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CHARLOTTE, N.C.–Nobie Thrasher received a strange phone call last week, “When I saw it, I was like, what in the world is this? It’s very odd,” he said. But he made the right decision not to call back. “My instinct told me something isn’t right about this,” said Nobie.
The call came into the cell phone Thrasher uses for his construction and real estate business. As part of “The One Ring” scam, scammers try to trick you into placing a call to a phone sex line in the Caribbean.
“Once they find something works, it’s gonna spread like wildfire,” said Better Business Bureau Charlotte President Tom Bartholomy. Bartholomy also received one of the phone calls, but didn’t call back. If he did, he would have found a $19.95 international access charge, and a $9 charge for every minute he was on the line. “Its just ripe for the picking for scammers like this,” said Bartholomy.
Back at Thrasher’s home office, he’s already had to change his email address to avoid spam.
Now, he plans to pay even more attention to the phone calls he gets. “If you have that instinct that something doesn’t feel right, don’t answer it because if it’s something important, somebody will leave you a message or they will call you back later,” said Thrasher.
The BBB says it’s next to impossible to get your money back. The scammers sign contracts with the cell phone carriers. The BBB says the only way to get them to stop is to call your carrier and file a complaint.
