Scary Phone Call

[firefly30]

I received a phone call that really rattled me the other day. A woman kept asking me to verify my personal info - date of birth, etc. I refused, of course, and she told me that she would not tell me what the call was regarding unless I verified that info with her. Her tone of voice was very anxious and nervous. She kept saying it was "regarding a business matter" and then she made up some story that I had spoken with someone named Erik earlier in the week and that this was a follow-up. I never spoke to anyone earlier in the week.

I definitely must have entered a fraudulent contest at some point because this is not the first call I received like this recently - the other ones weren't as concerning but definitely scammy.

I'm pretty upset about this. It really freaked me out, to say the least. I told the woman that I would be calling the police, and I hung up.

Has this happened to anyone else? What was her motive? I'm going to be extremely careful now about what I enter. I just hate that I even have to worry about this.

 

[arrtup3]

I received a phone call that really rattled me the other day. A woman kept asking me to verify my personal info - date of birth, etc. I refused, of course, and she told me that she would not tell me what the call was regarding unless I verified that info with her. Her tone of voice was very anxious and nervous. She kept saying it was "regarding a business matter" and then she made up some story that I had spoken with someone named Erik earlier in the week and that this was a follow-up. I never spoke to anyone earlier in the week.

I definitely must have entered a fraudulent contest at some point because this is not the first call I received like this recently - the other ones weren't as concerning but definitely scammy.

I'm pretty upset about this. It really freaked me out, to say the least. I told the woman that I would be calling the police, and I hung up.

Has this happened to anyone else? What was her motive? I'm going to be extremely careful now about what I enter. I just hate that I even have to worry about this.

That is too bad, and unsettling. Someone could have gotten your phone number from sweeping but it could also have been randomly generated, or from another source, like the internet.

You definitely did the right thing - do not give out any information, and hang up. If you have caller ID you can also not answer, and look up the phone number. If it is fraudulent, you can block the number.

There are some websites you can use to look up who called you, and you will often get results showing complaints against nuisance callers. Or, you can type the phone number into your search engine and see what comes up, and block the call.

 

[griffin72]

I also have a separate phone I use for my contests. I use the cheap trac phone.

It keeps my real phone free of these people.