Beware New UPS Phone Scam Hitting Sacramento Realtors

You can’t track anonymous calls made through a VoIP to report a UPS phone scam.

My midtown Lyon Real Estate office forwarded a UPS phone scam call to me yesterday from 916-235-1321. It registers as a Folsom VoIP number, which means it could have originated from a computer or a mobile. The caller even acknowledged that he had asked my office to forward the call. He sounded so hokey. Said he was from UPS and had received a field inquiry about a damaged shipping label. Right away red flags went up, because he did not sound like a UPS employee.

Twice I asked his name, but no, he was transferring me to an individual with more information about my damaged shipping label. I also asked how he got my office number because I don’t ever use that number for anything, especially not for UPS. He said he got it from the shipping label, which is even more dubious.

Hmm . . . I quickly reviewed my situation of this UPS phone scam: UPS doesn’t have my office number. I don’t have any shipments from or to the office. A quick review online would provide my cell, not my office phone, in case a person needed to search for my phone. But I was still curious. What were they trying to pull?

I am going to transfer you now, he said, and the next thing on the line was a recording, thanking me for my patience and offering to play a clip from a “well known comedian, Jeff Foxworthy.” Who probably voted for Trump. He seems like that kinda guy, and I really do not like Jeff Foxworthy. Couldn’t this company afford the bucks to pay for better comedy, like maybe Patton Oswalt, instead of some has-been loser? Second thought, why isn’t this recorded music?

Within 3 seconds, just as I was about to hang up, somebody answered the phone. He gave a nondescript first name and told me this was my lucky day. Yes, I thought so. Lucky enough to hang up. After Jeff Foxworthy, I had lost my curiosity.

This is definitely, without question, a long, drawn-out UPS phone scam for something against the law. They obviously don’t want to be traced or reported. They seem to be targeting Sacramento Realtors. If a person calls pretending to be from UPS, get a name, tracking number and call UPS yourself. UPS Customer Service in Atlanta is 800-742-5877.