Hello all! I’m back from an epic road trip through Yellowstone, Devil’s Tower, the Badlands, and Mt. Rushmore! But I’m back and wanted to make sure I post another call before you all give up on me!
I found this call and thought it was kind of interesting. A “DirecTV” agent is calling all customers to upgrade their equipment free of charge. It starts out pretty legit and I can imagine plenty of people are fooled. Heck, for all I know, DirecTV really does outsource calls like this to offshore call centers.
I usually do not mention the company name, and I usually bleep it out before posting the recordings, but I would be interested in someone with DirecTV listening to this call. You can hear it start pretty legit, but it sure gets crazy. Either this is an outsourced DirecTV agent who can turn off the monitoring/recording feature of their phone, or this is a complete scam. Maybe someone familiar with this scam can post a comment?
I started all of this to protect your phone line, but I like to think that Jolly Roger Telephone is protecting the brands of these major companies too.
Anyway – please enjoy and thank you for listening!
Roger
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Fake sales rep
AT&T
ADT
DIRECTV
Give him no private info
On 2/26/18 I got a call from “DirectTV” from a woman with a thick Indian or Pakistani accent calling from a call center (800-531-5281) saying that DirectTV had changed its satellite locations and they needed to upgrade their receivers. I knew right away that it was a scam, but wanted to see what she would ask for. They wanted to make an appointment for the following Saturday and gave me a choice of two time windows. Then she said I could have a choice of 4 free months of either HBO or Showtime. She asked if I was the account holder. When I said yes, she told me my name and address and asked if the address was correct, which it was. It was disturbing, but all info she could find in the phone book or online directory. Next she said that I was currently paying $156.75 a month (TRUE!!) and that I would get a $30 per month rebate for 12 months. I was unnerved that she knew how much I paid, but I still believed it was a scam and was waiting for the ask. Then she said there was a $150 installation fee that would be refunded as credits on future bills (this is sort of standard DirectTV thing) and she asked if I wanted to put it on my card and said that last four digits of the card I use to auto pay my bill! I was freaked that she had this info. I think most people would have assumed at that point that she was legit because she had so much info, but I still thought it was really pfishy. I told her I had to ask my husband which card to put it on and asked if I could call back. She said her name was “Marry” (not a typo —- that’s how she spelled it to me) and that the Promotional Department # was 877-277-4598. I should have waited to see if she asked for the rest of the card # or the 3 digit code, but I was freaked and pretending to be calm. I immediately called DirectTV which knew nothing of such receiver upgrades and had no notes in my computer file about such a call. She gave me a number to DirectTV’s fraud department, but they had closed for the day. I immediately called my credit card company to cancel card and issue new one. I wondered if my email had been hacked, but when I looked at my email statement, it does not contain the last four digits of my credit card. I think either someone from DirectTV is selling the info or that DirectTV has been hacked. I saw many similar online stories about scammers calling and knowing some personal info like this.
I think you were definitely talking to a scammer who became frustrated.
I’m finally reading your story, Sarah! Good job remaining calm! I later heard that DirecTV was indeed hacked. They must have gotten the account info and the last four digits. And then they just called everyone. I am glad they didn’t get you!