Scammer

Don't mess with Dispatch.

One of our Dispatchers answered a call the other day from a man with a very thick middle-eastern accent, who said he had a delivery for her. She asked who the delivery was addressed to, because we often receive calls for other agencies through our center. He said that's why he was calling, he needed her name and address to make this delivery. Smelling a scam, she played along. She fished for all the information possible from this man including the name of his business, the number he was calling from and how he go the number he was calling.

He wasn't forthcoming with information (imagine), but she persisted.

He told her that he had some prize money for her to claim (although he didn't know her name or address) and she would have to get him a cashiers check for $200 to claim her 1.2 MILLION dollar prize. She was so good. She told him nothing personal, asked if she could have some time to think about it and could he call her back in a few days?

Fast forward two days - he called back! She laid into him. Told him she thought he was scamming her, that he should be ashamed of himself for taking money from innocent people and that she would never, under any circumstances give him any money or her name.

The best part of this whole scenario is that all the phone calls took place on recorded lines in our dispatch center. She made a CD of the whole thing, took it to one of our friendly Detectives who is going to use it to warn others about this potential scam. He has already taken it to a local talk-radio show to play it and to the Senior Center to let them have a listen so they know whats out there!

The moral of the story is NEVER give out personal information on the phone. Ask for a name of the person you are talking to, a business name and a call back number if what they are offering sounds legit. If they are legit they'll provide all this for you and allow you to call back. If its not legit they'll start to tell you things that don't make sense. Things like, this is a special offer, you have to decide now, you can't call back because I won't be here, the phone number goes to a large center or something like that.

Be smart. She could have been out $200. And then I bet they would have called back and asked her for more and more. Don't let it happen to you.