Do this, great advice....

Scam emails
 

The only suggestion is to change your password in (Ace Hdw) if you do have an account with them.
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That's a good one to keep a Cancelled Credit Card on file to use for scammers. Upon reply hopefully, you report them.

Something similar happened to me a couple years ago, it wasn't ACE Hardware. However when I started getting texts and e-mails ACE Hardware was one of the many names that popped up. After ignoring them (never reading them) they eventually stopped. I don't remember how long but I'm going to guess at least 3 or 4 months. As for the e-mails I still get them. They go directly to my spam folder, every now and then one slips through but I just mark it as spam again.

Scams are rampant now. I just got about 3 phony email.
 

I just got one today about claiming to be the postal US service.

Use MySudo and only give one of the numbers to vendors. Never reveal your real cell phone number. You can delete and recreate numbers every once in a while if you want without touching your real phone number. All numbers can receive texts. Can have different email addresses too which can be deleted and recreated once you are getting too much spam.

My favorite was the electric company that was stopping our service immediately with technician on the way to do it. Or social security.

Funny how they seem to have moved on from car warranties.

As a famous man once said aint no free lunch.

Scammers will always scam because the punishment if caught is not severe enough. They should cut of a hand when found guilty or face the same consequence as strong arm robbery which is what it is.

Robokiller (app) and National Do Not Call Registry
 

There is nothing worse than spam callers. they disrupt business and rip off unsuspecting people. I was getting a LOT of them so I installed the robokiller app which seems to have helped and add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry. It take about a month to kick in but it helps too. And i do a lot of blocking.

Also whenever I get a call from one of these guys (that i accidently answered) I tell them I'm in the do not call registry and sometimes you can get them to take you off the 'list'.

Good luck!

Your experience is totally different from mine. In my experience, the "do not call" list, spam blocker apps, and asking a scammer to remove your number from their list are all ineffective and a waste of time.

tell your friends to leave a message.

Never Agree to Pay Shipping for a Free Gift
 

Once you give your credit card information you give them permission to bill you. Sadly the credit card company can't stop it. Both my husband & I was burned. No more "free gifts " for us. I'm also interested in how to stop unwanted texts, wish I knew how.

On an iphone there is a way to send messages from unknown senders into a separate list so that you won't normally see them. It doesn't block the messages, it just hides them a little.

I have found that I get a number of automated texts for 2-factor authentication, confirmation of reservations, delivery receipts, etc. that would be filtered if I turned this feature on. I have left it off.

I don’t know if there’s a way to stop these people because they spoof phone numbers and have an inexhaustible list at their disposal (I don’t know how they get them). However, you can block them from texting you by doing this: Click on their message, then, at the top of the message page is their phone number, with a tiny arrow (almost invisible) next to it. Click on that arrow, then click “info” on the following page. You will see at the bottom of the page a red message that says “block this number.” Click on that, and that particular phone number will be blocked from your phone. Trouble is, the scammers still have other numbers at their disposal. Still, you know how to block them now.

That has been my experience also, as I've found that taking all those actions have been almost worthless. The only thing that truly works from bothering me, from a number not on my contacts list, is to simply let it go to voice mail. If it's legitimate and they leave a message, I'll call them back. If it's from an unknown caller though, usually they don't leave a message...which I consider a win-win. lol

You sure about that? You can dispute charges on credit cards. Credit cards offer much more protection than debit cards, Zelle, Venmo etc.

If you hit reply to the email, you can see the email was sent by someone not affiliated with the company they claim to be. If I do get an email that looks legitimate I never hit the link in the email, I’ll login to the company directly.

I believe that giving your phone number when asked for at the register (Bells, TJMaxx, etc) before processing your purchase adds to unwanted phone calls. The store offer you some minuscule savings, but get your number to track your purchases and perhaps sell your number. They’re not giving away anything for free. This increases the spam calls IMO

I never provide my phone number to a store. Also, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that you should not even give your zip code because they use it with you credit card number to develop information for marketing to you.

Thanks for informing us of your unfortunate experience. WE can learn from it. If I try to block text messages I figure the sender then knows they have connected with a human (me) & will send more texts using other phone #s & will sell my number to others. For me the best way to stop unwanted texts is to NOT block or respond in any way. It takes 3-6 months but eventually the sender stops. Sorry.

Paypal
 

Also, if you have a paypal account check it often. I received a notice for over $500 requesting I approve a payment for bitcoins!!! You could tell it was from overseas. So many scams out there today.

Good for you, your one of the smart ones!

Stop scam calls
 

Sorry this happened. To answer your question, you can load the app nomorobo. It stops robo calls pretty effectively. I got it when it was free, now I believe there is a small cost, but you can get free trial.

I got that one also. Really looked legitimate but since I never placed that order knew it was hogwash and deleted it.

A. Don't answer if the no. is not in your contacts.
B. It's your phone you can do what you want.
C. Our message is " We are screening calls. Leave a message and we will call you back." Our kids thought we were inconsiderate. They don't any more.
D. For the one who's friends block their name and number, they created the situation, not you. They can leave a message.

i make them a contact; then block; then you can delete contact

Blocking numbers is a futile effort. Most of them will just call you back using a different spoofed number. I blocked more than 100 numbers before I realized that I was wasting my time.

Since I have an area code from another state, I know not to answer most spam calls with that area code. There is a problem with certain 8** numbers because some doctors or other businesses we use, have those area code numbers. When I get one like that, I answer with a single "hello" and wait. Many times, if it is a computer initiated call it will disconnect if they don't hear further voice. Some will connect with a recording and I will hang up. If a live person comes on, I either hang up or have a bit of fun. Sometimes I will continue to say "hello, hello, hello" while they are attempting to speak. They will say something like "can you hear me, ,,,hello" and eventually hang up. The other day, a foreign voice attempted to say "F*** YOU!" and then hang up. I enjoyed a good laugh. Since I have a different state area code, I can be bit more inventive. One girl asked me if I would like to sell my home. I told her "yes" and she got all excited and asked when someone could come out and look at it. I told her immediately and she said someone would come out tomorrow. I acted excited and said "GREAT! I'll look forward to it" and hung up. Didn't hear again from them. They may have gone to my old residence and been disappointed. Live callers are so much fun. Sometimes, I have asked the live ones for a phone number where I can call them back. When they ask me why, I tell them that I want to call them back when it is inconvenient for them like they are sitting down to eat a meal with their family or trying to sleep. Problem is that computers have done away with much of the "live calling." But, most of the time I just don't answer calls I don't recognize. Emails are the same. If I receive an offer that that's too good to be true, then I figure it's spam. If it is from a business I frequent, I don't use the email links, I just go to their website and log in to check out their email. Most of the time it's just spam. Everyone eventually slips and gets caught. Spam filters catch most of it, but some stuff gets through. They are very good at fooling folks, especially those that are trusting types.

they are very good at fooling trusting types. . . if you are a trusting type, of which i am not, which one might be able to tell by reading my posts, then you need to have a trusted friend or relative who is not the trusting type, to check emails and texts before responding. . .

Note very seldom are there texts or emails which truly have to be answered immediately from commercial businesses. . .
they are just tactics to play on your emotions, so if you have any histrionic tendencies, also find a trusted person to review texts and emails, or set your phone up to bock any call not on your contacts lists to slow down your emotional response function.

we just blocked the source of a hack text with 20 phone numbers on it, so now we have to block some of the numbers on the phone list, but you have to be careful to check each number that its not a call back number for a validation code, etc

The first thing I do when I see any email from Amazon, Spectrum, Home Depot, JCPenney, and so on ~ CHECK THE EMAIL FROM WHERE IT COMES FROM. If the email from say, Kohls says <kohls-qhe_rer@lawhssm.com I KNOW that's a scammer. BTW, that's a true email address I got from a scammer. It should be something like "kohls@kohls .com

Yeah tell me about it. I must've blocked at least that many political texts that came into my phone since around 2018... about one every few days, and I'm fortunate to have maybe as much as a week or so in between. They just send from another spoofed one. Seriously those should be illegal, especially after many attempted blocks. Don't know what else I could do other than file a complaint to who knows where.