I got an automated call just now from the telephone number 888-249-9735. The recording said it was from Sprint. The message stated that our wireless service was reading its “spending limit”, and that to avoid “service interruption”, which would occur within 48 hours, we needed to make a payment. It asked me to put in my billing zip code, and then to make an automated payment, at which point I hung up.
If this is a scam, it’s a pretty clever one. I almost believed it for a second, because Sean does make a lot of long-distance calls. But there are several fishy things about the situation.
The phone number is unlisted on whitepages.com, and I don’t see it on Sprint’s website. Sean just paid our Sprint bill. Also, my number is not the primary line on our account; you’d think Sprint would deliver such a message to Sean’s phone. And how could we reach a “spending limit” when we have unlimited night and weekend minutes and no long distance or roaming charges? :>
The most telling thing is this: there was no way for me to confirm that the caller was actually with Sprint. I had two options when they asked me to make the payment: either make one immediately, or put the line on hold to gather my account information and then make the payment immediately. There were no “We’ll call you back later” or “Call us back later” or “Make your payment online” options.
I told Sean about it so he could check our account just in case, but I’m pretty sure this is a scam. I hope people are smart enough not to make payments to people who call them randomly on the phone.