This is a story of how I was almost caught in a phone scam. Before my accident and hurt my brain I probably would have been more suspicious of the whole situation.
This all started with a call from Bell Mobility Promotions, offering a discount on their services for 24 months. I did not have to make any changes to my account, I did not have to make upgrades to my hardware or add any additional features. They have a routine in place, first they have someone offer the discount, second they forward the call to a supervisor that explains the steps to get the discount activated and to offer the free gift.
This is the point where the despicable deception begins. I was told that to make the changes they need to text me a code to authenticate my account. They ask me what line I would prefer to have the text sent to. This was where I gave them the first piece of information they needed. Shortly afterwards I received a text message from Bell Mobility with a code number. You might be thinking it is a fake text, in fact it is legit.
What I wasn’t aware of is, that they were attempting to hack into the My Bell app and the text message that I received was from Bell Mobility to authorize access into the app because of forgotten username. So, as I’m reading off the code to them to verify my account, they are entering the code to gain access into the app.
Pretty crafty, I must admit.
Next, I was offered a gift no charge, I could choose from two different phones or an iPad. I’m not so sure about this, but let’s see where it goes. Again, a text was sent to authorize the addition of the iPad to my account. As I’m reading off the code, again from Bell Mobility, they are ordering a Samsung Galaxy S 7 on my account.
Now this is the challenge with their scam, the phone has to be sent to my address. Some how they have to get the phone to them. This is where the iPad comes into play. I am given an 800 number to call when the iPad arrives, so that they can activate it on my account. Makes sense. Except there is no iPad coming, there is a Samsung Galaxy on the way that they ordered.
How are they going to get their hands on the Samsung Galaxy. There was a plan, when I received the phone, it was obvious that it was not an iPad. They claim it was sent to me in error and they would send out the iPad. First they needed me to send the Samsung back. They send me a UPS shipping label to return the phone. The labels return address was not to Bell Mobility but to a resident in Ontario. I was told the phone is being sent directly to the person that was originally expected to receive it. Had I had a better working brain I would have noticed that the email address that sent the shipping label was not from Bell Mobility, but I didn’t. I did do a Google search on the address and saw the house it was being shipped to, unfortunately I didn’t do this until I was already sure the deal was a scam.
They asked if I could drop the phone off at the local UPS store, I agreed to do it. I did not get it there for several days. I struggle with initializing tasks since my accident, this has worked in my favour. The same day I dropped off the box, I contacted Bell Mobility directly. This is when I found out that our account had been hacked and another phone had been ordered, this time an iPhone 15. I returned to the UPS store and recovered the parcel.
For the next several days I received calls to confirm that I dropped off the box. I told them that I still had not had a chance to drop it off. They wanted to send UPS to pickup the box from my address. I told them that would be fine. When the driver arrived, I explained the situation and that we didn’t have anything to return.
Bell Mobility was able to straighten out our account and return control back to us. They gave me a postal return authorization number. Taking the parcel to the post office, I was able to confirm the return address was to Bell Mobility. The iPhone was delivered to our address, I refused the delivery and it was returned to Bell Mobility.
I let the scammers call me for the next several days. I did let them know that I dropped the parcel off. I did not tell them I took it to the post office and not the UPS store. They did ask me if I had a tracking number, I did not. They said that they couldn’t see a tracking number connected to the UPS shipping label they sent me. They asked me to go back to the UPS store and ask to have the parcel scanned for shipping. I told them I wouldn’t, that I already did what I was asked by dropping it off. I reminded them that they were going to apply a discount on our account, that still has not shown up. Also, I still had not received the iPad gift I was promised. They advised me that the iPad was on the way. That was when I advised them that I refused the iPhone parcel and it was on the way back to Bell Mobility.
My scammers were still looking for the Samsung Galaxy. I finally told them I received a confirmation that it was received at Bell Mobility a few day ago, after I mailed it. This is the point where I stopped hearing from the Bell Mobility Promotions.
That was until today. I received a call from Bell Mobility Promotion, offering a discount for 24 months. How long could I string this along with out giving any personal information. Like the first time I was asked to hold for the supervisor to work out the offer. I decided not to hold for the call to transfer and hung up. Soon after hanging up, the phone rings and it’s the supervisor. I told her I was not interested in the offer. She asked why? I told her that they were going to hack my account and order hardware and have me ship it to them. She laughed and says you already know how it works and hangs up.
I wish I knew a Beekeeper that could take care of a despicable call centre.
Sharing the story of how I let myself get caught up in one of these scams is a kick to the ego. If I could prevent one somebody from getting burned by a scam from sharing my story, it is worth a little ego discomfort.
If you have read this story to this point you likely understand the importance of sharing stories like this as a warning of the despicable people out there trying to take advantage of others. Share this story with your family and friends, allow them the advantage of knowledge.
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