Learn, share, and get recognized
Just got a call to "not use any apple products" and to press one, or call back at some number that I listened to five time and cannot tell you at all what it is. It is computer-generated. The ID shows 1800-***-2273. head's up.
Yes, the hosts sometimes miss things. Someone likely reported your post as having a scammer's number in it, without checking to see that the crooks were spoofing one of Apple's own genuine phone numbers. Then in turn, the host didn't notice or check to see what the number was and edited it.
That said, a lot of scam phone numbers reported here do call directly back to a scam operation. So speed was likely considered more important at editing the number than to see who it belonged to.
So why do the editing at all when anyone reading the topic can also read it's referring to a scam? Because if left, Google and other search engines pick these numbers up. In turn, they show up in links for "Apple Support" with the phone number. We've seen numerous scammers do this themselves in posts on this forum. They'll drop a dozen or more posts, often under three or four new user accounts, asking "Is this a legitimate number?" The giveaway is they post the exact same text over and over in new topics. And the purpose for that is what I mentioned. They want search engines to pick up "Apple Support" with their phone number.
Because of that, the hosts try to remove any possible scam numbers as quickly as possible.
Yes, the hosts sometimes miss things. Someone likely reported your post as having a scammer's number in it, without checking to see that the crooks were spoofing one of Apple's own genuine phone numbers. Then in turn, the host didn't notice or check to see what the number was and edited it.
That said, a lot of scam phone numbers reported here do call directly back to a scam operation. So speed was likely considered more important at editing the number than to see who it belonged to.
So why do the editing at all when anyone reading the topic can also read it's referring to a scam? Because if left, Google and other search engines pick these numbers up. In turn, they show up in links for "Apple Support" with the phone number. We've seen numerous scammers do this themselves in posts on this forum. They'll drop a dozen or more posts, often under three or four new user accounts, asking "Is this a legitimate number?" The giveaway is they post the exact same text over and over in new topics. And the purpose for that is what I mentioned. They want search engines to pick up "Apple Support" with their phone number.
Because of that, the hosts try to remove any possible scam numbers as quickly as possible.
True: But not everyone understands or knows that the Caller ID is spoofed. I was trying to share that... however, this is the mind blowing thing. This is what I received afterwards. The number, as you know, is APPLE'S SUPPORT LINE. But, as we can see, there was no human involved; So, yes, I won't waste any time attempting to share again:
Yes, I know you said number on Caller ID was a real Apple number, and I repeated it. A real, spoofed number from a crook.
Caller ID is essentially useless. On our home business land line, we have distinctive ring. Any long distance number has a different ring. We get at least six calls per day where the number shown is a local area code, but the ring is long distance. It's an instant giveaway it's a scam/spam call before we even pick up the phone.
Wish I could get that. But NoMoRoBo isn't available with CenturyLink's system.
There is actually a reason scammers do those one ring hangups. They hope the person who was called will be curious enough to call the number back. Basically, they can call a lot more marks per second that way and only try to scam the ones who call back.
Actually, they do this also because they claim it is NOT spam/scam if you press 1 (or whatever) or call them back. I thought I would try to find out who one of the more annoying ones was (since all I ever got was "welcome to Marriott" before hanging up with, of course, various "neighbor" numbers in the caller ID), so, instead of hanging up, I pressed 1. I was very nice and "interested" and found out: they said they are a marketing company for hotels like Marriott, Hilton, and others, located in Florida. And, since I pressed 1, he considered that as me calling them, so there is no scam, spam, or anything else. I then contacted Marriott corporate and they claimed they would never do that and said that they were a victim as well - not sure I believe that. But, anyway, so much for trying. I did threaten the guy in Florida and the number of calls decreased for a while.
What NoMoRoBo does is keep a blacklist. The one ring is actually pretty simple that is their system. What it does is, their number is actually forwarded to NoMoRoBo. If the number is recognized as spam it disappears. If it's not, Their system number will showup but you know it's spam because of their number ... pretty nifty. Over time, fewer and fewer calls get back the one ring. The best thing for us, too, is that it's free on the landline (yes, we still have a landline, which is where this number originally went to).
I made the mistake many years ago of engaging a spammer doing the "Microsoft tech'" and yelled at him that I didn't even use Microsoft after about the fifth call. He started laughing and said he would call me repeatedly. He did. He called at least 5 times a day for a week... then about 10 times a month. And just laugh. I had signed up for DoNotCall (worthless) and reported him (worthless) ... over time those stopped, but it was at least 2 years.
That makes sense. Both sites I read on one-ring calls only mentioned the idea is to wait for the victim to call back. It makes for more sense expanded to the nonsense defense, "It's not a scam call if you call them."
Of course it's still a scam call! One, you wouldn't have called that number in the first place if you phone hadn't rung and shown that number. And two, calling them doesn't make a scam any less of one.
Yes! A few articles I've read on scam calls (MS tech in your example) is to never engage them. Don't yell. Don't lead them on pretending to be taken in. Just hang up.
Their number one reason? The better scammers do all of these calls through computers (which is how they create any name and number to show up on your Caller ID). Those systems keep track of how long you've been kept on the line. Over a certain time held on the phone, your name and number automatically gets added to a "suckers" list, which gets sold to other scammers. You will then get even more scam calls.
Their suggestion, pretty much without exception, is to simply hang up the moment you suspect it's a scam.
There's no point trying to report a scam caller. Any number shown on the Caller ID will have been spoofed. It's not the number they're really calling from.
The only solution is to hang up.
We're done. There's no need to spend any more time on this. However, as I stated, the number is Apple support. Not a spam number.
What has changed our life is NoMoRoBo. Except for these spammers who mimic real numbers, 1/2 to one ring .... and POOOF! Gone.
applecare spam call trying to report
