We’ve all been on the receiving end of a phone scammer.
No matter how wary you are about giving out your data, scammers are somehow still able to get hold of our phone numbers and call us out of the blue, hoping to con us.
Luckily, most phone call scams and texts are really obvious.
Scammers will ask if you’ve been involved in an accident, tell you that you’ve been the victim of fraud, or even try to say that you’ve been in trouble with the law.
If you know for certain that you’ve had nothing to do with what the person on the phone is talking about, you can be sure that you’re being scammed.
One scammer got more than what they bargained for when they tried to con a police officer.
The thing about being a scammer is that you’ve got a list of phone numbers to get through, and you never quite know who you’re going to end up calling.
In this guy’s case, he’d definitely got off unlucky. Police Captain Ann Stephens from Apex, North Carolina, is probably the last person he’d willingly choose to call.
Ann was in full uniform, sitting at her desk, when she received a call from the scammer.
In the call, the man can be heard threatening Ann with arrest for drug trafficking and money laundering. Oh, the irony!
The man demands to know Ann’s social security number, and she replies:
“I’m not going to confirm my social security number with you.”
He definitely chose the wrong woman to mess with!
The caller also wants to know Ann’s address, and again, she refuses to hand it over. She points out that if her scammer apparently has her file, he should already know what her address is.
Ann can’t help but chuckle as she strings the scammer along, asking whether a Sheriff’s deputy is going to come out and arrest her – to which he replies, “Oh, absolutely.”
The scammers could have been a little more inventive with their names.
The man who spoke to Ann initially was called “Officer Black”, and the second man was named “Officer Brown”. A strange coincidence – or simply a lack of creativity, we think!
Speaking to Inside Edition, Ann explained her reason for not hanging up straight away.
She said that the phone call was a “teachable moment”, and that’s why she had decided to record it, adding:
“We had to keep him on the line so people could see the kinds of things they’ll do to try to scare you.”
Ann has a point. It might seem obvious to some of us, but the more people who know about scammers’ tactics, the better.
If you want to avoid being scammed over the phone, here are some things to keep in mind.
The moment you realize you’re speaking to a scammer, it’s best to hang up straight away. Don’t even give them the opportunity to speak to you.
But if you do choose to engage with a scammer, you should never confirm the information you’re being told – but don’t deny it, either. Don’t ever give out any information, either.
You can check out the video of Police Captain Ann Stephens’ hilarious call with a scammer just below!
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