Scams New and Old

Do you get calls offering to lower your interest rate on your credit card?  Once I asked for a live person and he immediately wanted to know my balance and my credit card number.  Like, Duh.  When I asked since he was calling about my credit card why didn't he already know the number, of course he hung up.

Lately I started getting calls from a person listed on my caller ID.  The first time, I answered, then I stopped but I noticed the call back number was only a few digits from mine, so one afternoon I called and left a message to quit calling me about credit card interest.  No luck.  I called again and left a message that I would start calling her.  I called a third time and she answered, said she'd heard my messages and had no idea how her number was used because she didn't work for a credit card company.  I still get calls from that number and sometimes from an out of state call that has the very same phone number.  So annoying.  You're wondering why I'm not on the do-not-call list.  I finally got around to registering after I got a weird call on my cell.

The call caller started by saying he was calling from the Treasury Department,  That got my attention.  Then he said I had been selected to receive a government grant of $8400 which I could use for anything except gambling and drugs and I would receive this grant in an hour by Western Union.  When I asked if he was from the government why did he sound like he was from a foreign country, he immediately hung up.  That must be a new scam because I've never heard it before, but it seemed eerie, like what did they want in return for this marvelous grant and who would fall for it?  I hope no one does and hopefully, now that I'm back on the do-not-call registry I won't get any more weird calls.

Stop by on Thursday for my #3 tip for widows/widowers.