Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Generally speaking I'm getting disappointed in the quality of fraud these days.

I got a call saying it was Andrew from Telstra (very large (for here) telecommunications company in Australia). I told them "No, you're not from telstra".
Andrew (not his real name ) insisted "yes I am"
This went backwards and forwards in a loop a few times, then I asked to talk to his manager.
He eventually got his manager.
I explained that I was on the "do not call list" and it was illegal under Australian law to cold call my number, and there's no way anyone from telstra would have called me. (I dont use Telstra)

He explained that "Yes I am from Telstra. I'm the Senior Manager of Telstra."

I actually choked on a laugh.

After a bit more banter, he told me to %$#@ off, and hung up.

Why do scammers think they need to be so extreme. Doing things like telling me I've won 400 trillion US dollars or something.

These days I don't listen I just start my usual go back to school get a real job lecture .

Get a job that you can support your family with , your getting ripped off trying to sell something that no one wants.

And your boss hasn't told you this if we want to change our provider we can RING around and get the best price in a very short time as we have telephones.

Because that way the only people biting are 1) really, really dim, 2) really, really desperately want the story to be true, or 3) are suffering from Alzheimers etc. (Well, and people who want to troll them...) They don't want to waste their time with people who will catch on part way through; they want people who will give them money, then believe the "oh sorry there's this other fee you have to pay but then we'll be able to send you your winnings!" story and send them more money, then believe "oops there's this tax you have to pay up front" and...

Bunch of parasites.

It just occured to me that perhaps 400 trillion dollars is a modest amount in the local currency.

I actually wonder whether some of these continetal Asian ones (the people of these booming tech and telephone support type countries) actually think what they do is legitimate. I once queried a girl when I was bored writing a report and tried to tease out what she really thought she was doing and for whom. After all they basically read out a script that probably sounds legitimate to them. Phone went click after a while when I started asking some deeper questions.

Maybe at worse they just consider it free English lessons before they hope to get to a better telephone-support company.
Then one wonders whether they write "workded for Mirosfot support company" on their resume
(they would spell it www. Mirosfot support company.com as well....)

At end of day they probably all end up thinking Australians & NZ are rude people - which makes one wonder at what point does the light bulb click for them - the floor workers - (if ever) that they are actually involved in a scam. Maybe some actually think they got a dream job being an international call support centre employee. Makes you wonder - the females are much easier to question, guys are just arrogant.

I've spoken to a few who I dont think had any idea they were part of anything scam like.

In particular the scam where they call and say they are calling about a car accident, and had some money for me. I was getting called almost every day with the same scam, and asked more and more questions each time, so I got a bit of a feel for what was going on.

As I understand it, if I took the bait, it would be handed off to someone else. The first level callers where just there to call enough people to eventually get a hit.

One of the girls at my work, not the sharpest person around by a long shot, but still nice.

She had one of these people ring her, offering $10,000 (I can't remember the exact amount). They convinced her to go to the post office, and send a western union transfer for I think it was $500. She actually went to the post office, and it was the guy behind the counter who said no, and said it's a scam.

The people calling got really insistent, yelling, putting down, telling her to go to another post office before she eventually caught up. And they kept on calling her every hour after that, making it sound like a once in a lifetime offer.

I was opened mouthed when she was telling us, I honestly didn't think people would fall for that stuff, but there she was.

old people get caught regularly. Technology gets them and if the person on the other side is calm and not excessively foreign with a bit of intelligence.... they could pass it. There are ways I reckon I could improve the sales pitch just slightly to make a lot of it sound more bone fide.

even my mum sent me couple things that she wasn't 100% sure of.
Some were pretty impressive until you looked at the HTML underneath.
The Telstra one for instance.

plus the tax department one. When mum was sorting out fathers passing she was talking to telstra, centrelink and tax dept.
And couple calls come in around that time and she actually wasn't sure. She even told a non-Australian sounding actual person (legitimately calling her back) to p^%ss off once and hung up because she was sure he was a scammer... that made me smile.

Think it will be even worse if they were ever to engage more local sounding voices/persons and a less arrogant approach.

If I've got time I just keep asking them for their telephone number, they often reply why do you want to know that - so I can ring and annoy the f$(% out of you 24/7. They hang up never to be heard of again.

Pete.

Just remember they actually do have your number

Well Bully, I sincerely hope you find the quality fraud you are expecting in the future. It's a disgrace to settle for inferior products!

I looked into this a bit and it seems you are 100% correct.

That's quite clever of them I guess.

Kudos right at you scammers!. You have all been added to my slowly growing list of people who turned out to be slightly better than I first thought (at something).

That's actually a list I maintain so as to keep from getting stuck in a rut as to what I believe. Some of the people on it are genuine creeps, but make the list because they did indeed turn out to be slightly better than I first thought

Most are politicians, despots, and dictators who I wouldnt be happy to disclose, but did turn out to be SLIGHTLY better than I first thought, so I had to add them. Please dont ask who they are because I wouldnt want anyone to associate them with me.

I haven't added anyone to the list in the last decade. It turns out nobody surprised me at all over this past 10 years until the scammers.


I need to get out more.

my current answer when I realise these idiots.....pretending to talk with someone else in the room.."Thank gawd you arrived, Ive just killed the bugga, what the hell do I do with his body". (back to scammer) Oh shit sorry wasn't talking to you

I answered the phone at work one evening, it was about 5 past 5 and the office girls had just left.

Call started off with "Hi, I'm XXX from Origin"

I was sipping a scotch trying to get some paperwork finished and irritated by the fact it was being interrupted by a tellemarketer and I cut him off and told him I couldn't give a rats about our electricity prices and we're not interested in whatever he's selling.

Luckily I didn't hang up or swear too badly - turns out this fellow wasn't trying to sell me cheap electricity but they'd heard about the work we do and they're now quite a large customer of ours!

BullwinkleII Tom Mabe has quite a few ways of getting rid of telemarketers, here's a couple.