hope you didn't answer...i'm still getting calls from Jamica for my fil...i just let go to answering machine....

Rachael from credit card services now has several other robo names....she's still calling too.

Oh yeah they never die!

And the IRS do not call.

Heck, I've even had robo calls that pop up with my own name and phone no. Not sure how they do that!

it's been a while for me. maybe a year or so back, within about one week, got call from "Special Agent Steve Martin" (picturing arrow thru head playing banjo) and Special Agent Raymond Burr!

Did anyone catch the area or area code?

I got one from Fresno California area code 559

I find they have started doing local area codes. Tricky tricky. I often pick up thinking it's something like a doctors office.

Chi that's my problem too! And the caller ID also shows our town name!! My dad payed away in May and I keep thinking it's an attorney or something to do with his house.

They are /can now spoof just about anything. I was at my friend's house yesterday. She got a phone call and I was in the room. They said they were capitol one credit card and were offering to lower her rate. I told her to hang up but the didn't. Next they were asking for her credit card number and her social security number. I said hang up the phone don't give out information. So she refused to answer. They then told her that she was past due on a large balance on the card. She had not used her card in the past year. So she got all freaked out about having a balance and telling them it was not hers. So again, New tactic, they need her account number and social security number to check it for her. Well now wouldn't they already have that information! I told her to hang up the phone now. Finally she did. She falls for all of the scams. While we were staying with her she got scammed for $500. I was furious, she called Bank of America as soon as she hung up the phone because I knew it was a scam and sure enough they had already used her debit card and taken $500 from her account. But bank of America refused to do anything about it even though it was a well known scam. They told her she would need to call them back and tell them to cancel it. Well of course the phone number was a spoofed dead number. Again I hate bank of America. Most banks will immediately take care of a legitimate scam.

She said well the number said their call was from capital one. I tried to explain it to her. She called the number back and was convinced she was talking to someone at capital one. I would not let her give any information. I had no idea if that was really the bank or not, the original call from that number definitely wasn't. I got her to actually look up the phone number online the real one and talk to them and of course there was no no activity on her card and they never asked for her social security number.

She is a smart lady, retired from working for big banks for international business accounts. But the new technology and criminals just baffles her.

It's scary to see how easily they can convince someone.

I don't remember ever getting the IRS one, but one voice mail message not long ago explained that there were fours charges against me, and strongly suggested I call the number back to talk about them. I'm hiding out at home, hoping I'm not going to be arrested. (But not worrying about it overmuch.)

The infected computer virus calls. While I hang up, my DH enjoys telling the foreign accent voice that he doesn't own any computers so how could they be infected? Obviously, the DH has too much time on his hands.

One time I rec'd a call on the IRS scam and the fellow had a strong indian accent. So I said to him, "You know, what you are doing is wrong. It's very harmful. You are taking advantage of people who are most vulnerable...the old or elderly and are already suffering. You are scaring them and you are stealing from them. This is very bad. This is not good for you. By harming them, you are harming yourself." I go on about how it's bad karma and that he sounds like a nice person and he could do better. He actually is listening to me, he's quiet for awhile and then he says, "What should I do?" I said there are more opportunities out there than he thinks, that there are many people who are suffering and need his help, and he can find a way where he actually helps people instead of hurting them. He thanks me, and then hangs up.

I don't understand how it is that people fall so easily for scams. It's no wonder they continue to call because apparently it's quite lucrative!

I keep getting straight to voice mail calls on my cell phone, how do these callers accomplish this? My cell phone never rings but then it will say I have a voice mail. It will be either electric trying to get a better rate for me or it will be this company trying to sell car warranties. It's always the same two telemarketers.

I believe you would be notified by Certified mail.

A lot of time it is the elderly who get scammed because they can lose judgment with age. My old dear aunt thought all those credit card offers we get daily were forms she was required to fill out and send in!

I hate the Microsoft calls! They are so rude and obnoxious!

I got a Microsoft call the other day, I always tell them I don't have a computer. I asked if he would buy me a Mac. He said he'd buy me a condom.

I got an IRS call once threatening to take me to court if I didn't immediately make a payment. I told them I was an attorney (I'm not) and let's go to court. They hung up.

Most of these calls don't concern me too much. A couple of weeks ago I had daily messages like: Hi, (insert my husbands name) this is Marty from your email support team. Your email (insert the one I used to have until about 6 month ago when it mysteriously disappeared) has been reported as abusive and sending out spam messages. Call us back as soon as possible or we will delete it in 36 hours. It makes me nervous when they have all this information and not just a random thing. Of course I didn't call them back, since this email didn't work in a while. So they can delete it all they want. Still did a Google search to make sure this happened to other people.

For the IRS calls, I tell them to hold on, I'll add my brother who works for the IRS (he does) and they usually hang up, although I had one guy curse at me. For the Microsoft ones, I tell them I use a Mac (I don't). :-P

Microsoft called me with a safety warning. I hung up.

I don't know anyone, myself included, who answers the phone if they don't know who is calling. Easy enough to Google the number and see if it is a legit call that I need to return.

I wondered why I was constantly getting calls from unknown numbers that shared my cell phone's area code and exchange. (I never answer when I don't know who's calling and no messages were being left.) Then I read about "neighbor spoofing" being the big new thing in robocalls.

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/31/540515367/familiar-looking-numbers-are-the-latest-twist-in-robocalls

Little do the spoofers know that my cell phone number, which I've had for maybe sixteen years, dates from when I lived thousands of miles away on the other side of the country. Nobody calls me from my old "neighborhood" now.

I got hot about the sheer number of calls to my cell phone. Verizon recommended a community based app where where we "rate" the incoming numbers. I am 184 calls in so far and I like it. I do my part by rating those numbers as often as I can. Here is a blurb from the help link on my app.

"Should I Answer (SIA) is free community-based security application for mobile phones with Android operating system designed to protect you against unsolicited calls, all kinds of unwanted telemarketing and unwanted or expensive outgoing calls like call to premium number or call to a foreign country.

It is developed by company Mister Group s.r.o. If you have any questions about our product, terms or privacy policy, please write to us by email to support@shouldianswer.net"

I have an app called extreme call blocker and I've set it up so all calls from anyone not in my phone contacts or on my whitelist go automatically to voicemail. The phone doesn't even ring. Every few days, I go through the blocked calls list and set the ones who are scammers to the setting which automatically hangs up on them, without letting them have the option to leave a voicemail. I get very few voicemails from scammers. I enjoy that fact that my phone automatically hangs up on a fair number of scammers and illegal telemarketers (I'm on the dnc list) now. Still, I do get the occasional voicemail from a scammer. Last week, they left a voicemail that I was going to be arrested if I didn't call them back. Of course, I didn't return the call, but many people do fall for these scams. The phone companies could stop a lot of this, especially the robocalls, if they wanted to, I think.

"I don't know anyone, myself included, who answers the phone if they don't know who is calling. Easy enough to Google the number and see if it is a legit call that I need to return."

We let our phone's answering machine announce the caller's info before deciding whether or not to answer. "Name unavailable" and "Cell Phone AR" don't get answered. Same for caller names and phone numbers we don't recognize; they can leave a message and we'll call back. Yesterday I got a call identified as coming from a local attorney. I answered it. It was Heather from Card Services. <sigh>

I'm not sure whether the use of that name was coincidental or intentional.