STOUGHTON
Scammers seem to be everywhere and each day it is getting progressively worse.
When we lived on our acreage we had a landline, and loved it as it always worked, but after a couple of years we had it removed as it was a hotline for scammers to call.
We would receive calls after 9 p.m. and as early as 6:30 a.m. There was nothing worse than getting up to answer the phone thinking it was important, only to hear on the other end of the line, you have won a trip to Hawaii. Just press one to claim your prize.
Today, scammers have things detailed and planned out as the scammers today try and take all your hard-earned money and they do not care how they do it.
I am not sure how these low life people sleep at night. They lay in bed scheming on how they will rip off their next victim.
My daughter has received two calls recently about her owing money on a cell phone. The amount was $1400 and they said they were from Amazon. They then said she needed to add money to the Amazon account they provided.
Thank goodness she knows not to give out information. In fact, she knows how to ask them questions. Where is your company located, what is the account number, what their name is, and so on. They hung up. She called Amazon to find out it was a scam.
They know who the seniors and special needs are, and they feed on them, as they know these people are generous and much easier prey.
Seniors have been robbed of their life savings by thousands of dollars and have even taken out loans to help these despicable people. This is the lowest a human can go.
The saying is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I have learned to have a little fun with them at times. A while back I had a call, where they said I had won a sum of money, here was my chance to have some fun.
I told the scammer this was great, as I was wanted by the police and needed the cash to get away. He was silent for a split second, but came back with, Ma’am I will need your address and banking information to get you your prize.
My reply was, no way am I telling you my address, you will call the cops and I will be arrested. You give me your address as I need a place to hide for a few days and then you can give me my prize. They hung up on me.
Never give out your address or your personal information. If it is indeed an important call, ask questions and they will gladly respond. Tell them you will call them back and search the number. Better to be on the safe side.
If I do not know the number that is calling most times I do not answer. If it is important, they will leave a message. A scammer will never leave a message or a call back number. The numbers they use can not be used to call back on.
Please do not fall for the family in trouble call. Our family has a code word, if that code word is not said, you are out of luck.
The same goes for the government. They will not call or email you. They will send all information through the mail. They do not ask for information over the phone, they have that on you already, so do not fall for that, as they can be very convincing and may have a lot of personal information on you, but it is not the government.
Be diligent. Ask questions, and a lot of them. Do your research and if you think someone is being defrauded, please help them out. It could be their life savings that these scumbags are taking and you could be next.
But then this is just my opinion.
