'U.S. National Bank' Scammer Thwarted By Google, Consumerist, And A Fake Bankruptcy
Idolina was targeted this morning by a U.S. National Bank scammer. As he was prattling on with his heavily-accented seesaw of threats and incentives, she Googled the bank. (And no, we're not anti-anyone, but there's something funny about a supposed U.S. National Bank and/or government representative who sounds like he's currently calling you from a foreign country.) The third search result was our interview last October with Laurie Lucas, who faced a similar scam. Idolina writes, "I was reading it while I was on the phone with him."
We're particularly amused by how the current economic climate influenced this encounter from both sides. The scammer promised Idolina a $5,000 government grant (whereas Laurie was threatened with arrest back in October), and Idolina demurred by lying that she had just filed bankrupcty and consequently had no bank info to give him. In fact, she sort of made up an implied family drama just for his benefit. We have a feeling Idolina liked to tell elaborate stories as a child.
You can read her account below, but just in case you don't, here's an important takeaway about a common scammer trick that works really well, because it taps into that natural desire to be helpful or to solve a problem: the scammer will call out your SSN, bank account, or telephone number, only it will be incorrect, and when you tell him he's wrong he'll ask you to please correct it for him. Don't. (Or better yet, make up a new number!)
My name is Idolina ___ and live in the state of Washington in a little town called Wapato. Just this morning, 1/23/09 at 11:15 am, I received a call from a fellow with a foreign accent telling me that he was returning a call, because he had talked to me the week before and I was suppose to get my bank account routing number and checking account numbers so that the US NATIONAL BANK could in turn deposit $5000 into my account, because I had been selected to recieve this federal government grant.
He went on to tell me that the reason that he needed that information was that... I had been selected to receive this grant because the reports showed that I had not filed bankruptcy within the last 3-months.
I told him that I did not have a checking or savings account anymore because I had just filed for bankruptcy last week. He kept insisting that I get then maybe a debit or credit card and give him the number, because that would be the only way that the National Bank could deposit the $5000.
I told him, "I already told you that I don't have any of that, because the lawyer took everything away from me now that I have filed for bankruptcy," (which I did not). Then he goes on to ask about my family, does anyone in your family maybe have a checking/savings or a debit/credit card that you can give me the numbers to? I again told him, "I don't know if they do or not, but I am sure that they will not let me borrow something like that, besides I'm not in good standing with my family." Which is not true, but I just did not know how to get him off the phone, because when I hung up before he called back.
I just wanted to take the call and tell him that I was not interested in receiving that money, especially since I had not applied for it, then he says, that is why I am telling you, that I need those numbers because you did not apply for the grant but you were selected to receive this $5000 because every year the bank runs a random report of all citizens that have not filed bankruptcy and your name was selected as one of the candidates to receive this free money.
I kept insisting that I had nothing to give him. He even put his supervisor on the phone, who asked me why I was not cooperating, because his representative had informed me that I had been selected to receive this $5000, and all I had to do was give him the information that he was requesting and that within 48 hours I would have $5000 in my checking/saving or credit card which I preferred.
I told him, "Well I just told your representative that I don't have any information to give him, because I just filed bankruptcy last week." He starts up with "If you can get your family to cooperate and let your use their checking account, surely someone in your family must have an account."
They both went on and on, until finally I just told the man, "You know what? Why don't you just send me a check in the mail," because he had my address, the last 4-digits of my social, my phone number and supposedly my checking account number with my bank. He read it off to me and I guess he just gave me numbers of the top of his head, and I said, "No, that's not my account number." So he then says, "Oh, it's not correct? Okay, can you give me the correct number?" I said "No, because I have been telling you that I no longer have an account number because I closed everything and put everything into bankruptcy."
He finally says, "Okay so how do you want to receive the $5000?" I said, "Well if you can't send it through the mail to me, then I guess that I will lose out!" He then said, "Well okay. You don't want to receive the $5000, then I will just hang up."
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Comments:
I would not encourage anyone to just "make up" a new number. You may give out someone else's number without even knowing it and start a whole nightmare for them. If you're going to play with scammers don't take the chance of hurting anyone else in the process.
The hilarious part: She tells him she fails to meet his criteria (from a fictional, I assume, call the week before? Or is that the call she hung up on?) and they still insist. Red flag! No one wants to give you money that badly
Wow, I can see how people fall for this scam: the constant pressure must be difficult to counter and the number of options they suggest is just incredible. This is literally like getting mugged via your telephone.
I've found that a horn or similar device tends to get these sorts of people off of the phone quickly. Either that or agree with everything they say, casually mentioning that you hear voices. As the conversation continues, the voices should get worse and start commanding you to do things.
Have some fun with them.
@silver-bolt: I'm always torn when it comes to mentioning accent in these posts. On the one hand, I want to give enough details to help others quickly identify similar scams, but on the other hand I think it makes it too easy for people to think that if a caller sounds just like them, then it's legit.
I don't want anyone scammed, but I do wish we'd get some "American-accent" scammer stories to help make the point that anyone can pull this crap.
Give them the account information to a government based donation center. Fun times.
Ask him to send it to you via Western Union. That's how most scammers collect their money.
LOL.
I want some like that to call me, sometimes I just get lonely at home
The unfortunate thing is that most of your readers are already pretty in the know. =/ They will realize that a foreign accent may be, but isn't necessarily, a signal of a shady deal.
However, I wish there was some way to get this information to the people who are most vulnerable to it. If we could, emphasizing that accents can be a sign but are not definitive would be of the utmost importance. As it stands, I think the Consumerist has done a good job on the accent front so far.
When I was a teenager I would sometimes pretend to be a little kid and say very disturbing things until they got creeped out and gave up.
That is so awesome, "Idolina" would be fun to have around.
OK. I hope you all will indulge me.
For some reason, my organization's number is on the automated call list for the following scams:
1. Copy Machine Toner
My model number is always "Eight dot Five X Eleven"...saying it real slow like an idiot. Then I act super indignant when they challenge me.
2. Free Directory Listing
Boring, but you still have to try. I've lately been ignoring everything they say and just go on and on about my #1 Google Rank and how "Free" it is. Today, a guy, not on this continent, claimed his name was Kevin Bacon. Seriously. He hung up and the other staff came in to look at me when I started singing "Footloose".
3. Investment Opportunities
This is my current favorite. For some reason it is always ladies too. I always come up with a sob story, and then start asking them questions. Mostly to soften them up for my own investment pitch. "Have you heard of Texas Hold'em?" "I got a game lined up in Vegas next month, it's $20,000 to get on the table and I need a partner." I won't bore you with the whole spiel, but it involves hotel suites and Ben Affleck.
Thanks for listening.
Sometimes I'll tell an unwanted phone caller (whether I think it's a scam or not) that I'm delighted to hear from them because it gives me the opportunity to implore them to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. They usually hang up pretty quickly once I try to pitch that to them.
I'd be happy to make some calls on the site's behalf, Chris Walters, if I get to keep anything I do get...
I had a man with a thick nigerian accent call me a few years back, trying to pull a similar scam. He told me that I had been randomly selected to receive an $8000 refund from the government. When he told me he needed my bank account info to give it to me, I told him I wasn't going to fall for that. After a few hangups, he called my number to ask for another person, and wouldn't believe that he had just called the same number.
I don't take issue with the mentioning of an accent. If that's the common factor of these calls, it's important to take note and pass it on.
@Chris Walters: @aguacarbonica:
What agua said.
Personally, I just equally hate and distrust everybody equally. That should be everyone's prerogative.
If they have a middle eastern accent, I normally yell to my "Friend" who is working the BBQ to ask if the bacon cheese burgers are done yet!
Ya. Never trust foreigners. It doesn't mean you should trust Americans, but just never trust foreigners.
Keep them on the line. The only way to effect them is cost them time because time is money. My personal record for keeping a telemarketer on the line is 29 minutes. My wife and I have had lots of laughs pre do not call and I allmost enjoy the stray call nowdays.
@ironchef: lol, that would be the Ultimate Consumerist story. I doubt it would ever be topped if they fell for it.
@TourPro: i can't say that i'm entirely proud of this, but i've taken up indecipherable accents while talking to salespeople on the phone. have you ever heard an argument between an indian & a liberian? it's not pretty, but funny as hell.
I don't have a LAN line so I don't have this problem. Sorry I can't contribute.
@Chris Walters: i have this problem... I'm overly trusting of anyone with a british accent (hasn't caused me any issues yet, though)
it's just so hard to believe that anyone who sounds so royal could lie!
@humphrmi: Kinda sad that he went the whole gay-joke route. Seems to me that keeping up with just the straight "You are now under investigation for murder" angle would have kept that guy fearing any knock on the door for weeks afterwards, but the change in direction made it pretty obvious it wasn't real.
I prefer to put the fear of God into those guys for a little while. Not like I'm talented enough, but if I were, that's how I'd do it. Just keep up the police business and end it with "well, I think I've got all I need to know, an officer will be with you, in person, within the next week or two to follow up. You have a good night now."
@howie_in_az:
Your suggestion to agree with everything they say reminds me of this hilarious prank from a while back here in Consumerist:
just-say-yes-to-telemarketers
@planetdaddy: Huh. I don't have a LAN line either, as I'm still not convinced 911 works very well and I can't convince the wife to go cellular only. So they still call my land line a lot. Alliteratively, too.
I haven't had one of these scam calls yet, just several very generous people who are going to pay me a huge reward for helping them with fairly simple tasks. As soon as all that money hits my bank account on Monday, I can pay off all my debt and put a down payment out on a new car.
In all seriousness, though, I still haven't had a scam call, but I'm constantly auditioning the most annoying "hold music" I can find so that when they do call and ask for my account number, I can excitedly say "Yes, of course! Let me go get it, I'll be just a couple minutes!" and leave them listening to hellish music until they hang up... I'll be sure to check in every 5 minutes or so with a "Hold on, I'm going through my records to find my account number, please don't hang up!"
I did something similar to GoDaddy last time they called me to try to pitch me some services I've turned down every single time I've purchased a domain from them. "Yes, sure, I'm really interested in that service, let me get ahold of my administrator real quick to make sure it'll work with our setup..." ... "Oh, he's looking at the details right now and will give me the green light in a minute..." ... "Wait, which package were we talking about?...oh shoot I told him the wrong one, let me call him back for a second and check."
@silver-bolt: I only fall for women scammers with Swedish accents (Norwegian is an acceptable substitute).
Why not ask for their address and phone number so you can send the information and then forward that info to the Postal Inspector or are they not that dumb?
@sgtyukon: I used to live in a neighborhood that was full of door to door religious prostelitizers. I printed out copies of an article from the Onion "have your cats learned about Jesus". When they would bang on the door I gave them about 30 seconds to rattle off their nonsense and then offered them one of my pamphlets before closing the door.
Back when Nigerian scams first starting hitting the net Mr. Bohemian strung one on for about a week. He pretended he was falling for it, mentioned rich relatives currently living in Africa, jesus, and a bunch of comments making him sound highly gullible.
There was someone in the local paper last week who fell for this and ended up giving them money she didn't have to spend. There has to be a way to get the clueless informed about this kind of thing. Maybe mailings along with things like IRS and Social Security checks?
@reynwrap582: For some reason, most people can't stand bagpipe music. That may be a good choice for hold music. I love it, but most people hate it.
If you are looking for a good CD of it the FDNY Emerald Society has one and the money goes to a good cause.
I LOVE that snake.
@aguacarbonica: My favourite to see was always my dad giving a telemarketer call to a niece or nephew. It's great especially with survey people because most companies have a policy where they are not allowed to hang up unless you are being verbally abusive in some way or threatening.
I've seen it go on for a good 20 minutes and by that time you could hear the person getting louder and louder on the other trying the stereotypical 'talking to a foreigner'...if I say it louder and slower maybe they will understand?!
Anyways, it sometimes ends with the child getting upset because the person on the other end doesn't want to talk to her and only wants to talk to Daddy. But then you pass the phone to the son in law or better yet the nephew. Endless possibilities really and I kind of look forward to having kids for this very purpose.
@aguacarbonica: Exactly, my wife just got a heavily accented call from one of her credit cards to notify her that she was overdue, and it was legit.
@sgtyukon:
I think it might be even better to use something I ran across called the "Amway Defense". When someone calls trying to sell you something, you try to sell them "the best business opportunity that exists, in the world, PERIOD!" You ask them, "how would you like to quit your telemarketing J.O.B., and work 5-10 hours per week and then retire?" For a full explanation of the concept, here's a youtube video. I wish they'd gotten better sound quality.
I have a friend who got involved with Amway and if only there was a way I could just press a button and forward those calls to him. I would be off all the telemarketers' lists within a week!
@chris_d:
Grrrr... didn't work. Search amway defense on youtube if you're interested in this highly effective self-defense.
@bohemian: It won't work. They see the $$ in front of their eyes and won't listen to anyone but the scammers.
I wonder how they would react if when they read out random details for you eg Social Security / Account number you say
"Yup thats right. You got the right numbers right there."
Being shameless I've done the "What are you wearing" and deep breathing act.
I've also wanted to pre-tape a car crash sound effect and pretend I'm on the mobile in the car. Then wait till I'm about to seal the deal and let the recording roll....
In before "I hate foreign accent call reps" AND "OMG You're just a big ol' racist!!!1"
Biggest thing, on the other hand, is that people will fall for scammers with a natural english/american accent just based on that.