This is a new one on me and although it does not come via the internet or my Apple devices it bears mentioning.

For the last three days we have been receiving two and three really good SPAM calls a day on our landline phone with excellent production values. The robo dialogue goes something like this…
I never got to 2 before hanging up so I don't know what the other options were. The caller ID indicated the call was from Apple Computer and the phone number was either from Lost Wages Las Vegas, Nevada, Haha, Nebraska, Austin, Texas, and I didn't get the others. Looking up the number using NoMoRobo on my iPhone indicated some of the numbers have already been identified as SPAM and some were new. I strongly suspect the phone numbers and caller ID are spoofed so where the calls came from is anybody's guess.

The spooky thing is two of the calls came in just as I was completing an iCloud session‼️ That was enough to give me pause to wonder if they were aware I had just logged off of iCloud and if so how did they know❓

Obviously, you recognized that the call itself was SPAM. The iCloud timing is a little spooky, but I would not be at all surprised by it - given recent events with Facebook and Google.

It does still baffle me as to why these Robocalls still happen. I guess there are some folks around who are vulnerable (or gullible) enough to think these are "real" and that the culprits get what they are looking for to justify the continued scams.

Just the other day I received a phone call in which the display showed a number I did not recognize, but no name. Curiosity got the better if me so I answered. No surprise. I got a recorded message telling me that "legal action was pending against me" if I did not respond. Of course, I just hung up. Seriously? If there truly were some legal action pending, would it be done through a generic voice recording by someone who does not identify himself? (At the very least, I would expect a registered letter from a lawyer's office.)

Robocalls and how to deal with them:

Yes, It’s Bad. Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging.

Robocalls Flooding Your Cellphone? Here’s How to Stop Them

And at the same time, I've been getting fewer calls on my landline.

I wish that I could say the same.

Ditto. And some of these calls are Chinese recordings! What is the logic of that? Make a few million of these robocalls and the right percentage of households will have someone who picks up and understands Chinese?

I use NoMoRobo to block robo calls on our VOIP landline but even robo calls get one ring before they can be recognized and diverted/blocked and we do not answer unidentified callers. Both are counted as "missed calls". Yesterday we had 37 "missed calls" and we were home all day long. Suffice it to say that is beyond annoying! I can't compare that to the number of robo calls that get to my iPhone because NoMoRobo blocks both robocalls and robotexts BEFORE they get to my iPhone, but I have over the course of 15 months contributed nearly 100 numbers to their database (assuming all were validated as robocall numbers).

Just post all your credit card and banking information, as well as driver's license number and SSS/SIN number and I'll make sure you don't get any more robocalls. It may take a while because of the huge response to my offer, but don't despair — I am on top of it.

Thanks but last Friday someone beat you to my credit card information and in the course of half a day spent almost $1,200 on two Verizon cellphones, a Cricket wireless cellphone, Chipotle takeout, and most expensive of all — a set of Bose headphones before the bank was able to notified me and cancel the card. Apparently there were using a card and none of mine were missing. There was another $1,000 or so worth of validated charges (the merchants had validated the card but had not closed it out) to Fairfield Inn and Microsoft. Saturday morning there were half a dozen additional attempts made, but the card was rejected as "account closed". It wasn't a third party fraud protection agency that caught these fraudulent cards, it was the bank. Lets give it up it for banks with a GOOD fraud detection system! 👏

Interestingly, my son's credit card account got hit almost simultaneously, mostly for clothing items, but his bank caught that too. Since then I have run into three others, including a checker at the grocery store, who were hit the same day roughly at the same time. The five cards were issued by entirely different financial institutions and it would appear unlikely any of us did business at the same places (my son doesn't even use Amazon). The coincidence of so many disparate people in one neighborhood getting hit at the same time seems too strong to truly be coincidental. But, the only common elements are we all five live in Fort Worth, and all five cards were VISA cards. I also know my son and I had data exposed in the Equifax data breach and of course we have the same last name.

The good news is none of those I talked to suffered any actual financial loss thanks to good fraud protection at our various financial institutions. The bad news is all of us have ended up spending hours notifying creditors and others deleting or correcting credit card information they have on file for us. 👎

In the future I will always use PayPal or Apple Pay when it is available. No security system is perfect, but at least they provide another layer of shielding for my credit/debit card data. In case anyone suggests, there have been flurries of post office letter drop robberies in the area, so even the USPS is not particularly safe.

I'm impressed with VISA's attentiveness. Two examples:

About 25 years ago I had gone to KFC but, on the way, forgot what one of my daughters wanted. I didn't have a quarter for the pay phone to call home, so I used my VISA card. Shortly after, VISA called the house to see if I was there. They mentioned that my card had just been used in a pay phone.

My wife explained it was me and all was well. Apparently, at that time, the pay phone was the quickest way for a credit card thief to check whether a card was valid.

More recently, I got a call at home from VISA while my wife was visiting a daughter across the country. They wanted to know if she was there because my card had just been swiped in a restaurant rather than having the PIN entered.

As it turned out, the restaurant's portable device wasn't working properly and the PIN couldn't be entered, so they swiped the card.

Impressive.