Solicitors
There are many wonderful well meaning organizations in the world today. However among them are a number of hurtful, unscrupulous, advantage seekers.
Dealing with phone & door-to-door solicitations can be difficult. One doesn't want to be rude, but being that we are in a time where scams & attacks on personal safety is on the rise, you need to think of/for your self & protect yourself.
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the solicitors name |
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name of the solicitors organization |
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what it is they are selling or trying to accomplish by their calling upon you |
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a company phone for the solicitors organization (so you can check the phone directory, information and/or call to see if it is legitimate) |
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and if they have a form they
can leave or mail to you |
Let them know you might consider taking a
look at it and you will get back to them in your own time. If they are
the least bit hesitant with offering any of the above information, chances are
that they are not legitimate.
As far as phone solicitations are concerned, the best "Rule of Thumb" is to just hang-up if it is an unknown caller. Giving any kind of verbal response such as "yes" or "no" could be signing you up for participation with the solicitors scam, whether you want it or not!
By hanging up immediately you not only avoid becoming a statistic for another scam, but you are also doing the solicitor a favor by saving the solicitor a great deal of time, since you know you don't intend to buy into their pitch anyway. Now you have allowed them to move onto the next unsuspecting soul. But it isn't you!
As far as door to door solicitations are concerned, basically the same "Rule of Thumb" applies. Except in this case don't answer the door without some sort of identification. If you don't know who they are, you never know what their true intentions are going to be.
Should you choose to answer the door do so at your own risk but with caution & care. Also be sure not to give out any personal information such as name, age, etc. Again, you never know what their true intentions are even with this type of information.
Example:
We have a number of family members that are active or have been active in law enforcement. As much as they appreciate the donations their law enforcement groups raise (on behalf of legitimate charities), they will not donate over the phone even when the solicitor identifies themselves as a law enforcement organization.
Instead, what they do is ask the solicitor to mail a form representing the charity and cause to their mailing address. They then pursue giving the donation once they have reviewed the mailed form and followed up on checking out its legitimacy.
Phone Scams
Not all alerts are as severe as the messages try to convey, but awareness is worth your attention.
The following 2 links are good for checking out any possible "Scams" or "Hoax's" that may have been brought to your attention.
Internet ScamBusters is "The #1 publication on Internet Fraud"
Website: www.scambusters.org
or
Latest Hoax Information
Website: www.f-secure.com
We received the following alerts by e-mail from well meaning friends.
A phone service scam
I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying
himself as an AT&T Service technician who was conducting a test on telephone
lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine(9), zero(0), the
pound sign (#), and then hang up. Luckily, I was suspicious and refused.
Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#, you
give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which enables
them to place long distance calls billed to your home phone number.
I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local
jails/prisons. I have also verified this information with UCB Telecom,
Pacific Bell, MCI, Bell Atlantic and GTE. Please beware. DO NOT press 90#
for ANYONE. The GTE Security Department requested that I share this
information with EVERYONE I KNOW. PLEASE pass this on to everyone YOU know.
If you have mailing lists and/or newsletters from organizations you are
connected with, I encourage you to pass on this information to them.
After checking with Verizon they said it was true, so do not dial (9),
zero(0), the pound sign # and hang up for anyone.
For more information Click Here.
809 Area Code Scam
For update on this scam Click Here.
Andy
Rooney's tips for telemarketers
Three Little Words That Work !!
(1)The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..."
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of
hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more
time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you
know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently
completed its task.
These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.
(2) Do you ever get those annoying
phone calls with no one on the other end?
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records
the time of day when a person answers the phone.
This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales
person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to
immediately start hitting your # button
on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible.
This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of
their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any
longer!!!
(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads"
with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.
When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit
cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return
envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right?
It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive
them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents
before! the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why
not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little,
postage-paid return envelopes.
One
of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza
coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send
them their blank application back!
If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you
send them.
You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them
guessing! It still costs them 37 cents.
The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own
junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know
what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for
it...Twice!
Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is
cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase
postage costs again. You get the idea!
If enough people follow these tips, it will work —
I have been doing this for years, and I get very
little
junk mail anymore.