Saturday, October 20, 2012

Scamming Grandma

Scamming Grandma

    I think most of us have a little experience with scammers.  I have about 3 interesting ones in the last two years.  The first one I had called and said he was from the National Verification Office and that he wanted to know my check routing number.  I said “Just a minute let   me go look it up”  I knew it was a scammer so I came back to the telephone and said “You know I don’t have any checking account”  He said “Oh yes you do Deloris” I fiddled around talking a little bit more and then said “ Why don’t you just go play with yourself but I used the f word”  He got mad as anything and said “ You B you”  That made a good story to tell out at bowling and the guys at coffee thought it was hilarious.

    The next one I got was from some guy calling and said he was my grandson and that he was stranded in Mexico City and needed for me to send him money.  I strung him along for a little while and then told him that I didn’t think so.  He hung up.  This same scam happened to my cousin in Iowa and she believed the story and went down to the bank and was ready to send $5000.00 to him.  The bank clerk stopped her and she put the money in a CD instead.

    I had the lovely one from Wall Mart the other day and I was going to get a $50.00 gift card and all I needed to do was give them a debit card number.  Old fashioned as I am well I don’t use a debit card.  So I told him that I didn’t use a debit card and wasn’t there some other way I could get the gift.  They wanted to debit my card for $2.50.  I said “You know why can’t I send you a money order or cash for this wonderful gift and that would be a big benefit to me.”  Needless to say that didn’t work and they hung up.  That scam is still going around and we were warned just the other day to watch out for it.

    I suppose they will think up a new one next week but this grandma is ready for them.  My telephone is fixed so that it doesn’t ring in the house until it has  already rang 4 times to the caller.  That eliminates a lot of telemarketing calls.

    Well I had another interesting one a few days ago and it wasn’t exactly a scam.  I answered the phone and it was a well known insurance company and they wanted to give me a good quote for insurance on my house and cars.  We talked for a while and I told them I was satisfied with the insurance that I had.  They insisted on giving me a quote and the question was “You are under 70 years of age aren’t you?”  I said “ H no I am going to be 85 this week.”  They hung up the phone right quick and I had my laugh for the day.

    I was talking to some other friends at dinner one day and they had a couple of interesting stories to tell. One of them had been offered a set of tools for next to nothing and the tools were supposed to be
worth $1700.00.  He asked when and where the tools were to be delivered and he would be happy to get them .  Well they wanted to know what his credit card number was.  He said[ Let me look  and see
if I have one of those cards.]  Well he was stringing them along and said [All I have is a card from the Osage Casino.  Would that do?] They hung up the phone.

    The other friend was offered a new Lexus car and he told them No I am not interested in one as I already have 2 of those cars… They also hung up.  A new one every day…