Phone Revenge

"Hello, my name is Peggy..."

As a long-suffering home phone subscriber, a dying breed, I have developed techniques for dealing with the more obnoxious ones, ever mindful of the fact that on the other end is some poor soul trying to make a living in a "bottom feeder" job.

My most frequent gambit is to teach them how to do the job as many call asking, "Adrian?" and I say, "Don't you know how to make a business solicitation call?" and then give them a lesson and hang up before they get to the pitch.  However a new evil is on the scene: 

"Can you hear me?" 

Police in several states are urging people to avoid answering this simple question from a phone number they do not know. Authorities in Virginia say the question is aimed at getting unsuspecting victims to say "yes" -- an answer the fraudster then records as a way to authorize charges on a phone, utility or credit card bill.

The scam is a variation of one that began late last year, according to law enforcement.  "You say "yes," it is recorded and they can then use it to document you have agreed to something,” said Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection and Privacy for the Consumer Federation of America. 

The Pittsburgh Better Business Bureau (BBB) reported in October it was receiving consumer complaints, citing unsolicited automated calls from "an employee" of a home security agency, cruise line, or the Social Security bureau.

In those phone calls, scammers were using phrases like, "Are you the lady of the house?" "Do you pay the household telephone bills?"; or "Are you the homeowner?" All designed to get a "Yes" response.

Similar calls are now being reported in Virginia -- with scammers asking the question, "Can you hear me?"

"Usually it has a familiar area code," Officer Jo Ann Hughes with the Norfolk Police Department told WTKR-TV.

“That kind of warms you up,” Hughes told the station, warning that those on the receiving end should hang up the phone immediately.

In many cases, scammers will play back a person's verbal confirmation and threaten to take legal action if they try to deny the charges.

“A lot of times, victims do not want to come forward because they are embarrassed. They feel, ‘It was my fault. I should have known better,’ and they are just embarrassed by it all together. So we do not get a whole lot of reports, unfortunately,” Hughes told the station. 

A man who has raised dealing with phone solicitors to a high art is comedian Tom Mabe.  Take a few minutes and listen to the greatest phone soliciter response of all time:  THE TOM MABE CALL

Adrian Vance