Lighthouse Fellowship's first ever meeting this year was held last night. New flat, new faces, new testimonials to show how much God has blessed us! We had expected about 27 people to show up, but some couldn't make it. It was great, nonetheless, with about 20 people turning up (it is a LARGE number for a humble cell group which started out with just 5 or 6 people just 2 years ago). We're like a mini-church now!
I received a very dodgy phone call yesterday. I'm about 99.9% sure that it's a scam.
Lady on the phone with weird American accent: Hello, Miss Choooo-ah?
Me: Er. Yes...?
LOTPWWAA: Do you do international callings?
Me: Yes... sometimes.
LOTPWWAA: Where do you normally call to?
Me: (hah. I'll just play along here) US.
LOTPWWAA: Oh good. I'm calling from Global Telelinks, are you interested in our super cheap prepaid calling phone cards? The rate to call from NZ to US is blah blah per minute. blah blah blah about free minutes blah blah.
Me: ...
LOTPWWAA: ...do you have a Mastercard or Visacard?
Me: (holds the receiver away to laugh) Oh, I'm afraid I don't have one.
LOTPWWAA: (silence. a very faint sigh can be heard) How about a debit card?
Me: (hah. not gonna work, lady) Yes, I have applied for one but it's still processing, might take a few weeks before I actually get it.
LOTPWWAA: (another awkward silence)
Me: How about if I get your bank account number to do an internet banking transfer?
LOTPWWAA: Huh?
Me: (repeats question at least 3 times)
LOTPWWAA: Oh. Ok. The account number is 262-XXXXXX-M.
Me: Is this a NZ bank? (obviously NOT since no NZ bank code starts with 262 and ends with a letter)
LOTPWWAA: Yesssssss.
Me: Hmm. But I'll need to know which bank it is...
LOTPWWAA: It doesn't matter... blah blah blah.
Me: So how much does it cost?
LOTPWWAA: NZD25 for XX hours, but I'll recommend the 50 dollar one for longer hours.
Me: (RIGHT) Ok, I'll go for the 50 dollar one then.
LOTPWWAA: So I'll call back in a week's time to check if the payment has gone through.
Me: Sure. No problem. Oh just out of interest, where are you calling from?
LOTPWWAA: Philippines.
Me: Ooooooo. So where did you get my number?
LOTPWWAA: (obviously not so smart as she gave this info away) From the NZ phonebook! (sounds quite excited as well)
Me: I see. You sound quite young...
LOTPWWAA: Yes, I'm only 18!
Me: (very surprised) Wow. You know, actually I have a friend from the Philippines!
LOTPWWAA: REALLYYYY? (very excited and high-pitched)
Me: Yes. I know some words, eg. selamat
LOTPWWAA: Wow! chatter chatter chatter...
And so we ended up talking like old friends. I never ever would have thought I would befriend a tele-scammer.
I had no idea how I managed NOT to laugh the whole time.
How random is that?
I checked out the website that she told me about, click here. Looks like a proper company to me, but who knows what people can do to make things believable these days. One more thing: as shown on the website, it's based in the US, so why call from the Philippines all the way to NZ to get customers? Isn't international calling expensive? Ah, the irony of it: a company selling prepaid phone cards calling me (playing along with the scam to get their phone bill up teehee yes I'm a bit cruel I know).
But it's sad, really. An 18 year old girl in this industry. Does she even know that she's not doing the right thing? Based on my personal judgment, she's not particularly smart (or could be just new at work), having gave out information like WHERE she is and HOW she got my number. Professional scammers would have known I'm not falling for it and was interrogating them.
Apparently this is not the first time. My flatmate got a call last week about her winning a lottery prize for a holiday to Hawaii. And when she told Mr Scammer about not having a credit card, he just hung up the phone. The funny thing was, he was looking for a Miss Chooo-ah (is a surname that hard to pronounce? it's CHUA, people), but my flatmate answered it, her surname being very similar to mine.
Now I'm wondering if my name even got listed on the phone directory. And even if it is, how did someone from another country got hold of a NZ phonebook?
Ah, the funny things in life ;P
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2 comments:
hie,
Actually a lot of US company uses people from India,Philippines, China and other 3rd world countries they could think of to call ppl like u cause its cheaper to use their services. I've heard of the company before really cheap but at times kinda crap la!Like the normal phone card u get ard here
Ur name might have appeared in the telephone book, like in M'sia ma,no matter if u like it or not ur name will appear in the phone book one. now a days phone book is easy to get,everything is online one.. =)
ya i know. the company isn't fake but i think they could be just using that company's name. dunno la, everything she said just sounded... like a scam. hehe. could be true too, who knows?
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