Have you ever encountered a scam so poorly thought out that you just had to interrupt the scammer and say "dude, you really need to work on your game"?
It happened to me this morning. A got a call from a number I did not recognize, and decided to take it. A male voice asked for me by name, and asked me how my day was. Then he said his name was Thomas Hunt, that he's calling from Harris count DEA office, and that my name came up in criminal investigation. To underline that he knows who I am and where I live, he mentioned my "home address". He then said that I am being indicted for a federal crime, and that before he sends officers to arrest me "at my place of employment" he wanted to see if I qualify to cut a deal with the DA office. Then he said he wanted to ask me a few questions.
I chuckled a bit. If I hadn't been driving down the road, I'd have told him that he needs to work on his game.
Where did he get the part that DEA staff asks suspects that are to be arrested and indicted how their day was? They don't give a shit if the perp has a good day, because they're about to make his day a lot shittier, that's for sure.
Where did he get the part that deals with the DA are done over the phone? "Yeah, we're gonna erase your federal felony if you give us your CC number". Who'd fall for that?
Finally, if he's going to pose as somebody who has access to government records, he'd have to do better than to use a home address that has not been current in a decade, or to make a threat to make an arrest at a "place of employment" without saying what it is. It just make him sounds like somebody who got his hands on some really old database of an Indian online pharmacy or some such and is trying to make the most of it.
But, I was driving down the road, so I made it short and sweet. I told him to hold on until I place my attorney on a 3 way conference call. "Thomas Hunt" then told me "ok, I am sending the agents to arrest you at your place of employment, see you at detention center". I got home, made a fresh pot of coffee and opened a box of cookies for DEA agents, brushed my teeth and set on to wait for the knock on the door. So far, nothing. But, I found that a few "Thomas Hunt" marks spoken out, and they were not impressed either:
http://whocalledme.com/PhoneNumber/713-482-7418
How about you guys? Do you have lame ass scam stories to share?