There’s A Phone Scam Going Around
Be careful when you answer your phone, there's a phone scam going around.
It happened to me recently. I had a voicemail from an unknown number, and when I listened to it, it was from a man with a thick southern accent, saying he was looking for my husband. I thought weird...'why doesn't he just call him directly?' I was leery about returning the call because the guy didn't say where he was calling from, and he left a weird message, saying there was an 'investigation' involving my husband, which of course scared me.
I was just about to listen to my next voicemail, when my Mom called me. She said 'Loren, I just got the weirdest call about Matt!' I told her I knew exactly what she was talking about before she said any more, because I had just gotten the same one. I then realized that this guy had called my dad, my brother, and my mother-in-law. He called everyone at the same time, with the exact same message...he was 'holding an investigation' involving my husband.
I started to panic. I thought my husband might have been in trouble, and was wondering if something happened and he wasn't telling me. I also wondered how this guy got all of our phone numbers. I try to avoid calling my husband at work, because he's usually very busy and in meetings, so he's not usually available to take calls. I called anyway, and was relieved when he answered.
I told him what was going on, and he already knew...this guy had called him too. He told me not to worry and that it was a scam. I said 'how do you know that'? He responded with 'google it'. I hadn't even had the chance to google it with all the phone calls and panic! I took his advice, googled it and sure enough...it was a scam. There was a page full of people complaining about receiving the same phone calls with the same questions. I should have known when he said he was from Lincoln, RI, but had a southern access and a phone number that began with area code 448. I'm a RI girl, that's where I grow up, can't fool me pal, RI is 401!
So, just be careful if you get a phone call from a strange number asking you for information that you wouldn't normally give out. Know that it's probably someone trying to scam you!