[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Any suggestions. This is really annoying.

Firstly, find a call blocker. Truecaller can block calls. The new Google dialer also can block calls. Then keep blocking the calls based on number. There is a one time pain, but hopefully there are few numbers and all calls coming from those few numbers

[saisree]

This is an email I got recently. I’m shocked to see the amount involved and my 70% share.
May God bless this poor guy giving away profits.


I’m eager to know what is that Oil which is bought at 13,890$ a litre.

G r e e t i n g s

My name is Maj. Walter Johnson, an American Army, currently in Syria for peacekeeping duty. I wish to let you know about a business of supplying Pharmaceutical active ingredients from India to an American company, I have done this business with an Indian partner until last when I lost him.

There is an active raw ingredients oil, which I supplied to the American company from India through an Indian partner. Right now I am in Syria for a peacekeeping mission, secondly the Coronavirus problem, so I cannot execute the business by myself hence I'm seeking your partnership, the Director of the American company has asked me for the contact of the India dealer to enable them to contact them for the supply. Because of the Corona-Virus pandemic, they told me that they cannot send their Manager to India, but they will send money to their agent in the American Embassy in India so that he can get the product from the seller and make payment. Afterwards, the agent will courier the product to America through their freight agent. Last year the American Company sent their purchase manager to India, but due to the recent global pandemic Corona Virus Threat, the American Company opted to send money to the agent to get the product and cargo to them to American.

I do not wish to give the American company's Managing Director or Chief Purchase Officer, the contact of the Indian Seller, because of my profit in the business, I normally made good profits and it was too encouraging to give away, I intended to present you as the Indian vendor to the American company (That means that you will stand as a middle person between the American company and original Indian vendor) so that the American company will not know the source and real cost of the stuff.

The Original Indian vendor is selling the material at the cost of 4,370USD Per Litre, while the American company buys at the cost of 13,890USD Per Litre. The Company normally demands between 1000- 1500 Litres every three months. I will convince the American company to buy the material from you. We will get the material from the Indian vendor and supply it to the American company through their agent over there in India.

Your duty will be to get the material from the local dealer and supply to the American Company then we (you and I ) will share the profit made on the basis of 70% for you and 30% for me.

Your role must be played perfectly and the least I will expect from you is betrayal. Again, I don’t want the American company to know the real cost or source of the product, likewise I don't want the Indian vendor to know about the American company.


A w a i t i n g your response

Maj. Walter Johnson

[ajayc123]

Originally Posted by saisree

This is an email I got recently. I’m shocked to see the amount involved and my 70% share.
May God bless this poor guy giving away profits.


I’m eager to know what is that Oil which is bought at 13,890$ a litre.

Ha Ha! Snake Oil can sell at any price.

[androdev]

Off late, I started getting a lot of phone calls with recorded voice messages for marketing/promotions from the likes of Airtel, RazorPay, bunch of Govt departments, etc.

I called 1909 that took me to Airtel support who after registering all the details closed my case after few days stating that the “Call reported was found to be service in nature”. To rub salt on the wounds, Airtel started sending me SMS to register for DND (which I already did) with a link that takes me to the AppStore to download their diabolically named Airtel Thanks app.

I don’t want to install Truecaller app if I can help it as I guess they will dump my contacts in their public database.

Any suggestions?

[deepak_misra]

Originally Posted by androdev

Off late, I started getting a lot of phone calls with recorded voice messages for marketing/promotions from the likes of Airtel, RazorPay, bunch of Govt departments, etc.

I called 1909 that took me to Airtel support who after registering all the details closed my case after few days stating that the “Call reported was found to be service in nature”. To rub salt on the wounds, Airtel started sending me SMS to register for DND (which I already did) with a link that takes me to the AppStore to download their diabolically named Airtel Thanks app.

I don’t want to install Truecaller app if I can help it as I guess they will dump my contacts in their public database.

Any suggestions?

I am getting fedup with the number of spam calls and have started complaining for everyone at https://www.airtel.in/airtel-dnd
It hardly takes a minute and is much faster than talking to someone at customer care. If you are registered on DND most registered telemarketers dont call you but unregistered ones do. In all cases I have got a sms saying that the unregistered telemarketers phone has been restricted for a month in terms of allowing calls.
I noticed something last week when one of my merchants called me and started with "This is not a marketing call but we wanted to get feedback on service". Having said that, they tried to sell some products.
Anyway I would urge everyone to start reporting disturbances. It is really becoming a menace

[am1m]

Originally Posted by androdev

...Airtel started sending me SMS to register for DND (which I already did) with a link that takes me to the AppStore to download their diabolically named Airtel Thanks app.

Originally Posted by deepak_misra

Anyway I would urge everyone to start reporting disturbances. It is really becoming a menace

I used to do both- registered with the Government DND registry and also used to send individual complaints. Worked for some time, for a long period I never got bothered by calls. But suddenly the telemarketing calls are on the rise again. Thought I needed to refresh my registration on the DND registry and tried that, but still get at least 2 calls a day. Now I just block the numbers, but these guys have numerous operators. Biggest offender is Bajaj Finance!

And yes, Airtel pushes you to their stupid Thanks app, which I consider spam in itself!

The issue starts when we give our number at all these retail and delivery/restaurant outlets/apps. Most of them sell data to telemarketers.

[Amrik Singh]

The latest I got was an Audio message on WhatsApp, in Hindi, claiming to be from WhatsApp Office in New Delhi. It was giving me a Lucky Prize.
Most important : The message was from a number with country code 092.
Any one who may fall for this scam, does not need any sympathy.

[bivision]

Originally Posted by androdev

I don’t want to install Truecaller app if I can help it as I guess they will dump my contacts in their public database.

I don't understand why Truecaller is not banned for blatantly violating privacy. We had an embarrassing situation, where a close relative's nickname/petname got exposed to someone who is not supposed to know it. Since we have this tradition in India to keep a petname/nickname that is used only in close family circle, and official name is used outside. And her name was saved in relatives' phones using the nickname, and Truecaller showed it to others.

[Holyghost]

Originally Posted by bivision

I don't understand why Truecaller is not banned for blatantly violating privacy. We had an embarrassing situation, where a close relative's nickname/petname got exposed to someone who is not supposed to know it. Since we have this tradition in India to keep a petname/nickname that is used only in close family circle, and official name is used outside. And her name was saved in relatives' phones using the nickname, and Truecaller showed it to others.

You can remove your number from the Truecaller database. I did this a few years back.
https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting

[binand]

Originally Posted by bivision

I don't understand why Truecaller is not banned for blatantly violating privacy.

Didn't you voluntarily give the app permissions to access your contacts database? Why are we seeking government overreach (ban) for every problem?

Originally Posted by Holyghost

You can remove your number from the Truecaller database. I did this a few years back.
https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting

I've also done this. But I think once you do this, they don't allow you to use their service? In other words, allowing them to list you in their database is a necessary condition to take advantage of the service? Maybe I'm wrong.

I keep a throwaway Gmail account with zero contacts so that I can verify some of the numbers that call me. I don't install their app - the Google dialler nowadays works quite fine for me.

[anjan_c2007]

Despite so many, many Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) guidelines, court judgments and other enforcement agencies of the government at work, these fake, fraud, scam calls continue unabated.

The best remedy I have found is to have two (or more) separate mobile phones. The SIM card of the mobile number one has recorded with aadhar no creators (UIDAI), banks, post offices and government, semi government and also private agencies should as a rule be in a separate phone. Unless sometimes required to be carried along (which is once in a while only), this phone could be left at home, switching off data/internet to conserve its battery. This phone of mine regularly gets calls from fraudsters who feel let down when the phone keeps ringing continuously with no one answering. Blocking is futile as by the time we block 100, 20,000 more SIM's are created by them instantaneously.

The other phone/s whose number is known only to your family members and close contacts, can be carried to work or elsewhere. This is working only too well for me in all respects since the past one and a half year.

The fraudsters, cheats and scammers get all their contact list for gullible targets through the "shaky and sometimes corrupt entities" to whom we divulge our contact numbers.

The fraudsters mantra is "as long as fools are alive, we crooks will get fatter and won't die hungry."

[bivision]

Originally Posted by binand

Didn't you voluntarily give the app permissions to access your contacts database? Why are we seeking government overreach (ban) for every problem?

The problem is, I or the affected person didn't use the app. It is the person who used the app consented to share his contact list, without the consent from the contacts themselves. I even didn't know of this app, until that issue came to our notice.
How else do you expect to address this, without questioning this shady approach by the app? At least the app should send an SMS asking consent from each contact they are adding in their database. Otherwise, they must be held accountable for wrongdoing.

Originally Posted by Holyghost

You can remove your number from the Truecaller database. I did this a few years back.
https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting

Thanks, I will try this. Since I don't use this stupid app, I don't care if they don't allow me to use it if I remove my number from their database.

[luvDriving]

I was watching Jamtara season 2 last week and while watching an episode I received a call.

The caller claimed to be calling from a big bank and he informed me that my credit card was about to expire so I need to provide him some details so that he can prevent it from expiring.

I asked him to tell me the card number and he had no answer. Then I told him "arey scam karna hai toh theek se karo be" ! (if you want to scam then do it properly). Upon hearing this, he got very angry, dropped the choicest cuss words in hindi on me and cut the call. I had a hearty laugh.

The amount of scam calls have risen exponentially the past few months. I get at least 5-6 everyday and I keep blocking all these numbers.

[bivision]

Report on child safety and privacy issue in Truecaller -

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/94541350.cms

[DigitalOne]

This is not a post about fake or scam call, but something that's happened in the last few weeks.

My name is very common in India and I luckily got a gmail id with my name when Gmail was still invite-only. The flip side is that I get a lot of genuine emails like bank/credit card transactions/statements, where data-entry mistakes have been done by my namesakes. Unfortunately, the bank statements are password protected ().

But now, a random namesake has given my mail id in a matrimonial website called Bhovi matrimony. So tons of mail daily now about 'matches' or who showed interest in my profile .

Now, this website has so poor security and privacy that I can click on the link provided in the mail, it gets logged in and I get full access to the site, including to view prospect profiles, accept/reject or chat with the prospects . (Don't ask me why I clicked on links to a matrimony website!)

Anyway, now I have blocked the sender email and my problem is solved.

Just wanted to highlight the poor design of security and privacy in many websites, even sites like matrimonial sites where people post so much private information :( .