The Black Vault

Have you experienced the latest phone scam? An Indian calls you and says, "This is @#$@#$ from the government do not call list. Would you like to stop receiving spam?" And of course everyone says, "Yes." Then he says, "You will get a call in a few minutes and they will give you a number. I will call you back and you give me that number." Then he hangs up. A few minutes later you get an automated phone call from craigslist and they give you a numeric password. The Indian guy calls back and asks for that number.

How dumb can people be to fall for this. The government does not run the Do Not Call list and they will never call you to sign up. What's really going on is that these people sign you up for an account on craigslist and then sell things in your name. They scam people using your credentials. You'd think the government could stop this sort of thing or at least track these people down and bring them to justice. Useless government. Apparently, the criminals agree.

They're probably using the "forgotten password" function to get craigslist to call you, if you already have an account.

The best way to deal with this is something like the following. When the guy calls and says he works for the government DoNotCall list department say, "Oh, I know everyone over there but I don't recognize you. When did you start? Oh you must know Roger Daltrey. Who is your manager?" Just keep him talking as long as possible and just before he hangs up say, "Hey wait the call trace is almost complete and the cops will be right over." If only it worked that way in the real world. Be sure to ask what city in India he is in. If you do talk to the cops you can at least tell them that much. Of course your claim will never make it thru the State Department since our government thinks India is god.