Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bill collectors blowing up my brand new phone number..

I have received a number of calls that begin with....

I - "Hello."

He - "Hi, grandpa."

I- "Who?"

He - "It's me, grandpa, and ..."

I (interrupting) "What's your name?"

He- (overly familiar) "You know me, grandpa, I'm your grandson."

I- "We don't have a grandson"

He- (persistently) "No, it's me, grandpa. I'm in jail. They framed me and I need you to send me some money for bail."

I - "Get back to me after I hit El Gordo Lotto, okay?

He - "No, it's me, grandpa ...."

CLICK.

In the past two or three years, same call probably seven or eight times. Same pitch, same answer. I've heard the scam works pretty well on some old people. I'm old, but not that old.

L.W.

go back and get another number

I answer less than 50% of the calls I get. If I don’t know who it is, I never answer. Most times, no message, if there’s a legit message, I’ll call back.
Lots of this phone bs can be avoided, don’t answer unless you know who’s calling and you want to talk to them.

Yes. The Mrs. answered one call whereshe thought she recognized the caller and the scammy calls are about 2 to 3 times now what they were.

I got one like that only they really did have my grandson's name. Sounded very real at first.

Paul

I still get calls looking for Will.
He doesn't keep his restaurant or
hotel reservations, and doesn't pay
his bills. There's several individuals
trying to find him because they're
worried about him being out of
contact for so long

Sounds like the old " I need you to send me some
money for a bus ticket. . . " deal

Yup, me too. My previous number guy apparently was some kind of inept handyman, because I got calls complaining about plumbing, roofing, wiring...

I finally started saying "He can be reached at the state prison." (Which might not have been untrue!)

I just tell the people the poor dear fellow or girl is dead. Then ask them if they would like to contribute the eternal flower arrangement to be placed on his / her headstone on each Muslim Jewish holiday. I've yet to make a sale.

Cant be as bad as jurrasic park vids via text from Kingston.
Lol!!!

I use the murder scene ploy all the time. I'm detective I. B. Nabinem and insist they give me their full name, address, and a contact phone number. You would be surprised at how well this works. Turn the tables on them.

I love it..... Kudos for that idea...

Brilliant! You'll get the full volume effect, and they'll get the electronically limited version.

Last year I kept getting collect calls from the local sheriff's office, evidently Johnny got arrested and wanted to talk to Fred, only I had Fred's number. The little automated message where they state their name for you to hear is requesting the call initially started out as 'Johnny'. As time went by it became 'come on Fred, just answer the phone, I need to talk to you'. After a dozen of these I called the sheriff's office, explained I didn't know Johnny, and I certainly wasn't Fred, and to make it stop. They said they'd put my number on a 'do not allow calls' list. Next day I got a couple more calls, but after that no more.

My kid will probably get arrested when he is in high school and won't be able to call because the numbers blocked. Oh well.

I got a new number recently. Whoever had this number before must have been seriously hooked on online gambling.

Get casino scam texts couple times a day.

There are no *new* numbers, only recycled numbers. There's a reason they were dropped.

Well whoever got my old number is one awesome mfer

They should send me royalties


And....I hope they enjoy the 25 telemarketers that caused me to switch. 😃

Thing of it is I've found if you just pay your bills the collectors quit calling.......

Worked for the phone company for years. I was getting crank calls late at night. Caller thought it was cute. Started using Call Forwarding and sending it to Dial-a-Prayer and other interesting places. Found a number that had been disconnected. Calls stopped and they must have thought I changed my number. A friend of mine sent a technician to my place because she was convinced my line was crossed with K-Mart, Dial-a-Prayer, or McDonalds.


Be careful though, forwarded calls to paid sites, and international numbers will show up on YOUR bill.
Also, ALL calls will get forwarded when call forwarding is enabled.
Lastly, it doesn't work that well when calls are random.