For about five years now, I’ve gone racing to pick up the phone only to find that the person on the other end has evil intentions. They claim to represent the “Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire” or the “Professional Police Officers Association of New Hampshire,” both in need of money – just give us your credit card number please, and we will see that we clean out your bank account and perhaps steal your identity. These people, if you talk with them at all, will not take “no” for an answer. They try to guilt you into giving them money.
The last time I checked, my property taxes were paying the salaries of the police and firefighters. I can’t imagine any reason why they would need / want to collect extra money. That fact is never explained. After all, they are not charitable organizations and even if they were, I prefer to pick my own charities. Often, the caller wants to sell you tickets for a concert. If you say that you don’t like the group, well, they will take your money as a “donation.” No need to worry about the police or firemen not helping you, in time of crisis. True professionals respond to an emergency and they are not going to look up your name in a little book to see if you’ve given extra money to them. In fact, the only word for those calling you is “scammers.”
Just in the past week or so, I have come across a number of “new” scams. One, yesterday, was a suspicious-looking e-mail from UPS which said that a package could not be delivered due to a “felonious address.” The “UPS Team” asked that you click on the address label to correct it. If I had clicked on the attachment, I would have downloaded a malicious “exe” file into my hard drive. Always be cautious in opening attachments. Not all spam mail gets filtered out.
I am not letting scammers waste a minute of my time. I just hang up, and I suggest you do the same. What will they think of next?
That’s the view from here.
Pat
