The following came through my Facebook newsfeed from a parent warning everyone…
I guess their IRS Scam isn’t working so now this!!!
Please warn your young people!
Interesting that they knew her school’s name, her DOB, name
These scams are so scary and these criminals are so persistent. I had the “IRS” calling my cell phone dozens of times a day for a month. I called the police, blocked the number, but they kept calling from a different exchange. We tell our daughter to never answer the phone from a number that she doesn’t recognize and if it’s legit, the caller will leave a message. Also no one should ever give any personal information over the phone…ever! We told our daughter if she is worried the caller is real, to look up the number herself, and then call back the official number (never taking the caller’s word for what the number is) to check.
Given that it’s anecdotal off of facebook, the story might have been embellished in many ways. (I’d be especially skeptical of someone from a newly created social media account, posting a story claimed to be from a year before) -
But I’d note that many college students do have their birthdays & colleges as part of their facebook profiles. So not difficult information to find and work from.
Gotta say this does not have the ring of truth. I mean, maybe, sure, stranger things have happened, but what college student thinks the college FA office can be bought off with gift cards?
She likely has that information on facebook and other social media sites.
It’s the same Scam the IRS scammers use…”meet us outside (Target, etc) after you’ve purchased $XXXX in gift cards.”
Obviously that worked with some, although surprisingly, so trying another targeted group.
We got the Fake irs call saying to buy $2000 in Kroger gift cards and meet them outside. We knew it was fake, but others have fallen for it.
These people are shameless. I have had the IRS & Microsoft calls. If you have ever tried to get assistance from Microsoft you know that you are lucky to get any help and they certainly don’t call you!
Not worrying that my kids would be scammed, because they wouldn’t have $250 and would call me crying before they gave $5 to anyone. They’ve also been schooled in NEVER giving out their SSN, to the point that I’ve had to tell them it is okay to give it to a bank or employer. Dentist? No. Doctor? No. A form at school? They ask.
These are easy to avoid. I don’t get it. I don’t understand how people my age and younger, who grew up in a completely digital and connected world, continue to get caught by these things.
1- if you don’t recognize the number (no matter what the caller ID says), don’t answer. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.
2- Google the number. You’ll find out in 15 seconds whether or not it’s legit.
3- When in doubt, call the number listed on X’s official site and ask.
Telemarketers are spoofing numbers these days, so the caller ID or googling a number isn’t going to be reliable. They just set up a fake number tied to the account. I haven’t seen it personally with a fraud situation, but I get about 4-6 calls per day from robocallers who use random numbers within my local area code & exchange. I don’t pick up of course, but the general idea is that people are more likely to pick up if the call looks local. Plus every once in a while they manage to get lucky and spoof a number tied to a real business or person already in the recipients contact list. I had that happen last week when they mimicked the number of my tree service.
IRS issued a warning 4 years ago that scammers were spoofing their toll free number in calls. So definitely a problem. See https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-repeats-warning-about-phone-scams
Don’t rely on caller ID! If you are uncertain, and the number looks legit, then ask the caller for their full name and then hang up and call back after you verify the correct number online.
Hiya is a free app for mobile phone to cut down on scam and robo calls. It appears to be working for me.
I read you shouldn’t answer at all vs answering and then hanging up because then your number is known to be good and the number of calls you receive will multiply.
@gouf78 I heard the same thing, but I don’t see the difference between answering/hanging up and letting the call go to voicemail which almost everyone has today. Either way, your number will be known to be active.
Good question MJmama. Don’t know. But I just re-read to never interact with a robocall. Hang up and don’t say anything.
Found a newspaper article for land line phone help…
"Another freebie helper for ridding robocalls is anonymous call rejection. To enable it, just pick up your phone and press "77.” You should hear three short beeps to let you know it’s activated, and then you can hang up. After that, all calls that come in as Anonymous, Private (a favorite of robocallers), or Blocked won’t get through. You can turn the feature off whenever you want by pressing “87.” Virtually every phone company has this feature built right into your service, and it’s just sitting there waiting for you”
I just activated this for my land line … Push Star 77 (and then I pressed end talk on my phone to get the three beeps and “your phone has been activated” message.
NomoRobo is free for landlines (costs for mobile phone) but only works for VOiP. If you get phone from cable service you should be able to use it. I’m going to do that also.
Thanks for the heads up/reminder to talk to my children about phishing calls and emails. You’d think that in today’s day and age they would be able to detect a scam, but the that’s not always true. Sometimes their desire to be “grown up” and handle everything themselves gets in the way of remembering how to spot a scam. My brother fell victim to a phishing scam shortly after graduating college. (He’s much younger than me so it wasn’t nearly as long ago as when I was a new graduate.) He was completely humiliated by the experience as he felt he should have known better.
I mentioned this to my D today. She just laughed and said immediately it was a scam. Also agreed she’d never have the $250 to buy any gift cards, and would never give out her SSN.
Today my 83 year old mother got a call from a guy telling her that her computer was being hacked and ‘people’ were stealing all her personal info. She handed the phone to me. I asked the guy what computer he was talking about, who was the internet provider but he couldn’t answer. English wasn’t his first language so I finally just hung up.