After years of being scam-call free on my personal phone, over the past few weeks it seems that at least once a day I get this same call:
Hello, this is Sarah Jenkins giving you a call back from 5 Step Business Loans.com. Today is Thursday, September 10th. My phone number is 877-577-1143. And our file shows you’ve got some unsecured debt still due. I wanted to let you know that you can enroll to have them consolidated into a 0% interest loan with the new 0 interest consolidation lending program. So any amount, small or large, is not non-collectible through this program. But we have to enroll. So give me a call back and we can get you all set up. It won’t take long. It’s really a one and done setup, so I’ll keep your account open through the end of the week. To connect with a specialist now, press 5 or you can call me directly at 877-577-1143. Again, press 5 to speak with the lending specialist now, or call me at 877-577-1143. You can also visit our website at five-stepbusinessloans.com and apply online. You can also press 9 to be added to our do not call list if you are no longer interested.
Naturally the first couple times this happened I pressed 9, but apparently that made no difference, and once I realized since the name of the loan company always changed this was actually a scam operation and that by pressing 9 I confirmed they’d reached a “live” number.
So a couple days ago I decided to return the call. No longer having to check my language like I had to do when I’d get scam calls at work, I um…well let’s just say the past year’s worth of anger and frustration found an outlet.
“Do you wanna fuck?” I asked “Jason” or whatever his name was.
“Uh…” He was obviously taken aback. Then a few seconds later, “Sure.”
And the bastard hung up on me!
Did I leave it?
Do you know me at all? 😈
“Jason” suprisingly answered again.
“So Jason, when are we gonna hook up and make some wild monkey sex?”
Click.
I called back again.
This time I got “John.”
I asked if he was into anal.
Click.
I called back yet again.
This time It went immediately to on-hold music. After about a minute or so the call disconnected.
I called back yet again.
This time I got a recorded message telling me I’d reached a number no longer in service.
They’d blocked me!
It was then I noticed the callback number they provided wasn’t actually the number displayed on my phone.
So I called THAT number.
Apparently it was a direct line to the scammer call center, bypassing the bullshit message instructing me to press 9 if I didn’t want to received any more calls.
“Jason” answered.
“Hey Jason, you didn’t answer me…when are we gonna hook up…”
Click.
It seems I’d found their kryptonite.
Today when the call came in, I called back.
“Robert” answered.
Hi, this is Robert. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with today?”
“Hey Robert,” I said, “I’ve just got a quick question.”
“Go ahead.”
“So…do you take it up the ass as well as your mother does?”
“Oh [long pause] you should not have said that.”
Click.
I called back on both the provided number and the one that showed up on my phone.
Immediately blocked.
I have a feeling this isn’t over yet, but I have found an effective way of shutting them up.
4 comments
I used to get those calls too. Now I have AURA and no longer get calls not in my numbers listed.
While I was still working, I would get calls wanting to sell me an extended warranty on my car, on my work phone. When they asked what kind of car I had, I gave them the info on my company pickup. “And modifications? Yes, it has a GM Perf Parts supercharger kit on it. Let me check about that.” Silence for a good bit, so I hung up.
After retirement, the calls are about “the latest Medicare updates”, “final expense insurance”, or a car accident I was in that I have not got all of my compensation for. Generally, all computer-generated/voiced calls. At the end of their sales pitch, they all mentioned an “age requirement”, to which I’d reply “I am 95. Sorry, you don’t qualify.”
Then there are the “Did you get the letter we sent you about the extended warranty on your caarrr? No. We are giving you a final courtesy call before we close your file.”
Sometimes, if I am speaking to a real person, usually of a demographic that is know for their civility, I will be civil back to them. I know they are just trying to earn a meager living somewhere in India, so no need to be rude to them. Sometimes, after they mention what they are selling, I’ll say “I’ve already got that under control” and hang up.
AT&T will flag the calls as “Spam Risk”. If I don’t answer them, somehow they stay on the phone long enough to engage my voice mail, with a blank voice mail. I suspect the numbers that come up on caller ID are numbers where the prior owner discontinued service, so they don’t work. Blocking them is fruitless as those numbers are not in use anyway. Some days, up to 14 calls!
In any event, I’m usually hung up on those calls after 10 seconds. Some are just silence.
IF get to ask to talk to a person, at the first hint of displeasure, they hand up quickly. In some cases, the call disconnects automatically. As if to do that is a part of their training.
After several years, I have learned about such phone games. Whether I am talking to a computer or a real person. They have become a part of my daily routine, it seems. A diversion from watching “Family Feud”.
Damn, great advice! Scammers beware.
Nice work! Five Stars!