TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Caller ID Scammers Plan to do a Number on You

Re: Caller ID Scammers Plan to do a Number on You

Wesrock@aol.com
Sat, 15 Jul 2006 20:20:39 EDT

In a message dated Fri, 14 Jul 2006 16:36:06 -0500, DevilsPGD
<spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net> writes:

> Not at all, you just need to call a known-good number. You don't just
> dial any number you're given, but rather, you need to dial the number
> on the back of your bank card to contact your bank.

Why do we get less credulous when we have fancier technology.

Many years ago, after I bought the house I still live in, a year or
two later I got a call from a person representing himself as an IRS
agent auditing the person who sold me the house and wanted to know
what my records showed I paid for the house. I told him I'd have to
look up my records and call him back. He gave me his phone number (a
Centrex number).

I found the records but I did not call him back on the Centrex number.
I looked up the main number for the local IRS office in the phone book, called
that, and asked for him by name, not by number.

The PBX attendant found his number and rang him. She also told me his
extension number -- the same last four digits as the Centrex number.
This confirmed that he was indeed an IRS employee and that he had
given me a good number. Something I was not willing to take just on
his representation over the telephone.

So now with technology it seems people do not take even the most basic
precautions. At that time there was no caller ID, no internet, hardly
any computers and no one expected a private citizen to have a fax.
Just POTS.

Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com
wleathus@yahoo.com

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