I don’t usually answer unknown numbers. This time I did, and it turned into an unexpected masterclass in how modern phone scams actually work. Over three calls, I tied up one scammer for 65 minutes total: 34 minutes on the first call, 27 minutes on the second, and 4 minutes on the third...once I was tired of the act and clued him in. If they’re reading this now: yes! That was me. This post is a step‑by‑step playbook of their tricks, the thinly veiled legitimacy they tried to sell, and the red flags that prove it was a scam.
 |
| 34 Minutes of wasted time on their first call! |
The Setup: “We’re Sorry Your Service Has Been So Bad”
The first caller, Jason from AT&T — despite having a very thick foreign accent — asked how my service was. I told him it was awful, and then he launched into the sales pitch, offering a 30% discount on my entire bill (even on device payments) as compensation for the terrible service. He framed it as a loyalty and service-quality credit, not a promotion, which is meant to lower suspicion. That part sounded just plausible enough, well, other than a discount on device payments. Throughout the call, I constantly asked him to repeat himself because "you broke up a little,” not because it actually did. It was just one of my tactics to waste his time.
The Core of the Scam: The PIN Reset Trap
Before any talk of phones or upgrades, Jason tried something more subtle. He claimed AT&T needed to verify my account by sending me a code that I needed to read back to him. This was his attempt to reset my account passcode online. Not my password, the secondary account PIN AT&T employs for access to the part of your account that can make changes and order devices. You can pay your bill without it, but they aren’t interested in that, obviously.
I didn’t give him anything useful. Instead, I stalled deliberately, telling him I couldn’t read the codes clearly and needed to find my reading glasses (I have 20/20 vision). After "finding" them, I slowly read the codes back incorrectly — just close enough to sound believable. A 6 became a 5, or an 8 became a 0, or a 9 became a 4, etc. Close enough to sound plausible — wrong enough to never work. Enough to make it sound like I was trying… but never succeeding. This went on for several minutes while I kept feeding him wrong numbers, causing AT&T to reject each attempt. Once he had run out of attempts, I yelled into the phone, "Oh Crap! I’ve got to go! My cat's on fire again!" and I hung up.
I went to my local AT&T store after this because he already had a surprising amount of correct information about my account, including details I never volunteered, and I wanted to verify nothing had been purchased, changed, or upgraded on my account — essentially a sanity check before anything escalated further. The store confirmed everything was clean. Even if I had read the codes correctly, they would not have worked anyway because I have two-factor authentication on my account.
The Second Call: Enter..."The Manager”
Even after the way I had hung up earlier, they called back. On the drive home from the store, my phone rang again. This time, Jason didn’t waste time pretending. He put his “manager” on the phone almost immediately. The manager introduced himself as Joseph. Same heavy foreign accent, same script, more pressure. I told Joseph my service was terrible out on our property and that I needed a few minutes to walk back toward the house. He agreed and said he would call me back. More wasted time.
When he called back, the pressure started. Since the pin change didn't work for them earlier, the script changed completely. Joseph introduced an entirely new angle and the scam pivoted. They wanted me to go to the nearest store and purchase a phone of my choosing but not to activate it there. I was to call him back to activate it because, according to him, store salesmen work on commission and would charge me big money for the phone that he wanted to give me for free, just to make more commission.
This call lasted another 27 minutes — mostly because I asked calm, reasonable questions, said the call kept breaking up, asked him to repeat himself, and let them keep talking. They asked for my address, so I gave them 123 Main Street, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. They looked up a store near that address and told me to go there. I explained I couldn’t because that wasn’t where I really lived, just where I get mail. They asked a few more questions about my address and I "came clean with him" — claiming it was really my deceased mother's address (she's very much alive) and he asked me her name, basically fishing for more information that he could use later. I told him it was Mary Anne Gilligan (anyone remember the tv series Gilligan's Island?). This phased him even less than my cat being on fire, again! I mean, how many times do cats need to be on fire before things get weird? Anyway...
The Callback Number
When they wanted me to head to the store, they gave me a callback number so they could activate the phone: 858‑252‑3422. If you’re searching that number right now — congratulations, you found this page. Real AT&T employees do not give personal callback numbers, ask customers to delay activation, or warn you away from store staff. I'm sure they are spoofed and will use another one soon enough, but for now this one is on notice.
What They Were Really Trying to Do
This wasn’t about customer service. It was about installment fraud. Here’s the endgame: I "buy" a phone on my AT&T account by paying just the taxes in store, the installment plan posts to my credit. Now if I call them back and activate through them, they control the activation, the phone gets locked to them, it doesn’t work for me, so they ask me to ship it back for a replacement. Now I’m left paying for a device I no longer have.
The Third Call: I Let Him Know
On the third call, I was done. He was very irritated and wanting to know if I had gone to the store to buy the phone. He asked, "Yes or No are you going to the store?" I calmly told him no, I was too busy at his mom's, and that I knew he wasn’t with AT&T and hung up. That call lasted four minutes because you know, "you broke up a little, could you repeat that?"
The One Rule That Stops Every Carrier Scam
If you remember nothing else, remember this: no legitimate carrier employee will ever ask you to read a security code you receive. The moment anyone asks for that code — hang up. Here’s the one sentence that ends these calls instantly: “I’ll hang up and call AT&T directly.” Say it. Hang up. Done.
Why I’m Posting This
I’m posting this because these scams are getting better, they sound just legitimate enough, and if wasting their time today kept them from scamming someone else it was worth the hour.
And if Jason or Joseph are reading this, your mom told me she is very disappointed in you.
Very interesting morning...
ReplyDeleteHa ha too funny
ReplyDelete