I work in the call center industry here in the DR.
The amount of phone scams targeting Americans is ridiculous.
- Thread starter Mack
- Start date
Tough prisons in the DR?
I work in the call center industry here in the DR.
The amount of phone scams targeting Americans is ridiculous.
There are plenty of Youtube videos showing hackers stringing these scammers along for days. Most of the scammers are quite stupid and these pitches are far from convincing. Unbelievable there are people that fall for these scams, and unfortunate. Most older folks lived their lives in more trusting times.
Maybe even help in recognizing/preventing scams for some... It is unreal the amount of calls my elderly mother receives back in the US. I truly see how some elderly could fall prey to some of them. Some are lonely and just looking for someone who will talk/listen to them. So for many of us we see/hear the scam at hello, some don't.
The call center industry both here and in Mexico is full of deportees. Most of them paid
their debt to which ever country they were deported from and just want to get on with
their lives, however, some of them hold a lot of resentment towards the US and won't think
twice about scamming us. Of course some of them would rather lie, cheat and steal
than to put in a honest day's work.... Sound familiar?
The most common phone scam is called the "grand ma scam" mostly performed
by deportees. They basically do some fishing using various bits of information that
are available on the internet or they purchase it from other scammers.
Call goes something like this " Granda ma, its Timmy, I'm in (pick a city USA) jail.
I was involved in an auto accident and I'm in big trouble, will you please help me"
Obviously they are betting on this person being old, somewhat naive about the
US jail/ legal system or worse.. really scared something terrible is in store for poor little
Timmy.
Some of you may think this sounds too far fetched, no way are people going to fall
for such a thing. Well unfortunately they do. Here in Santiago I've heard some of these
rat shack sweat shops were making as much as 50k in a week scamming old folks.
Another, newer scam is a little more sophisticated. May involve using a pre-programmed
dialer/ server which displays your local area code when they call. You hear a recording that
says "you have a collect call from the ________ county jail "
then you hear "Its (name of your relative) please accept my call"
If the person who answered the call is not aware its a scam, they press 1 and the billing
rate starts. You may be on hold for X amount of minutes before you realize somethings
not adding up. Maybe 3 or 4 minutes at a really high rate. Not enough money for you
to go to war over, however, if the scammers hook enough press 1's in a day, it was worth it.
Then there are the one's who are really sophisticated who call and say
" Good morning Mr. Johnson, I'm Mr. _____ calling from (name of your bank)
there's been a security breach and your account was hacked. I am going to
send you an email now and I'll need you to fill out some information (name, passwords,
security questions, ect) and email it back to me as soon as possible. By chance, are
you sitting in front of your computer right now?"
The reason I know so much about some of the scams in the call center industry is people
working here in the DR know who is who and who is involved in what. A lot of these call center agents move from center, to center, to center, to center, to center. Usually just staying long enough to qualify for their 90 day severance then they do whatever it takes to get fired, then
move on to the next call center and repeat the process.
their debt to which ever country they were deported from and just want to get on with
their lives, however, some of them hold a lot of resentment towards the US and won't think
twice about scamming us. Of course some of them would rather lie, cheat and steal
than to put in a honest day's work.... Sound familiar?
The most common phone scam is called the "grand ma scam" mostly performed
by deportees. They basically do some fishing using various bits of information that
are available on the internet or they purchase it from other scammers.
Call goes something like this " Granda ma, its Timmy, I'm in (pick a city USA) jail.
I was involved in an auto accident and I'm in big trouble, will you please help me"
Obviously they are betting on this person being old, somewhat naive about the
US jail/ legal system or worse.. really scared something terrible is in store for poor little
Timmy.
Some of you may think this sounds too far fetched, no way are people going to fall
for such a thing. Well unfortunately they do. Here in Santiago I've heard some of these
rat shack sweat shops were making as much as 50k in a week scamming old folks.
Another, newer scam is a little more sophisticated. May involve using a pre-programmed
dialer/ server which displays your local area code when they call. You hear a recording that
says "you have a collect call from the ________ county jail "
then you hear "Its (name of your relative) please accept my call"
If the person who answered the call is not aware its a scam, they press 1 and the billing
rate starts. You may be on hold for X amount of minutes before you realize somethings
not adding up. Maybe 3 or 4 minutes at a really high rate. Not enough money for you
to go to war over, however, if the scammers hook enough press 1's in a day, it was worth it.
Then there are the one's who are really sophisticated who call and say
" Good morning Mr. Johnson, I'm Mr. _____ calling from (name of your bank)
there's been a security breach and your account was hacked. I am going to
send you an email now and I'll need you to fill out some information (name, passwords,
security questions, ect) and email it back to me as soon as possible. By chance, are
you sitting in front of your computer right now?"
The reason I know so much about some of the scams in the call center industry is people
working here in the DR know who is who and who is involved in what. A lot of these call center agents move from center, to center, to center, to center, to center. Usually just staying long enough to qualify for their 90 day severance then they do whatever it takes to get fired, then
move on to the next call center and repeat the process.
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Here's a good look at what prison is like on the inside here in DR.
At 0:35 its gets real interesting> Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU5vpPr0RyQ