I may have fallen for a scam by uttering one wrong word

Anyone who falls for a scam has to feel stupid at some point. No matter how skilled the scam artist is you always feel you should be brighter than to fall victim. Well imagine how stupid I may be feeling if what happened to me Wednesday does indeed come back to bite me. Just last month I had written about this new phone scam where they are using a robocall to get you to say one magic word.

So just having written this, you'd think I'd know better. Scammers are using a robocall and making it sound like a live human being through a momentary fumbling. Often they'll say something about a headset not working and will ask, "Can you hear me?" They're trying to get you to say the word yes. Then they pull the recording of your conversation with what turns out to be a robot and they edit your yes to fit it in where it was not actually said. They move your "yes" to follow their question of accepting charges or agreeing to some sort of goods or services that you probably hung up before ever even hearing about. It's completely illegal but hard to prove you did not say yes where they show evidence you did.

Yesterday I got a call. Why I answered an unfamiliar number I have no idea. I normally don't. The way they got me was they didn't trick me into saying yes after any "Can you hear me?" question. Instead, I answer the phone saying, "Hello?"

What sounded like a live person pauses then awkwardly says, "Uh, hello?" as if they didn't hear my hello. So stupidly I said, "Yes?"

This was followed by a laughing, "Oh I'm sorry, my headset was acting funny and I didn't hear you there." Then they went into some pitch about a resort vacation. Upon the laughing, "Oh I'm sorry..." I realized it was a robot and I knew what had happened. Now I have to meticulously check all my credit cards and bank account daily to make sure no strange charges are popping up. Great. Stupid me.

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