What's the point behind this scam phone call? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

GoinAllTheWay · 02-21-2013, 01:00 PM

So I'm at work, reception puts a call through to me. I pick up the phone and I guy says "Hello" with a very southern accent, like Alabama or something. He say his name is whatever from whatever company and he's phone to get some numbers off our photocopier. I'm thinkin WTF? So I ask him to repeat himself and he says there are 4 or so numbers on the front of our photocopier to update their records.

So I'm thinking this is sounding phishy but decide to play along a bit. I ask him what photocopier he is reffering to as we have several. He than hangs up on me.

It begs the question, what the hell was he after? Anyone heard of this one?

Regulator75 · 02-21-2013, 01:07 PM

2 more telemarketer threads here.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=117040

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=124973

Travis Munroe · 02-21-2013, 01:07 PM

Perhaps he somehow gets the copiers information via the numbers he is asking for and then sells replica copiers and uses real serial numbers? Far fetched I know ..

afc wimbledon · 02-21-2013, 01:17 PM

In six months time when he thinks youve forgotten you will get an invoice for ink or paper or the like and it will look more official with the numbers on, best guess

Wormius · 02-21-2013, 01:17 PM

Maybe he just completely garbled the "is your fridge running?" joke.

ah123 · 02-21-2013, 01:19 PM

My guess (and only that) is, that a few weeks from now, your company would get an invoice for photo copier maintenance (or other such item), referencing the numbers he asked you for.

fundmark19 · 02-21-2013, 01:21 PM

Yes it happened to us! They get your numbers then start sending you toner and such and really expensive rates. If it is a big company this might go un noticed and just billed out by accounting and thus they make loads of profit

You Need a Thneed · 02-21-2013, 01:39 PM

I remember getting a similar call once, but I was immediately suspicious, and made sure I didn't say anything giving a "go ahead".

A while later we had an invoice, which was ignored. I think they might have actually sent toner somewhere along the line, and they even had my signature signing for a package.

The calls from the company to recover the money from their "invoice" started getting more and more harrassing, to the point where I was nearly in tears one day. I called our lease company and asked, "I know we get our toner as part of the contract, but how much would it cost if it wasn't part of the contract?" The answer was something like 60 bucks. The fake invoice from this company was for something like $200-$300 per unit.

The harrassing calls kept coming, and we reasoned with the guy " why would we buy toner for $300 when we get it for free as part of our maintenance contract, and even if we weren't part of a contract we could get the same toner for $60?"

The guy was then trying to tell us that if we didn't want the toner, could we please send back the one they had sent - to which I told him, "we have other toner from our maintenance contract here, how are supposed to know which one we were supposedly sent from you?"

Either way, the law states that even if we received some toner from them, we had never asked for it to be shipped, and therefore, we could consider it a gift. (Not much of a gift to us anyway)

I don't know for sure, and never did, but i suspect that they did actually ship a toner to us, essentially saving our maintenance company a few dollars.

GoinAllTheWay · 02-21-2013, 01:40 PM

Interesting....that makes sense. I hadn't heard of this one before otherwise I would have called into question the status of his parents marriage at the time of his birth.

Sliver · 02-21-2013, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

I remember getting a similar call once, but I was immediately suspicious, and made sure I didn't say anything giving a "go ahead".

A while later we had an invoice, which was ignored. I think they might have actually sent toner somewhere along the line, and they even had my signature signing for a package.

The calls from the company to recover the money from their "invoice" started getting more and more harrassing, to the point where I was nearly in tears one day. I called our lease company and asked, "I know we get our toner as part of the contract, but how much would it cost if it wasn't part of the contract?" The answer was something like 60 bucks. The fake invoice from this company was for something like $200-$300 per unit.

The harrassing calls kept coming, and we reasoned with the guy " why would we buy toner for $300 when we get it for free as part of our maintenance contract, and even if we weren't part of a contract we could get the same toner for $60?"

The guy was then trying to tell us that if we didn't want the toner, could we please send back the one they had sent - to which I told him, "we have other toner from our maintenance contract here, how are supposed to know which one we were supposedly sent from you?"

Either way, the law states that even if we received some toner from them, we had never asked for it to be shipped, and therefore, we could consider it a gift. (Not much of a gift to us anyway)

I don't know for sure, and never did, but i suspect that they did actually ship a toner to us, essentially saving our maintenance company a few dollars.

hahaha for serious?

GoinAllTheWay · 02-21-2013, 02:04 PM

/\/\

I was gonna touch on that too but then thought...nah.

GP_Matt · 02-21-2013, 02:29 PM

In our company they called a few times to chat with the manager and then edited the conversation to make it sound like he agreed to order the toner. They called back a month later to ask why the invoice hadn't been paid and then played the recording back to him. Once it was sent to our lawyer they stopped calling us though.

I have had the same variation with safety systems. They called me when I was first given the safety coordinator position to talk about their safety program and their pre-planned safety meeting system. As soon as they found out I was new they told me that they had sent their system to my predecessor who tried it out and had ordered more. Apparently they were now calling to follow up with us on how we liked it and again wanted money for the system. I ignored him, but they still called back every month or so to ask for money for a system that we would never buy.

A third version is companies that sound like the yellow pages who try to sign you up for crappy advertising and then send bills.

They are all scum but they get away with it and some people pay to make them go away.
I have heard that it is a cross border scam as well so it is rarely punished.

You Need a Thneed · 02-21-2013, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sliver

hahaha for serious?

I'm not easily harrassed, but yes. I was trying to be too polite, probably believing at the time that it was some mistake instead of a scam. Had I known at the time that it was what it was, I wouldn't have taken it. Anyway, that conversation ended our belief that this was a legitimate business, and future calls were hung up on. The guy was having a really hard time accepting no for an answer. He likely was out a toner and shipping costs, and may have been close to getting paid (I think I remember us talking about just paying the amount to to get the matter off our backs), but just pushed too hard (a lot too hard), and we decided to send nothing and not talk to him again.

Rathji · 02-21-2013, 02:48 PM

I wish these guys would call me, I would love free toner to be mailed to me.

TheyCallMeBruce · 02-21-2013, 02:48 PM

Haha, this has happened to us. Our office manager is a no nonsense russian girl. When they asked for the numbers, she responded with, "oh yeah, sure! It's G-O-F---YOURSELF" and hung up.

Sliver · 02-21-2013, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

I'm not easily harrassed, but yes. I was trying to be too polite, probably believing at the time that it was some mistake instead of a scam. Had I known at the time that it was what it was, I wouldn't have taken it. Anyway, that conversation ended our belief that this was a legitimate business, and future calls were hung up on. The guy was having a really hard time accepting no for an answer. He likely was out a toner and shipping costs, and may have been close to getting paid (I think I remember us talking about just paying the amount to to get the matter off our backs), but just pushed too hard (a lot too hard), and we decided to send nothing and not talk to him again.

Yeah, when that crap hits you on the wrong day in the wrong way it can be more stressful than it should be. Didn't mean to be a jerk by busting your chops.

Hack&Lube · 02-21-2013, 04:18 PM

I was in our mailroom today and overheard a conversation from a manager talking to them about not ordering toner or paying invoices from fradulent companies so that is probably what this is related to.

pylon · 02-21-2013, 04:47 PM

Yep, this one is going around again. I got a call about a week ago. This is a 20 year old scam. Now I just reply once he is done his spiel "Oh, cool. This is where you send me fake invoices for toners and supplies I never ordered, then send it to collection when we don't fall for the scam...right?!"

They just hang up.

AltaGuy · 02-21-2013, 08:26 PM

The toner and paper companies are my favourites!

"Would you like to order toner?" Yup.
"Would you like to order paper for your printers?" Yup.

Thanks for the free stuff jerks. I do it all the time at my work, and thoroughly enjoy telling them off after I get the stuff in the mail. The funny thing is they just keep sending it. Scamming the scammers is a good time.

One company sent me over $1k worth of printer paper. They were a little perturbed when I thanked them for their gift and threatened to call the cops if they called again.

DownhillGoat · 11-03-2014, 06:18 PM

Didn't want to start a new thread so I necro-bumped this one.

Has anybody had an Alliance One scam? (Or similar credit agency).

Got a phone call today, claiming that an unpaid bill had been sent to collections (in this case, Alliance One). I said that's not possible, and asked what it was regarding. She said she couldn't give me any info unless I confirmed my DOB, which to me is a massive red flag. The operator claimed they had sent me two letters prior (which I have not received), so "maybe they didn't have the address right". She would give me absolutely no information unless I confirmed who I was by DOB, etc.

A quick credit check doesn't show anything going to collections.

Googling around there seem to be some credit scams out there. But none line up exactly.
Just wondering if any CP'ers have had a similar call.