Yes it is! I was called this morning at 11 am EST --- as I was some distance from the 'phone I did not make it in time & was annoyed when I saw an unidentified number. (I was expecting a call from my niece.) No sooner had I gone down the hall again than the 'phone rang again - same number. Since I was already in a bad mood, I decided to answer & possibly be rude to the person. (Anyone reading this who is at all familiar with my posts will know that I normally defend the hapless young people on the other end of the call --- they are the bottom layer of a global crime set-up & the majority of them think they are doing a legitimate & necessary service; I will usually try to convince them to go & get a decent job --- after all, they don't even dial the numbers!) So I answered with a sharp "WHAT?!" When the man started to speak, I heard a high standard of English, which is unusual in these calls --- mostly they sucker young Indians into doing this, who think they've landed decent jobs through being able to speak any English at all. They are innocents. Anyway, he asked me how I was this morning & I told him to hurry up & get on with what he had to say as I was very busy. When he started to explain about problems with my computer, his self-assuredness got on my nerves (already frayed) & I uncharacteristically told him to "[***] off!" & slammed the receiver down. Before I got out of the room, he had called me back --- so I blew a raspberry down the 'phone at him, hung up & walked away. That was the 3rd call --- he (or they) called 5 more times in rapid succession, which I ignored. I was downstairs by the main jack, waiting to disconnect my number temporarily, so the robo-call system would register it as an invalid number ...when the calls ceased. Only then, by looking at our caller ID, did I realise that they'd called 8 times & the ID had declared TWO DIFFERENT COMPANY NAMES!! Half the calls were from FLIT & the other half were from Bonita Springs, Florida. And this is not a scam? HAH! If the 'phone companies were as concerned about this as they should be, they would make caller ID as free, normal and mandatory for every 'phone, as is its ring! These criminal companies thrive on getting hold of old people, young people, mentally challenged people, people whose first language is not English, easily frightened people & people who do not have caller ID! Sorry to be so long-winded but I am going to send this complaint to the FTC verbatim, so they will have it on record. Thanks for reading!
told me that they received my information from my email address associated with my personal banking information and that I've been hacked. the email address they had was an old employer email. I told them that and they said it didn't matter. it was my personal information that needed to be protected.
then asked me to turn on my computer and go to a website help36.com and they needed me to follow their instructions.
Yes it is! I was called this morning at 11 am EST --- as I was some distance from the 'phone I did not make it in time & was annoyed when I saw an unidentified number. (I was expecting a call from my niece.) No sooner had I gone down the hall again than the 'phone rang again - same number. Since I was already in a bad mood, I decided to answer & possibly be rude to the person. (Anyone reading this who is at all familiar with my posts will know that I normally defend the hapless young people on the other end of the call --- they are the bottom layer of a global crime set-up & the majority of them think they are doing a legitimate & necessary service; I will usually try to convince them to go & get a decent job --- after all, they don't even dial the numbers!) So I answered with a sharp "WHAT?!" When the man started to speak, I heard a high standard of English, which is unusual in these calls --- mostly they sucker young Indians into doing this, who think they've landed decent jobs through being able to speak any English at all. They are innocents. Anyway, he asked me how I was this morning & I told him to hurry up & get on with what he had to say as I was very busy. When he started to explain about problems with my computer, his self-assuredness got on my nerves (already frayed) & I uncharacteristically told him to "[***] off!" & slammed the receiver down. Before I got out of the room, he had called me back --- so I blew a raspberry down the 'phone at him, hung up & walked away. That was the 3rd call --- he (or they) called 5 more times in rapid succession, which I ignored. I was downstairs by the main jack, waiting to disconnect my number temporarily, so the robo-call system would register it as an invalid number ...when the calls ceased. Only then, by looking at our caller ID, did I realise that they'd called 8 times & the ID had declared TWO DIFFERENT COMPANY NAMES!! Half the calls were from FLIT & the other half were from Bonita Springs, Florida. And this is not a scam? HAH! If the 'phone companies were as concerned about this as they should be, they would make caller ID as free, normal and mandatory for every 'phone, as is its ring! These criminal companies thrive on getting hold of old people, young people, mentally challenged people, people whose first language is not English, easily frightened people & people who do not have caller ID! Sorry to be so long-winded but I am going to send this complaint to the FTC verbatim, so they will have it on record. Thanks for reading!
We also received 4 calls from Bonita Springs, S. Florida from phone # 239-908-4172. Call #1 was the same as mentioned above with some India Indian speaking with their traditional English accent. I knew right away what he wanted when he mentioned in a serious voice that he needed to talk to my husband who was fast asleep at 8:00 a.m. I asked, "In what regards do you need to talk to him?" In a very serious, stern voice, he replied, "It is about his computer!" I thought..."Oh crap...here we go again!" About 4 months ago, the same type of scammers tried to talk me into access to my computer because, once again in a serious voice, "Your computer is infected with a virus, & they DEMANDED to help me!" No stranger is going to demand anything from ME! Of course, I could hear all of these other scammers' voices in the background doing the same thing to other folks! When I expressed my anger as to the fact that he awoke us both, I hung up. Within seconds, calls #2, 3, & 4 arrived like clockwork, with no one on the other end. I finally turned the phone on and left it under a pillow so I couldn't hear the loud alarm sound that it makes when I do this.
Here's a frightening aside: On last night's news (March 17,2017), a desperate mother's baby died when the babysitter couldn't reach 911 because she was on hold. Meanwhile, as the man explained to the viewing audience (paraphrasing here): "It's not just in their city (some large city in Texas) that this is happening. Robocalls have tied up the phone lines to all of the 911 calls across the nation! Every call is taken in order, and when the dispatcher finally answers the phone, the "caller" has hung up. The dispatchers might receive upwards of 800 calls a day! These telemarketers/scammers are jamming up the phone lines, and people are dying as a result!!!" Why is this allowed to occur? Where is the agency in charge of the system that controls telemarketing calls?
In the list below, under "Call type," you do not offer "Scammer" as an option, so I marked, "Telemarketer."