Library Boom Scam Alert

[MackBrass]

I just received a phone call at 11:55 this evening from someone claiming to be from the local library. They told me that i had checked out three books on tuba back in April 2010 and i never returned them. I responed with asking what library they were calling from and the response was "from the south part of town". I then asked what town? They then hung up the phone. One thing odd was the number on the caller ID was Restricted.

After doing a google search i found there is a scam that talks about this topic and the goal of the scamer is to get you to pay for the books that were overdue with the end goal of getting bank or credit card information. What i also felt was interesting is the call came after i was on Facebook a little while earlier. The person doing the scam did a little research on me, hence books on the tuba to make the call seem legit.

Lesson, dont answer phone calls from restricted numbers at 11:45 at night and always ask more questions to the person making the call to verify who they are or represent. Most importantly never give your bank or credit card information out to someone you dont know or never heard of.

[Dan Schultz]

Well Tom.... why don't you just send those books back?

[windshieldbug]

Well Tom.... why don't you just send those books back?

I say hold them for ransom and ask the caller how much they're worth to him/her...

[bort]

I'd tell them to come arrest me.

[Tubaryan12]

1st clue it's a scam: "I just received a phone call at 11:55 this evening". If I get a call that late from someone claiming I owe them anything, I'm hanging up.

[tofu]

Was his name Bookman? Those old fines can really add up.

[THE TUBA]

What's a library?

[Three Valves]

That's what I tell my wife when my girlfriend calls late at night...

"Who was that calling so late last night??"

"Just the library, dear!!"

[MaryAnn]

That's why I have started a policy of simply not answering at all if it is not someone I know. Everybody else can leave a message. For a long time there I had one fonebot calling me several times a week, sometimes every day, at different hours after I made the mistake of simply answering the phone and then hanging up. It got my number put on some kind of list (yes I have been on the DNC list since 2007) that was a bot call. I guess they finally gave up because it hasn't occurred in the last couple of months.

[Three Valves]

One of those fancy phones with a caller ID LCD screen and call block was one of the best things I've purchased recently!!

[Guest User]

I got rid of my house phone seven years ago. I never answer my cell phone unless it is a number in my address book (that comes up with the caller's name) or is a recognized number or an expected call from a known location. If I am unsure I simply send it to voicemail and wait for the message to see who it was, calling back only if needed. I would say that 90% of the calls I send on to voicemail are scammers who never leave a message, hoping I will call them back. I think that if *you* call them the laws governing telemarketing are seriously more lax that if they call you. If they *do* call you and you answer they quickly hang up.

Almost all of my work-related stuff is handled via texting or email and my friends chat with me daily on FB or Skype.

I do not think I have had an old school, kick-back-in-the-recliner-and-gab-with-a-friend-all-afternoon sort of call in ten years.

The world is so different than it was in the 1970s and earlier.

[Heavy_Metal]

Cell phones suck, at least in my area.