"Tis the season for scam artists!

[Katie G]

I've had three, yes, three toner scam calls this week.  I haven't had one in months, but this week they all seem to be coming out of the woodwork.  Normally, I simply say "no thank you" (no matter what the spiel is), wish them a good day and hang up.  But today, I finally lost my patience.

Caller: Yes, may I speak to the person in charge of your printer supplies?

(I SO wanted to do the famous "Oh, thank God you called!  Fifi is trapped in the machine!" bit, but I knew I couldn't pull it off so, instead I opted for....)

Me:  No. (in the flattest, deadest voice I can muster)

Caller:  I just need the serial number of your machine.

Me:  No. 

Caller:  We have a special offer...

Me:  No.

At this point, I'm starting to snicker.  Because, really, this has been a scam now for decades!  He circled back to asking for the person in charge of supplies and I giggled back, "No." 

I guess he got really irritated because he hung up. 

Okay, send me to the deepest circles of Admin Hell, but hey, I needed to have some fun on a Friday.....

 

[pmarkavage]

Hi Katie!  I should have used that when it has happened to me.

They called once and said "I need you to go to the printer and read me the model number off the printer."  So I said, "who is this again?" 

"Oh, this is your supply company for the printers."

"Oh, okay.  Please give me your name and phone number so I can call you back about this at a later time."

click ....

[msmarieh]

I know, it's so ridiculous. It's hard for me to imagine anyone falling for their scams, but of course I'm sure some do. My favorite is the "we just had a cancelled order in your area, but we can bring them to you really cheap.".

And yes, the ones where they ask for my serial number. If you're my serving company, you should already have it in your files.

[officepa]

Coming into this a bit late but love Katie G's response.

Several times a day we have these calls and they usually ask for the boss  by first name as if they are a long lost friend.  When you ask what it is in connection with they start their sales talk about how they recently spoke to them and are now just doing a follow up call.  But by this time you are in a conversation with them, of sorts, so quite difficult to get them off the phone.

I just love Katie G's direct 'no'.  Well, after all, they asked if they can speak to 'a.n other' and you have simply said 'no' and then wait for their response, you have answered their question. I will put this into practice next time it happens.

Yes, I know they are only doing their job but for the few that come across as agressive in their sales pitch, they deserve no less.  Others i may be kinder to.  It is so obvious that some of them are following a script and obviously the response of 'no' is not on there.

If they were up front at the start and perhaps say something along the lines of 'i am doing a survey.......' or similar, I may have more sympathy with but when they treat you as if you are daft and think they can trick you into you putting their call through to the boss, that is most annoying.

[forfrom]

Certainly the season for some resourceful cold callers too.  In the last two weeks I have had urgent calls for my boss (who they ask for by first name, always a giveaway as noone is that informal here!) from the 'Assistant to Sir Trevor MacDonald' (?), the head of the Department of Transport who couldn't give me a number because they were 'shooting out of the office in five mins' and the 'Cabinet Office' = "It is urgent I speak to boss this decision must be made total with fail". Me: "He's on holiday". 'Cabinet Office': "I'll call back another time".

At least I hope they were cold callers....

[msmarieh]

LOL Wow... I never have such impressive sounding scammers.