Now OPEN!
What a day — after the Health Department Inspector left (they come every six months), I answered the phone. It was an AT & T Operator telling me that she was interpretting for a person on the other line who was was messaging her because he was hearing or speech impaired. She repeated verbatim what he typed — here’s how it went…
AT & T “My name is Dennis, I want to order 150 sandwiches for my mothers birthday. I will have a private courier pick them up April 23rd at 2 pm.”
Me “What kind of sandwiches – you can choose any assortment – turkey, ham, beef, chicken salad – we make everything to order.”
AT & T “Chicken Salad…how much will that be including tax?”
Me ” $1230.” ( I am reasonably suspicious but was giving the benefit of the doubt because he was after all….impaired).
At & T “Okay, I will put it on credit card. The private courier does no accept credit card so you will need to add $890. additional to the credit card and then send the $890 cash via Western Union to the Courier at the address will give you. What will the total amount on credit card be?”
Me “$2320.00″ (I know this is a scam but decide I need to get as much info as possible)
At & T “Okay…here is my MasterCard number xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Exp datexxxxx…do you understand you will have to wire $890 cash so the private courier will pick up the sandwiches?” “Also, I am hearing impaired so the only way you can communicate with me is through my email which is xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com”
Me “Yes”
At & T ” Run the credit card now while I am on the phone.”
Me ” Sorry, but the amount is too much to kay without an ID. I will need a picutre ID which you can fax to me while we wait on the phone.”
AT & T Operator says “ohhh…he hung up”
Me” Operator I need your ID and a phone number so I can call the police.”
AT & T “My C # is and the customer service number is 800xxxxxxxxbut you should know it’s against the law for AT & T to track and give out phone numbers…there is no way the police can get this number.”
Me “Operator surely you must realize this is a scam?”
AT & T Operator “It’s against policyand the law for me to say anything except to repeat exactly what the caller is telling me.”
So I called RCPD and two wonderful officers came by. I had typed the info for them. Several businesses have received calls like this…no one has been stung so far but the businesses hang up before they get any information that can be tracked.
What’s the solution? It’s costing businesses, taxpayers, individuals whose cards are being stolen and even the credit card companies a lot of money –love to hear your thoughts.
debra