Scamming An Internet Scam Artist

[MT Gianni]

Speaking of scams, just now I am reading FB posts of peoples utility bills doubling and tripling after recent cold spell. Our leaders who want to become your leaders let delivery charges skyrocket, as if actual use isn't enough. They are also planning on taxing things like you wouldn't believe. They also stopped all energy production,in state

You need to relocate to America.

[JimB..]

I'm going to give it a month or two. If I don't hear any more about it I'll contact one of our local new stations to see if they run with it. Internet scams are old news so I'm not holding my breath on that either. As I stated before, I never really expected for the company in question to do anything about it either. I just thought it was worth a shot. If we don't try to do something about all of this corruption, then we passively become complicit in it.

Tracing the calls and contacting the company took all of a half-hour stretched over two or three days. I base my pessimism on the state of corruption in our nation as whole. Even with irrefutable evidence against these people, it seems that fewer and fewer of them are being brought to justice.

The thing that gets my blood boiling if I let it is, since this idiot internet scammer used his home phone, I could easily subscribe to one of the many online phone tracing services and get this person's exact name and address. I think it costs all of nine-bucks to do so.

If it's that easy for me to find out exactly who this scam artist is, (I use the word, "Artist" reluctantly) I have to believe that for law enforcement or corporate security departments a simple click of a computer mouse might bring up the same information.

HollowPoint

I’m curious, how did you conclude that he used his home phone number?

[HollowPoint]

I’m curious, how did you conclude that he used his home phone number?

On my cell phone, when someone sends me a text it lists the number that the text message originates from. That number includes the area code. I simply entered that phone number onto my internet browser and it brought up multiple phone tracing websites. As part of the tactics these phone tracking sites use to get you to subscribe to their services, they'll give out just enough information on that particular phone number to get you to pay a little more for further information.

Part of the free information that several of these online phone tracing websites offered up front is that this was an area-code and phone number from Hattiesburg, MS. It also listed it as a "land line"; not a cell phone number. If I'd gone ahead and paid for a one month subscription to their services I could have also gotten the name of the phone number's account holder.

It's not that hard. Try entering your own phone number or the phone number of someone you know that has a land line in their home. Include the area code and enter it into your internet browser. I think it may even work if you have a cell phone too but I'm not sure. A "Land Line" generally means that it's a telephone number like the ones we used before the advent of cell phones. The phone line connects directly to the line coming from a telephone pole outside your house.

If you go as far as subscribing to one of these phone tracing websites and happen to get a name out of it. You can then cross reference that name by entering that name, along with the city and state they are from into your web browser as well. If everything checks out it should bring up online resources that trace names to addresses. A lot of times you'll get a link to the FaceBook website and you'll not only get their name to come up but, you will get a photo of the person as well.

For idiot scam artists, social media can be a social and legal disaster but, idiot-types like this never seem to think of stuff like that. It never seems to occur to them that connections can be made directly to them simply by using their phone number.

HollowPoint

[StolzerandSons]

You most likely got a spoofed number not the actual name and number of the scammer.
Caller ID spoofing is what almost all the telemarketers and scammers are using now. They can even make it look like they are calling from a local number in your area.

[MaryB]

I got a call from "Publishers clearing house" from some dude with a Caribbean accent. You won! We need a $400 check to pay fees and taxes to release the prize. My representative is waiting to hand you the check!

PCH doesn't charge fees but I played the game, town cop lived 2 blocks from me and I knew he was available because I had just talked to him on the phone to fix some wiring on the car. I had him run over in uniform, PCH guy called and I said yes, I have the cashiers check(anyone wants a cashiers check they are scamming!) go ahead and send your rep over. Guy shows up at my door, I answer and invite him in, he does the exchange(I made a fake check on my computer) and the town cop stepped in from the kitchen and arrested him. Never heard how far up the food chain they got. The hood rat they sent to my house had a record a mile long and went back to prison for a parole violation. I don't know if he squealed on the guy on the phone but at least one scumbag went to jail!

[HollowPoint]

I got a call from "Publishers clearing house" from some dude with a Caribbean accent. You won! We need a $400 check to pay fees and taxes to release the prize. My representative is waiting to hand you the check!

PCH doesn't charge fees but I played the game, town cop lived 2 blocks from me and I knew he was available because I had just talked to him on the phone to fix some wiring on the car. I had him run over in uniform, PCH guy called and I said yes, I have the cashiers check(anyone wants a cashiers check they are scamming!) go ahead and send your rep over. Guy shows up at my door, I answer and invite him in, he does the exchange(I made a fake check on my computer) and the town cop stepped in from the kitchen and arrested him. Never heard how far up the food chain they got. The hood rat they sent to my house had a record a mile long and went back to prison for a parole violation. I don't know if he squealed on the guy on the phone but at least one scumbag went to jail!

With any luck, the internet scammer I just dealt with will meet the same fate. I'm not really an expert in human psychology but I've been reading and writing since I learned how to read and write in elementary school. The wording and the punctuations of this guys text messages just seemed to indicate that he or she was not to bright. I'm sure that if they were caught, they too would have their share of previous legal violations.

HollowPoint

[JimB..]

On my cell phone, when someone sends me a text it lists the number that the text message originates from.

The technology has moved beyond that, in fact if you want to send me your cell phone number I’ll send you a text that looks like it originated from the whitehouse switchboard.

My brother had to get the police involved one time because someone thought that they’d identified a scammer and were making death threats, he of course had no idea what the guy was screaming about and that just made the guy madder.

For me the most interesting bit of evidence is how the fedex service was paid for. Likely a stolen credit card, but if not then at least it is something that could be followed.

[Geezer in NH]

Phone calls I hang up nothing said.

Emails I delete and block sender.

Life' s to short to play games with criminals. I got paid to do that before retiring. Now I make nothing and ignore the idiots. Nice to do.

[nvbirdman]

I was working at the post office when a guy came in complaining that the postal inspectors were holding the mail of a company he was dealing with. I explained to him that the inspectors do that when the company is scamming people. He said he wanted his mail delivered because he could be making $500 a day. Some people are just asking to be ripped off.

[rr2241tx]

Since my dad died it has been almost a fulltime job keeping the scammers off my elderly mother. About twice a year we just have to cancel her credit cards and get a new one. I've lost count how many bogus extended warranties she's bought for her NEW Navigator that has 5 years of factory warranty remaining. If you know anyone who needs several thousand dollars worth of wrinkle cream, I can spare a few Large Flat Rate Boxes of unopened jars. It's a constant barrage of phone calls, emails, and letters all day, every day at her house.

[MaryB]

Time to step in and manage her finances totally. We did that with my grandparents. They had a debit card with a $100 a month limit that could only be raised if one of my sisters or myself approved it. Ended the buying TV junk from ads that was total scam garbage. If they needed something major one of us went with and paid for it and the trust reimbursed us. And we were very lenient, they bought tons of toys and stuff for the great grand kids etc. just no extended warranties on new appliances, no TV scam junk...

Since my dad died it has been almost a fulltime job keeping the scammers off my elderly mother. About twice a year we just have to cancel her credit cards and get a new one. I've lost count how many bogus extended warranties she's bought for her NEW Navigator that has 5 years of factory warranty remaining. If you know anyone who needs several thousand dollars worth of wrinkle cream, I can spare a few Large Flat Rate Boxes of unopened jars. It's a constant barrage of phone calls, emails, and letters all day, every day at her house.

[john.k]

There is another type of scam where the cheques are good,and land the naive recipient into money laundering schemes,and jail time........my aged mother was a sucker for any kind of sad story with kids,and after she wasnt able to pay actual money,she started giving away good stuff to con artists on the talkback radio....anything antique was a particular target.....

[Rufus Krile]

HollowPoint, you have my admiration. Being retired, I take great joy in filibustering some of these yahoos. I have the time and the disposition to engage them. My personal record is only 45minutes of phone time and I thought that was good. I bow to the master.

[fatelk]

My grandfather worked hard all his life, and my grandmother was smart with money. In their later years they were very comfortable financially, with several rentals and such. Then she passed away and he spent the last decade of his life letting it all get away from him.

At one point he pretty much flushed $60K down the toilet. It wasn't an outright scam, just an incredibly unwise real estate purchase that ended up worth nothing. Actually less than nothing, with the massive back taxes and leaky underground tanks. Fortunately the transaction was done so poorly that it was never actually in his name, so it went to the county for back taxes and they paid to clean it up.

Anyone would have told him not to write that check, had we only known. He wanted what he wanted, and he was really stubborn. When you think of all the years of nights and weekends of overtime and moonlighting that he worked to accumulate that money, it's pretty sad.

[mold maker]

My Dad passed in 97, and I still get solicitations from "charitable organizations" seeking to live off his generosity. Those that include a free return mail envelope get as much of the Tuesday circular junk as I can tape in it. I never thought of taping it to a brick.
I answer the phone with "Who is calling", and let them talk to the couch with an occasional check to see if their smart enough to hang up.
It's a cotton picking shame that we older folks can't live in peace even 20 years after the death of our parents.