So yesterday was an interesting and annoying day and here's a warning about it for others.

I'm laying in bed thinking it's time to get up when my cell phone rings.

There some woman calling saying that there's a medical bill from September 2023 that she says I owed about $600 on has been turned over to them for collection.
I ask her exactly what is this bill for saying I've never received any bill from anyone for that amount.
She reads to me my address to confirm it, and yes it's my address that she has.

She starts in on how will I be paying it?
I said I'm not paying any bill that I never receive a statement on.
I said I want to see a copy of the statement from who she says that I owed it to which she says is "National Diagnostics" and it's for blood work.

I know that I had blood work done in July and October of 2023, but knew that it was done by Quest Diagnostic and was sent in by Mercy Healthcare.

She keeps saying "How will you be paying this" to which I say "I won't be paying it, you refuse to give me any real information of who I supposedly owe it to".

She tells me that it's gone to collection an I can only pay her now.

I tell her that's never going to F***ing happen. She keep get nastier and nastier saying that I have to pay her.
I can hear other operators in the background using the same lines to other people.

She says again that I have to pay her, I tell her to "F**k Off" it's never going to happen and she hangs up.

I call Mercy to see if there was any sort of outstanding bill and ask the about blood work being done at the"National Diagnostics" and they said "No".
They use Quest Diagnostics, as I already stated.

While on the phone with Mercy I did an online search of the phone number that call and it came back as a known scam number.
(636) 242-9365. RoboKiller users have reported receiving spam calls from this number. Negative. User reputation.
I literally hit the redial button for the number and a message came on stating that this was a know scam number.

Usually my cell says probable scam number on these calls, it didn't...

Sorry if it's a little long winded, but I wanted to let people know that the scammers will try anything and have some of your info already when they try to cheat you.

Some people would probably pay it because they are pressured to and get scammed so I wanted to share a warning about what they do.

It happens a lot Rich. I have a restricted phone number and get calls like you did. My wife and I have had a lot of medical issues and I believe some medical records have been hacked.

Exactly why I NEVER answer a call that isn't from my stored contacts.
They have to leave a VM that I can listen to and ignore.
Any bills MUST come through the mail.

I take an opposite route, to keep them on the phone as long as possible, especially if I am laying bed,
First T tell them to hang on while I get a pencil
Then I say wait until a i get a piece of paper
Then I need to go to my truck to get my eyeglasses
then I say sorry, I forgot me keys to my truck
then I tell them the pencil broke

And so on.

They usually just hang up, which I consider a win, or they tell me to F off which is a home run.

Time is their most valuable asset. Waste it as much as possible.

When I get the occasional spam call my phone doesn't catch I use an air horn. One blast of that and they go away.

That's what I usually do, but I was expecting a call from some family that was supposed to be coming out to adopt on of the puppies that we currently have.
The wife is handling that stuff but they wanted to come out yesterday during the day to get a puppy and she gave them my number since she was at work.

I do the same. Then if no message is left the number is blocked. I think my blocked call list is several thousand numbers long

Ive gotten four "Data Breach" notices from the companies my provider uses over the past year.

As hard as we try to keep our info out of the wrong hands our medical industry has no issues about being unsecured.

Exactly!!! If the number isn't in my phone.....leave a message. I'll decide if I'm calling you back or blocking you!!!! 98% of the time there is no message...confirming they're scammers.

Not just phone calls but texts too..... "click HERE to resolve your delinquent account" or they just start a text conversation claiming to be a bill collector or whatever.

Texts like this were always a major concern for me with my Mother. After she passed, I scrolled thru the old texts on her phone........ One 'pitch' in particular stood out because she got a text a few times over the course of several months each with the same exact script, but each number was from a different part of the country. A few times she came real close, too close, to giving out personal information, but she always stopped and told them she had to discuss the matter with her son (me). For all the texts I saw, I wondered how many phone calls she got like this I knew nothing about.

My wife works at a bank and comes home almost daily with stories of older customers coming in to withdraw large sums of money for some scam or another. They try to help them, but are usually met with "its none of your business what I do with my money". Within a day or two they are back with a son or daughter trying to get their money back. Once they leave from the initial transaction there is little or nothing the bank can do. Its crazy the amount of money they are giving out too.
Scammers suck.

I love messing with telemarketers
if I hear an accent or telemarketer office noises, lots of people taking in the background, I'll speak German to them and sometimes a little Mexican

HATE THEM !!! I got scammed out of $700 on here on a stroker crank purchase by a guy from Texas named Floyd Whitney !! a few years ago

I don't remember the amount of these losers being as bad as this past year.

Last month I went thru cedar rapids Iowa and 2 weeks later in the mail I got this camera Speeding ticket... Even the freaking government gets into the damn scam game.... There were no signage saying such that this area was monitored by such. I don't even know where it was.... It was on I-380 where ever the He11 "diagonal road" crosses. One and only time in my 57 years of life I vafe ever ever been near cedar rapids and they scam me just for being there...

Cedar Rapids is a scam period! My wife took my sister to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and got a ticket. We hate that town and try to avoid it...

heavy Asian here 👍🏻🎯
Strung one along for about 10 minutes. they were offering a titanium card. I told them that was an insult and I wanted the NEW UNOBTANIUM card. Had em going in circles, 🤣🤣🤣

Actually, there are signs, as soon as you get into town, saying that speed cameras are in force. There is another set of signs right before the speed limit changes as well. There are 2 sets of cameras on i-380...just before you get to the S-curves in either direction. The speed limit through there is 55. The speed limit through the rest of the city limits is 60. The speed cameras don't issue tickets until 65mph I think.

Our small town just installed speed enforcement cameras. The signs say enforcement during certain hours when the school zone flashing lights are operating.
The cameras are entirely separate from the flashers and not in any camera view.
When receiving a ticket days/weeks later in the mail, how is it proven the lights were indeed working at the time of the alleged violation?
Sounds like a slam dunk undefendedable money IMO.

Well, the same scammer tried again today calling from the same phone number which is listed as a known scam phone number.

It was the same woman calling.

She started in with the same line, this is Consumer Debt Systems and are calling about a debt you owe.

I said there is no debt and you are a scammer calling from a known scam phone number.

She says I don't know where you get your data but this is not a scam number.

I said Yes it is and hung up.

I wonder if they'll try again next week.

I was headed north as I didn't go back that way when I went home. Don't remember the s curves, they hit me for 66... The lowest number for which one gets bent over in that scam...
Wife sent a check (had to go to Massachusetts? Which makes even less sense since I have NEVER been there) and it's already cleared the bank and my wife said we got a "2nd notice" to pay the other day... Iowa? Massachusetts? Where are they really from and W T F does my money sent for this really go for/do? What happens if one doesn't pay?
Fark them..

Years ago I got a ticket supposedly from Skokie Il for overtime parking. I've blown through there on I-94, but never stopped there. Sent the letter back, and didn't send any money either.

I think the company in Massachusetts supplies the cameras and gets a cut of the fines...

This is a new scam in bigger cities. Fake parking ticket is put on your car, you find it and it looks official. You know you shouldn't have the ticket, but if it's paid in 24 hours the fine is only $3, goes to $30 after 24 hours, then up from there. You figure [censored], it's easier to pay $3 than fight it, and happily scan the QR code, go to their website, and give them your credit card and all of the info they need to max it out.

Heard a different one this week, in regards to the Detroit Auto Show: instead of giving out thousands of $$ worth of brochures, they put a QR code on the display, and you can get all of the information. Scammers are printing their own QR code stickers, putting them over the ones on the display, and when you scan it and go to the site, it steals all of the info from your phone.