Granny Beats a Scammer

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Number6
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Granny Beats a Scammer

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I'm sure we've all gotten a scam call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft, the police, or a Nigerian Prince trying to scam us but this time a grandmother not only didn't fall for it she helped the police to arrest the scammer.
A Long Island grandmother outsmarted scammers who tried to steal thousands from her.

The woman from Seaford, who asked to be identified as Jean, told CBS2 that she received a call from someone claiming to be her grandson. The man said he was arrested for drunk driving and needed to be bailed out of jail.

"I knew he was a real scammer. I just knew he wasn't going to scam me," Jean, 73, told CBS2. "He starts calling me 'grandma,' and then I'm like, I don't have a grandson that drives, so I knew it was a scam."

Officers of the Nassau County Police Department arrested Joshua Estrella Gomez, 28, and charged him with attempted grand larceny in the third degree. He was released on an appearance ticket and is due to appear in court on February 3.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/73-old-york- ... 33711.html
I used to receive these phone calls from someone claiming to be my grandson (I don't have any children or grandchildren) so I knew it was a scam and I'd just hang up on them. I did have fun with one guy claiming to be from Microsoft security and after I let him go through his spiel I said "You do realize I work for Microsoft, don't you," which I didn't, and he hung up immediately.

Unfortunately, too many people, especially the elderly, fall for these scams because their internal warning system fails them, they're too trusting, they're lonely and want to talk, or a combination of some/all of the above. I hope the scammer, Gomez, gets the maximum penalty, including prison time, for scamming the elderly.
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marindem01
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

Post by marindem01 »

Granny is all the way cool. I have only had one of those, "Your Grandson" is in jail. I told the spammer I had a vasectomy and therefore it was an immaculate conception and to contact the Catholic Church.
Last edited by marindem01 on Thu Jan 27, 2022 9:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Number6
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

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marindem01 wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 4:23 pm Granny is all the way cool. I have only one of those, "Your Grandson" is in jail. I told the spammer I had a vasectomy and therefore it was an immaculate conception and to contact the Catholic Church.
That's a good one.
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ZoWie
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

Post by ZoWie »

I got one about how our mortgage had been foreclosed, and to call this number immediately to arrange payments to bring its balance current.

We don't have a mortgage.

I've also heard from the tax collector ("federal marshals are on the way"), and of course from various distant relatives that I don't have who are supposedly trapped in Uganda and needing me to send some amount of bitcoin to some address immediately to avoid their decapitation.

We have the technology to stop robocalls, if we want to pay for it.
"We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation." --Liz Cheney, Republican, 7/21/22
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Number6
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

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ZoWie wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:16 pm I got one about how our mortgage had been foreclosed, and to call this number immediately to arrange payments to bring its balance current.

We don't have a mortgage.

I've also heard from the tax collector ("federal marshals are on the way"), and of course from various distant relatives that I don't have who are supposedly trapped in Uganda and needing me to send some amount of bitcoin to some address immediately to avoid their decapitation.
When I received those calls, I'd just tell them "I'm at home for the rest of the day so come on over and arrest me." They never call back after that.
We have the technology to stop robocalls, if we want to pay for it.
I think many of the phone companies, both landline and mobile, are trying but it's probably impossible to stop all robocalls. For my landline phone, I have a Panasonic 5-handset and answering machine system that allows you block incoming phone calls. When activated, the caller has to press a number to get past the block and get to the answering machine or for me to pick up the call. This stops about 99% of the robocalls. On my mobile phone, I have the Truecaller and it does a good job of blocking robocalls. If any do get by I can have Truecaller block them in the future.
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ZoWie
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

Post by ZoWie »

I'm thinking of the ones that spoof caller ID. Caller ID is an old system, and it's easy for voice over IP lines to change the string with the outgoing phone number. That's how they get around a simple blacklist. They change the number, randomly, every time. The autodialers are smart enough to pick area codes and prefixes that look local to the target number. The last 4 digits are random. Sometimes you might get a call from some irate person saying, "Stop calling me!" These are pretty common hereabouts. The caller is unaware that their number was spoofed, sometimes more than once on some older and less sophisticated programs.

Given the use of multiple lines and numbers by professionals, businesses, and health care providers, it can be really hard to sort out the spoofed vs important calls, and a lot of people therefore just pick up everything, getting interrupted many times a day by robots with some fake reason to press "one" now.

The technology exists to increase the security challenge to an incoming VoIP call by passing tokens or whatever, which makes caller ID better track the actual origin of the call. It's called SHAKEN/STIR. Someone was obviously a James Bond fan. I was under the impression that this system would become mandatory in spring of 2021, but the deadline passed and I can't hear any difference. A few calls come tagged "possible spam," but most don't. Maybe the phone companies gave some covid sob story and got the deadline moved back. No one seems to know, or at least want to tell.

-----------

BBC News had a story about the avant-garde of people who are so sick of being interrupted by something their smartphone thinks is important that they went back to ordinary cell phones that are just phones. I didn't know they even made those any more.

With QR codes and photo texts taking over, I wouldn't be able to function in the big city with just a phone, but it's tempting.


https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60067032
"We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation." --Liz Cheney, Republican, 7/21/22
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47of74
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

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Yeah I heard about that too. That's good that she got the cops to arrest the scammer. I hope the scammer gets the f--king book gets thrown at him.

I don't know if I'd be down with giving scammer my home address even if they already have it but instead tell them to meet me at a certain place and tell the cops so they could meet them there.
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Number6
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

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47of74 wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:23 pm Yeah I heard about that too. That's good that she got the cops to arrest the scammer. I hope the scammer gets the f--king book gets thrown at him.

I don't know if I'd be down with giving scammer my home address even if they already have it but instead tell them to meet me at a certain place and tell the cops so they could meet them there.
In her defense, she did call and work with the police so she was fairly save. No doubt, the scammer already had her information since he had her phone number and could have used a number of internet sources or apps to find her address.
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bradman
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

Post by bradman »

Good for her.

Unfortunately, More likely than not, they arrested low hanging fruit. The delivery men. The callers, and more importantly, those that hire them, are very well insulated and very rarely taken to task.
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ZoWie
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

Post by ZoWie »

bradman wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:23 am Good for her.

Unfortunately, More likely than not, they arrested low hanging fruit. The delivery men. The callers, and more importantly, those that hire them, are very well insulated and very rarely taken to task.
Most of the call centers are offshore, to escape US legislation. They find countries with no regulations or lax enforcement. VoIP can't tell a spoofed call from the Caymans or Asia from one down the street. It's a perfect example of the potential for chaos when a new technology is forced on top of an established one.
"We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation." --Liz Cheney, Republican, 7/21/22
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47of74
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Re: Granny Beats a Scammer

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Number6 wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:47 pm In her defense, she did call and work with the police so she was fairly save. No doubt, the scammer already had her information since he had her phone number and could have used a number of internet sources or apps to find her address.
Thing is though I want them to WORK for it and not make it so easy for these clowns to know where I live.

That's how I explained it to the Dubuque Telegraph Herald when I lived there when they insisted on publishing full addresses of people who wrote letters to the editor. Yeah, people could get my address by any number of means but the paper didn't have to make it so easy. They eventually went to just saying what street letter writers lived on, which I suppose is something. I'm guessing the paper's lawyers had a come to the Lord Jesus Christ conversation with the editors about the liability if some writer was attacked and it was proven that the attacker got the address from the paper.
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