000 000 0000

gbopp wrote:

greenrvgreen wrote:
If the call is legitimate, they'll leave a message.

I've been telling my DW that for years, she feels obligated to return a call to any number that calls her cell phone.

I get unusual numbers, but not the 000 000 0000. I just ignore them, none of the callers have ever left a message.

You might want to tell her about an active scam that waits for you to call to see who called (the phone may not even ring but the phone indicates a missed call) and then immediately puts you hold. While you are waiting you are charged 2 or 3 dollars per minute. As I recall the call originates in the Dominican Republic.

Some idiot or idiot company spoofed our cell number and our number showed up on the recipients caller ID.

The first day we received about 100 call backs, amazing how many people call back to people they don't know, until I turned it off then overnight we had 50 some messages returning calls. Some were called multiple times, their messages were pretty nasty not that I blame them. After that I didn't turn the phone on or check the messages.

Verizon said the only thing that could be done was change our number which we did. Apparently you can't get in to much trouble for spoofing a call ID.

With very few exceptions it is illegal to spoof a phone number, However 000=000=0000 can indicate an error, and of course the scammers do like to hide their true number.

Clearly the conservation is going to get around to personal ID info that can be used to clean your bank accounts for you and/or a request for payment.

This is fraud, pure and simple. Do not play their game.

Just a general comment about security:

Banks love internet access because it saves them a LOT of money, which they then pass on in the form of gigantic bonuses for bankers. This means that they want internet banking to succeed, so they've gone out of their way to reimburse customers who have lost money to fraud, even when it's the customer's own fault, or can be construed that way in court.

This can't last forever. Increasingly, customers are held liable for fraud that is not explicitly the bank's fault, ie a hostile takeover of the bank's web site. If a customer unknowingly gives a crook enough information to guess their password and access their account, they stand to lose the funds in their account.

Many people on this website love their pets enough to talk about them online. And some of those people display their real names, their email address, and even their phone number.

The most common security question if you forget your password is "What is your favorite pet's name?". Russian gangs are assembling a database of names, email addresses and pet names. With your actual phone number they can call you up and fill in any blanks they need in order to hijack your email account and tell your bank they forgot your password and to email them a new one.

That's all they need to write themsleves a nice check out of your account.

This kind of fraud is considered the customer's fault, and it's already in our contracts. But in most cases the bank pays it, because they don't want customers to get the impression that internet banking is risky. But as the average customer gets more sophisticated about security, the rest of us have to play catch up, because eventually most customers will agree that internet banking is perfectly safe--as long as you don't give away your password. And that will be good enough for them to tell us our losses are our own fault.

K Charles wrote:
We have had our phone number show up on our caller ID, like we are calling ourselves.

Even stranger if you answered the phone, and the caller on the other end was you? :BThose telemarketers are getting really good? If not a little scary?

Have tracfone. No way to block. So put them in my contacts and then have it go direct to voice mail, name them BLOCKED. Never leave a message and never hear from them again.

K Charles wrote:
We have had our phone number show up on our caller ID, like we are calling ourselves.

Same here and it even had my name. We don't answer any call that we can't identify as someone we know. If they leave a message (most don't) then we can elect to call back. And I won't "play along to waste their time" as my time is more important.

K Charles wrote:
We have had our phone number show up on our caller ID, like we are calling ourselves.

Same here, for some credit card protection thing. Got the guys name and a call back number that went to Visa customer service. When I called Visa they said the call wasn't from them but were aware of the scam.

Depending on my mood I will sometimes answer these strange numbers just to mess with them.

bcsdguy wrote:

gbopp wrote:

greenrvgreen wrote:
If the call is legitimate, they'll leave a message.

I've been telling my DW that for years, she feels obligated to return a call to any number that calls her cell phone.

I get unusual numbers, but not the 000 000 0000. I just ignore them, none of the callers have ever left a message.

X2

X3, if no message then no response from me. I finally convinced my DW to do the same. JMO

guidry wrote:
I use Nomorobo and it works great. Free, look it up

Only works on some carriers, seems to be VoIP mostly. Does NOT work on CenturyLink landline or AT&T wireless, both major carriers.