Same scam, man with a heavy Spanish accent reporting that my brother had been in an accident and I needed to give the brother's name so he could be sure he was reaching family. The whole thing seemed suspicious and I didn't give the name. I asked if there was a police officer on the scene, and didn't get a response, just more and more insistent requests for my brother's name. I said "I don't think so," and then the caller hung up on me. I reached my brother, who was fine, and then found this site.
I received similiar call a couple of hours ago - same schtick, initially says my brother is hurt in accident - wants name of my brother to verify that I am family. But when I keep asking for location so I can call 911 for help, the caller changes his tune - says his brother has tied my brother up and will kill him if I don't go to the bank. By this time I've figured out this is likely scam and have my husband on phone trying to reach my brother. I told the guy it made no sense to kill my brother as we don't have lots of money. I called 911 and will be filing complaint with local police department. Found this thread indicating that its an AT&T cell phone - folks at local AT&T store helpful in providing main phone number to lodge a complaint - but when I call AT&T customer service they are clueless. No procedures in place to process a complaint even after I explain that this scam has been going on for over 2 weeks and that the Radnor, PA police department investigated and put out an alert. Customer service insists the caller is doing nothing illegal so they can't shut phone off - I explain that extortion and attempted extortion are very much crimes! Doesn't matter whether you succeed - if you use threats - especially threatening someone's life and ask for money that is a crime that the perpetrator can go to jail for! Customer service rep spoke to her supervisor, claimed there was no flag on this phone number and no process to investigate! I told her that even credit card companies have departments and processes in place to investigate fraud - AT&T should too! AT&T needs to provide better training and have a process in place to investigate these types of threatening and fraudulent calls. Customer service agent asked if I was an AT&T customer, I said no but that shouldn't matter - their customer initiated the threatening phone call. I don't expect AT&T to provide me with information on their customer - but I do expect them to start an investigation - especially since there are already complaints on file with police (ie Radnor, PA).
Hi Ben - info that its an AT&T phone very helpful. I gave that info to police when I filed police report on the scam. Did you report the scam to AT&T? When I called AT&T, customer service claimed there had been no reports/complaints about this phone number. I'm finding that a bit hard to believe given the number of posts here over the past 3 weeks and the investigation by the Radnor PA police department.
Thanks