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Maybe the spring brings scammers out or maybe it just happened to be “my turn”? Fabrics.net has received many calls and many “opportunities” from scammers and those who prefer fraud to honest work throughout the almost 20 years we have been doing business on the internet. We thought that the cashier’s check we received from Nigeria was awful and luckily we didn’t loose any money, just time. Nigeria Scam Article from 2000.
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Then yesterday I received a phone call that topped the Nigeria scam. We have caller ID and the call didn’t come up with an 800 number nor was it listed as a blocked call. When I answered the phone, the caller asked for me by name. I then was told that it was Global calling to let us know that a Red Flag Alert had been received on our Merchant Account. This kind of alert is always scary so I asked what the alert was concerning. The caller asked me to get out my Merchant Account information so when he gave me the information I could follow along. For some reason I started getting a bad feeling about this phone call. When the caller asked who our Merchant Account Processor was I knew that the call was a hoax. He then told me that our Merchant Account Processor caused the red flag warning because “they were charging us too much” I asked again who he was and what he wanted and let him know that I was getting ready to report him to the Better Business Bureau. The caller was a salesman who was trying to get us to switch to his company for credit card processing. There was no red flag alert on our Merchant Account or any account.
Merchant Account Processors receive a percentage of every credit card sales we process so it is a lucerative business. We receive about one of these sales calls per week and I usually just tell them no. This salesman got me to listen and was quite pleased with himself! He said he had only been working for Global for 3 weeks and his new sales pitch was already working quite well because the businesses he has called are talking to him not just saying no and hanging up. I am posting my experience in the hope that others won’t waste their time on sales people like this caller!
This article regarding another scam/hoax/fraud has several ways to laugh at the scammer’s expense: Follow Up and Recommendations to Deal with the Microsoft Tech …
http://www.windowsobserver.com3/13/13
About 10 days ago I shared with you a story about a friend’s encounter with a popular phone scam that includes a caller claiming to be from Microsoft. The intent of the phone scam call is to either gain access to your computer …
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced winners in their contest to find ways to stop robocalls:FTC contest finds ways to stop pesky robocalls – Nation & World – The Seattle Times
Caller-ID spoofing technology has allowed shady telemarketing services to illegally blast millions of people with automated calls, which are often scams.
I hope my experience saves someone from falling for this scam!
Enjoy!
Judith
