Alexander Graham Bell would not like this scam

Oddly enough, just when we thought phone scams might be going the way of eight-track tapes, they are making a comeback. Phone scam popularity faded for a while because email is such an efficient process for a scammer. With one click on the button, they can inundate thousands of inboxes. Now that savvy email users are making it more difficult for scammers, the bad guys are returning to the personal touch and using Alexander Graham Bell’s nifty invention.

This report of a phone scam came to me last week courtesy of an old friend, Matt McCabe. Here was Matt’s email to me:

Last night at about 7:00 p.m., we received TWO calls from a guy who mispronounced Charlie’s name so badly that I knew something stunk.  He also said he had a warrant for Charlie for not showing up in court.  Hell, he goofs up a ton, but not like that.  Anyway, I (maybe stupidly) said, “You don’t have any (expletive deleted) warrant” and hung up.  Too bad we can’t “slam down” an end-call button.  This morning, the email below was sent through “Nextdoor.com.”  It’s a neighborhood blog that’s really pretty big up here.

Whether we’re talking about this fake warrant scam, a bogus IRS audit, or the grandparent scam—“Grandma? Help me, I’m in jail!”—they all rely on human reactions triggered by a threat. When answering a phone call, remember these four tips to avoid being taken:

1) We don’t expect people to lie to us—and that’s exactly the assumption the caller wants  you to make. If there is a threat implied, there is a high probability the call is fake.

2) For legal proceedings, there will be process that will not begin with a threatening phone call.

3) Never use a phone number provided by a caller to validate the story you’re being given. Find a phone number independently if you believe the call might be real.

4) The more you talk, the more likely you are to give away valuable information. You have everything to lose and the caller can only gain. Do not assume you can outwit him.