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Telmex "survey" and "replacement modem" phone call scam


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I'm writing this on behalf of a friend of mine.

He received a phone call purportedly from Telmex, conducting a "customer satisfaction" survey.

He was asked a series of questions over a 20 minute period regarding his Telmex internet service.

The caller said that Telmex is now replacing modems every three to six months, and that a repairman will be visiting the next week to do the replacement.

Because he was asked no obviously personal security questions such as for account numbers and passwords, etc., and the caller ID indicated a local (same area code) call, and because the caller had spent so much time on the survey, he felt it was probably legitimate, possibly due to the increased competition in the area, i.e., Telmex was trying to improve their service.

However, he still had some reservations, so he called Telmex customer service. He was informed that Telmex never does long questionnaires over the phone, that at most they would call using an automated-voice system that asks 5 questions.  Also, Telmex does not have a three to six month modem replacement policy.

The Telmex rep speculated that what the scammers might be doing is to record the entire 20 minute conversation and then later splice and edit my friend's voice to possibly order some insurance that shows up on the Telmex bill.

(For example, the caller would ask him to repeat his name and address, etc., to "verify" it's correct.)

She said if an insurance charge shows up on the bill, to come in and it would be removed.

P.S. The conversation was entirely in Spanish. It is not known if the caller speaks English.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sure enough, an odd charge appeared on his Telmex bill. Examining his past bills, he found a number of odd charges, ranging from 90 pesos to 200 pesos. Some were labeled "Salud" or health insurance. Another was labeled "emergency health call". I think there was at least one odd charge per month.

He said Telmex was very good and helpful (they pretty much have to be since they are the ones who “provide” their clients’ phone number lists to third parties). He was refunded immediately for the extra charges. And those particular charges were blocked.

However, they said there will probably be other charges in the future, as a number of companies are using these phone # lists.

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A while back we had an odd charge on our bill for insurance. We did not receive a phone call prior to that. Our neighbors had the charge as well. Telmex removed it right away. 

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