I got like 10 last night and a couple this morning with messages left telling me to call Apple Support. All deleted.
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FTC Warns of Recent Surge in Robocall Scammers Pretending to Be Apple
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I've had 3 in the last two weeks. They did have my correct email address associated with my iCloud account.
Like many others here, I played along to keep them on the line to give them less time to actually trick someone. Only was able to keep them on for about 5 minutes before they cursed at me and hung up.
Like many others here, I played along to keep them on the line to give them less time to actually trick someone. Only was able to keep them on for about 5 minutes before they cursed at me and hung up.
The Chinese message one is apparently an embassy or DHL scam targeting Chinese speakers in the US where they pretend to call you to blackmail you with information about stolen goods or fake passports that supposedly got intercepted.
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Yes, they mask their number with something similar to yours so it looks like someone from the same area is calling you to seem more like a genuine local call. If you call back it's either an empty number or a confused person on the other end who have no idea what's going on.
That may be a case where Apple handles issue via a series of call centers. I worked for such an AT&T directory assistance call center in New Mexico and we got calls for New York, Illinois, Louisiana, California, and what seemed to be every other state.
Sadly that doesn't stop the other service some people legitimately use: VPNs. VoIP over VPN is a total nightmare but you really can't shut down VPNs because in some countries they are the only way to get real information from outside of the 1984-ish country they live in.
I am with T-Mobile as well. I pay $4 a month extra to be able to actually block spam numbers, instead of sending them to voicemail. If a scammer / spammer calls, the number doesn’t even ring on their end. They think they have reached a number that is no longer in service. Even though I rarely get spam / scammer calls, it is with the $4 for me.
If the person calling isn’t in my contact list, I decline. If they don’t leave a message, I block. Yeah, it’s that easy. I’m on Verizon, so I get maybe a spam call every week or 2. Oh, I‘ve been known to give out false numbers when signing up for stuff (ActBlue comes to mind).
Last year my girlfriends parents were getting hammered by fake Apple support calls while we were visiting for Christmas. They would call 10+ times a day with the same speel, "this is Apple support and we've noticed odd activity with your Apple ID account". The people calling were obviously calling from outside the U.S. and her parents would hang up and eventually not answer the phone. I thought it would be fun to screw with them so I started answering the phone and immediately say "good morning, you have reached Apple support how may I help you". They would say, "this is Apple support calling" and I would reply, "yes you have reached Apple support how can I help you".. That didn't go well and after a few back and forths I was told to f&$k myself quite a few times... They were very tenacious though and kept calling back with a different person each time.. I finally gave up as they wouldn't stop no matter what I said.. Definitely sucks to have to deal with it as I'm sure they get lucky and fool people into giving them access to their account.. These were actually people and not a recording asking you to stay on the line...
Sounds like your girlfriend's parents got on one of those infamous lists that was making the rounds. I doubt it was the same scammers each time. Time they spend with you is time taken away from finding another sucker. It is strange that they were that aggressive as you would think "non mark" numbers would also make the rounds.
Same here. Moved from one coast to the other and only a FEW old coast numbers are ones I know - anything else is crap. Blocked.
Please no laugh at these scams and malwares. Tech illiterate people really believe it and trust what they see on the screen , just as much as they trust their car's dashboard or TV menu. If they see something that says "Click Here" they will click here.
I don't understand why telecoms just don't put some sort of limit to this by disabling any lines that mass sends emails or bot calls and give specially licenses to only reputable companies to do so. Any number of obscene calls coming going out of or coming in should raise flags just like they raise flags for money laundering when they see something fishy in bank transfers.
I don't understand why telecoms just don't put some sort of limit to this by disabling any lines that mass sends emails or bot calls and give specially licenses to only reputable companies to do so. Any number of obscene calls coming going out of or coming in should raise flags just like they raise flags for money laundering when they see something fishy in bank transfers.
Starting early in the morning and then pausing until late afternoon and into the evening, our home land number gets hit with "number unavailable", name not avialable", blank and countless variations. I have no idea how many numbers are in my blocked calls on my iPhone. I have had the same number with Verizon since 1988.
Even if one has an unlisted land line number, which we do, their dialers just dial the next number in sequence. Eventually they get to ours. Really no way to stop this unless we quit land line service completely.
Even if one has an unlisted land line number, which we do, their dialers just dial the next number in sequence. Eventually they get to ours. Really no way to stop this unless we quit land line service completely.
As I have pointed out the problem is that you are dealing with international communications. VoIP and VPN make figuring out just where the call is actually coming from a royal pain in the rear to find out where they are actually coming from.
As for Tech illiterate people many of these scams date from the POTS and chain mail days. Even if you are Tech literate doesn't mean you are totally safe from scams and malware - there are drive by infection by ads that may have gotten on a trusted site. Take that 2014 mess on Google, for example.
Skepticism. a little bit of paranoia. and logic would stop a lot of this.
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10-30 years ago nothing robocalls were non-existent. Another reason why I am for a return to 1990's...
"The best way to shut the robocall danger down is to hang up immediately before saying anything. If you realize that the conversation sounds unnatural or that the caller is asking shady and unusual questions, hang up as soon as possible. When it comes to robocalls, the less you engage, the better. If you keep talking, they will mark your number as “live,” and you will keep getting more pesky calls. " - What Happens If You Answer a Robocall?
So, it wasn't Apple calling 21 times in a day to say iCloud was breached? Boy, that's a relief... 🙄
too bad the long ago "opt out" of marketing/spam calls program never worked out as planned
we need a real opt out program for all our .com devices
we need a real opt out program for all our .com devices
I wouldn't take calls from apps or VoIP systems unless its a contact I know. Regular cellular phones is open to public, they shouldn't allow apps to call numbers thats my opinion.
How do we block all numbers that start with specific first few digits (in my case the first few digits of my own number) and only allow those that have the same first few digits as mine but in my contact list to go through?
Do you also get calls from 1-800-414-4352? They have been calling my home phone at least once a day (sometimes about 3 times a day) for months. Even I blocked them for over a month, they continue to do so.
Do you also get calls from 1-800-414-4352? They have been calling my home phone at least once a day (sometimes about 3 times a day) for months. Even I blocked them for over a month, they continue to do so.
Based on several websites that seems to be the number of a collection agency called NCO Financial Services. According to NCO Group to Pay Largest FCRA Civil Penalty to Date they were in trouble with the FTC back in 2004 and based on Expert Global Solutions, Inc., as NCO Group, Inc. they got into trouble again and got hit with an even larger fine in 2013.