Have you every strung a scammer along on purpose?

[Shefliesonherownwings]

Just been binge watching scam interceptors on the BBC and the episode I just finished showed a couple of people deliberately stringing scammers along to waste their time and stop them contacting anyone else. These were phone and online scammers. I got a lot of satisfaction out of listening to the scammers getting annoyed and knowing they were wasting their time.

I normally hang up the phone straight away if I get one of these calls and ignore messages about ‘fraudulent’ activity in on my account but I wondered if anyone had deliberately strung these scumbags along just to waste their time deliberately?

Several times. Bonus points if you tie them up for long enough that they eventually tell you to fuck off.

I enjoyed telling the “accident” ones that yes, I had indeed been involved in an accident which had proved to be fatal, and I was so pleased that I could finally make contact from the other side, and oh wait a minute, there was someone with me that wanted to talk to them …

If you’ve never read some of the marvellous scam baits on 419Eaters then I highly recommend it 😊. Sometimes I almost feel sorry for the scammers…until I remember what they do 😡

I had one not long ago, telling me that there was an issue with my BT broadband and that my router had been hacked, so there was a virus on it.

"Oh dear...... what does that mean?" I said.

Cue a very long and ultimately frustrating call for him, while I played the forgetful dim-witted older lady who doesn't understand role. I made him wait several minutes while I went and got the latest BT bill out of the loft. Then I told him I'd just remembered that we'd only just changed our contract to EE and did that matter? No no, he could still fix it apparently. I think I asked him where he was calling from at least three times. "But if we're with EE, then how come BT can fix it? Where are you calling from? Oh, BT head office in London. Oh dear, it must be serious then. So what do you mean when you say the router has been hacked? How will that affect my computer then? It will make it slow, will it? Oh dear. And affect broadband? Oh dear. And so on at length. All the more pleasurable because I happened to be using my broadband and was watching an erupting Icelandic volcano on live cam at the time, so I just let him witter on.

Yes when they called to say they could see i had an issue with my laptop and if i loaded it up they'd send a link to repair it. If works would be just 19.99
I said that's great it may take a while its old prob beyond repair.
And asked if they they didn't mind waiting.
The guy sounded as excited as a dog with 2 dicks, telling how amazing and fast it would run after and how if it worked it would be a bargain.

45 minutes later. They asked how it was going if i received the link, i said no i haven't turns out , i binned the laptop 5 years ago sorry.

My DP always strings them along and usually I find it tedious and don't understand why he doesn't put the phone down. However, a couple of weeks ago he answered a call while changing our newborn's nappy. He told the scammer he'd caught him in the middle of a shit tsunami which completely cracked the scammer up. He stayed on the phone while we went through 3 nappies in at least 20mins of constant crapping. It just went on and on with the bloke killing himself laughing at my DP's descriptions of what was happening.
Eventually the bloke told us he was calling about the financial market and asked if we were aware the issues in Russia/Ukraine would affect XYZ blah blah blah and what was my DP's views on Russia. My DP said the caller's accent was clearly from a country much closer so could he tell him his POV and kept pressing him for more. He obliged and eventually started asking about our investments. My DP told him that as he'd not managed to get to the point of his call in the 45 mins he'd been on the line, he now needed to go to work but to feel free to call again when he has more time to chat. The bloke was remarkably polite.
Funnily enough we haven't heard back from him though 😂

I must antagonise them more than my DP as I usually get told to fuck off when they realise I'm winding them up and not actually giving them access to my bank account/computer etc.

My DP also tells the accident claim ones that he has amnesia from an accident and goes round and round in circles asking why they're calling and that yes he thinks he did have an accident etc - it usually takes them a while to realise that he's taking the piss. One of them called him a cunt

I have done with the car accident cold callers.

I either say I’ve never ever been in a car in my life.

Or I say I’ve had 12 accidents and which one are they referring to.

There are some great ideas on here!

I had a cold caller actually tut at me last week when I asked him to repeat who he wanted to speak to! It's not my fault that matalan play their musak too loud.

I do enjoy asking them for The Password before I can continue the call. Really confuses them

I kept one if the car accident guys for about 40 minutes, when he could tell me which insurance company he was calling on behalf of, which I told him was weird. He told me he was calling on behalf of solicitors, and gave me a name and address in Manchester. I agreed to find the paperwork and call him back, but had to use the number he had called me on.
I checked, the solicitor details were genuine, so I called them to tell them the scammer was using their details, it took me ages to get past 'that's not an area we deal in' after several attempts to tell them their good name was being used in a scam (DH told me to give up trying) finally I got through to someone who realise how important this was.

I love these!
I try and keep callers on the line as long as possible.
My best was a call from someone wanting to fix my slow internet connection. I explained that my phone wasn't near my laptop so had to leave the phone each time I followed one of his instructions. I then carried on with my ironing before returning to the call and explaining that my laptop was very slow indeed and I was grateful for his help. I finished my ironing after an hour, with the intermittent conversation and then realised that he had hung up.
If it's the traffic accident one then I offer to check the police records for them. They hang up quickly after that.
I always think it is worth doing to prevent them calling someone who may fall for this.

If you haven't already read Daisy May Cooper's Instagram posts detailing her love affair with the Sea Captain (Send me money scammer) then you need to now. Very funny.

My partner does this. He gets a real kick out of it.

I kept the Microsoft one going for about an hour. Was waiting in for a delivery and cleaning the oven. Asked him if he could wait whilst I turned on computer upstairs. The phone is downstairs. He said he could, I did a bit more cleaning. Then I said what next. He told me, I asked him if he could wait again, he could, cleaned a bit more, this went on for ages, me supposedly going upstairs to do the things he was asking. I made a big fuss of how wonderful it was he could help me fix my supposedly broken pc.

Then my delivery came, I came back to the phone and told him I’d enjoyed talking to him, wasting his time, that I knew exactly what his game was and was glad I’d kept him from scamming someone else for an hour or so. Got called a few choice names but I just laughed at him.

We’ve never ever had that one again!

Sorry hadn’t read the ironing one, very similar.

The other thing I do now we have caller display when answering an unknown number is to hesitate and listen before speaking and then I repeat our answerphone message. If it’s a genuine caller they generally try to leave a message and at that point I make out I’ve just picked up the phone. My friends know I do this and sometimes there are some hilarious answerphone messages when they are convinced it’s me messing around 🤦‍♀️

Loads of times. I work in financial regulation so a lot of the time I know more than them. It's good fun.

Slightly OT @Shefliesonherownwings but I've been looking for something to binge watch on Wednesday whilst DH is away overnight and the little one is at her grandma's for a sleepover and this sounds perfect so thank you!

If I have time I like to chat pleasantly to them. Ask them how their day is going, how their family are, what their plans for the weekend are, what the weather is like. All interspersed with snippets of fake information about my life to keep the chat going. They can get a bit stressed as they try ever more desperately to keep the conversation to their script.

Sometimes I ask them if making scam calls is a career choice or just a temporary job, with sympathetic noises about the state of the job market. I have a warm, friendly but slightly incompetent persona, never quite sure what they are on about. "Now, would that be the computer thingy in the living room or the one in the spare bedroom?" "Oh dear, is that the bank account with the red plastic card or the blue one?"

I think 16 minutes is my best call so far, I must try to improve on that one day.

@DuggeeHugPlease

Not scammers but I did talk to a salesperson for ages who was trying to sell me a conservatory. He went in to loads of detail about the specifications and what they could offer. After about 20 minutes I said this all sounds great and I just had one more question which was how would they fit it to my second floor flat.

Love this one. My husband as a young man got the double glazed windows salesman. Was ecstatic they could fit him new windows, really, that would be amazing, he’d like 4. No problem Sir. really? Living in a basement with no windows and you can do that ?

My Mum is 81 and sharp as a tack but when scammers ring her she screeches HAVE YOU GOT MY HANDBAG?? at them. They can't get away fast enough!

Oh yes, fabulous fun stringing scam callers along.
Also blow a whistle down the phone at them, this is particularly enjoyable for the Amazon Prime scammers. Hopefully they're wearing headphones

I just say I’m not interested, and hang up.
The recorded message ones do annoy me though (There’s a warrant out for your arrest for tax fraud, you must press one NOW, etc.) because you can’t even have the satisfaction of yelling, ‘Fuck OFF! at them.

A friend of mine used to say - all sweetly polite - ‘Can you just hang on a tick?’ - and then go and get the hoover, put it right by the phone, and switch on.😂

One that I did was when I was working in a huge old Victorian building and a window company rang up (thinking it was a residential address) saying we could buy x amount of windows and the rest would be free, I kept them going for ages then when they asked how many free windows we'd need I said about 250. They rang off and didn't call back.

If I have the time, then yes, always.

Oh and my DM who is in her 70s does too, she loves it!

We had one many years ago about the slow connection on our internet and my DH strung them along for a while before telling them to fuck off. The chap rang back and said he knew where we lived and would come and break in and fuck our daughter. Not a nice on that one.

I've recently had 'domestic and general' phone me saying they can get me a discount on my items I have covered. This is due to being such a good customer and not claiming for many years. No claims I say, no none at all they say. So, is the brand new cooker I received a few months ago a figment of my imagination. They were very convincing up to this point until they mentioned no claims and that they covered my TV as well.

I hang up on them now.

My mum does occasionally. She plays the dithering old lady who doesnt understand how to turn on her computer or what online banking is ( she is fully aware of these things) longest she stringed one along was like an hour. She said he got really pissed off in the end which she found hilarious