Crash Investigation Unit scammer phone calls

[pursuit57]

Have received that many from the curry munchers mainly saying their ATO or insurance companies I just let my phone go to voicemail - if its important or family call they'll leave a message.
initially, I would just hand the phone to a 3yo to have a conversation with the caller saying was one of the Muppets on the phone ( well I was half right!)

With the ATO one's, the ATO said give them the number and time/date of call for investigation, did that a few times but bet nothing was done - I can't believe the Fed police or Fed Communication mob can't do anything, if it was you or I attempting fraud in this way it wouldn't be long before a knock on the door.

[Iggle Piggle]

I've found saying nasty things about Sachin Tendulkar makes them go totally ape-****, even the chicks.

And most won't hang up either, they continue wigging out trying to defend Sachin's honour, so you can wind them up more and more.

Once I raise them to thermo-nuclear I note down what they say to insult me as some of it can be specific to their culture - I keep that by the phone to use on the next one to extract further insults for my arsenal.

Rinse and repeat.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Some very good solutions here.....here's another one that I use:

Call from 'Microsoft' comes in. I act interested telling them that the computer is up the other end of the house and I need to boot it up, so bear with me a bit. Pretend to boot up machine whilst feigning interest in the subject. After a few minutes I ask them to hold while I answer 'the door', pleading for them to not go as I want to get this sorted.

Leave the phone on the desk whilst I continue whatever I was doing before being rudely interrupted. Check on the phone after a few minutes just to make sure they are there (without making a sound to give it away).

First time i did this to the caller, he was on the phone 30 mins after I told him to hold on. Couldn't believe it! At least during this time this caller wasn't able to harass another, potentially more gullible, person.

Had 'Telstra' call me the other day. Nearly fell for it until she told me that I was paying for the account with a Visa card. Don't have a Visa so knew it was a scam straight away. Calmly tole her that I didn't even own a Visa card and then just waited. About 20 seconds later she just hung up without saying a word

[Feathers]

I enjoy stringing them along. I've had the accident claim on a few times. I asked if it was the accident where I hit my head. "Yes!" And was bleeding all over the place? "Yes, that's the one!" In hospital afterwards for ages with selective amnesia? "Yes!" They get real excited as I drip feed them rubbish, then I act really relieved. "I'm so glad you called! Because I have no memory of the event, can you give me all the details?" Then they realise they've been had, and hang up.

A workmate did really well a few months back, asking how much he was entitled to. The answer came back at $6000, and the scammer continued his spiel. My workmate got all upset and started yelling it wasn't good enough. Wanted to speak to a supervisor. Bogus offer got bumped to $16k.
Still not enough, he said. Now that he's in a wheelchair and can't move from the neck down, can't work, can't make love to his wife, and she has to wipe his bum for him. 6 million is a more reasonable offer.
The scammer couldn't get out of the conversation fast enough!

[ford71V8]

a $2 high pitched whistle.

You gonna try and scam me and waste my time, here's some pain for your ears.

[Sabantien]

I haven't had the home phone plugged in for years. It was almost always Telstra (calling 2-3 times a week to try to sign me up) or scammers. Used to get plenty of scam calls at my old job though.

Attempting to initiate phone sex (this was only when I was alone in the office!), or putting them on hold and going for lunch were favourites.

In the end I would just hang up right away. Got bored with messing with them.

[paule11]

Had the crash investigation one a few weeks back about the car accident in the last year . I replied oh yes would that be the Ford Territory patrol car that was crashed into by the juveniles at Kelso yesterday . He replied God Bless you sir goodbye.

[MITCHAY]

Well they must have some degree of success otherwise why bother do it all like any scam?

The particularly vulnerable are the elderly. I remember my next door neighbour coming over in a panic because of some Microsoft scam.

I told her to hand up because if they already had your details it would be gone before you knew it anyway. Poor thing.

[vdo]

I'm getting calls from the "Accident Assistance Group".

Same crap as you guys are getting. I just hang up.

[Trevor 57]

we went NBN last year and went with a VOIP phone number (which are very very different from the normal home numbers), sad part was we lost our number of 35 years but the bonus is that those bloody annoying calls have stopped dead, no one rings us unless we know them, and that is rare as most people just ring our mobile

Interestingly, my work mobile phone was changed from Optus to Telstra just before Xmas and within a week I had a call selling stuff - unreal

[Interceptor]

It troubles me how many people must be stupid enough to fall for the scammers for it to continue.

I get them regularly at work, and once I establish that they arent from Microsoft, I transfer them to the resident Indian claiming I cant understand them.....

[scoupedy]

My bank rings me and wants to verify my details I refuse to saying as you called me im not giving any details. They keep trying and I just flat out refuse its funny as because I know it is actually my bank.
If I get a call from the subcontinent I just keep saying hello hello hellllooo any one there hello pretend I can't hear them.

[Maka]

Next time they ring, I may seriously consider flipping my landline to loud speaker & videoing the whole episode & put it up on Youtube lol..

Thanks for all your replies & advice guys, much appreciated!!!

cheers, Maka

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by Maka

Thanks for all the replies guys, very funny stories being shared lol! This is the phone number the lady rang from 02 80085855, seems its is a Sydney number..

If you see the above phone number please don't pickup or answer the phone.

cheers, Maka

They'll have a pool of local numbers and route the calls through there.

[RANGEREST]

I had one that was claiming to be the ATO, they left a message with a return number so I rang back and said it was Senior sergeant **** from the Dandenong fraud squad, and they hung up on me.
So I blocked my number and rang back every 2 mins or so for an hour with the same spiel, every day for a week on my way home from work, they must have blocked private numbers or changed theirs, cos after a few days it wouldn't go through

[IanC]

If you are on VOIP you may be able to forward them to Lenny
https://www.toao.net/595-lenny

Have a look on Youtube for the results of calls that have been forwarded to Lenny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CsEuJNSnh8

Gives them back a bit of their own and keeps them from bothering other people.

[ronwest]

After my last post in here I decided to get an answering machine for our landline.

Then I "discovered" our home phone (Panasonic) does have an answering machine, doh!
My only excuse is that it sits above eye level on a shelf.
And very rarely gets used.
And I'm old...

Set it up to answer on two rings with message to "leave a message and we'll call you back... unless you're a telemarketer and then we won't"

After a week there's no messages and we haven't been disturbed at dinner time.

I call that a win.

[Junkyard-Dog]

I usually take my phone calls through my pc when I'm at home (better quality mic and sound, etc).

If a scammer called me, I would gradually turn my mic volume down throughout the call so that they think something is wrong on their end of things and turn their headphone volume up. I would do this until my mic was at like 5% volume then I would turn it back up to 100% and ear rape them to death.