This seems pretty clearly a phishing scam. Kudos for not falling for it and thanks for warning everyone here. The only thing I don't understand is why people even stay on the line long enough for them to get to the point of asking for any information. Whether they are a trying to run a scam, or are a "legitimate" telemarketer, or doing a survey or whatever, they are relying on you to be polite and courteous to allow them to work their way through their script to try to lure you in. I prefer to switch to my own script: Me: Hello (pause) Them: Is this Mr. (my wife's last name)? or: Is Mrs. (my last name) there? Me: (sharply) What is this call regarding. (flat intonation) Them: I'm from (somewhere) calling about (somethi...) Me: (interrupting) I'm hanging up now. Me: (continuing) Don't ever, ever, EVER call back! Me: Do you hear me?! (repeat until they to start to respond) Them: Yes I ... Me: (hang up) Yes this is rude toward the person on the other end of the line, however even if they are an otherwise friendly, pleasant person, they voluntarily chose to take the job. I believe that everyone adopted this script, telemarketing (and phone scams) would end within a year.

Cynic >This one has me confused though: "...my cell phone provider gouged me for 4 consecutive months of payments even though I was paying cash at their store." If you have auto-pay, why are you paying cash at the store? Something's missing or I'm not following something. I was paying my bill in cash at their store. I had already called the (cell phone provider) ahead of time and told them I would be doing this. Each month my bill would arrive, each month it kept reflecting an overpayment. I would call them and they said it would be corrected. This happened FOUR months in a row. I contacted the credit card company and told them to cancel the card. Same thing happened with them. They would say it would be canceled. The following month I would get a bill for the same incorrect amount. I finally spoke to someone at the CC co. who said until the cell phone provider notified them, I would continue to be responsible for the charges whether they were right or wrong. They never said ANYTHING about having to have a cancellation number. BOTH the cell phone provider and CC company neglected to inform me of this necessary requirement. I wonder why? Well the reason why, is because THEY were MAKING MONEY and didn't want it to stop. These companies do not make it easy. They don't fully inform you when you sign up, and they don't tell you what you really need to do in order to cancel this type of payment. I finally contacted a consumer newspaper reporter. She said she doesn't care for automatic payments for the same reason and gets many calls regarding this. She contacted the cell phone provider's publicity relations department. That worked. They must have called my CC company because everything was taken care of within the month and I didn't receive any more credit card bills. My cell phone bills are what they are supposed to be. I still pay in cash. I no longer have the credit card. They send me solicitations all the time. Thanks, but no thanks. Contacting the AG's office is a good idea. dadoes >dreamgarden probably thought if he/she paid cash, the autopay wouldn't trigger. That's not necessarily the case. I wonder what IS the case? Who at EITHER company, was supposed to tell me I needed a cancellation number in order to stop the autopay? Out of a total of seven calls, 4 to the cell phone provider and 3 to the CC company, not ONE person mentioned this. Don't they teach customer service reps this information? I no longer wanted auto-pay and told them this. I said I would be paying in cash from now on and to cancel auto-pay. I don't understand how I could have been any clearer. >I recall a couple cases where I work of customers having autopay set up through CheckFree. One fellow died, his wife had NO CLUE about any of their finances and the auto-pay kept coming, for MONTHS. She no longer wanted the service, but she didn't contact us or was even aware the service existed, so how are we to know that? "How are we to know that?". How did you find out that her husband died? How do you know the wife no longer wanted the service if she was never contacted? Was she on the account too? Doesn't your company have some policy regarding taking money from a deceased person's account? > The other case, the fellow changed his account services, but didn't change the monthly autopay amount. We contacted him, he still didn't change the amount. Built up a large credit that had to be refunded when he eventually closed the service. When the fellow called to change his account services, was he asked if the present autopay amount was ok? If he was changing his account services, this would seem to be a logical question to ask a customer. Was he notified by telephone or in writing? This is why I like to receive paper billing. Sometimes when a credit card company calls (and leaves a message), they don't always state the nature of their business. When I have called back, they try to sell me some service or item I'm not interested in. Now I don't return calls unless they leave a message telling me something is wrong, or needs to be corrected. I had them put this in my file. I don't want to be bothered with solicitations or irrelevant matters that aren't directly related to some kind of problem with my account. In my opinion the above examples are just more reason to pay as you go and not allow company's to have recurring access to your bank account.

Spamming might be a little more clever now. A five year old thread about broom storage was revived in Kitchens last night. She made a comment about pots and pans storage, not really answering the OP. I looked at the profile and saw a link for a storage company, so I flagged it. Flagging only removes the post for you while they review it.

So we don't know what happens if you open the invite? They get access to your address book I assume. To what end? They can send these fakes to others and get more addresses? I don't see the upside for them. My favorite scam was when my pastor wrote asking if I had time to do him a favor. I found the email hours after he sent it as I had been at work. I assumed whatever the task was already done as this is how he functions NOW and go go go go. Nope he still needed me to go help him gift his staff. Would I get some GIFT CARDS for him. DING DING DING. Luckily gift cards are a scam I always recognize even when I don't check the email address before I open an email. I said sure, they told me how to send the numbers to them. I waited an hour or so. They came back at me did I get them. I said Yes I sent then to the church... (of course I would use the regular parish email). They said oh they didn't arrive so why don't I just hit reply and send them. I waited and eventually they asked again did I resend them. So I said, Pastor I just decided it would be easiest to text them to your phone. I never heard from them again. I learned my lesson. When in doubt hover over the from email!!! Also my parish has a mass 'constant contact' email it sends out once a week. HUGE mistake. It or someone in it was hacked so now the entire parish is vulnerable. It's been in the bulletin for a few weeks running--people are getting the same email I did....