New Twist on old Scam

[It shouldn't]

So I'm at work...... at the locksmiths shop....... snowed in...... and it's slow, when the phone rings.

It's the TDY operator
Someone wants us to unlock their truck... go ahead...
Sure we can do that, it'll be $XX plus tax...go ahead..
Then comes some long spiel about how his/her cousin had an accident and then lost the keys and the caller is having medical issues being treated in a nearby hospital and how the truck is currently in NY and they will have it towed to us and could we unlock it for them....go ahead....
Uhm, most towing companies I've run into are a) very proficient at unlocking cars and b) want the vehicle to be unlocked before towing........go ahead...
No, no, tow co. says they'll tow it without unlocking...go ahead...

Here comes the scaming part:
caller wants to give me a credit card over the phone/TDY, for me to run it for $1700, keep $200 for 'our services' and wire $1500 to the tow co, cause they don't accept credit cards.

Uhm, NO....go ahead....

Poor relay lady sounded positively relieved when she said 'caller has disconnected'.

[AtDIelement]

We get these all the time at the bank.

We tell them we can't even take their calls, that we have a special 800 number for them to call...

They generally hang up after that.

[sirwired]

I would have taken the credit card number down, and then called either Visa (800-VISA-911) or your merchant bank to report probable fraud.

SirWired

[It shouldn't]

I would have taken the credit card number down, and then called either Visa (800-VISA-911) or your merchant bank to report probable fraud.

SirWired

I usually do that with all the various scaming e-mails we get. You know the ones that want 250 locks shipped to Nigeria. I string them along till I get a CC# and then call the issuing bank so they can put a fraud alert on the account.

[BaristaTrav]

I usually do that with all the various scaming e-mails we get. You know the ones that want 250 locks shipped to Nigeria. I string them along till I get a CC# and then call the issuing bank so they can put a fraud alert on the account.

I can't believe anyone falls for these anymore. I ran into this about 5 years ago when I was selling a truck via craigslist. The asking price was $1000 and I got a response from someone saying they would send a check then come pick up the truck.. I played along and they sent a company "check" for $5000 with instructions to cash it and wire the remainder. It was a pretty weak attempt. Serated edges and no watermark. Needless to say, I didn't try to cash it, nor did anyone show up to try get the truck.

[Andara Bledin]

There's a place you can forward the emails (with full headers) for any of the various Nigerian-style scams. I used it all the time at my work, as I get all of the undeliverable email that comes to our domain, so I get a lot of shotgun spam/scam attempts.

spam@uce.gov

It's handled by the FTC and been up since 2004.

^-.-^