I just received the latest annoying phone scam today. There was a message left on my phone that said the following: ” This call is intended for your serious attentions towards this matter. Ignoring this will be an intentional second attempt to avoid an initial appearance before a magistrate judge or a grand jury for a federal criminal offense. Now this is the final attempt to reach you to know your final case number and to speak to a federal agent, call back at 252-285-9065.”
This annoying phone scam infuriates me. Not because they have my phone number, and not because there is even a small chance I believe it, but because there are some elderly people or other people that are so sweet and innocent, they may fall for it. This annoying phone scam preys on innocent people and it infuriates me.
The last annoying phone scam was from Microsoft. Same threatening type of manner. I actually called it. It was someone far away and as I started to question them, became increasingly belligerent, angry and aggressive. I can see how this can scare and intimidate someone. They wanted my credit card number. Shocker!
One other annoying phone scam I received was from the IRS. Of course this comes out between January and April, where they are claiming that your taxes are fraudulent. People believe this, and unfortunately, some of these scams are successful. It has nothing to do with being naive. It has to do with PROFESSIONAL thieves that are perfecting their trade of stealing you personal information and money.
What to Do
If you receive one of these calls, first thing to do is ignore it. It is not true and not real. No one would ever leave you this type of message. Second, DO NOT RETURN THE CALL. If you do, you will be harassed and a target for more phone scams. You can report it to the FBI Cyber Security Division, but personally, I think they see hundreds if not thousands of these things being reported. Lastly, if you are in doubt, google it. 9 our to 10 times it will come up as a scam and you will see that someone else posted about the exact call you received.
Please be careful out there, and spread the word to the elderly. They do not live in the cyber world that we live in and back in their day, you did get phone calls for various things. They are not computer savvy and are not aware of the latest scams. Please protect them!
