"Medical Grade Brace" Telephone Scam

[moldyoldie]

I'm pestered daily by these calls, usually a recorded message telling me I'm eligible for a medical grade brace to alleviate my knee or back pain that's fully paid for by my insurance. I realize this is a scam phishing for my personal insurance information, but what I want to know is if I "press 2 to be put on our do-not-call list", will I actually not be called again?

Yes, I'm on the National "Do Not Call" Registry and I do report every call to Nomorobo, a call blocking service. While the latter works wonderfully, the same sleazy folks call with a different number as shown on my caller ID!

[Calvert DeForest]

Two things to note:

• The Do Not Call Registry is ineffective against scammers. It is intended to penalize licensed telemarketing businesses that violate the law. Scammers are not licensed businesses. They are criminals. They are already breaking the law and could not care less about the DNC Registry. Expecting a scammer to abide by the Do Not Call list is like expecting a fleeing bank robber to stop for a red light.
• Pressing 2 or any other number does not place you on a scammer's Do Not Call list but in fact does quite the opposite. When you press 2 you're telling the robo-caller that the number connects to a live human as it takes an actual person to press a digit. Once the computer knows that the calls will just ramp up. Best thing to do is hang up immediately or just not answer the call.

I get at least one scam call a day, usually from a number with my own area code and prefix (a practice known as "neighborhood spoofing"). If I don't recognize the last four digits I ignore the call and let it go to voice mail. If the caller doesn't leave a message (which they never do) I know it's a scam call. I can't tell you how many calls I've answered on my work number from scambots hocking everything from home security systems to extended car warranties. The computers have no way to differentiate a personal number from a business number. They're dialing hundreds of random numbers per second phishing for a live bite.

[ZenithCKLW]

I get almost the exact same phone call, except it's to extend my car's warranty, and to press 2 to be placed on the Do Not Call list. I only know this because I get daily voicemail messages with the beginning chopped off. Never answer because as mentioned above, it signals that your phone number is live.

[moldyoldie]

Thank you both for confirming what I've always suspected. Still, these calls are coming incessantly during the day in spite of my defensive actions, and yes, they're leaving recorded messages on my voicemail. Perhaps someone in the household including myself answered inadvertently at one time in the past, which probably means we're "hooked".

I'll continue not answering the calls and try to grin and bear it. (sigh)

[Art Van Damme]

Calvert:
Thank you for the enlightening info. I, too, receive the “neighborhood spoofing” calls on both mobile and home
phones. Didn’t know what it was. They never left a message, and I’ve never answered. I assume the CID is false and not the originating number?

[Bryce]

Unfortunately, those of us who forward a business number to our cell when out of the office, don't have the luxury of not answering numbers that aren't familiar to us. The scam calls seem to always come at the most inopportune time.

[Calvert DeForest]

Believe me I know it's a pain, but the only thing to do is just let the call ring. Call-blockers don't really work because the scammers use too many numbers to keep up. VOIP technology has made it possible to spoof virtually any phone number imaginable. Robo-callers are capable of dialing numbers at a higher frequency than any one person ever could, and the scammers know every trick in the book. They're hard to find let alone catch because VOIP calls can be masked behind firewalls and VPN's, making them extremely difficult to trace. Add to it the fact that these makeshift "boiler room" operations are constantly on the move to avoid law enforcement. A scammer can pack up their hardware, move to another location and set up shop in a matter of hours.

Then there are the overseas scams, most of which originate in India or Pakistan. Those are even tougher to crack down on because they operate outside U.S. jurisdiction. The best-knows overseas swindles are the "Fake IRS" scam and the "Fake Microsoft tech" scam. The IRS will never contact you by phone regarding a tax issue and Microsoft doesn't call people to "fix" a computer over the phone (i.e. install a virus or some kind of ransomware). Needless to say no legitimate entity will ever ask you to submit payment in the form of Western Union transfers, pre-paid debit cards, iTunes gift cards or any other payment method where the funds can't be traced. Nor will they ask for your SSN, credit card number, bank account/routing numbers, PINS or any other personal information. One day I received a call from a gentleman with a thick Indian accent saying he was from my credit union's fraud-detection department and informing me that my account had been "compromised". When he asked for my debit card number and PIN I said well you oughta know....you gave it to me. Suffice to say the call abruptly dropped.

There's a great website called 800Notes.com. You can post numbers relating to scam calls you've received and read posts from others who may have been contacted by those numbers. It's also a valuable resource for information and education about various scams. It's like a Michiguide/Buzzboard combo that's all scam-related. Scammers even defend themselves or post their own crap on the site (like they don't know where they are). They are, of course, quickly called out on their bullshit....sometimes brutally. It's fun to watch.

Unfortunately for the authorities, catching these clowns and bringing them to justice is like a game of "Whach-a-Mole". Scams are going to keep popping up faster than they can be taken down, and the scammers will just become more sophisticated in their attempts to fool people. The best defense is a good education on how these things work so we as consumers can identify the signs of a scam and avoid falling for it. I've been researching this stuff for a few years and there's always something new to learn.