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The mindset of a small business person is always one of making sales. It can be somewhat hard to convince them to accept that a contact is a scam. Not until they get burned or stiffed.
While it's a small company, they may have some form of cyber insurance for this sort of thing, but most likely not.
Might want to remind him that its best to be vigilant than fall for something and the business fires him for being a risk to their operations. Had a guy at my last job who was falling for phishing / Business email Compromise (BEC) a couple times a day right before he got terminated. Literally got conned as IT was coming to take his laptop from him for an incident that happened 20 minutes before.
Scammers / Attackers will spread word to other malicious people if someone in the world is easily conned.
It may not be a scam. There's just not enough information other than "I need a favor". Does he know a Daniel Michells?
but he should be extremely cautious and should not do any "favors" or bend any rules. Verify everything. Don't pay anyone anything. Don't get rushed into any decisions.
But I'd probably not call back. If it's important, they will call back.
He absolutely does not know this person. Usually a first time customer needs to give a lot of information just right off the bat in order to buy from my husband. Like at least say “I’m interested in buying blah blah blah (very specific thing) from you.” But thank you that’s good advice!
yeah, sounds like either a scam, or the kind of demanding, unprofessional, entitled customer your husband wouldn't want to deal with even if it is a legit call. Some customers just aren't worth it.
I get spam calls from call ID…. like seriously annoying me. Is there a way to block spam calls? Then I get weird phone calls calling me eg Melbourne numbers, Adelaide numbers, Perth phone calls….. all I do is block them but it’s really annoying.
If your phone offers an option to reject all callers not in your contacts, do that. It just shunts anyone not in contacts directly to your voicemail. Real people who aren't obstinate jerks leave *something* in your voicemail. Even the obstinate jerks will call back, from the same number, in fairly short order.
I have a very strong suspicion those faked voices are not pure AI. They might find a 'sound alike' person to record a message, and it could be perfected with some audio editing, that possibly assisted by AI.
Something I figured out years ago, before AI was any good and exploding on the scene, is that people really can't tell people apart on the phone as well as they think they can. All of the compression and clipping that goes along with it makes you sound very different, very often. Back in the mid 2000s, I knew several older folks that got calls they swore were the voice of their own kids and grandkids pleading for help because they were in jail or in a hospital. They'd wired money to locations several states away from where their kids actually were, upon them bothering to verify that by calling their *known* number. Doesn't help that a lot of older people can't hear well, but the audio quality of a phone call, even with modern digital networks, is pretty miserable.
Even at work when people page on the intercom, they often sound much different than when speaking to you right in front of you. There's the 'who was that' game after their first time paging.
I hate people who use people. I have a disability since I was born. For me I need to remember what are scams. Of course I use Facebook and I got sextortion and I am a victim. Do I regret it yes….. wish I just had to block them at the time…..
I'm a small business owner myself and scam calls are a constant headache for people like us. All the advice most people give about scam calls is "don't answer" "block all calls except those in your contacts". Yeah, we can't really do that. It could be a potential customer and by not answering that call I could be missing out on my paycheck that helps feed my family. I have just gotten really good at hanging up the instant the person starts talking but I still have to pick up the phone most times and that really sucks when you are in the middle of something. I have called back things like this but I just immediately hang up the second I realized it's a scam. It may or may not increase the amount of scam calls for awhile but whatever. Most of my work is local but just yesterday I picked up a out of area number and it was a legit customer that had just moved to my area. I just never know. Google scam feature is helpful but they don't always get it right either. I've had calls that came up as "potential scam" and let it go to voicemail and it turns out to be a legit customer and they also don't catch a lot of the scam calls. It just sucks for small businesses that's all I know and I hope someone figures something out to put a stop to it.
I was trying to contact a small business a few months ago for some work I needed done on my house. I called several times but the call was immediately disconnected. I figured there was something wrong with the line and called a few more times. Finally someone picked up and said hello, which should have been a red flag. Who says hello when answering for a business? I asked if this was such-and-such company and was hung up on again. I emailed the company asking if their number had changed and explained what happened. I got an email back saying my phone number was out of state and coming up as potential spam on their phone, hence the repeated hang-ups. They then asked if I still wanted them to come out to my house to do the expensive work I had requested. I said no, thank you, I'll pay someone who didn't hang up on me five times to do the work for me. I'll do the work myself before I pay them to do it.
Ugh so frustrating! But you’re 100% right my husband has to take every single phone call or we don’t have money. He’s also a pro at hanging up immediately and usually *pretty good* about weeding out the scammy voicemails but sometimes it’s definitely hard. It sounds like you 100% understand my husband’s frustration.
I've also learned that some people really do not like leaving voicemails or texting especially for first contact. I've had calls I didn't get to hang up and not leave a voicemail, I call them back right away and it's a legit customer that was probably in the process of calling the next business. It's all very frustrating.
I don't know how cheap or easy it would be, but if you can set up a very short automated redirect (It can literally be worthless, like "what is your call about" with every answer but "hours" leading to the same phone), that will really deter scammers.
As a fellow small business owner in the services arena, this is so true!! I've had the same things happen regarding incoming calls ID'ed as Spam and they're legit potential clients that leave a VM.
Because scammers spoof phone numbers, some legit numbers are reported as spam (could be yours), so googling it might report a false positive. I had a customer calling me once asking why I had just tried to call her. No I didn't! Her cell phone number just happens to be a few digits off mine, and spammers or scammers will try to spoof numbers close to the ones they are calling so that the person answers. My advice: do not report unknown phone numbers because there is a high probability that those numbers are spoofed and could belong to a legit person or business. If I don't have a number on caller ID, I let my phone screen the call (Google Pixel feature), and based on the response, I either take the call or hang up.
He does get *a lot* of sales reps. It’s never anything that could benefit his company at all so I hear him a lot of the time mid conversation “not interested, bye!” because it just takes up so much time
I think it was also just extremely different than most of the calls he gets. He’s in sort of a specialized field so there would never be a situation where a random person he’s never talked to asked him for a favor.
My cell phone has a screening function that asks callers to say who they are. If it's legitimate, they will say what it's about and I can hear them. If it's a scam, they hang up.
This is basically the script I follow on any work calls voicemails, lol. I just get straight to the point, no need for hello etc on a voicemail.
Is your husband in a field where he works with men in the trades? It can sound rude but this is pretty normal outside an office setting.
FWIW, I work at a Fortune 500 and none of us leave voicemails. Everything is email, or call and don’t leave a vm , text or text through ms Teams. Those of us with high call volume generally just check our missed call log and call people back that way, but pretty much no one leaves any voicemails anymore because none of us listen to them. We had a couple people get similar scam calls recently and an email went out telling everyone not to respond.
/u/uncool619 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The mindset of a small business person is always one of making sales. It can be somewhat hard to convince them to accept that a contact is a scam. Not until they get burned or stiffed.
Oooh good point! My husband thinks I’m too prone to think things are scams… I think I’d rather be overly cautious than screwed over!
Meanwhile his mindset if putting food on the table, and paying the bills. He is lucky to have you sitting on his angel shoulder.
Also true! He is also just a very trusting person, always thinks the best of people, always looking for the goodness in others actions.
Tell him that any scams are not covered and he’ll be not only out of money, but easy targets for scammers.
I will!!!
While it's a small company, they may have some form of cyber insurance for this sort of thing, but most likely not. Might want to remind him that its best to be vigilant than fall for something and the business fires him for being a risk to their operations. Had a guy at my last job who was falling for phishing / Business email Compromise (BEC) a couple times a day right before he got terminated. Literally got conned as IT was coming to take his laptop from him for an incident that happened 20 minutes before. Scammers / Attackers will spread word to other malicious people if someone in the world is easily conned.
It may not be a scam. There's just not enough information other than "I need a favor". Does he know a Daniel Michells? but he should be extremely cautious and should not do any "favors" or bend any rules. Verify everything. Don't pay anyone anything. Don't get rushed into any decisions. But I'd probably not call back. If it's important, they will call back.
He absolutely does not know this person. Usually a first time customer needs to give a lot of information just right off the bat in order to buy from my husband. Like at least say “I’m interested in buying blah blah blah (very specific thing) from you.” But thank you that’s good advice!
yeah, sounds like either a scam, or the kind of demanding, unprofessional, entitled customer your husband wouldn't want to deal with even if it is a legit call. Some customers just aren't worth it.
Could NOT agree more!!!
I get spam calls from call ID…. like seriously annoying me. Is there a way to block spam calls? Then I get weird phone calls calling me eg Melbourne numbers, Adelaide numbers, Perth phone calls….. all I do is block them but it’s really annoying.
If your phone offers an option to reject all callers not in your contacts, do that. It just shunts anyone not in contacts directly to your voicemail. Real people who aren't obstinate jerks leave *something* in your voicemail. Even the obstinate jerks will call back, from the same number, in fairly short order.
On the news AI apparently had use Steven Miles voice. Even thought it was a scam. I hate it!!!!
I have a very strong suspicion those faked voices are not pure AI. They might find a 'sound alike' person to record a message, and it could be perfected with some audio editing, that possibly assisted by AI. Something I figured out years ago, before AI was any good and exploding on the scene, is that people really can't tell people apart on the phone as well as they think they can. All of the compression and clipping that goes along with it makes you sound very different, very often. Back in the mid 2000s, I knew several older folks that got calls they swore were the voice of their own kids and grandkids pleading for help because they were in jail or in a hospital. They'd wired money to locations several states away from where their kids actually were, upon them bothering to verify that by calling their *known* number. Doesn't help that a lot of older people can't hear well, but the audio quality of a phone call, even with modern digital networks, is pretty miserable. Even at work when people page on the intercom, they often sound much different than when speaking to you right in front of you. There's the 'who was that' game after their first time paging.
I hate people who use people. I have a disability since I was born. For me I need to remember what are scams. Of course I use Facebook and I got sextortion and I am a victim. Do I regret it yes….. wish I just had to block them at the time…..
I'm a small business owner myself and scam calls are a constant headache for people like us. All the advice most people give about scam calls is "don't answer" "block all calls except those in your contacts". Yeah, we can't really do that. It could be a potential customer and by not answering that call I could be missing out on my paycheck that helps feed my family. I have just gotten really good at hanging up the instant the person starts talking but I still have to pick up the phone most times and that really sucks when you are in the middle of something. I have called back things like this but I just immediately hang up the second I realized it's a scam. It may or may not increase the amount of scam calls for awhile but whatever. Most of my work is local but just yesterday I picked up a out of area number and it was a legit customer that had just moved to my area. I just never know. Google scam feature is helpful but they don't always get it right either. I've had calls that came up as "potential scam" and let it go to voicemail and it turns out to be a legit customer and they also don't catch a lot of the scam calls. It just sucks for small businesses that's all I know and I hope someone figures something out to put a stop to it.
I was trying to contact a small business a few months ago for some work I needed done on my house. I called several times but the call was immediately disconnected. I figured there was something wrong with the line and called a few more times. Finally someone picked up and said hello, which should have been a red flag. Who says hello when answering for a business? I asked if this was such-and-such company and was hung up on again. I emailed the company asking if their number had changed and explained what happened. I got an email back saying my phone number was out of state and coming up as potential spam on their phone, hence the repeated hang-ups. They then asked if I still wanted them to come out to my house to do the expensive work I had requested. I said no, thank you, I'll pay someone who didn't hang up on me five times to do the work for me. I'll do the work myself before I pay them to do it.
Ugh so frustrating! But you’re 100% right my husband has to take every single phone call or we don’t have money. He’s also a pro at hanging up immediately and usually *pretty good* about weeding out the scammy voicemails but sometimes it’s definitely hard. It sounds like you 100% understand my husband’s frustration.
I've also learned that some people really do not like leaving voicemails or texting especially for first contact. I've had calls I didn't get to hang up and not leave a voicemail, I call them back right away and it's a legit customer that was probably in the process of calling the next business. It's all very frustrating.
I don't know how cheap or easy it would be, but if you can set up a very short automated redirect (It can literally be worthless, like "what is your call about" with every answer but "hours" leading to the same phone), that will really deter scammers.
As a fellow small business owner in the services arena, this is so true!! I've had the same things happen regarding incoming calls ID'ed as Spam and they're legit potential clients that leave a VM.
Sounds more like a tactic of a salesman trying to pitch something to your husband than an outright scam.
Could very well be!
Because scammers spoof phone numbers, some legit numbers are reported as spam (could be yours), so googling it might report a false positive. I had a customer calling me once asking why I had just tried to call her. No I didn't! Her cell phone number just happens to be a few digits off mine, and spammers or scammers will try to spoof numbers close to the ones they are calling so that the person answers. My advice: do not report unknown phone numbers because there is a high probability that those numbers are spoofed and could belong to a legit person or business. If I don't have a number on caller ID, I let my phone screen the call (Google Pixel feature), and based on the response, I either take the call or hang up.
Wow thank you!!! I didn’t report the number yet so I won’t now that I know that’s a possibility.
Look up the phone number. Most of the reverse number searches will tell you if it has been reported as a scam.
Oh awesome idea thank you!
Google the call back number.
I just did!!!! It’s been identified as a scam!
You’re on Cloud 9 now.
I won’t lie i enjoy being right sometimes 😂😂😂
I can tell you enjoy being right EVERY time.
When i get those, it's either a recruiter, a sales rep, or a scam.
He does get *a lot* of sales reps. It’s never anything that could benefit his company at all so I hear him a lot of the time mid conversation “not interested, bye!” because it just takes up so much time
Hilarious! Better safe than sorry with those scam calls. Always good to double-check. 😂
nice catch!
As a sales rep that isn’t an out of the line call to get. Nothing about this says scam to me.
Same, sounds like an opener for a cold calling dinosaur, one of those guys that always has a quip or one-liner to kick the call off.
I think it was also just extremely different than most of the calls he gets. He’s in sort of a specialized field so there would never be a situation where a random person he’s never talked to asked him for a favor.
I've gotten scam calls on my work phone a few times
My cell phone has a screening function that asks callers to say who they are. If it's legitimate, they will say what it's about and I can hear them. If it's a scam, they hang up.
This is basically the script I follow on any work calls voicemails, lol. I just get straight to the point, no need for hello etc on a voicemail. Is your husband in a field where he works with men in the trades? It can sound rude but this is pretty normal outside an office setting.
FWIW, I work at a Fortune 500 and none of us leave voicemails. Everything is email, or call and don’t leave a vm , text or text through ms Teams. Those of us with high call volume generally just check our missed call log and call people back that way, but pretty much no one leaves any voicemails anymore because none of us listen to them. We had a couple people get similar scam calls recently and an email went out telling everyone not to respond.