You would need to be quite the optimist to think the call from Haiti wasn't also a scam. They left a long message trying to convince me otherwise, but their warning that I have not yet renewed my car's extended warranty is something that I've been aware of for several decades. The car was purchased new in 1996.
Last year, Jim Chanos called this the golden age of fraud. Thanks in part to the easy money policies of the Fed and the new and improved speculative nature of the markets, I suspect that we've reached the platinum level. Hopes and dreams with smoke and mirrors? Be careful out there. I doubt history will be kind to those thinking there's never been a better time to swing for the fences.
I got tired of having to log into my voicemail to delete scam voice mails. The best solution I've found so far is Youmail.com. It's an app that redirects your voice mail to their cloud server, and it screens for known/reported scam numbers and drops them in a Spam mailbox. Works great with Verizon.
ReplyDeleteIt also does voice to text translation (20/month free) and sends you an email. I've been happy with the free service. They also offer a paid service with more features.
I use a silent ringtone for all but my friends and family. That helps a bunch.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I don’t give my cell phone number out much so I don’t get many calls or voice mails. The ones I do get are usually fairly entertaining, so not much harm done.
On the other hand, there is certainly harm being done to those who believe these scams. You’d think that the scammers would be running out of victims by now, but that’s what you get for thinking. Sigh.