Does anyone get many scams on their cell phones?

Sometimes the scammers miss their intended affect because of the generation gap I think …. and being foreign.

I don’t get their phone calls, as my phone will say Scam Likely, and those calls go into trash. I only answer calls from my contact list.
But text messages come thru … maybe a few a week. And they sure get creative to try and get you to reply….

… everything from demands for money for traffic/toll road fines and past due bills I never heard of,
They attempted a large charge on my Apple Pay account - - only I don’t have an Apple Pay account.

They make up tracking codes for USPS packages and those appear in the Post Office delivery info., then POOF. … then they offer free gift .. just click the link

They offered me a great deal on Christmas photos of my children …. just click link …
“My children” are in their 50’s-60’s.

The way they word things, I can tell it’s from another country …. they haven't figured out how Americans speak.
 
The topic seems to go in waves. For the last few months I've gotten a ton of voicemails and text from "so and so" at "something tax advisors" noting that I seem to have some tax related issues that they will be happy to help me with.

While we still lived in Atlanta, we had months of people calling wanting to know if we wanted to sell our abandoned gas station property in some podunk town in middle Georgia.

I have also gotten all the standard ones, about past due tolls, failing to show for jury duty etc.
 

I only answer calls if it is a known number from my contacts. The rest go to voicemail and if it is important they will leave a message.
 
Watch out for this one.
For a couple of months my husband has been included on a text chain. A friendly group based on the nonsense. “Let us know…, we’re all going to discuss…, etc” He can delete each one but can’t block or report them because it’s a group of numbers. They’re just a nuisance.
 
Jules said:
Watch out for this one.
For a couple of months my husband has been included on a text chain. A friendly group based on the nonsense. “Let us know…, we’re all going to discuss…, etc” He can delete each one but can’t block or report them because it’s a group of numbers. They’re just a nuisance.
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Can't he "leave" the text chain? My phones offer that option.
 
If you have a "smart phone," which most cell phones are, you can program it to block all calls that are not from someone on your contact list. They can leave a voice mail message, but your phone doesn't ring, and you can see the number of the caller and call them back any time you wish. That has made a tremendous difference to me.

You can also program your phone to not ring between certain hours. I have mine turned off every night. It turns itself on at 8 AM (my choice of time). Any modern cell phone is under the control of the owner.
 
Sunny said:
You can also program your phone to not ring between certain hours. I have mine turned off every night. It turns itself on at 8 AM (my choice of time). Any modern cell phone is under the control of the owner.
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I do the same. Only calls from people my emergency call list will ring through. That list is limited to my kids, siblings, a couple of neighbors, my closest friends and my alarm monitoring company.
 
For the past few months I have received a call nearly everyday from a company claiming to need to speak with me about my loan approval, of course I never applied for a loan. I never answer but they leave a voice mail which is a recorded message that is the same every time.

The numbers vary, as does the alleged state of origin, but I block each number. I am on the do not call list, I have repoted this several times to ReportFraud.ftc.gov, yet the calls continue.

How many different number are available to these scammers? I would think by blocking each number the calls would stop but that hasn't happened yet. I don't want to block all unknown numbers, but not sure what I can do if anything to stop them.
 
Restored said:
I usually Google the phone number to see who it is but they are supposed to use the portal to reach me.
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Gotcha.

My cellphone provider offers a screening option that I can activate when for unfamiliar numbers. It asks who's calling and what it's about. The reply shows up as text on my phone - if it's someone I want to talk to, I click answer and speak to the caller.

Otherwise I hang up or let the caller hang on the line until they hang up.

It's a very useful feature.
 
C50 said:
For the past few months I have received a call nearly everyday from a company claiming to need to speak with me about my loan approval, of course I never applied for a loan. I never answer but they leave a voice mail which is a recorded message that is the same every time.

The numbers vary, as does the alleged state of origin, but I block each number. I am on the do not call list, I have repoted this several times to ReportFraud.ftc.gov, yet the calls continue.

How many different number are available to these scammers? I would think by blocking each number the calls would stop but that hasn't happened yet. I don't want to block all unknown numbers, but not sure what I can do if anything to stop them.
Click to expand...
I'm getting those calls too. I think it's been happening for more than a year. They're spoofing legit numbers trying to get past our spam filters.
 
Every once in a while I get scammers trying to bribe me into answering their scam. The scam is that I have a delivery but they do not have enough personal information to let it be delivered to me. The thing is, I know everything I’ve ordered and it always gets delivered without any fuss so I just delete it. Fortunately It doesn’t happen often.
 
I had a voicemail today advising me that legal papers had been "drawn up" against me and were being sent to authorities who will serve them within 24 hours. That was the essence of what they said, but I don't recall the exact words. They mentioned my last name, "Morgan," however that is not my last name. They said that their voicemail was being recorded as evidence they had contacted me. As you must know, I'm scared to death. 🤣
 
Y'all just need to be very careful while surfing the internet. Avoid providing your contact info on any suspicious websites or links (especially those pretending to be legit websites). Though some of these scammers can get our contacts from info broker database sellers, I think
 

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