WARNING!

I just had two of the most frustrating days in my recent life. (As if self-quarantine for 16 weeks isn't bad enough!)

I want to tell you about it and also warn you to be careful. I myself was a bit too trusting at first.

To begin, I had a phone call two days ago. I should tell you that I never pick up my phone unless I know who is calling me. But this call, on my phone log, said it was coming from Spectrum, who gives me my TV, Internet and landline phone in a package. So I picked up the phone.

(I have since learned that ANYONE can change their name to make people think they are calling from somewhere else.)

OK. Phone call. Man on line, named Walter, told me he was calling from Spectrum. He said that I was paying a great deal of money for my service, (Which I am. Thank you, Spectrum! Sarcasm.) He said that he could offer me a far lower rate because  I was a long-time Spectrum customer. Gave me a really nice lower figure, so I asked him to go on. He asked me lots of questions about my service, including asking me for my full name and address. This surprised me. I asked him to check with Spectrum's main files and he would get all the info. 

He said he was from the Promo Department and it wasn't easy to access Spectrum's main files. I accepted this but was a bit concerned. The lower price was quite extreme, and he also said I would get a $100 gift card. Still, it sounded pretty good. (Stupid me---there are no free lunches! And I should be old enough to know that!)

He then went on to explain that a new cable box would be sent to me and that if I called him (number is 845-203-1475---make a note of that), he would walk me through installing the box.

He then asked for several things---my birth date, my drivers' license, and the specific services I was receiving from Spectrum TV. He sounded very thorough and official. He mentioned that AT&T would be supplying me with the new box. (Not being a techie---I am 86, remember---I assumed AT&T worked with Spectrum on TV service.)

He told me the new box would arrive in three days, and that I would be called before then to set up the delivery. He finally asked me for a credit card number, since I would have to pay for the Activation Charge of $20. I gave him my card number. We discussed the whole process a bit more and then I hung up.

But then I began to wonder. Why did he know so little about me and my service if I've been with Spectrum for ages?

I called Spectrum. They said they had no "Promo Department", the phone number Walter had given me was not connected to their company, and also that they did not deal with AT&T. 

I did two things immediately. I called my credit card company to see if anything had been charged against my card (it hadn't), and I had them put the card on hold. The second thing was to call Walter and tell him I was cancelling my order. He argued with me, tried to tempt me with the low price, etc. But I said that he had lied to me and I was cancelling. Told him I had frozen my credit card. At that point, I simply thought he was an over-ambitious AT&T salesman.

In the next day, I got half a dozen calls from that number, but the call log no longer said Spectrum, it listed a city or town somewhere in NY. I ignored those calls. 

But today, two days after, I decided to pick up the phone when they called again. The man on the other end said that they were delivering the box tomorrow. I said I had cancelled my order within two hours of first speaking to Walter. Again, he tried to tempt me with nice prices, but I said I didn't care. Walter had said he was Spectrum and he wasn't. And I didn't want to switch to AT&T. I told him if the box showed up at my door I would refuse to accept it. He said they would leave it outside my door. I said I would dump it and call my lawyer if they harassed me further.

I hung up. Called AT&T, meaning to complain about their aggressive salesmen. After going through hell trying to reach a supervisor (and having to summarize the whole damn story endlessly for every intermediary--oh for the days when we dealt DIRECTLY with real people at the outset!), I finally got a supervisor. Gave her my name, address, phone number. 

She said I was not in her system, which meant I was not being scammed by an AT&T salesman who wanted to get me to switch from Spectrum, but was being conned by an actual scam artist.

At this point, I called my local police. The detective I spoke to said that the phone number I gave her came up on a list of people who had already been scammed. She said that because of the info I had already given the con artists, my credit might already have been compromised. She advised me to call a credit advisory company and gave me a phone number to Trans Union. 

I spoke to them and they have put a lock on my credit and will send me my credit report for free. The lock means that if anyone tries to use the info I gave them to open a credit card, the application will be denied.

It has been a harrowing couple of days, and I'm glad I was wary enough to have responded to the situation, albeit later than I should have.

But if there is a Life Lesson, it's this. 

Keep your eyes open and mistrust anything that sounds too good.

And if you feel you have been made a fool of (which I was), don't be embarrassed by your stupidity and hide under a rock. 

Fight back!