Fraud Tip of the Day - May 8
Telemarketing Scam Tips - Hang up on fraudsters!
For this telemarketing tip of the day, we've assembled some of the most common pitches and sales tactics employed by telemarketers. If a telemarketer says anything we've included on this page, it's time to hang up the phone before you get scammed.
- "You've been specially selected to hear this offer." Sure you have but only because you were the next number in the phone book.
- "You'll get a wonderful free bonus if you buy our product." If you have to pay anything the bonus isn't free.
- "You've won one of five valuable prizes." I'm guessing you've won the least valuable of these prizes which you will be asked to pay for anyway.
- "You've won big money in a foreign lottery." Did you enter one of these lotteries? Even if you did, how would they be able to track you down?
- "You must send money right away." Time is on your side. The faster they need the money, the more likely it is you are dealing with a fraudster.
- "This investment is low risk and provides a higher return than you can get anywhere else." This is a classic. High returns are always associated with high risk. If it's that great of an investment you'd already have heard about it.
- "You have to make up your mind right away." They don't want you to think about it because you might realize you're on the phone with a criminal.
- "You don't need time to investigate our company" - They won't want you talking to family members, financial advisors, lawyers, the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General's office, consumer watchdog agencies, etc. Who knows what you might find. I'm guessing either nothing, indictments or warnings.
- "We'll just put the shipping and handling charges on your credit card." This question may be asked so that they can ship your free item to you. Those shipping and handling charges could be huge. So much for a free gift.
- "You don't need brochures, marketing materials, or anything written about our company." Why not? Is paper that expensive? Are they too cheap to spend a few bucks? Will their offer look less attractive on paper than it does over the phone? Kinda makes you think, don't it?
There are many variations to these but you get the idea. The trick is often to get you to pay for something free, act fast or don't do any research. You can avoid these scams by never paying for "free" gifts, thinking things over or doing research. Better yet, just hang up the phone.
Learn the tactics used by shady telemarketers to rip off consumers.
