My
alter ego is a salesperson for a computer center (my boss owns the computer
center and the ISP--I do sales for one and network admin for the other).
At least once a week, often more, I get a call supposedly from a hearing
impaired person using a relay operator. This person always has a different
name but the same request--they want me to drop ship notebook pc's and charge
them to a credit card. Now, these calls come through the AT&T and
Sprint relay services--legitimate operations. When I have called them they
say they are aware of the scam but are legally obligated to perform the relay
duty. However, they both told me that if I simply ask the operator if the
caller is using a home device for TTY or is using an Internet site I'll be
given a straight answer. The scam calls are always using the Internet
sites. We have "real" deaf customers here in town. They call using
the Montana Relay, they can provide call-back numbers, etc. So, there are
some ways of distinguishing the legit calls from the fraudulent one.
In any
event, I simply tell all callers that it is our policy not to drop ship
merchandise ordered over the phone to be charged to a credit card.
About two years ago we were asked to ship a large quantity of memory to a
location in Colorado. It seemed odd that someone from CA would call
someone in MT to ship memory to CO. The caller claimed they had been
referred to us by one of our customers--which was plausible but it still smelled
fishy. We declined unless payment was in the form of a cashier's
checked. Another reseller in town fell for it. It was a big enough
hit to hurt them very badly. They are no longer in
business.
~Katie
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kami Razvan
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 7:45 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Declude.JunkMail] We can retire nowGood to find the signature for this email ..Has anyone seen this?Regards,Kami
