Million Dollar Id Theft Ring Busted from Errant Phone Call
All the illicit gains, $1,000,000 worth, came to a crashing
halt when a phone call was made to the wrong person. It
seems the identity thief while attempting to impersonate
a police chief inadvertently called the father of the actual
local New York police chief.
It seems the scam the identity thief and his criminal
associates would call cell phone owners and claim to
be the authorities attempting to save the victim from
identity theft.
In the case of the call to the father of the local New York
police chief, the phony caller claimed someone else was
attempting to purchase an airline ticket using the police
chief's credit card number.
The scam would then work when the intended victim would
provide more personal information to the caller which would
enable the real identity theft fraud to occur. The identity
thieves would, using the now stolen personal info, would
then make fraudulent purchases or wire transfers.
Fortunately, in this case, the father of the police chief smartly
realized the scam and immediately acted. He also evidently
had caller id and captured the phone number of the identity
thief calling.
After reporting the attempted to scam, with the caller's phone
number, to local police the identity theft ring was busted and
are now facing up to 25 years in prison each.
So, our tip for today is realize anyone making unsolicited
phone calls to you requesting your credit card, bank
account, social security number (ssn), or even date
of birth (dob) information is most likely an identity
thief scammer.
The scam only works if you provide the information
(usually under duress) from an artificially created
"emergency" scenario portrayed by the caller.
If there is any doubt the caller is real, immediately
request the company's full name, physical location,
& toll free phone number.
Then hang up and call AT&T's long directory assistance operator
to verify the number is actually associated with the company
name and location provided by the original caller.
If not, you now have the opportunity to provide a fraudulent
caller to the phone company thus saving yourself and others
from being scammed from a now obvious identity theft criminal.
The toll free number to call AT&T is 1-800-555-1212.
posted by agent99 @ 6:23 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
It seems like they are almost getting desperate now, i mean just cold calling people for their information is rather humomous.
These people can catch many of us, however if we just take a step back and listen to what they are saying when the opportunity presents itself, we could be alright.
For those of us without caller ID and whatnot, we need to be prepared to give the person false information, such as credit card information etc.
One idea would be for large corporations (microsoft etc) to give their employees a fake credit card number etc to give if they are put in that situation. That way it will be possible to track transactions with this fake credit card and each employee will have a distinct way to act in this situation instead of panicking or worrying about somehow leaving themselves vulnerable.
Currently, most of us are using mobile phones. True to our nature, we have used the different features of these sophisticated gadgets to put a smile on our faces and that of others. We are sending text messages that are really humorous and listening to ring tones that would tickle our funny bones, every time the phone rings.
At present, a multitude of ring tones are easily available and can be downloaded in different models of mobile phone handsets. Mobile phone users can choose from monophonic ring tones, polyphonic ring tones, true tones, real tones, SMS ring tones, buddy name tones, caller id tunes, etc., according to their specific requirements. With the technological advances achieved in this sector, a high degree of customization of ring tones has also become possible. Users of mobile phones can give vent to their creativity and design some witty and humorous ring tones in many of the latest models of handsets. For instance, users are free to use their own voices or any other sound to create a number of personalized ring tones! Depending on their intelligence, wit and comic timing, they would be able to create some hilarious ring tones that are guaranteed to put a smile on the lips of anyone who happens to hear them.
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