New Scam: alleged drug packages
A relative shared information on a call she got, apparently a new version of the intimidate and scare call. The caller, with a heavy accent, claimed to be with the local police force of the largest city close to her. He stated they were "holding a package for her" at the local city's airport.
He stated they "suspected" it had drugs. He added she "doesn't have a license" to get drugs, that she needs to get one from the FDA and it costs $800. He offered a small rebate if she sent him the $800 to get the license for her. (Fat chance!)
(He didn't address the fact that some people do get legitimate drugs via mail.)
She "lit into him" and corrected him on all the false statements, "told him off", and hung up on him. He called back about 15 minutes later, more aggressive, and got the same response from her.
The caller apparently didn't offer insights on why he/they allegedly suspected "drugs" in the package, i.e., dog sniffing, or other means, or whether the drugs were medicinal or illegal.
I'm guessing this would probably intimidate some people enough to be scared, or to send money, w/o analyzing the narrative and catching the shortcomings in the story.
The VA used to send drugs by mail, so there is legitimate basis for supplying necessary drugs via mail, although this thug inferred the drugs were illegal.
Please share with caregivers you know who are caring for elders or anyone who might be subject to manipulation, intimidation, and harassment calls. I'd hate to learn of anyone who's responded to such a brazen call with serious misinformation about drugs.
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So I have to answer the phone. Their number doesn’t show up on my caller ID because they use different telephone numbers.
I get both robocalls and human scammers.
I have an app that doesn’t detect all scammers.
Do not call list doesn’t help either.
At least junk mail can be tossed out. Scammers are a different story.
Even junk mail is an issue for people with cognitive decline. They think that they have won big prizes and so on. It’s awful.
Boy, were do they come up with this stuff.
Can you imagine, the Social Security card (your card has been cancelled) scammers left messages!!?!!.
Trying to console myself, I have arrived at this: The telephone is for me only, my use only, when I want to call out. There is no obligation to answer anyone's call, ever.
The real problem arises when calling out, leaving a message, the person may call back, does not leave a message. So I had to just let it go, stop doing personal business on the phone.
We were able to receive a call and answer when the doctor called by appointment from an unknown number. Phew!
It’s disturbing because these scammers are so clever!
The worst is when they leave a message and as soon as the person calls back they get charged fees.
The person scammed has to remove hundreds of dollars off of their bill.
Well, if a person has cognitive decline they aren’t able to deal with having fees removed.
It’s infuriating. We are told to ignore calls. So we do. We don’t answer an unrecognizable number.
So then sophisticated scammers leave scary, intimidating messages for vulnerable people and if they call back they get charged for the amount of minutes they are able to keep them on the phone.
Do not call list don’t help. It’s robocalls. Now they trick people by using the same area code. All scams should be reported but vulnerable people don’t have the capability of reporting them.
This is where all the tech stuff could be helpful: if there were a method to program phones with a response like yours, which could be activated while on a phone conversation, older people might be convinced to always push that button whenever they got a call from someone they didn't know.
I'll that scammer wasn't expecting to be told off the way you told him.
I'd like to figure out how to do that with my phone but I don't think it's possible, or if it is, I probably couldn't figure it out anyway.
It is horribly sad when the elderly fall prey to these scams.
I was bored that day and decided to play along.
When the caller said an FBI agent would be knocking at my door to arrest me I said, “Send them over!”
The caller screamed at me saying that I would be arrested if I didn’t pay.
I repeated, “Fine, come arrest me.” LOL
And I'm sure they wouldn't be pleased to learn that someone is creating a bad reputation for them.
NancyMC, did you get a similar call? Or were the calls to you the ones indicating that the police are on their way to arrest you b/c you haven't paid your taxes, or something like that?