Some Telemarketing scams to avoid and tips of how turn them in

The economic decline has brought the worst in all types of scammers, especially telemarketing scams. Anywhere from over charging for products promised over the phone to out right theft. Surprisingly a not so new old telemarketing scam has come back but with a new twist.

Example one: Someone from a foreign country calls you and claims you won the lottery there. How exciting for you, you money troubles are over right? Not so fast. This is a take from the ever so famous lottery email scam. You won the lottery in Nigeria, England, Canada, Jamaica but in order to process the claim you the lucky recipient needs to send an x amount of money via western union to pay for processing the winning claim. Only this time it's over the phone and the scammers are targeting older people. Same deal different way of delivering the message.

The Federal Trade commission in May of 2009 reported an uptick in fraudulent telemarketing calls from Jamaica concerning fake foreign lottery winnings. Why do foreign fraudsters target the US? Simple, they think they can get away with it. It's a scam that happens outside of the US so can't be tracked or prosecuted by the victim of the US government, right? Not so fast. The US government has been working with the Jamaican government on a project called JOLT (Jamaican Operations Linked to Telemarketing). They've been sharing information and evidence to shut down these operations. If only other countries were so willing to work with the US to help stop the fraud that is done to US citizens.

Example Two: You get a call from your credit card security department saying they are contacting you to confirm if you recently made a charge on your card. They say the amount you say no you didn't charge that, they say they will reverse the charge but they need to confirm the 3 or 4 digit security code on the back of your card. They may even sound reassuring like don't worry we already have your contact information and your credit card number but we need to confirm that you still have possession of the card.

These scammers already have your credit card information but they need the security code to start using your card. Don't give it. Don't confirm anything, as a matter of fact ask them for a number to call them back at. Then call the 1-800 number on your card not the one they gave you and tell your credit card company. Have your card flagged or even canceled.

Telemarketing scams don't just stop at fake lottery winnings or fake security calls. There are fake prizes, fake charities, fake money recovery companies, fake products for sale, fake services, fake memberships, false claims of receiving discounts for prescriptions the list can go on. Take some of these companies recently busted for telemarketing fraud:

DataCom Marketing Inc. based in Canada contacted US and Canadian business owners claiming they were updating business information for their directory and they had previously done business with someone in the past from that office. A few weeks later the business would get a bill for a directory they never ordered and would never see.

CSTR Solutions Inc. and Genesis Capital Management based in Orlando, Florida — and a Tacoma, Wash.-based firm, Mutual Consolidated Savings. Making false claims to consumers about lowering their credit card interest rates for a fee. Refusing to refund fees charged when the interest rates were not lowered and making false claims of being affiliated with credit card companies.

Landmark Publishing Group, Grant Writers Institute, Apex Holdings International and Real Estate Buyers Financial Network based in Kansas. Called consumers offering to sell them various government grant books for $69 along with the secrets to get the grants. The grants listed in the books never existed.


We all the know the easiest way to avoid telemarketing scams is to hang up. But here are some tips to try and protect yourself even more.


1. Questions. A scammer gets nervous when you start asking questions. So, don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you want. Some questions to ask: What is the name of the company? What is the address of the company? Who is the president/CEO/Owner of the company? If they get rude hang up.

2. Lottery scam? Ask some probing question. Like what providence did you win the lottery in? What is the name of the lottery commission? If they provide any western union information write it down and then turn them in to the Federal Trade Commission, also call up Western Union let them know to flag that information as being used by scammers. Website for the FTC www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
website for Western Union www.westernunion.com or call Western Union to let them know 1-800-325-6000.

3. Fake charity? Ask what state they are in? What is the address of the charity? If they ask why say so you can send a money order instead or tell them straight out you are going to the Better Business Bureau web site to check them out. Even though scammer on the other end will say they are legit never take them at their word and if they get nasty or less then friendly hang up and contact your Attorney Generals office with the information you do have.

4. Offering fake services, fake products, or a prize that needs your credit card verification to receive? Never give your credit card information out to anyone you don't know. This cannot be stressed enough.

5. Most foreign telemarketing calls will appear on your caller ID as blocked or as coming from your area code don't be fooled. There is internet phone software out which allows people to make phone calls over the internet and identify themselves as being within an area code they are no where near. If the person on the other end is hesitant to give out information, gives out address information that doesn't match the area code they are calling from or says they can only take money via western union or credit card they are a scam, hang up.

6. Telemarketing Phishing attempts. Telemarketer calls up and starts asking you to verify your ID. Don't give it, the only time you should be giving any personal information over the phone is if you initiated the phone call and you know the person or business you are calling.

7. If at anytime you become uncomfortable hang up the phone. Don't bother to say goodbye or I have to go, that is only a prompt for them to keep you on the phone. Just hang up and don't answer if they call back.

8. You get a call from a company you've never heard of wanting to confirm your order. They start asking you questions. Interrupt them if the telemarketer continues to talk hang up. If they ask to confirm your credit card tell them to cancel the order if they claim they need to confirm your credit card number to cancel the order don't give it to them. Tell them since they can't confirm the order then they should not send it therefore it will be canceled. If they continue to call you ask for the company name, address and phone number to call. But never give them any information don't confirm your name, address, or phone number. Turn them into the Attorney Generals office in your state or the Federal Trade Commission.

9. Fake services? Ask for the offer in writing. Anyone company who is legit will send their offer in writing.

10. Never say "Yes" during a telemarketing call to any question asked to you. That answer can be used as voice confirmation for anything from changing your phone service without your knowledge or signing up for a membership you never knew about.

11. Don't think turning information into the authorities is enough? Well then go on the internet look them up. Turn their information over to sites like mine or websites like www.ripoff.com. The more outlets that get the word out the quicker these scammers have to go hide somewhere else.

XOMBA is a scam reposted

XOMBA is a scam! repost thanks to someone who put some coding in their response which almost rendered my blog inoperable. No doubt someone who wanted to try and shut my blog down, nice try but didn't work. Comments were saved and are below the posting.

Here is how Xomba is supposed to work. You sign up with them and give your AdSense account number to them. They use it in conjunction with theirs, they supply the site and you supply the post that will generate AdSense revenue. The profit is supposed to be split 50/50.

I use to have an account with them I won a contest that was supposed to have a cash prize. After I won the contest my account was suspended. They claimed I plagiarized and took three of my post off the site. Two post were Movie and TV reviews which I had written posted at Xomba and my own blog. Another post was an original work which I wrote specifically for the Xomba site about letterboxing, it was not published anywhere else yet David claimed it was plagiarized. I’ve asked both David and Nick for proof of the claim because I’ve submitted proof that I didn’t plagiarize. I have not heard from either one of them regarding their proof all Nick said was he would talk to David about it. Funny thing is they've kept my other posts up, the ones that are generating revenue.

So, what happens is once you start generating revenue or its possible Xomba owes you a cash prize and you are not one of their regulars they will ban your account for no legitimate reason so all the revenue from your post goes to them and it doesn't get shared. If you happen to get your account back it will be days later, so you will lose days worth of revenue while they profit from your hard work.

It looks like if you are one their regulars you get to "stay" because the profit is so big for them it doesn't matter if they are sharing, but if you aren't then they will ban your account keep your post up and earn whatever revenue they can milk off it.

Comments reposted:

Thunder Chick said...

The jury is still out on this one. After a few rounds of going back and forth my account was reinstated but blocked again and reinstated after David left. I am not sure if there was a power struggle going on with them but according to Nick my account is good to go.

I haven't decided if I am going to go back to them. I might decide to go elsewhere. It's a real shame, I feel like my account was caught in the middle of something but there is not guarantee it won't happen again.
November 28, 2007 7:20 AM

Whit Bell said...

I complained in a Xombyte about there being no working link from my profile to my Xombytes, and so now I've been blocked. I'm with you. Seems like a scam. Here is a link to another complaint article by Allison West on October 3, 2008.
http://www.writinghood.com/Online-Writing/Can-You-Make-Money-Writing-for-Xomba.283191
January 11, 2009 1:18 PM

Allison said...

I am Allison West, and I wouldn't call my first review article about Xomba a "complaint article." Nor did I ever mention or imply that Xomba was a scam. I'm not really comfortable having my article mentioned on a page calling Xomba a scam, because I'm now a big Xomba fan. This was my first article I wrote about Xomba when I was first getting started. It took some time to build, but I'm about to receive my third check for my Xomba writings. Xomba is such a legitimate opportunity that I'm going to focus all my writing efforts with them this summer, just so I can build more revenue during this tough economy. I can't make as much money at other sites I work for, in fact I now make more on Xomba in one day than I do in a whole month on some other writing sites!
Go to Triond.com and look for author "Allison West", and read ALL my articles about Xomba, you'll see my views on the matter.
BTW: There was the problem of my Xombytes not linking to my user profile, and I do notice this issue on some other user profiles too. I mainly post Xomblurbs so this hasn't been a big deal for me afterall, and I still make a lot of money on Xomba! I highly recommend the site.
May 29, 2009 2:13 PM

Barrudaki said...

Hello Alison,

Thank you for clearing a few things up. However, there are other people out there who have been wronged by Xomba. I am glad they decided to recognize your work and not try to steal from you. I also know David B aka Idlewild contacted you to try and put a bad name on my blog. I do have a comment from him that I deleted because of his unsavory comments toward you. I am sure he probabaly didn't mention that to you or only mentioned the good parts.

There is more than one person who thinks Xomba is a scam and I urge you to not discreet them because they have had an less than gleaming experience like you.
May 29, 2009 7:33 PM

Barrudaki said...

Also Alison a link to your post was placed here by someone commenting on the post not by me. I didn't reject the comment because they had their own bad experience with Xomba.
May 29, 2009 7:39 PM
Anonymous said...

I had similar problem when writing content for Xomba! I would post a lot of articles on their site and once they were up and running for a while, my adsense ads would suddenly stop appearing on my posts half of the time. This is what happens when they make the adsense stopping working for the author but still keeps running for the 50% revenue the site gets. So they basically went into my adsense info in the Xomba profile and literally sabotaged it, so that my part of the ad-revenue would not accumulate.
I confirmed this to be the case when I saw it happening, by creating "channels" on my adsense account, listing my xomba article links. When the ads stopped on my pages at xomba, I saw on the channels where every one of them noted "not found", meaning my adsence ID was taken off of them.
Strangely, when I considered what might have caused them to pull this dirty trick on me, the only thing I could figure out is that they were not happy with the series of religious articles I had been posting at that time. This despite the fact they have a "religion and beliefs" category. The articles were from Biblical creation viewpoint but disagreeing with them, should NEVER have resulted in their cutting off my part of the adsense revenue. They used the excuse that my adsense ID number had somehow mysteriously shifted out of place in my profile. I actually tested them by bringing up my adsense ID, to see if they would follow that lead and claim that's where the problem was and that's exactly what they did. To this day, I honestly believe they used cutting off my ads, as a punishment method, a penalization if you will because they knew they could not censor me outright. You may be asking "You don't really believe this is what they were doing, do you?" and I would answer that I absolutely believe this is exactly what they did.
I had a very similar experience with them months previous to this and only came back because I needed to give them the benefit of the doubt.
In summation, xomba is apparently run by a young fellow who is using these type methods as reprisal toward members there that do something that rubs him the wrong way. That's as low class as it gets and it will eventually catch up with him. As for me, I have no grudge against xomba or it's owner and am simply continuing going the directions I like to go. I hope he wakes up and matures in his administrative methods, so that more sincere contributors are not degraded in their efforts. The members after all, are the lifeblood of content sites and are actually doing the bigger favor in making the site a financial and traffic success. (Sorry post was longer than I intended)
June 10, 2009 1:28 PM