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Comment by fsk | Hacker News Reader

My parents got one of these calls and it really made them panic. They're getting older now.

They should put more enforcement effort into catching these people. You record everyone's phone calls and you still can't catch people pretending to be IRS agents?

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I had an uncle actually get scammed and send money because of a call like these. He's a pretty intelligent guy, I was really surprised he got fooled by it. But goes to show how effective these scams are. There never seemed to be much interest from anyone in helping him recover his money / tracking down who did it. I also wish there was more action to stop this kind of thing, although maybe there's a lot more action than we think in the background.

My parents got scammed by this last year. They definitely were scared into giving up a few thousand dollars. These people must have their script down really good to make it seem pretty believable. I havent heard anything after reporting it last summer. Either they are really good at covering their tracks or there's just not enough law enforcement into this type of fraud.

be careful what you wish for -- allowing use of nsa recorded phone conversations for non-terrorist crimes means they set a precedent for using those recordings against any citizen for any infraction, no matter how minor. there is a good reason we DON'T accept the use of warrantlessly obtained phone recordings in bulk (at least not yet).

I don't think he's advocating for warrant-less wiretapping.

That information can be collected without an illegal search warrant.

The phone companies are required to keep call records for at least several years. I tell the IRS investigator that I got such a call, and now they request the records from the phone company.

If my personal data must be collected, I should be able to use it for my personal benefit.

I always appreciate it when you guys are honest about your willingness to let people get hurt for the sake of principle.

Yep, I'd rather some people get scammed than my rights be further violated.

Think about the alternative. If you're not willing to let anyone get hurt for the sake of principle, the only principle you can ever hold is "don't ever let anyone get hurt for any reason, no matter what". In the first place, that's impossible. In the second, the more you attempt to force people not to get hurt, the worse off you make everyone's lives. We can't all live shut in padded rooms.

Indeed. This is an excellent explanation of exactly how fundamentalism works: everything must reduce and cohere down to a particular set of principles, rather than reacting and adapting to reality with an understanding that the present understanding of morality isn't fixed and is subject to change.

Once you pick a line in the sand you will not budge over, you have maimed your capacity for reason. So yes, the only principle I could ever hold is an impossible one. Fortunately, I do not hold it.

It's pretty easy to reach these guys without wiretapping...just like the Windows virus scammers, you can find a friend who has been called by them, get the number, and pretend to be a victim.

My wife got one of these calls a month or so ago. And not bragging, but she is very intelligent and they had her going for a bit too. She was actually getting upset with them because they kept hanging up on her and blocking her number. She would call back from other cell phones and VOIP numbers trying to figure out what was going on.

The problem is that these operations use hacked PBXs and are very hard to trace.

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