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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Car Warranty Phone Scam!

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I believe some people are trying to scam me. I keep getting calls on my cell from numbers beginning with (416)000-... I haven't answered them because I don't know who they are. Finally they left an automated message. It was fairly urgent saying that my car warranty was about to expire and I need to renew it before my file closes. It then instructs me to press one to renew the warranty, or two to get off of the follow-up list.

Some things came to mind quickly: First of all, I don't own a car. So I thought they might have the wrong number.

But then I remembered hearing about a phone scam awhile ago. They would leave an urgent message to call them right back. They would then keep you on the line as long as possible. At the end of the month you get a big surprise on your phone bill. Some people have been charged thousands of dollars. And because you called them, and it wasn't a toll free number, you get the bill.

Right away I thought this must be a scam too, especially because each time the phone number was slightly different (i.e. 000-7935 and 000-7945).

Next, I did some research: It turns out that a lot of people are getting these calls (I think only in Canada). Some people think it's a company trying to get people for telemarketing lists. Some have tried to call back but got 'number out of service'. People have had sketchy conversations with them where they asked for personal info. I also read about 'caller ID spoofing'. This is the practice where unethical (i.e. telemarketers) or dangerous people can make a different number display on caller ID then the call is originated from.

My Conclusions: This must be a scam. I don't own a car, the calls are fairly frequent and always different (the caller ID spoofing explains this). I don't want to call them back or press one or two because I have no idea who I'm calling!

What are your thoughts?
Should I answer next time and bitch them out?
Should I report it somehow.
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1 comment:

  1. omg, they do it for like health care too..then i thought about it and im like..haha it's a scam!

    ReplyDelete

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