I was reading an article from The Consumerist the other day about a not-so-new, but not-so-old scam known as the “Can you hear me?” scam. I figured this was only going on in the bigger cities.

Well, little did I know that a Lubbock resident that I know almost fell victim to this scam.

It works like this: You will get a call from a person or one of the dreaded robo-callers and the very first thing they, or the robot, asks is “Can you hear me?” As soon as you say “Yes,” they've got you!

According to The Consumerist:

Even if you never agree to buy anything, you might later find out you’ve been signed up for a home alarm system, a cruise, some added service for your phone, or any other thing you couldn’t possibly want.

If you dispute the charges, the company may take legal action, sticking that recording of you saying “yes” into a recording of a different conversation as evidence that you agreed to the transaction.

So it's fair to say, this is an ugly scam.

As I was having dinner with a friend of mine, he told me that he got a bill for a security system that he didn’t have and didn’t want. And when he called to dispute the bill, he was told they had a recording of him saying yes to the offer and played back his voice saying simply, "Yes."

Of course, since he never had a system put in, they had no ground to stand on. But this could always end ugly; you never can tell.

So what should you do if you get one of these calls?

Don’t ever just say 'yes' if you get a call like this. Simply say, “Yes, I can hear you,” or better yet hang up.

Have you ever had one of these calls? Let us know in the comments.

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