So I got this strange (and scary) phone call (over videophone)

[Hawkeye-X]

Called ID shows up as 1 (303) 1 (the area code is Denver, but that's it)

So I get a call. He's looking for me, naturally.

VI (Video Interpreter) tells me that he's speaking with a very heavy foreign accent (Warning #1).

I asked him who's calling, and he says that he's with Cyber Crimes Unit and that I would be arrested in 2-3 hours
or tomorrow at my place of employment. I asked him exactly what the charges are. He evaded the question, and I spent 5
minutes waiting for his "supervisor", so I talked to my wife and let her know what was going on. (getting a supervisor without my request - Warning #2)

He comes back on the phone and tells me again that I would be arrested in 2-3 hours. Then I asked him again what are the charges
and he said "Email Fraud using Bank Account" - I asked him for my email address. He got the first part right, but the second part was from a
VERY old e-mail address that I abandoned 3 years ago due to spam load - as a matter a fact, that e-mail is my mobile e-mail address. (Final warning #3)

I told him that he has the wrong number, and then he tells me "FUCK YOU" then I hang up.

I told my wife that this was a fraud. I checked online and confirmed a very well-known Deaf celebrity was also affected by this call - in fact, just got off the phone with him. He said that don't worry about it and ignore it. So that is what I am going to do, but it scared the hell
out of me.

Just wondered if anyone got a strange call like that.

Hawkeye-X

[geardaddy]

1. Scary.

Did you call anyone about it?

[myrna minx]

2. I've heard of this scam targeting people with hearing impaired phone services.

http://www.abc4.com/content/news/state/story/Con-artists-scam-consumers-with-hearing-impaired/cGwzT1RNFkW4tK0NDN2u0A.cspx

It is scary!

[Hawkeye-X]

3. Yes, my friend Ken tells me that it's a common problem

and just happened to be an unfortunate receipt of the call. I hope I cost him a fortune in phone calls seeing as this wasn't first time this happened today. I happened to have a recording of his first call. I'll check on that right now.

[Travis Coates]

7. I know Ken we used to go to the Deaf Chat together

He told me that the interpreters can't tell you when it's a scam but hey get calls like that all the time

[Hawkeye-X]

11. There's a million deaf Ken's

and I happen to know two of them here in Colorado. One lives in CS, and other lives in Denver.

[Travis Coates]

16. Does the one your talking about work for VRS? NT

[Hawkeye-X]

20. Nope, he owns DeafNewspaper.com

Go ahead, check him out.

[Rex]

4. I would have laughed out loud and told him to shove his future crime Tom Cruse

bullshit up his ass! Then I would have said, "now listen really closely because I am only going to say this once" very quietly...grabbed a whistle and blown it into the phone as hard as I could. You will never get a crank from him/her again I guarantee.

[Hawkeye-X]

12. I don't think the VI would appreciate getting mooned by me

as it is a video call.

The interpreter was thorougly professional and stayed transparent, but did indicate heavy foreign accent (which makes it hard for VI's to interpret)

[Rex]

17. Oh I see, I'm sorry I forgot you have an interpreter

man that would steam me though! People having the nerve to act like that to total strangers. Sounds like a crank call to me, I have a system that can pinpoint a caller (even on moblie phones) to their home and I usually check them out on google earth.

[GCP]

5. But where was the payoff for him?

It doesn't seem as if he made any demands on you.

[Rex]

8. Sounds more like a crank call to me.

I hate people who do that as much as I hate people that sit around and write computer viruses!

[AmericaIsGreat]

6. Wish he had called me

I would have fucking raged in a manner he has not seen before. What an asshole.

[Peacetrain]

9. Thank you for the update on this.. I am sending this to both my brothers

They use videophones and relays..

Sometimes I think it was easier with the old ttd..

[Hawkeye-X]

14. Yes, tell them to check DeafNewspaper.com

That's where my wife tells me that Ken received the same call and vlogged about it.

[Bitwit1234]

10. Odd I got an email from the FBI Cyber Crime Unit (Spam) and

it said almost the same thing. But as you went further down it said that I was eligible for 50,000,000 dollars and they were holding it for me at the FBI (Robert Mueller) I needed to furnish all my bank info.

Now what in the hell do they start and email saying I had been communicating with illegals and could be, could be that is arrested. Then go into the spiel about the money. I got the address of the FBI and forwarded the email to them. I think it is a crime to impersonate Robert Mueller Director of the FBI.

[blogslut]

13. What a shitty thing to do to people

I hope there's a way to catch the jerks that are pulling this scam.

[Hawkeye-X]

15. My only source is the Caller ID which revealed nothing

and the message I mentioned? Was for a missed bill (somewhere) from the hospital.

[pipi_k]

18. My daughter's stepdaughter got a call like that from the "police"

Saying that she would be arrested the next day for some "crime" or another (I've since forgotten what it was), but it was ridiculous in any case.

Next day rolls around and nobody shows up to arrest her, which I didn't think they would, but that doesn't mean it's not scary as hell.

[Hawkeye-X]

19. Funny thing - he never identified himself as a police officer or an federal agent

Just some moron that said I would be "arrested" in 2-3 hours. 2-3 hours later. I'm still sitting at home, typing as I speak....

[Trekologer]

21. Sounds like a phishing scam

They're becoming more and more prevalent. They come as an email, SMS, or phone call that tries to get you to give out your personal or financial information.

[AsahinaKimi]

22. Theres a good reason I don't answer the phone anymore

[EvolveOrConvolve]

23. This is a variant of a classic Nigerian 419 scam

The scammer is simply using the interpreter as a sort of firewall to hide the fact that he's foreign. Also, many west African scammers were raised with some seriously effed up beliefs and think that deaf or blind people are somehow mentally defective. In his mind, you were an easy target.

The longer you keep these bastards on the phone, the better. They pay quite a bit of money per minute to make overseas calls on their cell phones (and to mask their caller ID #). If you want to, PM me with the phone number and I'll make him feel some serious financial pain. I bait these assholes for fun...

[Hawkeye-X]

24. I'm sure you do.

He masked the number. It came out as 1 (303) 1.

Hawkeye-X