NEW SCAM + 5 Common Phone Scams to Watch Out For 

My all-time favorite is the one where the "IRS" calls you and demands you pay the taxes you owe via iTunes gift cards.

This is why I never answer the phone if I don't know who it is... If it's important, they'll leave a message.

Good job Joe. These scammers take advantage of the elders, i am 69 and few years they called me that they were going to turn off my electricity cause i was behind. You sure deserve a thumps up. You got it.

Remember to be extra careful when you are stressed or sick or running on empty. We all get thousands of scam calls but it only takes one to loose it all. Be safe people.

If you can, for starters...don't answer calls from ph numbers you don't recognize. Your friends /family will leave you voice mail or text you. Then block the numbers for any future calls. Do not answer any calls that show unknown # or no caller ID. Hope this helps.

I got a few of those “yes” scam calls. One time when I got the call he asked if I could hear him. Knowing it was a scam I immediately answered “NO” 😂😂. He then immediately hung up on me. 😂😂😂🎉🎉🎉👍👍👍

"Can you hear me okay?" "No, I'm stone deaf." Heard about this one years ago.

Thank you. My elderly parents get this junk all of the time. Its like they are targets. What a sick thing to do.

Also keep in mind the IRS will never ask you to go to a Target, 7-Eleven, Walgreens Etc to buy a card to send them payment. That makes no sense at all

Scammer: "can you hear me?" Me: Whaaaaat? Scammer: "can you hear me?" Me: Whaaaaat?

Too many scammers. They need to be prosecuted.

I love going along with these calls and trying not to say 'Yes' to any questions they ask. Great fun to be had. They actually get annoyed with me.

I'm so angry that people use others in this way!!!!! Thank you for spreading the knowledge, I needed this info!

Scammer: "can you hear me?" Me: "no"

EXCELLENT! Very helpful… thank-you!

I had the star code thing. I think mine was something along the lines of the “can only call once”. I told them, “well, tough luck my friend” and went back to playing my game.

Remember everyone, it is perfectly legal to NOT ANSWER YOUR PHONE when it rings! As many have stated, in this thread along with thousands of others, if you do not recognize the name, or it lists no info on who is calling, you are not required, or obliged to answer the phone. Also, as stated, if it is important, they will call you back, or find another way to contact you. If by chance you do happen to answer, end the call immediately! Power to the people!

Please keep us up to date on the latest scams. Thank you so much! I will be sharing this vid with all my elderly family member as they seem to be the target of most scams.

I get so tired and annoyed of the multiple calls per day I get from numbers I don't recognize.

Those calls are coming all hours of the days and night! They can even bypass the "Do Not Disturb" feature on your phone. I'd have to turn my phone off every night. The scammers will most likely find a way to force your phone on!! These scammers need to be caught and procsecuted!!!

Sometimes it's hard not to answer it when you're looking for a job and you're hoping it's an employer calling you back.

The "yes" scam is probably one of the oldest. They were doing that years ago, not long before cell phones came out. Never answer "yes" to questions from telemarketers or strangers calling.

I thank you for telling us about those spam calls and I have been getting numerous of those spam calls and it sick and tired of them.

There has been a lot of spam calls and I get a lot of spam calls. It's getting worse and worse! This is getting out of control! There's no control of this and it's getting very annoying! Sometimes when I am waiting for a call from someone,it doesn't show up on my caller ID... So now I guess I'll see if they leave a message because there is no government laws to stop these damn Spam calls these days!

I you do not recognize the number or the caller ID, don't answer.

I got two calls this past week from "Social Security Administration". They were clever in having a program announcing "Social Security Office" on call back and even have a little spiel about scammers on the scam call. Best idea: hang up, don't answer. Eventually they will never be able to get through to a human. Kind of like what we experience trying to get customer service.

I’ve had the Australian Tax Office call me with that exact scam. Another told me there was a warrant out for my arrest ( I was taken off guard) so I asked them for their details so I could speak to my lawyer. They hung up. I rang the number and it was disconnected. How do they do that? In the past I have said, “this is a restricted number for the Australian Federal Police…how did you get this number?” Then they are taken off guard.

Another answer could be “What is this in reference to?” Over and over again until they give up.

When our phone rings, we look at the Caller ID...If we don't recognize the number then we don't pick up the call. The caller can always leave a message on our VM.

21 phone scammers hated you telling their secrets

Something else to be aware of is that if there is an obvious delay in the time that you answer the call and the response from the person on the other end - hang up.

I love getting telemarketers so upset that they hang up on me.

I keep getting calls saying there's a problem with social security and someone is coming to put me in jail unless I contact that number and speak to a representative. There were 3 same day within an hour. My answering machine picked them up.

Honestly, that is a lot of very good info in this video, as normal, very good job Joe

Never EVER reply to a question with YES! They use it, "do you approve this withdrawal from you back account", and your RECORDED reply is used.

I'm in the UK but got one of the Microsoft scam calls a couple of years ago. I played with the guy for a bit then told him I wasn't technically minded but my son was. Told the scammer I'd get my son but he wouldn't be too happy as he was a police officer and had just come off duty. The scammer slammed down the phone and so far has never called back. Had a scam call today. Recorded message from "BT". I don't have BT. I promptly hung up.

When I get a call with the accent I just ask what the weather is like in India normally they just put the phone down.

I don't answer any call that is not in my phone book.

I keep getting many scam calls everyday from the same people named Conner and some other person saying that I’m on a recorded line and that they see I was supposedly on their “website”searching for jobs and I know they are scammers. It’s too obvious and sounds unprofessional. I just hang up. I blocked their number yet they’re still able to contact me.

"can you hear me?" "no" "can you hear me?" "no i cant hear you."

I keep getting calls about my fraud on taxes. They give me a number to call before the FBI arrests me. I do not call back of course and have never been arrested. I can imagine if someone cheated on their taxes it might scare them and they would fall for this scam.

Scammer: can u hear me? Me: no i cant

My husband used to say 'Police, can I help you' and they just hang up.

"Can you hear me?" "I hear you" "D:"

I've gotten this one several times: A professional American sounding woman recording says they have a special lower rate offer for your credit card. You press 1 and someone sounding Indian or Middle Eastern starts to explain how since you are an excellent customer, you are now eligible for a 3% interest rate, but he just needs to verify your VISA credit card number. I repeatedly gave him a fake number, and he kept getting frustrated saying it was invalid. I then said "well, you're Bank of America, don't you KNOW the right number? He repeated that he needed to verify it. I then told him to hold on while tried to find the right one card in my purse. And then I said "while you're waiting, please take this opportunity to go f--- yourself!" And I hung up.

if somebody calls and asks me a question I say "who is this calling?" I'm suspicious.

My favorite one is the Social Security call claiming they have suspended your SS number and give a phone number to their legal department.

"Your Social Security Is About To Expire..."

Like Albert Einstein always said question everything.

Great vid. I once got a call from someone claiming to be from the IRS. I live in the UK and we don’t even have IRS in this country! He told me I had to pay a fine and to send Amazon gift vouchers to pay for it 😂😂😂😂

It's crazy how these people get away with this. I don't answer unless i know who's calling

watch out for someone calling about your social security check being held up too, somehow they know your name. it's a scam

I don't even answer my phone if it's a number I don't recognize. (Why doesn't everyone adhere to this?)

Please make more videos like these! Excellent info you're sharing, Joe! Good on ya!👍🏼

The new one is it'll be a robocall and they say something like "press 9 if you want to be removed from further calls". They're just seeing if you're a human. Pressing 9 will sign you up for the mass future spam calls.

"Grunt." "Whut?" "Justaminnit." Mute then lay phone down and leave it until they disconnect. If the caller is an actual human, "Just a minute" can have him hanging on for a few minutes. Waste his time not yours.

Thank you for putting this out for people to be informed. Much needed.

This is a very useful video. I had a call from someone yesterday, and the first thing the caller said was "Can you hear me?" I hung up immediately. I have also warned my brother about this.

You didn’t mention that, depending on your provider’s settings, your line might stay “live” after hanging up so that when you call the genuine bank’s fraud number you could be talking to the scammer.

If your phone provider offers "no more robo" at no extra cost, use that as well. A lot of scammers use robocalling to make a bunch of calls simultaneously, hoping at least one picks up.

If you get IRS scam calls, go to the IRS and let them call them.

Exactly Ghosty, I am the same way. And what really makes me upset is these telemarketers clones phone numbers in the same era. But even so, I don’t answer them if I don’t regonize the number.

Crazy spot on video man . Needed to show my elders this so they understand better.

If the caller goes "Is this [name of recipient]?", then respond with "It depends on who this is."

Good advice, I just watched a scammer try and tell a man they had to cut his social security card off, lol. He played along for about 15 minutes till he couldn't take anymore. But some gave found creative ways to get back at them.

Excellent advice and I praise your willingness to help others.

I received the IRS call that said I owed X amount of taxes [several times now] and if I did not pay right now, they were going to send the local police out to arrest me. The problem is that I used to work for the IRS and also was a state police officer for 21 years. I had also just filed my income tax form a couple of days before and knew I did not owe taxes. I knew that the IRS never called before sending a registered letter to the tax payer, and I also knew that the local police had nothing to do with enforcement of Income tax laws, and that was Federal enforcement. So I just hung up. It was really laughable. I do not answer my home home unless I recognized the number or name. All my calls go to voice mail.

Thank you so much for this. I’m old and didn’t know about any of these. Now, I’ll be so prepared.

Wow! Recently, I did receive a call where the first words I was asked was, " you can hear me okay, can't you?" Now, I am aware of this very scam and yet I froze, knowing full well that I would've given him an ear full, but in the nick of time I did remember this video (hooray, for me) and ended the call before uttering a word. That was a difficult thing to do, so thanks again, ThioJoe.

I had the Canadian version of an attempted IRS scam, where they claimed to be from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The thing is, just a week earlier I had just cleared up a mistake where CRA thought I owed them $18,000 (It took me 2 years to clear up!). I thought maybe one department hadn’t had time to let another department know the mistake was cleared up so I did call them back. But instead of the number in the voicemail I used the one in my contacts. Of course they reassured me everything was fine.

I’m still getting calls on extending warranties on my 2007 pt cruiser, lol

I’ve watched Trilogy Media videos about scammers so I really want to mess with them the next time. I do get scam calls that are auto bots that then takes you to an actual person. If you mess with them and irritate them, basically wasting their time, they get so pissed and never call you back. Ignoring the call doesn’t always work. They keep on coming. Waste their time.

I always ask who am I speaking to. They hang right up.

Hi. Please update the scams as you learn about them. It’s so easy to fall into a trap….especially the “yes” question. Thank you!

These spam numbers should be directed straight to the police or fraud helplines and telephone companies should be held responsible for allowong spam numbers getting through.

Just don’t answer.

A new twist on the Microsoft scam call is someone claiming to be from a tech support company will call. Same scam. I once got a call just like this and knew immediately it had to be a scam because I didn't have the internet at the time. So I asked the caller to please explain to me how my computer could have been communicating with them when I didn't even have the internet. Oh, and the funniest Microsoft scam call came when my computer wasn't working and wasn't even hooked up!

Please educate us with more of these videos. Helping those like me is also helping me help others.

I wish this government of ours would make it illegal to have telemarketerters and scam artists calling people and harassing them all the time.

We had a keylogger put on our computer by a scammer. I was in the IT field and feel embarrassed that this ever happened but trusting a large company was my mistake. My husbands Dell was under warranty so I told him to have Dell fix it because it needed a new motherboard. He called Dell Support and (to make a long story short) got a tech that talked us into getting on our computer and he put a keglogger on it. After going through 3 techs we finally got it fixed but now had to deal with all the problems. We had tickets to Elton John and he sold our tickets to someone else. We eventually were able to stay and watch the show from nose bleed seats. Ticketmaster refunded the entire amount. We ended up replacing the hard drives. NEVER EVER let anyone on your computer remotely. This guy had an Indian accent and I was Leary about it but I trusted Dell. Doing research I found that Dell knew for many years that they have hired scammers but don't do anything about it.

They can also call impersonating FBI agents or police officers and threatening you. They will usually try to make you wire them money to supposedly avoid jail time for some minor offense. It sounds kinda legit until they mention you driving to the bank right away.

If it’s important, they will leave a message. I have med conditions, and my phone is part of my critical communications. Because of telemarketers and robo-callers, most of the time I have the ringer turned off. I wish there was a way to block or fine the hell out of them for nuisance or disruptive behavior.

If someone called me and said they were from jail, I would respond with, "Why the hell would I want to help a criminal?"

in b4 "you're the scammer lol" hilarious joke

Please call more scammers and make scams great again.

I never say yes, I always ask ‘why are you calling me?’

Thank you. . Seniors appreciate being informed. Thank you so much.

Here's my favorite. Regardless of what they ask you, start moving the phone slowly away from your ear and mouth. Since they are on a headset, they will keep turning up the volume, when you get to the point that they truly cannot hear you, literally put your mouth ON the receiver and yell I CAN HEAR YOU, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!!

lol i seriously got a call from someone saying 'Can you hear me" after i watched this video xD

Great information, thank you! Yes, keep us informed please.

Thank you very much for sharing this information, much appreciated . I can't understand why phone companies don't block calls from scammers, perhaps all the scammcalls increase the phone companies profits? Nor why there is so little done to put skammers in jail. There should be international co-operation aiming to stamp out this prevalent criminal activity, but I guess someone take a cut out of money transfers, perhaps including corporations that sponsor politician's?

I just answer the question in a different way in case it's something important. Example: "Can you hear me?" "I hear you." "Are you the head of household?" "I am the head of household."

5:01 I got a call like that and "did" the whole thing they told me too. then they said,"what do you see?" I reply, "wait, was the computer supposed to be on?" just a little fun for those who get that crap.

You're doing an outstanding job, *VortexTrace* I'm thrilled that you're out there battling these scoundrels. It's absolutely crucial to protect the elderly and the general public from these deplorable scammers. You truly deserve all the praise and recognition for keeping us safe! Kudos to you, my brother. Your efforts are deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. Keep up the amazing works.

Hasn't happened a lot lately but once in a while there will be a call from microsoft tech support to tell me that my computer is sending them error messages, and my response is always " That sounds more like a YOU problem than a ME problem, so you folks deal with it ".

Thanks for all your information and trying to help the public out there! Your smart & entertaining!

Scammer : "can you hear me?" Me: "who's calling?" Scammer: "can you hear me?" Me: "who's on first." Scammer: "what?" Me: "no, he's on second" Scammer: "who?" Me: "first base! You remembered!" Scammer: "remembered what?" Me: "what's on second." Scammer: "I don't know..." Me: "he's the guy on third!" Scammer: "@#$%&!*&" abruptly hangs up. Me: " some people just have NO sense of humor!"

Thank you! I will definitely answer, “No. I can’t hear you.”🤣

Thanks. Have had a number or those described, especially, gift cards, credit card compromised, and computer virus detection scams. A lot of these are sourced from India, based on the accent. Fortunately they were sometimes hard to understand because of the accent. So it is almost a rule, if you get a call and you cannot understand them it is a scammer. They seem to think scamming is just a 'regular profession'. Other times they project a friendly demeanour. -------- Upon occasion you almost want to give them advice on how to improve their story.

Mine has been the Social Security has a warrant for my arrest unless I contact them. LOL!