Yes, NEVER give out info on a cold call. If it's legit, they will confirm your number with you, not the other way around. They will always be able to give you some kind of confirming info about your account. If in doubt, call the company back yourself-not the number they give you, but one you get on your own. As to googling your name-anything that is out there is information that has always been available to anyone who knew where to look. In the days before Google, you could get info from the DMV, order birthcertificates, property information, any public documents-if it's thru any government agency, it's public information. Used to be thta you had to go to the agency and request the info in writing, now it's available on line. In my job, I rely on a lot of the technology to do my job. I am always looking up landowner info, company ownership info, aerial photos and googlemaps, even streetview, to do my job. I can find out how much you paid for your property, how much you pay in taxes, how many bedrooms in your home, who your mortgage is with, the make, model and year of your car, where you work, who lives in your home...all very easy and all information is publicly available. With some more digging I can find out what, if any military service you or someone in your family has served. I can find out your cell phone number and who your cable provider is. I can find out what magazines you subscribe to, what clubs you belong to and what charities you donate to. In some cases I can find out your annual income. What I CANNOT find out is your bank account numbers or credit card numbers or that 3 digit security number. But if I cold called you and gave you all that other info, chances are good you'd give me your confidential info if I asked. It never ceases to amaze me what information people will give out when they think you know it already.

Cynic >This one has me confused though: "...my cell phone provider gouged me for 4 consecutive months of payments even though I was paying cash at their store." If you have auto-pay, why are you paying cash at the store? Something's missing or I'm not following something. I was paying my bill in cash at their store. I had already called the (cell phone provider) ahead of time and told them I would be doing this. Each month my bill would arrive, each month it kept reflecting an overpayment. I would call them and they said it would be corrected. This happened FOUR months in a row. I contacted the credit card company and told them to cancel the card. Same thing happened with them. They would say it would be canceled. The following month I would get a bill for the same incorrect amount. I finally spoke to someone at the CC co. who said until the cell phone provider notified them, I would continue to be responsible for the charges whether they were right or wrong. They never said ANYTHING about having to have a cancellation number. BOTH the cell phone provider and CC company neglected to inform me of this necessary requirement. I wonder why? Well the reason why, is because THEY were MAKING MONEY and didn't want it to stop. These companies do not make it easy. They don't fully inform you when you sign up, and they don't tell you what you really need to do in order to cancel this type of payment. I finally contacted a consumer newspaper reporter. She said she doesn't care for automatic payments for the same reason and gets many calls regarding this. She contacted the cell phone provider's publicity relations department. That worked. They must have called my CC company because everything was taken care of within the month and I didn't receive any more credit card bills. My cell phone bills are what they are supposed to be. I still pay in cash. I no longer have the credit card. They send me solicitations all the time. Thanks, but no thanks. Contacting the AG's office is a good idea. dadoes >dreamgarden probably thought if he/she paid cash, the autopay wouldn't trigger. That's not necessarily the case. I wonder what IS the case? Who at EITHER company, was supposed to tell me I needed a cancellation number in order to stop the autopay? Out of a total of seven calls, 4 to the cell phone provider and 3 to the CC company, not ONE person mentioned this. Don't they teach customer service reps this information? I no longer wanted auto-pay and told them this. I said I would be paying in cash from now on and to cancel auto-pay. I don't understand how I could have been any clearer. >I recall a couple cases where I work of customers having autopay set up through CheckFree. One fellow died, his wife had NO CLUE about any of their finances and the auto-pay kept coming, for MONTHS. She no longer wanted the service, but she didn't contact us or was even aware the service existed, so how are we to know that? "How are we to know that?". How did you find out that her husband died? How do you know the wife no longer wanted the service if she was never contacted? Was she on the account too? Doesn't your company have some policy regarding taking money from a deceased person's account? > The other case, the fellow changed his account services, but didn't change the monthly autopay amount. We contacted him, he still didn't change the amount. Built up a large credit that had to be refunded when he eventually closed the service. When the fellow called to change his account services, was he asked if the present autopay amount was ok? If he was changing his account services, this would seem to be a logical question to ask a customer. Was he notified by telephone or in writing? This is why I like to receive paper billing. Sometimes when a credit card company calls (and leaves a message), they don't always state the nature of their business. When I have called back, they try to sell me some service or item I'm not interested in. Now I don't return calls unless they leave a message telling me something is wrong, or needs to be corrected. I had them put this in my file. I don't want to be bothered with solicitations or irrelevant matters that aren't directly related to some kind of problem with my account. In my opinion the above examples are just more reason to pay as you go and not allow company's to have recurring access to your bank account.

I have donotcall and the phone rings once and then stops. If it rings more than once I look at caller ID and if I don't recognize the number or name, it goes to voice mail. We were expecting a call from Apple almost two years ago and coincidentally got one of these scammers. Thankfully nothing happened but not because my husband was smart. As he talked with this guy with an accent and started doing stuff on the computer I googled the number. Guess what?.. Nigeria. I've only gotten one call since then and I let him have it.

Everyday I delete from my spam file at least two of the "unable to deliver" emails, most often purportedly from fedex, ups or usps. What an annoyance and I can only hope we, and especially the elderly in our country, are up on all these and recognize them for what they are. Since we end up blocking loads and loads of phone calls, both on our landline and cell phones, it's a wonder any legit business can get through to us. If our insurance agent were to call, for instance, would I recognize his number? No.