recognised the call for what it was…

The caller talked about better interest for my credit card and wanted to have my credit card number…I left her waiting until she hung up. As if anybody would fall for that kind of scam

…well someone must be if they’re still doing it! If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it weekly, DON’T give your card details out willy-nilly!

Keep your heads up, block those numbers and report them on tellows and we’ll be back with more nerve-grating numbers next week!

Take care,
Your tellows team

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The Week’s Top 3 Phone Fiends

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Greetings from tellows HQ!

The seasons may change but nuisance callers are still a nuisance. Here are our picks of the week.

The first batch of crooks in our line-up are calling from 3605391729 posing as Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU), informing you that your card has been ‘limited’ (whatever that means). They don’t send you your whole card number via text, they just include the first four digits, which they are able to guess due to your neighbourhood, apparently. The plan then seems to be that you call back and confirm those all-important card details!

George states:

I got this text message: “WSECU NOTICE: Your CARD (first 4 digits of my debit card #) has been LlMITED. Please call 360-539-1729” ….. so I’m like, this must be genuine, they have my card details! but I spoke with WSECU and apparently they’re ripping off people by using standard debit card prefixes of certain areas. I guess you’re supposed to confirm your card details when you call them back. BE CAREFUL GUYS!!!

The next caller is not so ingenious – just infuriating. 5129553173 has been reported as harassment calls and is taking it to another level. We’ve heard of aggressive telemarketers but user kirkwork reports:

I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW MANY TIMES THESE IDIOTS HAVE CALLED ME!! It’s like 20 times in 10 minutes! I swear I’m just going to bury my cell in my backyard!

Burying your cell may seem like a viable solution but we do suggest blocking them first.

Last up are these audacious payday loan sharks on 7146023772 hoping to snap up a couple of gullible fish.

Milow says

They called me yesterday evening and told me that I´m was being sued for a 2011 Payday Loan. I can´t believe it. They have a lot of information about me (age, adress, name)

Susan N, meanwhile, was told that

APPARENTLY I could only settle this formal financial issue by purchasing a Green Dot card

Remember, with debt collectors, to wait for formal documentation. Keep calm and don’t forward any money until you are absolutely sure of their identity, particularly if they’re asking you for payment via unorthodox methods like Green Dot cards or obscure transfer companies.

That’s it for this week! Keep a sharp eye and have a super week!

Your tellows team

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