Auto-Dialling is Still a Thing

We started this week talking about the newest method that people are trying to get your information, but I think that we shouldn’t ignore one of the older ways. We shouldn’t overlook autodialers because, quite frankly, they are still around.

If you’ve ever been auto-dialled before you know what it’s like; while you see a number on your phone (assuming your picking up on your cell phone) and you hope it’s someone you know, only to accept the call and have to wait for a beat or two before the autodialer clicks into life. It’s usually around that time (certainly for me) when my eyes start to involuntarily roll so hard I’m a little concerned that one day they will pop right out. Over the past few years, I have “been offered” trips and credit cards and all manner of things. These are all false of course, and while those kinds of calls have become rarer and rarer, they have been replaced by others.

The ones that I get on a regular basis fall into one of two different categories; either they are extremely aggressive, or they offer me money.

1) The Aggressive Ones – I have heard of a few different variations on this theme, but the essence is that a body of authority is calling to tell you that you’ve done something wrong and if you don’t call them back at a number provided then you will be sent to prison. The one that I get on a regular basis is from the Canadian Revenue Agency which claims that I haven’t paid my taxes (NOTE TO THE CRA…YES I HAVE…..).

The first time It happened I got called seven times in 2 weeks. The first time I got the call I assumed that it was an auto-dialling phishing call. My wife was a bit more concerned that I was, and advised that I call the CRA myself to be sure. I Googled the CRA’s number and gave them a call. The Agent I called was a wonderful person. He assured me that it wasn’t legit because A) If someone doesn’t pay their taxes, they would send a few letters and then call the person personally and B) the CRA doesn’t send people to jail. In the Agent’s words “We would figure out a payment plan, we wouldn’t send you to prison, we’d prefer your money.”

2) The Ones Promising Stuff – A few months ago I got a series of phone calls promising money. Specifically, these phone calls were promising lines of credit. The calls went something like this;

“Hello, This is Cheryl. I’m calling to inform you that your business has received a 250,000.00 line of credit. Please call 555-2354 to set up this account.”

So with no information about what company is offering this or what other information that one should have about getting this vast sum of money? Uh huh, SUUUURE. I knew that this was a faker from the get-go, but they were persistent. I got this same autodial message about ten times in a couple of weeks. I amused myself with the fact that if each of the calls that I had received had been different offers, I would be getting well over two million dollars in credit.

I’m all about thinking about the future and what new threats are on the horizon. The thing of it is that if we don’t pay attention to the risks that we know about and still work to avoid, then they will still be able to trip us up. The old ways may be old, but they worked then, and if we don’t pay any attention or don’t think before we give our information to people offering us things that may not exist, then they will still trip us up.

Have you ever been Auto Dialed?

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