I was working like any other day and see a local number come up on my cell phone. In the recent years, I have been a bit more cautious, especially with the out of state numbers or numbers calling me from cities where I don’t know anyone.
This particular number was from a city where one of my bosses live, so I decided to answer it. What happened for the next six and a half minutes is almost an embarrassing attempt by a scammer to scam me.
The individual right away spoke with accented English, tipping me off that English was his second language. He confirmed my name and then said he was reaching out to me from a local crime department and that the Department of Justice had three cases pending against me. He asked if I ever had my identity stolen. I replied yes, and he asked when or more particulars, and I said it was a while ago and that I was aware it was stolen.
He then when into some narrative about how my identity has been attached to several places in Texas and asked if I knew anyone there and I said no. He told me that a Toyota Corolla with a license plate TX2440 was found in my name at the border of Texas with my social security number attached. He said there were drugs found inside and cash etc. Then he said my identity was associated with two different addresses in Houston and El Paso and that bank accounts, cash, 25 lbs of cocaine were found at these homes and that my identities were tied in with the bank accounts. He continued this story and named two people that have been arrested in association with this activity - Julio Ramirez and John Rubio Gonzalez.
Okay - I had enough and stopped him right there and asked for his name and number. He asked why, I said because I was working and I would have to call him back and in the six minutes that I have listened to him, I still did not understand how I might be involved in any cases/danger. He said his name was Justin Thomas and that he wanted to finish talking to me about the pending cases against me. I asked why would he be telling me so many details about this case if it’s still under investigation? He didn’t have an answer to that. I asked for a number that I can reach him at and he said I could just call back that number and then the line got disconnected. He just freely told me a lot of details and did little to confirm my true identity other than my name, number and if I was ever a victim of identity theft. I would say a good amount of people have had their information in one of the several hundred breaches that have taken place in the past decade or so.
Just to cover my bases and confirm - I searched for the number he reached me at and the first hit that comes up is the police station from the local city that came up on the phone. Okay - could this really be legit? I then took it a step further and called the number and found my way to someone at the police station and told them what happened. It was confirmed there was no one named Justin Thomas and that they had people using their general number in the past for some kind of scams to get money and other personal information.
Here is another lesson in scam-land. Please always question anyone who is calling you with these scare tactics. As soon as he started disclosing all the very detailed information, I smelled scam. Also his language and terminology were really off, like he just watched too much CSI: Whatever and action movies.
Always remain calm and if the situation seems legit, the person will always allow you to call back. A scammer has these high pressure tactics that will try to keep you on the phone and captivated in fear. I was careful not to give too much information. Social engineering is the new way of these scams getting to our privacy and being aware of this, helped me steer the conversation as to not allow much of my personal details to be known. Confirmation of details that are already floating out there is what it is, I have been parts of lots of breaches and know that my identity is floating around and for sale. But I will not hand over any other details about myself so that someone can further create nefarious ways of using my identity.
This is your friendly reminder to keep your information safe and don’t trust random people calling you or emailing you!
Yes usually these scammers are professionally trained who try to target people and as soon as they detect some kind of desperation or tense in the victim then they take advantage of that weakness. You were so strong.