I am an Internet Criminal!
 

Or so I'm told. I got this really strange phone call at WORK from a lady with an East Indian accent so thick, I could barely understand her. She accused me of "soliciting" for cash on 3 different web sites and that her employer was willing to write off the loss and not prosecute me if I paid him some amount of cash. :eek: At least, I THINK that's what she said. I told her to go ahead and file charges, and I'd see her in court, and I hung up.

Huh? What? Am I supposed to be offering gentlemen the chance to jump my 59 year old bones (be careful, they're brittle!) for a $1,000 a pop? Or maybe I came up with a new and amazing Nigerian e-mail scam? It beats the hell out of me.

When I got home yesterday, there was a message on my home phone from the same unintelligible lady telling me to have my lawyer call some number that I couldn't understand. I'll have my lawyer call alright - for harassment, attempted extortion and illegal attempts to collect a non-existant debt, and anything else I can think of.

This is one of the nastiest money making scams I have ever come across on the Internet. Is there anyone I can report this outfit to? I bet they take in a number of people who get scared of possible legal charges, and just pay up to make the whole thing go away. :mad:

Well now that I know what you've been up to I want a pay off to keep quiet too. $500 will do - for starters...

Since you know what I've been up to, could you tell me what it was? I wonder how much I got off it? Maybe I could do it again if I knew what I did!

I'm obviously not going to say on the open board - everyone will want a cut!

unless her employer is the FBI, I don't think you have to worry

Given that "she" had your work and home number, is it possible it's one of those fake/ joke calls that were ubquitous in the mid-nineties? Did she actually respond to anything you said or were there just pregnant pauses that you filled in.

You know it's not a genuine call, unless there is something huge you are hiding, so nothing can come of it. The only thing I'd wonder about is how someone got both numbers, along with your name. Sorry, that's not a reassuring thought to end on, is it?

I am not a lawyer, but if either phone is on a do not call list then at a minimum you have a complaint to your state govt. I'm guessing that wire fraud and extortion might be federal. You might want to register a complaint with your phone company so that they can log the phone number.

The problem often is though Rich that these calls originate from overseas.

Sam, they know about that mp3 of Beautiful Day you downloaded in 2000. You might as well confess and get it over with.

I KNEW that Napster would get us into trouble!

It was probably all those free programs I downloaded from C-Net! :eek:

See, don't you feel better now that you've admitted it?

I feel better now that I got to the bottom of it. I called the number they left on my voice mail just now (BTW the call originated from 052312293, a foreign no. if I ever saw one). The man who answered was also East Indian and claimed that I had taken out a loan from some outfit called Advanced Payday Plus back in August, never repaid it, and to avoid legal action, I could send them $310.00 - what a deal! Needless to say, I had never taken out a loan of any sort. I got what he claimed was the name of his agency, and when I asked what HIS name was, he said "John Smith." :lol:

I had a good laugh, and then informed him that it is illegal for a collection agency to call a person at their place of work, and his outfit better never ever do that again, or they'd be in serious trouble. John Smith hung up on me - just when I was beginning to enjoy our conversation, too.

I will look up who to report this outfit to, but the scammers probably change their name and phone numbers every couple of weeks. It's bad enough that all our help desk jobs have been outsourced to India - now they seem to be taking over our phone/internet scams, too. :eyebrow:

Lucky you.
I don't know if it's illegal here, or something I just failed to learn.

Ah, wait. I think the calls I got at work were on my mobile.
Terrifying at the time (and real as opposed to scams) but I only have two debts now and both are regulary paid so no nastiness. That and the drugs which helped me face them have changed my life.

I would call my phone carrier, if I were you. It might be one of those numbers where you get charged $310.00 just for the call.