Musing

Get Off My Phone!

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Friday Faithfuls
theme “Suggestions”

Professor Adams always gives us something to think about! This week at Friday Faithfuls, Jim has asked us to respond to his theme “Suggestions” by offering a topic that we would like him to discuss. He’s also interested in learning if we have ever been the victim of a scam and to share that story. Jim wants us to feel free to respond in any way we see fit. These are my thoughts.

Well, Jim …. since you asked …. we came close to being the victims of a scam. Husband Bill and I have dealt with several cases of fraudulent charges on our credit cards. While that in itself is upsetting, the incident I’m writing about today was much more invasive and fiendish in the way it was perpetrated.

It was an ordinary morning at home; I was looking through my emails when I came across one from Netflix allegedly in response to a request I had made. It was puzzling because I have never contacted Netflix since signing up ages ago. But here’s the kicker that everyone falls for: the Netflix logo and everything about the email looked legit. There was a telephone number on the email which I googled; there was no mention of Netflix being associated with that number. The plot thickens.

I decided to call the phone number; someone picked up immediately …. almost as if they were waiting for me to call. A guy answered; he had an undistinguishable accent, said his name was ‘Ron’ and told me my credit card was used in an attempt to purchase $32,000 worth of illegal guns and ammunition!

Ok, I guess it’s possible. I answered a few of Ron’s cursory questions, but when I refused to answer the ones about money and banking, he offered to connect me directly to my banking rep. Wow! Impressive that a guy at Netflix had direct access to my personal banker! This I had to see!

Within seconds a woman with a different undistinguishable accent came on and asked me if I was in a secure room by myself. I lied and said I was. She asked me “for my own safety” what my bank account number was and how much money was in the account!! I was incredulous and said to Bill “This woman wants to know how much money we have in the bank.”  Well, the woman became irate because I obviously was NOT in a secure room by myself, even though I said I was. I told the woman I didn’t believe she was a rep from my bank, nor did I believe anything she was saying to which she suggested we hang up and she would call me back to prove she was with my bank. How the hell was that going to prove anything or convince me? I finally hung up and immediately called our rep at the bank who told me what I already knew: this was a huge scam. Of course, everything regarding our credit cards and bank account was secure.

The thing I find the most disturbing is that unsuspecting, confused, technologically impaired and/or easily intimidated people fall for this type of prank call; that’s heartbreaking and infuriating. Scammers are ruthless. They have no shame. They prey on innocent people, sucking the life blood (and savings) out of them. It’s beyond shameful …. it’s reprehensible!

Jim, perhaps you can offer practical advice on how to spot telephone scammers and how to deal with their devious tricks, especially when it comes to safeguarding our money.

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This is “Don’t Believe Everything You Hear” by Ocean Blue

Suggestions

A big thank you to Jim Adams for another fascinating and informative topic; Jim, you always keep us on our toes!

Thanks to YOU for stopping by for a look and a listen.

That’s all she wrote. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All rights reserved for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

30 thoughts on “Get Off My Phone!”

  5. Thanks for sharing your story Nancy and I am glad that you were smart enough that they did not get into your account. My computer guy came over today and removed the program that allowed the scammer to get into my computer and now I can use my desktop again.

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  6. I just assume most things are a scam, one way or another. If you block the email scammers, they just send a new message out the next day with a different address. Some of them are quite realistic, as your Netflix scam was. If I am in doubt, I simply contact the company/service myself. I get a lot of PayPal bogus messages, so I simply go directly to the site and confirm what I already knew, Scam!

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      1. I had this one scammer call and pretend he was my grandson who just got arrested. He called me grandma, and of course my grandkids all call me Mimi, so I messed with him for a few minutes, then just hung up. I would have tried to catch him, but he was probably sitting in Nigeria. Also, don’t these idiots think we know our grandkid’s voice?

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    1. The Robo-Killer App is a great way to cut down on phone scammers on cell phones; I have it on my cell but our landline is thus far unprotected. We just bought a new phone system for the house … base with three handsets … which has a call blocking option. I have yet to read up on that feature before I can install it. Baby steps in the war against scammers. Thanks, Sighs.

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  9. I’ve had many fraudulent emails. If you click below the so called legit looking account, you will see the real address of the sender. It’s never the one they claim to be sending from.

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