Ruffled Fur

On ursulav's blog today, a reader tells a story that really illustrates one of life's repeatedly proven truisms:

( Sometimes, violence IS the answer. )

I can just imagine the referenced conversation with the C.O., complete with "I didn't do anything wrong, sir, I just...."

About once every couple weeks lately, I get a call from an automated telemarketer -- a female voice, who perkily informs me that I shouldn't be alarmed but today is the last day of availability for their wonderful credit card protection services.  To take advantage of this about-to-expire special offer, I should press 1 now to speak to a representative.  This is the last chance I'll get!  (And yet they call again sometime the following week or two.)

If I ask to be taken off their call list, they hang up.
If I point out that I have never had a credit card, they hang up.
If I try to get too much information about them, they hang up.
If I ask for a supervisor, they hang up.

I've been told the company name is "Consumer Services" and that they're located in Orlando, Florida, before my questions apparently got too nosy.

Caller ID has been spoofed, but not entirely effectively:  some of the numbers that show are (062-255-7792), (062-216-6293), (062-224-4199 "Ft Walton Beach"), and (062-265-4557) -- the leading 0 means their spoofing software has a bug in it, though the details of how useful that bug may be are over my head.  Most of them are "Unknown caller", of course.

At any rate, I direct attention to the early 2000-2002 case in Central Florida where "Advanced Consumer Services" paid a tidy sum to settle charges of credit card fraud.  Having dropped the "Advanced" from the name, of course, they can now claim to be a different company entirely; and it's not the masterminds who are likely to suffer legal consequences when they're finally stopped, it's the not-particularly-smart employees manning the phones.  The goal isn't just to get access to a credit card holder's checking or savings account, it's to get as much identity info as possible.

If you start getting these calls, keep a log of when they called, and what number showed, for at least a week; then take the time to go by your local police station, explain that you're getting unwanted calls from a suspected phisher, and here's your list of when they called and what the caller ID (if you have it) said.  These guys are increasing entropy, and they think nobody will take the time to stop them.