Same scam. 2 countries. Why Canadians don’t get their money back | Page 3 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

AltaRed said
FWIW, I do respond to select calls from FIs on Caller ID with whom I do business with to see if they are legit. On occasion, they are legit, e.g. potential fraud on CC transactions of which there have been a few over the years, and/or calls from my branch CSR or even Branch Manager once a year or two. It is not hard to tell what is fraud and what is not, as the legit calls identify themselves by name (and bank branch) or the transaction in question.  

My approach is very simple. I do not answer ANY unsolicited calls from ANY number I do not absolutely recognize. No name, no answer. If it is important, they will leave a message. And even then, I do not rely on the content of the message. I always verify the information independently, calling numbers on the back of cards, or from official websites. And repeated numbers I do not recognize do get blocked.

I am also on the Do No Call List. Any business or fundraiser that calls gets reported. They are supposed to get fined.

I get on average 3-4 calls A DAY, so we have learned to be diligent.

I actually do verify every single call that comes in by calling back from a different phone, blocking my ID each time. My experience, 99.9% of the time the calls are fake, scams, or businesses that ignore the DNCL.

Again, any business, FI, etc. that has a legitimate issue has always left a message of some sort. If not, it has NEVER turned out to be important, and if from a legitimate business but not important, it is because it is a marketing call.

As for blocking numbers, There are different ways to set this up. On my home and cell phones, even the blocked calls get registered, so I always know when they are calling too. So no risk of ever losing an important one.

I have had my share of legitimate calls from FIs re:fraud and I have never missed any of them with my approach. Voicemail fits the bill every time.

AltaRed said

That is not far fetched. Folks in the Kelowna area have been getting phishing calls spoofing the Kelowna RCMP Caller ID name and number.

The Telecoms need to get their technology up to snuff to prevent spoofing. It should not be impossible, especially within Canada numbers where they should be able to reach back to call 'source'.  

I inquired about this not too long ago and was told that they cannot change this to stay compatible with international systems that actually somehow make use of "spoofing" telephone numbers. So this would require an international coordination to make changes to make this a reality.

JohnnyCash said

Well, when is comes to phone calls for anyone other than close friends, I don't answer and let it go to voicemail, oddly enough, if it's important, they usually leave a message.  

⬆️ A longstanding practice in our house too.

Dean