What's the point behind this scam phone call?

[Jacks]

I love these kind of calls, good stress reliever. I make sure to tell them where to go, what I think about their mother and what I guess the size of their genitalia to be.

[Locke]

This is an ancient thread, but that doesnt actually sound like a scam phone-call at all.

It depends on what you've got, but I worked for a company that had an ancient photocopier that they leased for a bazillion years on a pay-per-use term and every month they had to update the numbers with the leasing company so they would know how much to charge.

They'd take the current numbers less the previous month's numbers times the rate per copy and that would be the charge for the month.

Dont get me wrong, it was the stupidest system anyone could possibly devise but it wasnt a scam.

[Resolute 14]

No, OPs case was definitely a scam phone call. And it is one still going around. You either get billed for material that is never sent, or you get sent something, but billed at 2-3 times the rate of what your usual vendor offers.

If it is a company you deal with, they would already know what model of printer/copier/fax you have and would be asking for the page counts for a specific device rather than fishing to find out what device you have.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

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

I know a guy that ran a similiar stunt in the US from Calgary.

He would call companies and say the invoice for their ad in his industry contact book was unpaid. It was always a small trivial amount. The person would often send him the money he asked for.


There was no invoice or contact book.

[Flamenspiel]

This is a variation on the old office supply scam that has been around since the 80s:

http://www.bbb.org/us/article/ftc--a...ply-scams-4610

[Otto-matic]

The whole Westjet Scam now is getting annoying, it looks like a personal cell number but its just that gosh darn recording. All from different numbers too!

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Locke

This is an ancient thread, but that doesnt actually sound like a scam phone-call at all.

It depends on what you've got, but I worked for a company that had an ancient photocopier that they leased for a bazillion years on a pay-per-use term and every month they had to update the numbers with the leasing company so they would know how much to charge.

They'd take the current numbers less the previous month's numbers times the rate per copy and that would be the charge for the month.

Dont get me wrong, it was the stupidest system anyone could possibly devise but it wasnt a scam.

Certainly a scam.

The call is different than the one you are saying, because in this call they are just asking for the model or serial number to ensure they get the right kind of toner delivered.

The reception at my office fell for it, and then my boss was getting calls about an increase in toner prices. He told me about it about to after, and I just laughed and told him that our copier supplies were provided as part of our contract, so they were just prepping us for the eventual scam.

Sure enough, a week later a order that was about $4500 worth of toner and paper arrived at our office (edit: just a note, that if we had ordered that same amount of material from any other vendor, it would have been less than half the price, for on-brand materials). I tried to convince them to keep it and not pay for it, to teach the scammers a lesson, but they went through the whole process of getting it shipped back

[puffnstuff]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

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.

Back when I actually answered the phone my response to the 'confirm your DOB' question was always 'well it wasnt yesterday' and then hang up

[spetch]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

The whole Westjet Scam now is getting annoying, it looks like a personal cell number but its just that gosh darn recording. All from different numbers too!

Ya my wife's phone does that too, however when they call my cell it shows up as their out of NA number so its easy to not answer.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

The whole Westjet Scam now is getting annoying, it looks like a personal cell number but its just that gosh darn recording. All from different numbers too!

I got a Westjet one the other day from TELUS PAY PHONE. First I've seen that.

[Kolbe31]

I received the West Jet scam call from a number within my company, with the employee's name on the caller ID. The call was after hours (7:30pm), but showed up in my Inbox as a voicemail from said employee, claiming I'd won 1000 travel dollars.

[LChoy]

Maybe something similar to this.
Got a voice mail from someone asking for..<Robot voice, my wife's name>, and that there was an outstanding balance on an account. They didn't identify themselves and who they were, just that she could call this 1-877 number. Google tells me that it's a shady claims company trying to scare people into paying the company.

1-877-269-5538

Interestingly enough, the call came from a 403 area code, but they called on my phone rather than my wife.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

The whole Westjet Scam now is getting annoying, it looks like a personal cell number but its just that gosh darn recording. All from different numbers too!

I'm getting this one at work fairly often now, and the first three numbers after the area code are the same three numbers as our work phones. Now and then when I have some time I like to mess with them, but they are getting wise to that. Anytime you mention scam they hang up immediately. If you want to waste their time, you have to play along a little bit. I told one where to go the other day (as I was in a rush) and they swore back at me before hanging up. It was a little amusing and likely not the first time they'd done it that day.

I wonder if they know they are scamming people, or if they actually think they are rewarding people with free vouchers. The call centre sounds like there are about 1,000 people crammed into a room, but they usually start off very cheery. My buddy got one of the Microsoft scams a few years ago, and the guy actually thought he worked for Microsoft in India. He had gone to school and answered an ad in the local paper and thought this was the Indian arm of a global company. He was pretty disheartened when my buddy told him how the scam worked and was able to verify it on line.

[ken0042]

Keep in mind a big part of a scam is gathering information. I have seen a variation of the copier scam where they ask what brand we use. They call somebody else and as for the model of the Canon copier. Then they call and say they are from Canon, and have a service request for our Canon X2000 copier; and need the serial number. Then the invoice arrives complete with model and serial number, and appears to be legit.