Phone Calls

[Cornell2012]

I just got a call offering me two tickets to a cruise in the Bahamas (to be given to me after I complete a survey).

A couple months ago I supposedly was called by Publisher's Clearing House, where they informed me that I won some 7-figure sum of money. I needed to call them back in Jamaica so that they could make sure to present the giant check to the right location.

What are the best stories of sales calls or PR stunts or spam emails that you've received?

 

[LCH]

I occasionally to get debt collectors and ex-boyfriends looking for "Mary". I don't know Mary. They always think I'm lying when I tell them they've got the wrong number, and sometimes want to argue.

Here the last couple weeks, people keep calling me wanting "Bob". I don't know Bob. It's starting to get ridiculous..

 

[TRS_Montana]

Ha, I love those!
I spent some time living in Nigeria. Since moving back to the states, I have about 3 extremely rich uncles die each month. Gets me every time!

 

[Jwill]

To be honest, most of the spam calls I receive are from the NRA during election season...

 

[Gr8bawana]

When we first moved to our small town we got a a landline that must have previously belonged to a real winner. We had bill collectors calling at least twice a day looking for Susan for months and months. Then we found that our number was the same as our local power company co-op except for the last number what a pain in the butt.

 

[Art Vandeley]

I have gotten a call about 8-9 times from some clowns saying the government is giving large sums of money to good citizens who pay their bills and have no criminal record. The only thing I need to do to get the money is give them my checking account number and routing number. They never understand why I want them to mail the check to me instead.

 

[RobG]

Well, I wish you hadn't asked but I need to vent about this anyway. Blue Cross Blue Shield JUST called me saying they had some important information for me regarding my insurance.

"OK," I answer, "What's up?"
"Just a minute and one of our experts will be with you," she answers, and then puts me on hold. Holy crap, you call me on my cell phone during working hours and then put me on hold?

So I'm steaming already because I know this is a scam and I've had nothing but distractions all day. Finally, some guy with a foreign accent comes on and wants to waste more of my time to verify my account information. I cut him off and ask him what is the nature of the call because I am busy (procrastinating as it turned out, but he didn't need to know that). He says he wants me to take full advantage of my insurance by getting a "free" Healthpoint annual doctor exam. I was right, this was about one of the biggest scams out there, and it has been going on long before "that law" was passed under BHO.

So I go ballistic on this guy and tell him his claim of free was complete BS and that I pay probably $400 in premiums so they can skim an $80 profit by funneling a $320 exam through their company. The reason they are hounding us so much now is that the ACA prevents insurance companies from ripping off more than 20% of our premiums for their own profits. And if they do not get enough people doing these "free" exams they will have to lower their premiums and rip us off just a little less.

If you are a victim of this scam contact your state insurance commissioner and tell them that full disclosure of the costs of these "free" services should be required and if they truly save money for the insurance companies in the long run they can offer discounted policies when they include them alongside some sort of tin-foil plan. MT's IC is at http://www.csi.mt.gov/