I hear a couple of ton of similar-sounding rip-off calls, the place the scammer is pretending to be from a service you employ (or used), providing you a considerable month-to-month low cost (30% or extra) if you happen to pay some price forward of time.
Generally they take the advance price utilizing your bank card, and typically they let you know that it’s important to get retailer reward playing cards.
Who might imagine {that a} reliable vendor would need them to pay with retailer reward playing cards? A whole bunch of hundreds of individuals. The scammers wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work.
The scammers normally have some data on the victims (e.g., title, deal with, account quantity) and in some circumstances, they will really make funds to their account, which they will confirm on the reliable vendor’s web site, that in a while bounces as a result of they used a fraudulent cost technique.
I wrote up to now about the sort of rip-off taking place to an in depth pal, branded in his case as originating from T-Cellular and a comparable Comcast rip-off.
Nicely, I received one myself right this moment and determined to write down about it.
I get a handful of undesirable telephone calls every day. It’s nearly all of my calls virtually every single day. Such as you, I by no means reply except I already know the quantity or have them in my contact listing.
In the course of my busy day, I ended up with a random voicemail (see picture beneath).
Lots of people experiencing comparable scams report the rip-off beginning through voicemail and don’t bear in mind getting a name that went unanswered after which went to voicemail. Identical right here. Maybe the scammers have discovered some technique to drop off voicemails to potential victims with out ever calling them.
I did some analysis, and it seems there are many methods to go away somebody a voicemail with out calling them. Right here’s a typical method.
I take heed to the voicemail.
It was a really pleasant-sounding AI-generated lady who stated, “Howdy, Comcast/Xfinity calling! You solely have minutes left to reply earlier than your 50% low cost in your month-to-month invoice is eliminated. Please name again on the quantity proven in your caller ID proper now to forestall dropping this low cost. Thanks.”
I’m not a Comcast buyer (anymore). It’s been 5+ years, however I was. So, that’s off. However I suppose the calling entity has an previous enterprise listing or is simply making random calls.
In many of the scams I’ve examine, the scammer has pertinent data on the potential sufferer (e.g., title, deal with, account quantity, present account steadiness, and so forth.). A few of that might have been realized from a earlier information breach. On this case, maybe the massive 2022 Comcast breach information was used.
That is an instance of why each firm breach you do enterprise with is a foul factor, even if you happen to didn’t lose any cash on the time. Any stolen details about you can be utilized years later to make a rip-off appear extra reasonable.
I’ve additionally heard of scammers utilizing present “password dumps” the place the person’s logon title and password, together with the affiliated web site, had been saved. There are tens of billions of individuals’s logon names and passwords saved in numerous password dumps across the web and darknet. Yours most likely is.
Try Troy Hunt’s HaveIBeenPwned web site to see in case your logons have been stolen up to now.
I’ve heard of present account steadiness data that may be realized by anybody with a naked quantity of data on somebody, like their title and zip code. They’ll additionally make (fraudulent) funds utilizing the identical strategies.
Simply because somebody is repeating personal particulars about your life to you doesn’t imply they aren’t a scammer.
I cherished the automated scammer message that couldn’t even inform me what quantity to name again. I used to be supposed to simply take a look at the caller ID to get the quantity. Yeah, that sounds legit! Has a reliable caller ever not repeated the quantity you wanted to name? Nope.
They pressured me twice to name again ASAP!
I do know it’s a rip-off, however I made a decision to analysis extra.
The telephone quantity I used to be purported to name is 267-239-9699.
The 267 space code ties to Pennsylvania.
The 239 native trade ties to Philadelphia.
Once I lookup all the quantity, it comes again to Comcast Cellphone of Pennsylvania, LLC – Pa (see picture beneath).
That’s fairly tough. It explains why many rip-off victims report the CALLER ID function of their telephone stating COMCAST or one thing like that.
But it surely isn’t Comcast. It’s just a few textual content the scammer put in for the enterprise title when registering the telephone quantity.
Once I lookup the Comcast Cellphone of Pennsylvania, it doesn’t come up on the web. It doesn’t come up on the Higher Enterprise Bureau web site (bbb.org). See picture beneath.
Yeah, that’s not going to occur with a reliable firm.
I Referred to as
I made a decision to name the rip-off telephone quantity. I didn’t need to use my actual telephone or telephone quantity. There are dozens of the way to make a name over the web. Simply seek for ‘make a telephone name from the web.’ I used https://call2friends.com/free-calls.
The decision rang busy and was by no means picked up. Maybe it was at all times busy with different potential victims, already closed by the authorities, or it doesn’t decide up when free service VPN telephone numbers are used to name it.
So, I didn’t get an opportunity to benefit from the pretend name maintain muzak and bulletins. Victims report very realistic-sounding name facilities and bulletins.
If I received via, sometimes, I might get to a high-pressure salesperson who’s going to inform me about this new, nice gross sales promotion that can save me a ton of cash over the long term. They’ll ask your title after which let you know details about you (together with account data and deal with). They’ll ask you for a $200 price or one thing like that so that you could be enrolled in this system and “lock in” the brand new discounted price.
Calling Professional Comcast
Sadly, once I tried to name the true Comcast utilizing a telephone quantity from their reliable web site, I simply bumped into plenty of frustration. First, it appears each vendor desires to cover any telephone numbers that might get you to an actual human being, as it’s the most costly and uncommon factor on Earth. I couldn’t simply discover a reliable telephone quantity.
It supplied me an AI bot, which was ineffective. It supplied me Fb Messenger, which gave me an auto reply, after which by no means got here again. It gave me a number of textual content message numbers to strive, none of which resulted in with the ability to get assist.
I lastly did an web search on ‘Comcast tech assist numbers’ and received to https://www.xfinity.com/assist/contact-us. That’s very legit. However not one of the choices had been even near being proper for my explicit want.
I appeared up (on comcast.com) and known as Comcast Buyer Safety Assurance (844-335-8719) to inquire in regards to the possible rip-off quantity. The agent answering stated that the 267 quantity was assured to be a fraud, as a result of Comcast solely known as on 888 numbers.
I laughed a little bit bit as a result of Comcast makes use of 800 numbers as properly, and the quantity I used to be at present calling was 844. Oh, properly.
I feel most advertising and gross sales calls do originate from an 888 or 800 quantity. A 267 space code is certainly phishy.
Searches on Comcast’s personal web site resulted in zero outcomes about this explicit rip-off, though it did present me dozens of hyperlinks about generic scams that didn’t apply to my state of affairs. It’s actually the most typical Comcast rip-off on this planet, and their web site doesn’t have easy-to-find details about it.
Nicely, with out calling, I already know this was a rip-off, however why do distributors make it so onerous to get primary assist and questions answered?
Documented circumstances
Looking on the bigger web I got here throughout a ton of beforehand documented and shared rip-off circumstances with comparable particulars.
Listed here are a few of them:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/feedback/1jtxmdg/i_just_got_a_call_from_comcast_xfinity_saying/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjqiMA372qw
Classes Realized
- Any surprising message (regardless of how delivered) asking you to do one thing bizarre or new ought to end in you being very, very skeptical. Most of these communications are excessive threat.
- When doubtful, TRY to achieve out to the reliable vendor to substantiate earlier than performing the requested actions.
- Simply because a caller has some particulars on you doesn’t imply they aren’t a scammer.
- You’ll be able to’t belief the CALLER ID function.
Most of these scams are tremendous frequent, so share this publish far and extensive with co-workers, pals and household.
