Find Out More About Reloading Scams

Phones, both landlines and cellular phones, have not only made communication easier but have also laid you bare to a host of phone call scams. And the methods of cheating you over the phone and extracting money are becoming more ingenious by the day. So it is up to you recognize a fraud when you see, or rather, hear one.

Reloading Scams

A reloading scam is one of the most widely prevalent forms of telemarketing fraud practices. If you had been a victim of a telemarketing scam once, it is quite likely that your name is featured in a telemarketer’s “sucker list.” This list includes your name, address, phone numbers, and other information that had been gathered during your earlier interactions with telemarketers. Such a list is compiled, bought, and sold by fraudsters because they believe that you are vulnerable enough to be cheated twice making you a victim of a reloading scam, which is a double scam.

Reloading Scams Recognition

You can recognize a reloading scam from what the telemarketer is saying. S/he will probably be offering to recover the money you have been cheated of or promising to get you the product or the prize that was supposed to have been delivered to you, and of course, for a fee. Be on your guard instantly if someone calls you to say that s/he is following up on the first fraud or represents the company that extracted money out of you originally. If you pay the recovery fee, then you will be cheated twice.

Reloading scams also work in another way. Telemarketers often dangle baits, in the form of prizes or other incentives, to lure into buying more merchandise. If you have bought something the first time, there are possibilities that you will be pestered with phone calls to buy more. The telemarketer will tempt you saying that you become eligible to win a more valuable prize if you buy more.

Resources maintained by the Federal Trade Commission on their web site, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/phonefraud/reloading.shtml say it all about reloading scams.

Since telemarketing scams work along some defined channels and telemarketers mouth more or less the same lines, it is easy to recognize such a reloading scam.

Smell a rat if you are being asked for a “recovery fee.” Central, state, or even local consumer rights agencies or non-profit organizations working to protect your interests, like the National Fraud Information Center (NFIC) or Call for Action (CFA), will never charge a fee for their services. Neither will they guarantee results. So that ring of confidence in the telemarketer’s voice should immediately put you on your guard.

In a reloading scam, the telemarketer asks you to send the money via a courier or transfer it electronically.

A telemarketer out to cheat you will flood you with phone calls. So beware of persistent phone calls that urge you to “buy more and get more.” 

Protection Against Reloading Scams

Before you agree to buy over the phone, insist on a written deal. If the company is one that you do not recognize by name, check its credentials with the state or local consumer rights protection agency or the Better Business Bureau. This may not always be a foolproof way, but it is certainly one of the wisest ways to safeguard yourself.

Wait till you receive your first order. Inspect it thoroughly and splurge more on orders if you are satisfied fully. And last but not the least, beware of telemarketers who sound much too eager to recover your lost money and that too, for a fee.