Often common sense will curb a scammer. For example, if a person is contacting me because my "car warranty may soon expire", why do they need me to provide the year, make and model? Wouldn't they already have that information to determine that is was about to lapse?
Unfortunately, the hectic pace of life, trusting nature of people and other distractions all get in the way of good clear thinking when it comes to phone calls. It seems there is an insurance scam running rampant here at the moment.
I don't normally go off on this but, as an office manager for a commercial industrial painting company, I deal with dozens of telemarketers and scammers daily. Here are a few things I think about when the phone rings:
- First of all, if they are who they say they are, would they not already have this information they are requesting? If the answer is yes, go to the bullet point below.
- Tell them you are busy and request a number to call them back at. If they can't give you a number, it is not a crisis or a real big issue. I mean would your bank, insurance agent or any other legitimate business not have an incoming phone line?
- Ask them to wait a second and inform them you need to start recording the phone conversation. If they hang up, you just figured it out.
If you feel you need to learn more about this topic, you may wish to check out the FBI Page of Common Schemes.
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