Caution: Phone scams

wwhwang

Got a few calls about this at work: If you're getting a call/email/text saying that your iPhone 5/Samsung Galaxy SIII/Blackberry Z10 is being recalled and to ship it to your cell phone company for replacement/repairs, it's a scam. Do not ship your phone in to the address provided by the scammer. Unless Apple, Samsung, or RIM have made a press announcement, there is no recall.

Ken Light

LoL that's pretty clever though. Thanks for the head's up!

cornelia

Glad you pointed this out. I've never had a call like that. Do you have the scammer's phone number? Maybe you can share it so we'd have an idea whose phone call to watch out for.

cornelia

Could this scam be related to the spam messages about defective iPhones being distributed by several retail stores where the recipients of the messages were advised to return them for a refund? I have read several complaints posted at CALLERCENTER about such calls from different phone numbers.

wwhwang

It might be related to those spam messages, but up here in Canada, we've heard about spam messages or calls to customers telling them that their phones are defective and need to be replaced. No such announcement has ever been made from any manufacturer nor any mobile phone carrier.

We don't have the phone number of any scammer though, since when they call customers, they have an unlisted number with caller ID block. But they will leave voicemail messages or emails with a bogus mailing address, but with the legit customer service phone numbers of your cell phone carrier just to make it seem credible.