Do I smell a scam?

October 19, 2005 by
Filed under: Uncategorized 

Someone called me a minute ago, claiming to be from Rogers and saying they were going to send me two new phones free of charge. He asked me to confirm our address, which he read to me (which was close enough but not exact) and then said he needed my date of birth in order to confirm I qualified! I said I needed to check he really was from Rogers and could I call him back; no, it’s a call centre and there’s no incoming line (plausible) but I insisted I wouldn’t tell him anything until I could confirm it really was Rogers calling me. In the end he gave me a number (1-888-764-3771) and said he’ll call back in ~10 minutes.

I called Rogers straight away and asked them to check if they were offering us two new phones, and the guy said no, we aren’t eligible yet (we’ve not had our existing phones long enough), which is what I thought. I explained why I was calling to check and he agreed that it sounded suspicious. Oh, and the number the first guy gave me is a Rogers helpdesk line, which of course anyone could find online/on their bill.

I didn’t think to do “*69″ to see if I could get the first caller’s number before I called Rogers, but I did it just now and it said “the number is not known”.

I wonder if Mr.Scammer will call back?

Update: Nope, a couple of hours later and still no call. Guess that’s the last I’ll hear from him.

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Comments

8 Comments on Do I smell a scam?

  1. Christina on Wed, 19th Oct 2005 11:35 pm

    2. I had the same call from a crazy-sounding lady. I cut her off, said I wasn’t interested, and hung up on her. Ugh, it was annoying.

  2. eeore on Thu, 20th Oct 2005 10:36 am

    3. It’s a scam.

    Though it is worrying that they got your number…. my guess is that the scammer has got it from Rogers, either by hacking or because they are an employee.

  3. paul on Fri, 21st Oct 2005 11:26 am

    4. I don’t care if Rogers sold my info (because lots of companies do – anyone who thinks they have any privacy is sadly mistaken) but I wonder what the scam was – why did they want my DoB?

  4. Drew on Sat, 12th Nov 2005 4:03 pm

    5. They wanted ur date of birth most likely because the person is gonna use ur contact information to make fake ID’s such as driver liscense and birht certificate and stuff. People who are crooks do it all the time. They get the hookups from companies they work for as a techy such as rogers and when no one is looking they copy down what they can then follow up later on a pay phone or a secure home phone, and try to squeeze additional info out of you.

  5. paul on Tue, 15th Nov 2005 4:42 pm

    6. It must be their work environment – I got impression the guy who I spoke too was a bit odd.

  6. paul on Tue, 15th Nov 2005 4:43 pm

    7. They could have got my name/number legitimately too – there are tools like 411.ca that will give them that, or even buy a customer list from Rogers themselves.

  7. paul on Tue, 15th Nov 2005 4:47 pm

    8. Having seen how easily my wife got a (legitimate) replacement birth certificate, it’s kind of worrying. And I know from when I moved here, once you get a driving license you can get pretty much anything else you want.

    I really should get into the habit of checking my credit rating, just in case!

  8. rob s on Fri, 13th Jan 2006 12:57 am

    9. i am always cautious of these calls too … however i do have a friend that works at a legit call centre offering special offers for rogers so it is possable the call was legit. and i belive they get the numbers from rogers cable.

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