Consumers save time and money and like the ease and convenience. Businesses also save time and money and can keep customers happy. Both parties benefit. However, this happy scenario takes on a very different hue when swindlers are on the other end of the line. They blame themselves for biting on the bait and won't seek redress.
Potential fish can pick the hook clean without getting snared, experts say.
Phone swindlers, says an AAFT spokesperson, are likely to know more about you than you know about them. Depending on where they got your name in the first place, they might know your age and income, health and hobbies, occupation and marital status, education, the home you live in, what magazines you read, and whether you have bought by phone in the past. Even if your name came from the phone book, telephone con artists assume that, like most people, you would be interested in having more income, that you are receptive to a bargain, that you are basically sympathetic to people in need and that you are reluctant to be discourteous to someone on the phone. As admirable as such characteristics might be, they help make the swindler's job easier. Swindlers also exploit less admirable characeristics, such as greed.