Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Fishy!



So yesterday I got a phone call. I don't get very many phone calls so I was surprised. When I answered, I heard this.

Congratulations! You have just won an all expense paid vacation to the Caribbean! Please stay on hold while our representative is available. Once again congratulations!

Seriously. This was wrong at so many levels.

If I had won something so big, would I get an automated phone call? Nope. The only way I would believe this is Ed McMahon showed up at my house with big balloons.

And who gives away all expense trips to peeps but cannot find an actual person who can make the call?

Who buys into this stuff?

So I did some research and found the following terminology.

Phishing: Scam via email.

Smishing: Scam via sms or text messaging.

and finally

Vishing: Scam via phone.

Who comes up with these terms?

Question: What kind of offers that are scams have you received? Do tell!

5 comments:

mythopolis said...

I was recently a victim of savishing. Two strangers with bibles came to my door saying they had come to save me!

mythopolis said...

I thot smishing was something you did in the back seat of a car with a girl!

Ballerina Girl said...

No Myth thats smooching!
I used to get the free trip phone calls, too...what they wanted me to do is sit and listen to their 3 hour talk on why you should buy into this condo association at their property, take a guided tour of the property and then sit down with a "personal" financial person as to how you too can afford this...

funny, really...
BG

Kala said...

Vishing? I never heard of it until I read your post. Our number is unlisted so maybe that's why we don't hear from any scammers ... yet.

Scriber's Web said...

Mythos: Too funny about Savishing. But BG is right! That is called smooching:)

BG: Oh I got one of those also. Many years ago I gell for it with a lure of a TV. I had to sit through the whole thing and ended up getting a 2 dollar flash light. I was so stupid!

Kala: Vishers can get to you even if your number is unlisted! Be careful!