Rude person who says he is Dan with Anderson & Associates. He asks for the owner by first name and only will say that he was to call at 4:05 about a confidential legal matter. Totally made up! I put him on hold and after a few minutes he hangs up. He is very arrogant and tells me to get him on the phone and he'll hold. He doesn't ask, he TELLS me to GET him on the phone! Surely, they know we get several of these calls in a week. His attitude is a dead giveaway that he's not legit.
Lisa,
I'm a small business owner. I have an office manager & a secretary/receptionist. For years I've encouraged them to play with fraudulent callers. They get a kick out of it. So do I. When we're busy, or they're not in the mood, they know to answer unknown callers with the stock "Who's calling please?". A fraud will have the usual canned answer. They'll respond with "Who are you with?". Blah, blah... "This is in reference to what?". Confusion begins.
At this point, my staff will politely instruct the caller to identify him (or her) self & the company they're with, along with what this call is in reference to. A suitable micro-second will follow before the caller is informed that "Your calls will now go to VM. When you're able to communicate on a business level, leave a message. Failure to do so will result in any further calls being blocked." For some reason, this seems to work really well. Equally as odd, callers that receive this answer rarely call back to leave a message.
I am an unusual employer. I understand that some others aren't as easy going. Business is business. But...I see no reason why my people should be harassed. If they are...God help the fool trying to do so. I've never lost a customer from the conduct of my people. On the contrary, their conduct is what makes us what we are.
Gunnar
This jerk said he was "Jay" calling for the owner. I asked what company he was with, he said Powers (or something like that as he suddenly went into speed-talking mode), and that he had a scheduled call with the owner at 10. It's not my first rodeo, so I told him just a moment, and let him sit on hold for a while. When I returned to the line to tell him the owner wasn't available, he had the nerve to say "well are you sure he's not there, is his car in the parking lot, can you get up and go check if his car is in the parking lot". Needless to say, what a jerk!!!!!