#phone scammer

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

Bait and Switch. || Scammer!Reader x Victim!Ghost

Rating: M Words: 2.6K~ Pairing: scammer!Reader x victim(but not really)!Ghost CW: phone scams/conning (reader never actually cons him), financial issues?, threats (Simon threatens to find reader), degradation?. other tags: crack, OOC Simon., you/your pronouns (gn!reader but uses a female fake name), obviously fake names (pun/funny), lying, joking, the weirdest meet cute? a/n: this started out as a joke/crack and turned serious/dark at the end? idk how i did this.

Simon Riley would say that being legally dead is the best thing to have happened to him and that's because it allowed him to escape a bunch of responsibilities that regular men have to uphold.

He gets paid covertly, in full, and does not have to pay taxes on his income.

He rented a flat from a sweet ol' lady, who didn't run a background check or ask for a copy of his birth certificate (terrible choice on her part), and he pays her by dropping an envelope of cash in her mailbox on the 1st of every of the month.

He not only is old enough to drink but also sounds and looks old enough as well, which means he doesn't need I.D. to buy alcohol (not that any shops or bars really care enough to check).

He doesn't have a credit card. Or a debit card for that matter. Hell, he doesn't even have a bank account, so he doesn't have to pay maintenance fees.

He doesn't have a smartphone. And up until recently he only had a pager. In fact, the only reason he doesn't have a pager anymore is because it got shot in the crossfire during a mission... so Price forced him to get a jitterbug.

In short... Simon Riley can escape a lot of things (death, taxes, Philip Graves...). But telemarketers and phone scammers are not one of those things.

That's how, on a boring Wednesday afternoon, his new phone ends up ringing, like it had been doing multiple times a week for the last four weeks.

Telemarketers.

He never got telemarketers on his pager.

He hated telemarketers.

But that didn't mean he blocked them-

"What?" He answered as soon as he picked up the phone.

An automated voice came over the call, one of those typical Siri-esque robot voices, delivering a prepared speech: "Congratulations! You've won a free cruise to the Bahamas! To claim your prize, press 1."

Oh, now, this was different. He didn't need to hear more to know it was a scam call. But that didn't mean he was going to hang up.

So Simon pressed key 1, which caused a beep to sound over the call.

"Thank you!" The automated voice continued. "We are now connecting you to a live operator to claim your prize!"

Barely a millisecond went by before you took over the call. "Good afternoon, this is Stella Gormoni with Blissful Blessings Inc.! Who am I speaking with?"

As stereotypical as it is, Simon had expected a different voice on the other end of the line... maybe from a scammer in a foreign country who'd speak heavily-accented English...

But instead, he got a sweet and professional sounding person... It almost made him second-guess the scam that was being pulled on him.

His mind moved quick at coming up with a fake name. Not just a fake one, but a pun one too. "Wanh'a, first name Aiden." He replied, his gruff voice reverberating on the call.

"And how do you spell that?" You asked him politely, and, through your headset, he could hear your keyboard keys clacking in the background.

"That's A-I-D-E-N." He replied as he entered his kitchen, spelling his first, as if that was somehow what was causing you difficulty.

"Uh-huh!" You acknowledged in a peppy tone. "And... your surname?" You asked him.

"W-A-N-H-'-A." He continued spelling as he crossed the small kitchen, hearing your fingers tapping away at your keyboard in his ear.

For a moment, you didn't talk, as if stunned into silence. Had you just picked up on the fact he was trolling you by giving you a name that, phonetically, sounded like 'I Don't Wanna'? Probably. But you hadn't hung up yet.

"Well, congratulations, Mr. Wanh'a, you just won an all-inclusive, two-week long cruise to the Bahamas!" Your peppy tone made him bite his lip to contain a laugh. Well, at least you were dedicated in continuing the scam. "How are you feeling?"

"Very well, and yourself?" Simon asked casually as he leaned himself against the door of his refrigerator, leaning down to look inside and find a snack.

"I'm doing very well, thank you, sir." You replied in a cheerful tone. "So, let's process the information so we can get you your prize, shall we?" You announced in a polite tone.

"Go right on ahead, sweet'eart." He murmured as he grabbed a yogurt and closed the fridge with his hip, sitting at the table and peeling open the lid.

"Well, for us to start, I'm going to need your-"

"Actually, I have a question, before we start." Simon interrupted your speech, cutting off your silver-tongued lies.

You went silent for just a moment before you replied with a sweet little: "Of course, what can I help you with, Mr. Wanh'a?"

"I want to know how exactly I signed up to receive this prize." Simon replied before he placed a spoonful of yogurt in his mouth.

He was trying to accomplish two things by doing this: 1) throw you off your game and make you stammer and stutter, and 2) see how long it took for you to get annoyed, and hang up on him.

"Well, that's what I was going to explain, you see-" You replied, a smile behind your voice, but his trained ears could pick up the slight frustration. It made Simon smile.

"Oh, then, I'm sorry for interrupting you, sweet'art, please go ahead." He replied and gestured with his spoon, as if giving you the stage, unnecessarily so, because you were not there to watch it.

"As I was saying... You were entered automatically into the draw by buying a cereal box of any Kellog's cereal at Tesco. I'm sure you saw a 'Win a free cruise!' sticker on yours?" You asked in a professional and sickly-sweet tone.

He could see right through your scam, he had already done that. You name a famous brand, one people trust, to trick naive or impressionable ones into believing you...

Normal people would tell you they no longer have the cereal box, many of them naive enough to believe your scam despite the fact they hadn't even bought one of those boxes in the first place...

Next, you'd ask for the card used to make the purchase, and some people were dumb enough to read their number aloud to you...

Oh, how he hated scammers. Even more than telemarketers.

"I do remember seeing something like that..." He murmured, his voice deepening, before he popped another spoonful of yogurt past his lips, loudly smacking them right against the receiver of his jitterbug.

"Well, all I need is for you to get the box and read me the code that's imprinted on the inside of the flap!" You announced.

"Well, you see, I would, sweet'art... But my sight isn't so good anymore..." Simon replied. "I'm getting up there in age, you know?" He continued eating his yogurt.

"I understand, sir." You replied. "I'm sorry to hear that. One of my cousins also started losing his vision pretty early." You announced.

Huh.

There was no hint of forced sympathy in your voice.

No, you were being genuine. That was a real story of your life you were telling him...

But you had picked up on the fact he was trolling you, right? So why were you-

"Good thing though, about this system of ours, is that you can just confirm your credit card details so we can double check them and get you that prize!" You had, your tone right back to the scamming silver-tongue you had held until now.

Secretly, Simon had to admit that he admired your commitment to the bit. He couldn't help but smile a bit, amused.

"Oh, of course. Let me just set you down while I get my card." Simon replied and got up, finishing his yogurt and tossing out the plastic container, popping the spoon into the sink, and, after setting down his phone, he walked out of the room.

Simon glanced down at his wrist watch, noting the time on it, then, approached his bedroom door, grabbing his over-the-door pull-up bars, and began doing a quick set, leaving you to 'wait' for him in the kitchen.

After a few sets, he waltzed back into the kitchen and grabbed his phone again. "You still there, da'lin'?" He beckoned in a gruff tone.

You sighed, your politeness sounding slightly more forced. He had kept you waiting for over ten minutes after all. "Yes, sir, I am. Did you get your card, Mr. Wanh'a?"

"Oh, please, enough of this 'sir' thing, Mr. Wanh'a was my mother." He replied, then went silent for just a beat, almost like he could hear your frustration sizzling on he other end.

He was being more and more obvious with his trolling... And it pleased him immensely to imagine a parasite like you seething on the other end of the line, reaching your wits' end.

"You can just call me 'Ai', it's what my friends call me." Simon continued, a smirk forming on his lips. "And we're friends now, right? You're giving me a cruise and everythin'." He added, his tone just as charismatic and peppy as his had been.

"I guess we are!" You replied, returning the overly cheery tone. "So, 'Ai Wanh'a', then?" You asked, but he could hear the mix of frustration and amusement behind your voice.

"Yeah? What d'you want, babygirl?" Simon asked, unable to resist making a more impish remark. And, unfortunately, it had the desired result. It genuinely caused your brain to blue-screen for a moment.

Sure, you'd experienced plenty of people getting angry at you when you attempt to scam them, or even trolling you the same way this bloke was doing but...

It was definitely a first, to have someone flirt with you, even if it was still part of his trolling attempt.

"Your... credit card details?" You ended up adding, your voice still showing the surprise and light meekness that came from him catching you off-guard.

"Oh, of course. Are you ready? It's a very complex number." He replied.

"Ready when you are." You added as you steeled yourself for another smartass response or run around from him.

"Here it is: 1234-5678-9987-6543." He replied, reciting the numbers 1-9 in order and then backward. "And the three digits on the back are: 210."

Oh, he was so fucking annoying! He didn't get to troll you, even if it was pretty amusing of him to do so, then flirt with you, then go back to trolling.

"Sir, if you're not interested in the cruise, just say so. There's no need for this mockery." You replied, your tone serious and professional though you were definitely seething on the inside.

Simon could tell. And he reveled in it. "Oh, but I am interested!" He replied with a smirk behind his voice. "In fact, I want to know more. Will my cabin in the cruise have an ocean view?"

Simon heard you inhale aggressively on the other side of the line, steeling yourself not to hang up on him, or down right berating him on the phone. "Yes, Ai, of course!" He heard your fake cheeriness through your clenched teeth. "It'll be a luxury cabin, actually. Isn't that great?"

"No, it's not that great, actually. I get very seasick, you see?" Simon murmured. "Not to mention, ever since my pet goldfish died, I've just never been able to look at the ocean the same..." He added in a forced pitiful tone.

You went quiet again on the other side and Simon knew he had finally worn you out. He waited to hear the clicking sound of the call falling, but, instead, he just heard you let out a sigh.

"You're very frustrating." You murmured.

"Oh, my, is this how you speak to all your prize winners?" Simon gasped dramatically.

"Shut up... You didn't have to be a smartass, you know?!" You scolded him, as if you had any ground to stand on.

"No, I fear I did, sweet'art." Simon replied as he leaned casually against the kitchen counter. "You called me, interrupted my day, and wasted my time with a scam, of all things. I have every right to be a smartass and have some fun with it." He added, a smug tone obvious in the dulcets of his deep voice.

"Okay? You could've just hung up on me?" You were truly grasping at straws to justify your behaviour. It was comical.

Simon laughed dryly. "And waste an opportunity to annoy a parasitic leech like you?" He quipped.

That stunned you into silence for a moment and you couldn't help but pout a bit.

"Not to mention, what you're doing is illegal, you know that righ'? And I'm military, I could get you arrested for this." He added.

"For that, you'd need to know where I am." You retorted, maybe a bit bratilly. "Besides, I knew you were a soldier."

"And how did you know that?"

"You used the NATO phonetic alphabet while spelling 'your' name'." You replied directly. "Nobody spells 'Aiden' as 'Alpha-India-Delta-Echo-November'."

"So you knew I was military and you still went ahead with your little scam attempt? You're not that bright, are you?" He defied you, which earned him a scoff from your end.

"No, I already knew you were trolling me."

"Oh, so you just wanted to waste my time?"

"That's exactly it, Aiden."

"Sounds to me like you're just looking for trouble, da'lin'." He quipped, his voice having lowered to a gruffer tone.

Rolling your eyes, you scoffed. "Am not. I'm just enjoying myself. You're not the only one that can make jokes at people's expenses."

"No, you really are..." He tutted his tongue and shook his head. "Need I remind you you were trying to scam me, and other people?" He added in a tone that sent a shiver down your spine.

"I know what I was doing."

"Yeah? And are you proud of that? Proud of being a conniving little cunt who tries to take people's hard-earned money?" He taunted you.

You didn't reply. Of course you weren't proud. You still had a conscience! But you wouldn't tell him that. He wouldn't get the satisfaction of hearing you apologise.

"I see. You don't like what I'm saying, so you give me the silent treatment, is that it, sweet'art?" He teased. You could hear the smirk behind his words.

"I wonder if you'd still act like this if you had to face me and had to answer for yourself."

Closing your fists tight, you steel yourself again to gain some edge and reply to him. "I guess you're going to keep wondering then. Because it's not happening."

"You know, it's a shame your little computer spat out my phone number for you to call..." He trailed off.

"And why's that?"

"Because instead of anyone else, you got me... And that's just... really bad luck for you. Any other service member, you would've been fine..." He trailed off.

"What, are you some sort of General-Major-Chief thing, super high up the ladder?" You taunted.

Simon simply chuckled dryly on the other side of the line. "No. But I'm definitely the worst person you could've tried to play with."

"Oh, big scary man, what are you gonna do? Gonna come teach me a lesson?" You added, taunting him some more, clearly feeling comfortable behind your laptop, with your smartphone, sitting at home, comfortable and warm, with your pet at your feet. "Oh, I'm so scared!" You added, feigning fear in a dramatic tone.

"Is that a challenge I'm hearing, sweet'art? Inviting me to come pay you a visit?" Simon asked you, his brow cocking, despite the fact you couldn't see it.

You don't know what it was about the way he spoke. The way he said that. The way his voice sounded.

It sent a shiver down your spine, a cold sweat, like he was, for the first time, not joking around anymore.

"No...?" You murmured in reply, feeling your shoulders tensing in an unpleasant way.

"Yeah... That's an invite I'm hearing..." He disregarded what you said and chuckled. "Maybe I'll come pay you a visit then, hey? How does that sound, little leech?"

[cleolinda]

Phone scam gothic

So my mom sits down and starts telling me about two weird-ass phone calls she had today—she was returning a missed call, and the woman who answered just… sobbed for a minute. I’m sitting here asking, like, a whole minute? Nothing else, just sobbing? Who did you THINK you were calling back?

“United Healthcare, they have my Medicare plan. They’ve been calling me for weeks without leaving any voicemail.”

(Are you sure it was United Healthcare? “It was the same number that’s on my card, I checked, and that’s who the caller ID said it was.”)

Are you sure it was a whole minute? Did YOU say anything?

“Yes, like sixty seconds while I kept going ‘Hello? Hello?’ It sounded like she was having a nervous breakdown, I kept waiting to see if she’d tell me what was even wrong. Finally I just hung up.”

And then my mom turned right around and called back again, because she was gonna get to the bottom of this.

This time she got a different woman, perfectly calm, who wanted to set up “your in-home direct patient care home health visit.”

At this point (at this point?) I’m staring, because no one here currently has anyone coming to the house to help with any kind of medical care. My mom might honestly be the healthiest member of the household, but even I don’t use any home services, herniated discs and all. “Did they have you… confused with someone else?”

“No, she repeated my full name and phone number back to me.”

This lady then started ARGUING with my mother. Why don’t you want us to come to your house to manage your direct patient care? Don’t you need home health care to be managed? Why don’t you need home health care? Why would you not want home health care? “I JUST KIND OF HAVE HIGH CHOLESTEROL?” But don’t you want us to manage your home health care? “WHY DO YOU NEED TO COME TO MY HOUSE TO MANAGE HEALTH CARE I DON’T USE?”

My mom finally hung up on this lady as well, without giving her any real information.

The more we talked about it, the more things we started to notice:

I was incredibly creeped out by the unsolicited use of the word “manage,” for some reason. Very sinister “write me into your will” vibes for some reason—I don’t know what these people want, but they’re gonna get you to sign something over.

My mom got especially stuck on “WHY DO YOU NEED TO COME TO MY HOUSE?!”

My mom has used home health services before… years ago, before she was on Medicare. But this company wouldn’t know about that. However, if you’re on Medicare, you’re over 65. Having not ever dealt with my mother before, someone calling a Medicare user might be playing the odds that a person over 65 is 1) in frail health and 2) old enough to get easily confused.

Fair play to my mom, she’s the one who thought of number spoofing. I’m so busy not answering the phone ever and arranging all my medical communications to happen through passworded portals that I didn’t think of it.

Hey, are you guys, like… holding someone hostage…?

So at this point, I google “United Healthcare scam.”

The “health insurance counselor”

This fraudster will offer help navigating the health insurance marketplace for a fee, capitalizing on people’s confusion about the state-based health exchanges created through the Affordable Care Act.

What to know

This sort of assistance is indeed available and is legitimate, but the people who offer it – also known as “navigators” – aren’t allowed to charge for their services. Also, remember that people with Medicare coverage don’t need to use the state health exchanges. The exchanges are for people under the age of 65, who are looking to enroll in an individual health plan.

Change “navigate” to “manage,” and I think this is it, although the lady on the phone never mentioned any fees. Either my mom didn’t let her get that far, or this is the point of actually getting into someone’s house: persuading them face-to-face to pay something, and potentially refusing to leave until the scammer has worn their target down.

Medicare does not make unsolicited phone calls.

Okay, so it was a scam no matter what it was about. As far as I’m concerned, my mom should contact Actual United Healthcare about it, and I’m here to spread the good word of Never Believing Anyone on the Phone 2k24. I don’t know what to tell you about the lady having the nervous breakdown though.

[deepdreamnights]

A British telecom company has made a generative AI bot that takes calls from scammers while impersonating a baffled old grandmother that tells meandering stories and goes on weird tangents to waste the scammers' time while also recording everything to get information on their operations.

This is, in a word, awesome.

[citrinegay]

don’t trust whatever you hear or see!!

you’ve received a call from SCAM LIKELY !!

[storm-driver]

i think the reason the axel shouting "two?!" scene gets memed on so much isn't just because the application of saying "two" is so wide. it's because the whole fucking scene prior is this tense confrontation, where Roxas whips two Keyblades outta nowhere and Axel doesnt have a fucking clue he could do that. Axel seeing Roxas suddenly use TWO keyblades was so baffling that all he could think to do was shout "TWO?!"

[brostateexam]

Credit card got pwned today

Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long

[resvarie]

I love your art style!!! It's so pretty!!💖💖

What hobby does your oc have?👀

AWUHEDJHEBRCHJER thank u so much ☺️

ami likes whittling! she likes making little wooden figurines (especially for friends) other than that, she is really interested in collecting old machinery and keeping an eye on that market, or simply cruising around in her ship

[rubberduckyrye]

Hey so like. I'm just gonna be real with all of you for a sec cause this popped up on my dash and I just want to warn everyone

If you get an ask from a blog that's got barely any posts begging for donations, stating that they are Palestine refugees in need of necessities that can only be obtained through financial means... it's 99.9% likely to be a scam.

A real person in need wouldn't be turning to tumblr for financial aid--they would be looking to other programs and social media websites, or especially the reddit dedicated to donation drives, and not tumblr which has no way to promote a successful donation drive other than "word of mouth" (reblogs)

Also, they would probably be looking for food, water, and shelter--not necessarily financial resources at this time.

I know it sucks that these people are weaponizing the war and using your empathy to steal from you, especially when you can't ever be 100% sure the asker is a scammer or a real person who maybe doesn't know there are better websites to ask... but it's better to donate to places you KNOW are legitimate rather than give some greedy bastard your money to run off with.

Please, PLEASE be careful when you click on links and answer/reblog those asks.

[blot-squisher]

I just answered a spam/scam call with, “Bubba’s morgue and grill. You kill ‘em we grill ‘em. Who may I serve you today?”

They hung up immediately.

[notquiteaghost]

yday while buying the hifi system the guy serving me said "oh yeah you can't do contactless it's over the limit" and i said "yeah even if it wasn't i'd put my pin in anyway my bank are SO paranoid" n he went "oh?" n i said "one time i made an online payment and they stopped my card yeah" which! they haven't done in months!!

and i just bought moon colony bloodbath right. via bandcamp, a reputable company who i have given money before. and then i checked my phone and what did i see! but a notification from my bank that they have stopped my card and do i recognise this payment! it was a FIVER. to BANDCAMP.

[mangocheesecakes]

Now that I've found the connection between Laura Deramas and scammer amongsts/amongstss, as I said in the post, I'm now going to talk again about Laura and the scammer sheeyancjoje.

This is just additional proof that I think would help settle anyone's doubts regarding sheeyanc being another Laura Deramas scam, as user neechees has already made a well-detailed post about it, and explained it all better than I ever could, with relevant screenshots, comparisons, and even a map of Matina Town Square, and I really don't think that anyone who's read that post would still question its claims.

But on the video and subsequent posts she made on her short-lived new blog, Laura still strongly denied that she was in any way connected to sheeyanc. She was outraged at neechees and I for associating her name with sheeyancjoje, and claimed that "she had never even been to that place (referring to the photo of Matina Town Square that was sheeyanc's banner)" and that "Davao City is so big". She called me a liar and started demanding I show "the video I said that was hers" despite the fact that I hadn't mentioned any video of hers at this point aside from the apology video she posted herself:

So in the interest of countering Laura's claims and showing just how big of a liar she is, here is that video at last. Below it is sheeyanc's banner photo for comparison.

This video was posted by one Paul John Maquiling Daguan on Facebook on July 6, but it is no longer viewable on his profile now. Paul John is Laura Deramas' partner. The video looks to have been taken by Laura and Paul John's son (I have censored his face with an emoji), and as you can see, the place being shown outside the car is Matina Town Square. Not only that, but the angle and position from where it was shot is identical to the photo on sheeyanc's banner. Given the same white car on the corner the clouds and the coconut leaves at the upper right part of the frame, sheeyancjoje's banner pic could only have been taken at the same time and place where Laura's son took this video. It could be that their son was using either Paul John or Laura's phone, but either way is solid evidence that sheeyancjoje was Laura's account or at least ran by someone very close to her, as the photo could only have come from the same phone that was used to take her son's video.

(And before Laura tries to counter this with "someone is stalking me and copying what i post to make me look bad" which she is already trying to do in her post that I showed above, note that the photo could not have been a screenshot, given how it's zoomed out and clearer than what can be seen in the video. I also did not find this picture in any of their public posts on Facebook.)

[spotlees-trash]

MISS BELOVED

I’m so late but idc

[acewithapaintbrush]

I hate being an anxious "always waiting for the other shoe to drop, always considering the worst case scenario" type of person cause that means even though I didn't give the guy in front of my door who was claiming to be my gas provider any signature or infos that he didn't already have and even though I won't know if it was a scammer before I can call the provider tomorrow I am now convinced that I'll be robbed blind tomorrow and a complete emotional mess

[cadrenebula]

I got a delicious pair of "What ifs" to answer this weekend. (One born to a different life and one death to protect a loved one. But I'll gladly accept other ideas if anyone has any to tempt the brain worms with.) Just give me a couple days cause a irl situation has me running on fumes. ❤

[awesomecooperlove]

🆘🆘🆘

https://t.me/fed_vet21. JUST recd from a very reliable friend.

*Extremely Urgent ...*

Please pass this message to your family and friends NOW.

People have been receiving calls from

Tel: +375602605281

Tel: +37127913091

Tel: +37178565072

Tel: +56322553736

Tel: +37052529259

Tel: +255901130460

or any number starting from *+371 +375 +381*

These guys only ring once and hang up.

If you call back,they can copy your contact list in 3sec and if you have a bank or credit card details on your phone, they can copy that too...

+375 code is for Belarus.

+371 code is for Lativa.

+381 Serbia.

+563 Valparaiso.

+370 Vilnius.

+255 Tanzania.

*Don't answer* or *Call back.*

Also, Don't Press

*#90 or #09*

on your Mobile when asked by any caller.

It's a new trick which is use to access your SIM card, make calls at your expense and frame you as a criminal.

*URGENTLY FORWARD* this message to as many friends as you can to stop any intrusion!!

[bcbdrums]

PayPal: We're closing your case because you didn't provide any evidence by Dec. 8.

The evidence I provided on Nov. 30:

Me @PayPal: Did you review my evidence??? *explains entire thing*

PayPal: So is this a customized artwork?

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

SO, THE CASE WAS RE-OPENED...

I WON.

Should I tell PayPal about their multiple accounts, which violates their terms of service? Maybe?

But before I end this horrible saga, I must thank @midnightcaptions because she's the one who annotated all of those PM's for me to provide as evidence. I just didn't have that kind of time myself due to work.

She also dug deep and found all their other blogs where they scam from (ask me for usernames if you wanna block). She proved they're all the same person even though they deny it, and found more of their scams such as trying to sell other people's art off Furaffinity as their own adoptables.

So, yeah. I couldn't have won the case without her. She was invaluable, words can't express my thanks enough. 💗💗💗