Should Scamming People Out Of Their Money Be Considered Illegal?

[HeIsRisen2018]

My mother and I were literally just discussing this so that's the reason I'm asking this question. I assume that you already know what I'm talking about. The people who call you to say that you're being arrested like the recent phone scam, (police never hand out warrants over the phone) or say that you won a free vacation, or the fake viruses that pop up all over the internet. The sad and unfortunate fact is that and according to my mother, none of this is and cording tally considered illegal and for the life of me I can't figure out why. If somebody lies about having cancer and uses the money that they have collected to go on a Disney vacation, then that person will definitely find themselves in the back of a policecar. So what's the difference? In both cases it's considered to be dishonest and fraud and taking advantage of people and their money.

 

[JohnDB]

The internet scams are done out of Nigeria. That's not a location that American police can have authority.

Even phone scams can be done by computer today outside of the USA. I have an internet phone number myself that can ring my cell phone. It's not hard or even difficult.
And that's why it's not actionable by police. It's not legal...just no one can arrest and put them in jail.

 

[Knotical]

Not all internet scams are done out of Nigeria, though many are. I have seen some actually done out of England. I am curious where the "microsoft" calls are coming from. You know the ones where they call from a private number and tell you they received a report from your computer that someone went to a questionable site, then they try to "help" you in some way after you pay them a bunch of money.

 

[Michael74]

I've received a number of calls from people with Indian accents. They want me to give them control of my computer. Yeah, right.

 

[HeIsRisen2018]

The internet scams are done out of Nigeria. That's not a location that American police can have authority.

Even phone scams can be done by computer today outside of the USA. I have an internet phone number myself that can ring my cell phone. It's not hard or even difficult.
And that's why it's not actionable by police. It's not legal...just no one can arrest and put them in jail.

You know you actually made a good point there. Since I do believe that the police are only authorized to arrest anyone if it is in their jurisdiction. This is off topic a bit but I got a funny story about cellphones since you mentioned yours. I was sitting in church one time and the pastor's cellphone went off. Lol! (this was before I went to a church that actually encourages cellphones with using a Bible app on them and tweeting responses to questions they asked) And so instead of getting all embarrassed that he forgot to turn it off, he told us that it was the Lord calling us as a reminder to turn all of our cellphones off.

 

[Pizza]

Well, it should be but laws don't really stop much of anything from happening.

Here is my rule: No phone call, email or popup window on my computer is to be trusted. If I get ANYTHING that I think is legitimate, I simply hang up (if it came as a phone call) and call my bank or who ever. THAT WAY, I know I am actually talking to who they claim they are.

Pretty simple, really - trust no one, no phone call, email or popup window.

 

[HeIsRisen2018]

Well, it should be but laws don't really stop much of anything from happening.

Here is my rule: No phone call, email or popup window on my computer is to be trusted. If I get ANYTHING that I think is legitimate, I simply hang up (if it came as a phone call) and call my bank or who ever. THAT WAY, I know I am actually talking to who they claim they are.

Pretty simple, really - trust no one, no phone call, email or popup window.

True, I mean the rule around our house is we don't answer anything from any callers we don't know since we know that if it's important that they'll leave a message on the answering machine, (sometimes they do even if it isn't important) but I disagree with laws stopping things from happening. That's why we have the police department. They're not always trustworthy but they get the job done. (for the most part)

 

[Corn Pop]

Scamming is fraud. But I don't think there is a solution to anything.

 

[Knotical]

Scamming is fraud. But I don't think there is a solution to anything.

The only thing we can do other than try to find them and bring them to justice is to waste their time. When you get them on the phone and don't mind taking some time to waste their's go ahead and do so.

There are actually whole websites dedicated to this kind of thing.

 

[Michael74]

They did a pretty good job of slowing down spam email. They could do the same for phone calls if they wanted to, using similar methods. Just don't send through any calls from known spam numbers, the way ISPs stopped sending spam email from known spam addresses. There is no good reason for phone companies to route thousands of calls from Indian spam call centers to US customers.

 

[Corn Pop]

The only thing we can do other than try to find them and bring them to justice is to waste their time. When you get them on the phone and don't mind taking some time to waste their's go ahead and do so.

There are actually whole websites dedicated to this kind of thing.

There is an easy solution to phone scams, just don't answer any unknown number that comes up, if its important they will leave a message. And your not going to call back England or Africa.

 

[Michael74]

That limits the usefulness of phones. Better to get rid of the spam.

 

[Corn Pop]

I never answer numbers that come up private. I will respect there privacy as they don't want me to know who they are. Lol.

 

[WIP]

Well, it should be but laws don't really stop much of anything from happening.

Here is my rule: No phone call, email or popup window on my computer is to be trusted. If I get ANYTHING that I think is legitimate, I simply hang up (if it came as a phone call) and call my bank or who ever. THAT WAY, I know I am actually talking to who they claim they are.

Pretty simple, really - trust no one, no phone call, email or popup window.

I preach this to my wife often. I have a Cabelas credit card and one day I got a text on my phone telling me that a charge was determined to be suspicious and that I could verify it by replying to the text. I never reply or respond to anything in email or text coming from any company without first verifying its legitimacy.

So, I looked up the number to call Cabelas to inquire about it. Since I am calling them I know it is them that I am talking to. Turned out it was actually sent by them and I verified that it was fraudulent so they closed my account and issued a new card and we got it cleared up.

There have been other times when I've done similar to find out that the message itself was fraudulent and that the company in question did not send it to me.

I will never provide personal information over the phone or by email or text unless I know who I am giving it to and why and that I am in agreement with the reason and that includes companies and charitable organizations. When they call and ask me to make a pledge I tell them to send me the information via US mail and I will have a look and decided what I'm going to do. The reason is that if I agree to give a pledge I then must provide personal information to them over the phone and I have not had opportunity to contact them myself to offer the pledge. Funny thing is, I have yet to actually get the information via US mail. Hmmm.

Here's a related funny story. Aside from my Cabelas credit card, which I use at no expense, I believe using cards to make purchases on credit is foolish at best. Therefore, whenever I get the letters in the mail offering me credit cards, I don't even open the envelope but just trash it. One day, my bank decided to send out new debit/credit cards because they changed the carrier from Visa to MasterCard. When the letter came in the mail, I saw MasterCard on the label so I trashed it, not realizing that it was my new bank card. The next time I tried to use my Visa bank card to withdraw cash from an ATM it was denied. Ended up costing me $5.00 to obtain a copy of my new MasterCard that I hadn't even used yet.

 

[WIP]

There is an easy solution to phone scams, just don't answer any unknown number that comes up, if its important they will leave a message. And your not going to call back England or Africa.

Whenever I get a call from a number I don't recognize I will answer but when I find out they are looking for something from me or trying to sell something to me (spam or junk calls) I kindly say good bye and then add their number to my blocked numbers list.

 

[WIP]

The only thing we can do other than try to find them and bring them to justice is to waste their time. When you get them on the phone and don't mind taking some time to waste their's go ahead and do so.

There are actually whole websites dedicated to this kind of thing.

I've often wished there was some way to reply to spam email or call back to phone spammers and then set up an automated repetitious call to totally disable the number or email address. That's probably why they set them up to not be able to call back.

 

[JohnDB]

What is also prudent is having multiple bank accounts at different banks. (And debit cards to go with)

Because if someone happens to hack your debit card at one bank it can take a month to get your money back. But in the meantime you still need to pay rent, buy gas, and get groceries. Having at least some of your money will help you survive until your money is returned from fraudulent charges.

 

[for_his_glory]

I never entered your contest, no relative died and left me a fortune, my car has no warranty so it's not running out, my computer is working fine, the Fraternal Order of Police do not soliciate over the phone..............just to name a few I get. Never give out personal information and if it sounds to good to be true, then it isn't.

 

[Edisons Wolf]

My mother and I were literally just discussing this so that's the reason I'm asking this question. I assume that you already know what I'm talking about. The people who call you to say that you're being arrested like the recent phone scam, (police never hand out warrants over the phone) or say that you won a free vacation, or the fake viruses that pop up all over the internet. The sad and unfortunate fact is that and according to my mother, none of this is and cording tally considered illegal and for the life of me I can't figure out why. If somebody lies about having cancer and uses the money that they have collected to go on a Disney vacation, then that person will definitely find themselves in the back of a policecar. So what's the difference? In both cases it's considered to be dishonest and fraud and taking advantage of people and their money.

There's a scam that has run for years and Google knows this. A company calls a business owner and tells them their Google business listing is set to expire! If they don't activate a renewal now!
There's actually no cost for a Google business listing unless you add on a lot of their extras. Google knows about this scam but claim there's nothing they can do. Please! They're in bed with the federal government! They just don't care.

If you want to stop these type calls from happening, hit the prompt that they give you in their recording when you pick up the phone that says you can speak with a live person. Then, cuss them up a storm! Seriously. Every name you can think of and the worst name the better.
They put you on a list then that says you're vulgar. Do not call!
Whereas American law says when you tell those type companies, "put me on a do not call list", they have to oblige. If they call you again, go to the government website, do not call list, it's in any search engine, and file a complaint.
IF, and it is a big if, the government decides to prosecute they fine that company that was accused of violating the customer request. They fine the company for every complaint received in that way. Which can add to big bucks.

 

[HeIsRisen2018]

There's a scam that has run for years and Google knows this. A company calls a business owner and tells them their Google business listing is set to expire! If they don't activate a renewal now!
There's actually no cost for a Google business listing unless you add on a lot of their extras. Google knows about this scam but claim there's nothing they can do. Please! They're in bed with the federal government! They just don't care.

If you want to stop these type calls from happening, hit the prompt that they give you in their recording when you pick up the phone that says you can speak with a live person. Then, cuss them up a storm! Seriously. Every name you can think of and the worst name the better.
They put you on a list then that says you're vulgar. Do not call!
Whereas American law says when you tell those type companies, "put me on a do not call list", they have to oblige. If they call you again, go to the government website, do not call list, it's in any search engine, and file a complaint.
IF, and it is a big if, the government decides to prosecute they fine that company that was accused of violating the customer request. They fine the company for every complaint received in that way. Which can add to big bucks.

Actually we just decided to change our phone number.