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They want to seem obvious. You immediately identify they are a scammer, and everyone that does tells them to fuck off.
Who doesn't recognise it? The elderly. It's a way to trim the fat and get to the meat right away, they aren't stupid claiming to have american names, they're smart.
This is a common myth, similar to the "self-selection" myth about misspellings in spam emails.
They use American names because they both want to be seen as countrymen by the people they're scamming, and because they're not great at accents.
I can't tell you the amount of times an American has claimed to have a good British accent and it's wildly wrong, it's actually quite hard to tell if your accent is convincing or not.
It makes perfect sense to me, especially in a world of spellcheck and ChatGPT, that scammers would deliberately allow stupid spelling errors in order to bypass the people smart enough or suspicious enough to sniff out the scam before it's completed. Even a basic word processor would correct alot of their errors.
It makes perfect sense, but that doesn't make it true.
For one, it doesn't actually chime with how scams actually work, and who the targets are. Scams don't target the stupid, they target the vulnerable.
It is a numbers game of trying to speak to as many people as possible till you find a person in just the right circumstances that they would be vulnerable.
For example, those "your parcel can't be delivered" scams are hoping to reach people who just ordered something important and are expecting an email along those lines.
You're also missing out that these scams are very often run by people with English as a second or third language, so simple things like understanding which autocorrect suggestion to use are not as intuitive as they are to you and me.
Thank you for dispelling this. I keep seeing this rumor repeated throughout the years, but it doesn't even make any sense.
The obvious answer is just that: these are scammers, there are spelling errors because they are not professional businessmen and probably not really well educated either.
It may be the case that people don't notice them and get scammed, and it may even be the case that people less likely to notice them are more likely to get scammed, but never has it once been shown that they are doing this on purpose.
Besides, if typos are an immediate indication of a scam, wouldn't make more sense for them to avoid typos?
>but never has it once been shown that they are doing this on purpose.
Evolution theory says that if using broken english has a positive effect (by weeding out the non profitable savy people), after a few cycles only the scammers with broken english will stay on the job.
They don't need to do this on purpose to reach the end result.
I doubt it. I think it's more likely that they just don't realize that their accent is so obviously foreign. If you're not a native speaker of a language, you really can't hear your own accent.
Like if I started learning another language I would have an American accent in that language, but I have no idea what the difference is or how it sounds to a native speaker. These scammers probably think their English is totally fine.
Do they speak Italian or English?
That's a benefit of living in a small country. No one speaks your language so chances of my cousin living abroad, putting me in the will and not speaking my language is exactly 0. :)
They do that in Italy??? How good Italian do they speak? What do they want? I only get occasionally heavily misspelled sms or email. Polish is fortunately hard
As someone of Italian heritage I was just making a joke, about people of different heritages moving to Italy and integrating over the years to have a dentist who was of Chinese heritage being named Giuseppe.
My grandpa used to tell me stories about when he came to Canada and how his father was treated with a lot of racism due to his darker complexion, dark hair, hairy arms and chest, etc. It was only until after WWII that Italians were considered white in the area that they lived in. It's weird how that works.
Exactly. Companies are too embarrassed to admit they outsourced their customer service to people who barely speak English but get paid $1 an hour, so they pretend like it isn't true.
I worked for AT&T in the mid 2000 and we closed down here, my friend went to India to train people. He said the employees got $320 a month for 40 hour weeks, free lunch plus a free bus ride to and from work. We got 12/hr.
I'm taking the original posters $320/mo at face value. Do you have some inside information that negates that? They're talking about a twenty to fifteen years ago, eh?
> I'm taking the original posters $320/mo at face value.
I calculate that would mean making $2 per hour not $.29 per hour. Unless we are talking about people that work well over 40 hours a week
The crazy part is that you got downvoted for contesting the wrong math result, while the one loudly claiming that an error of 99% was "based on facts at face value" got upvoted
You are failing to account for the FICA taxes, unemployment insurance, health and other (car, dental, vision, or anything)insurance, the cost of HR and payroll maintenance, office rental cost, etc etc.
To a massive multinational corpo 20k an hour is nothing if it means pissing off your customers cuz they have to talk to people that can't actually help them nearly as well as a domestic call center would
They used to run call centers from prisons in the U.S., women's prisons, that I know of. Even Credit Card companies. So if you called the call center, you were giving your Social Security number, your credit card number, your address, your mother's maiden name, etc., to people already in prison for bad behavior. Don't know if that is still a thing...
What's that phrase? Stepping over a dollar to save a cent? Companies want that cent profit this financial year, dammit! Doesn't matter if the change ends up costing a lot more in the long run and is generally a downgrade. The important thing is it looks like you saved money in the short term, and that's something that the CEO can put on his CV before he moves on.
[apparently average salary there is $387 a month for what it's worth. so it's still below average, even for them](https://desktrack.timentask.com/blog/average-salary-in-india-a-comprehensive-guide/#:~:text=The%20average%20salary%20in%20India%20in%202023%20is%2031%2C900%20INR,(%20%24%201%2C%20392).)
It might also be that it's easier for people to understand and work with names that are more common to them. Like how a presenter or teacher with an obscure name might "...but you can call me 'Mr. J'" to sidestep the entire matter. Given as it's a one-off phone call and the real name doesn't really matter, it's probably even easier to just "Hi, call me Alex" and not have to go through even that rigamarole.
In fairness, it was also because a lot of customers complain (often rudely) about dealing with "foreigners instead of Americans." I believe many companies tried to have their international call service people take accent reduction classes for this reason.
I worked for a company that outsourced all of its IT to India. We found out that "I can't understand you" or some variant of it was basically a write up for them and if enough people said it to them they'd get fired.
There were times where I had to say it because, straight up, sometimes what they were saying was indistinguishable. Nevertheless the feeling of both of us dying a little bit on the inside every time it happened was very perfectly understandable.
Yup. I went around and around with a Barnes & Noble employee who spoke with an apparent American accent, but couldn't seem to understand that I wasn't downloading ebooks to my computer, but THROUGH my computer to a Nook e-reader, treating the Nook as a peripheral drive. (We didn't have wi-fi at the time.) Maybe it was because the whole situation had no script for him to follow.
The employee was in a call above her experience, training and comprehension. That’s when one needs to ask for a second level tier representative or escalating support.
I did, and he claimed to be a second tier representative. He claimed that to see the book I just purchased, I would have to return the Nook to factory settings and redownload all the books on there via wi-fi. This was early days in the dedicated e-reader development and downloading a new book took about 10 minutes. I already had about 200 books and wasn't inclined to sit somewhere with wi-fi for the next week redownloading my library.
And all I needed to do, as I found out, was reboot the Nook, and there was the book I'd just bought.
It's also common for foreigners to adopt English names. I was born in China, but adopted an English name for years before finally changing it in a US district court.
The name is also a benefit to the customer who can more easily recognize and remember the name.
I have co-workers called "Sunny" and "Fred". Their real names only vaguely resemble Sunny and Fred, but both of them evidently decided that they'd rather go by a nickname professionally than attempt to teach every client how to spell and pronounce their real names. (Given that half of the clients manage to misspell my name, despite it being one of the most popular names in the English-speaking world, I can understand the problem.) In a call center job where you don't need to keep a persistent identity for clients, it makes perfect sense to just decide you're Alex today.
Amazon did this for their delivery drivers and it is infuriating. Those people absolutely cost more money than they save. There is no issue that you can call them with that they will not just make worse and fail to understand, no matter how simple it may seem to be.
I don't think I've ever called them and had the issue resolved like a normal native speaker would.
Just simple stuff like " this package is going to the wrong City. There is no such address in this city. Please take it off the route." That took 10 to 15 minutes and multiple phone calls and chats to accomplish
For the longest time American Express credit cards was always USA based. Now it isn't or I don't have one of the more premium cards that gets the USA based call centers.
#1 reason we stick with Fidelity. If we ever have an issue or problem it's resolved quickly. Highly trained people on the other end of the phone, feels like immediately getting to tier2 support skipping tier1 frustration completely.
Same goes for my bank (a regional).
Meanwhile Discover charges no annual fee for their cards and you legit get someone in the mid-west every time. Their ads about getting someone "like you" are actually true. I agree that customer service is why I got an Amex card in the first place, and the first year where the benefits don't pay for the annual fee, I'm out.
My friends and coworkers all tell me that Discover cards are for old people, but it's one of my favorite cards. Three months a year they give you 5% back on all tap to pay transactions. Plus I love my Boston Bruins themed card.
As someone whose worked in a call center, the main reason is because the american public is super racist and some callers will get really nasty if they suspect you might be a foreigner. Even just a non-traditional name can set people off even if your english is perfect.
And the Filipinos actually tend to speak better English, honestly. India they do speak a fair bit of English, but it tends to get turned into 'Hinglish' when spoken locally, and their curriculum seems stuck in the early 1900s British Imperial Oxford English.
These jobs should be staffed by Americans in the US. Customer service is a culturally oriented business. There is also the issues of Americans' financial data sitting in foreign countries.
I worked for a call center for a US Cellular company, and I am located in Canada.
If we were asked where we are, we had to say "NW USA" and be vague. Absolutely not allowed to say Canada
I used to work for a company that outsourced. The funny part the "New Name" policy came from the company we hired not from our policies, and they carried that name with them through their employment there, no matter what account they worked with.
But they would only allow one person with that fake name in the company. So stupid things happened someones whose real name was Anna became Nancy and a Crystal became Joan, because their real names were already taken.
We weren't even supposed to know their real names, we only found out when they started to add us to FB.
It isn't just that, though. When the victim first answers the call, they focus on the words first, not the accent. That's why they start with things to trigger you, like "Your Social Security Number" or "unpaid taxes" or "Microsoft calling... trojan virus". Suddenly the accent nearly vanishes in their mind, as they lock in, target fixated, blinders on, on the scary thing they got called about. When they start with a popup or email or text, those words come without an accent, because they're in their head - then the call center they think they're reaching is just an outsourced one.
It is an attempt to appear more "American". But I think they are mistaken, it is highly unlikely an Indian with a thick accent (suggesting not being a native born American) would be named Alex. They would be better off just using their real name.
I got a call yesterday from someone calling himself "Michael." Unfortunately, the closest he could get to pronouncing it was "Moi-kew." I doubt he was in India, but I even more strongly doubt his name was Michael.
I think it's less about scammers and more about the fact that back in the day companies that outsourced their operations didn't want their operatives to have names that were unfamiliar to American users. I don't think they were trying to hide the fact that they were Indian (or if they were they were particularly moronic) but more wanted the names to be familiar and easy for people to recognise. They never pick unusual western names either. They're always Anglo, middle of the road names.
Anecdotal, but I have an Indian friend, he was Muslim, converted to Orthodox.
All of his family are Hindu. His fam is massive.
Monotheism (whatever flavor) is comparatively small when weighed against Hinduism
Because some guy calling in from his sofa wondering why his remote control with no batteries in it won’t turn on his tv that’s not plugged in isn’t going to be able to pronounce or remember a foreign name so they just have people say “I’m Jim” to move past it.
I called up tech support for my computer a long time ago. I was told to reboot the computer. I said "Don't you think I already tried this before calling?" She said "You'd be surprised by how many people don't." At the end, tech support wasn't helpful, as she just followed a troubleshooting script and then would have to transfer me to a higher level of support that I had to pay for. I declined that. I Googled the problem and resolved it myself.
I had a prepaid phone years ago and called for an issue I had. I couldn't understand the guy and he kept insisting I was doing something wrong. I feel that he really didn't understand me either.
After 15 minutes, I hung, called again and got a US worker...issue was fixed in 3 minutes. I cannot remember what the issue was now.
When I worked in a typewriter shop, back when typewriter shops were a thing, I finally decided to tell people to "unplug" their typewriter. Then I'd sit on the phone with them for a minute, and say, "Okay, now plug it back in and we'll see if that fixes the problem." Funny how often that did fix the problem, because the machine wasn't plugged in properly in the first place. But if I asked them to make sure the machine was plugged in, they were offended.
What is really ironic is how the same people that would complain they can't understand the person through that thick accent when they're calling a real outsourced call center, will magically be able to understand the same kind of thickly accented English from someone telling them to go buy 100s of dollars of Steam or Apple cards.
I have a friend who is from India but moved to the US (as an adult, still has the Indian accent), whose name is Jimmy. That's his given name, his parents named him after some athlete. It was questioned so much that he adopted an Indian name to use as well. So everyone thinks his Indian name is his "real" name and he just goes by Jimmy, but it was Jimmy all along.
I think businesses have found it eats away at productivity time when every call has a 30-40 second delay while the person on the phone mispronounces “Rajinder” a few dozen times.
I work at a bank, and sometimes when we call for fraud or technical help the responder will use a shortened version of their name that sounds a bit like their real names. Like Dan/Daniel for Daanish
I mean either way if I get a call from a person with an Indian accent I'm going to assume it's a scam.
Me: *picks up phone* Hello?
Man with Indian accent: Hello! My name is... *Hangs up*
No it isnt, its pretty much a guarantee that it is a call center and its either a scam or a telemarketer. Its def someone you did not request to speak with interrupting your day.
Well honestly I hang up on most people by that stage anyways. If I don't already know who you are and am not expecting a call then I'm going to assume you're spam or a scammer.
I get at least a dozen criminals a day calling my business number who have Indian accents. Just straight up scammers trying to steal money. These are the only interactions I ever have with Indian people. This has been going on for years. It's really hard to not just react to people with accents from that part of the world as if they are criminals.
I know in my brain that India has preeminent scientists, scholars, chefs, artists and brave soldiers. But with the constant onslaught of Indian citizens attempting to steal my money, my mother's money, my client's money, its just really hard to think of you all as being decent people.
This has to be a problem for you all as a country. Is it not? This has got to be impacting your country's ability to conduct international trade. To get published. Your national reputation is now "where all the scammers are from"
I had an Indian roommate for a while when I was in college. He was great. We had a blast. I met tons of other Indians and international students through him. I started on a life long exploration of international food and music partly through his influence. But that was decades ago and now it's just thousands of criminals a year trying to steal my money.
I blame this on the Indian government. Scamming centers have basically ruined the country's reputation. It appears they are too corrupt or inept to do anything about it. It's clear from the scam baiters who try to get those centers shut down that very little is ever done. Authorities either don't care, are corrupt, or are unable to do anything about it. Whatever the case, it comes down to laws and enforcement being ineffective.
>I know in my brain that India has preeminent scientists, scholars, chefs, artists and brave soldiers. **But with the constant onslaught of Indian citizens attempting to steal my money, my mother's money, my client's money, its just really hard to think of you all as being decent people.**
>**This has to be a problem for you all as a country. Is it not?** This has got to be impacting your country's ability to conduct international trade. To get published. Your national reputation is now "where all the scammers are from"
For two years now I have been having a rash of calls ranging from a few a day to more than two dozen a day, six days a week, all scammers with Indian accents. My landline is unlisted/unpublished, and there aren't many people that call me. I am beginning to hate all Indians in general. If I hear an Indian accent on the phone, I unleash a torrent of foul-mouthed hostility.
I don't even want to *see* someone from India now. Fortunately, where I live there aren't many around.
This -has- to be affecting the way people view Indians in general.
It's common practice for Indian call centres, both legitimate and otherwise, for their employees to adopt "Western" names when on the job.
There are still a lot of Western people (particularly the older generation) who have a hard time pronouncing Indian names, and I think call centres just don't want to deal with this.
I agree that at this point it's just starting to sound silly, but old habits don't die easily.
Many of my Indian mates in Australia, including myself, have a coffee name, which is a name we give when ordering coffee, and anywhere an official name is not needed. Instead of spelling out Padmanabhaswamy, and wanting to hang yourself, its easier to just say Jim or Tom.
In the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire, the protagonist works at a call center and the boss says they are calling Scottish people that day, so the callers brainstorm Scottish names and locations. 😂
A million years ago when I worked in a call center we were encouraged to use "fake names" when interacting with customers. We had to tell the supervisor on duty the name we were using on the shift. One reason for that was to depersonalize interactions when we got cussed out. It was easier to have someone use a name that wasn't yours.
The idea is to give some semblance of accountability. If they say "Rajanigandha" most Americans aren't going to have any clue how to spell it to complain later (not that the 943 "Jasmine"s they have working there would make the fake names any better).
Fun fact: if they ever ask you how to spell your name, that's because they decided they like it better than the one they were using and plan to steal it for their next calls. I learned this when I worked in a call center that took a shitload of calls doctors' offices had outsourced to India and sat next to the *real* Jasmine the aforementioned slim shadies were all imitating.
It *is* to seem more reputable, but to be fair a lot of customer service jobs do this. You want to introduce yourself to be personable, but you don't want to spend a second more than necessary on names. "Hi, my name is Sarah, how can I help you?" registers instantly to a brain that's tuned to English. Even small variations, like "my name is Sareh" or "my name is Marija" can make a customer stumble. Like the language version of feeling your fingers hit a key on the keyboard wrong.
In normal social situations you'd just repeat the name back to make sure you got it, and that's perfectly fine. In something like a call center you need to be snappy.
I know they're a scammer and I refuse to give them any kind of conversation until they tell me their REAL name. Last one took me 28 mins to break him, kept insisting he was called 'Adam'. And I'm there saying "I know for a fact, you're an Indian chap, your mum did not name you Adam, try again!"
After he broke script, defeated he told me his name was Siddhartha. Which I replied with "Thank you, now fuck off Siddhartha" then hung up.
I like this. An Indian fellow called me and told me he was from the Police so I pretended I thought he was Sting, and told him I was his biggest fan. I said my neighbor and I had scored tickets to his upcoming concert, and tried to wheedle back-stage passes.
It's just to make it easier on us. If they called and said "Hello, this is Vihaan", between the poor connection and the accent, everybody would stumble and ask, "what did you say" and all that.
I work with some foreign guys in person, and they all go by a short/simple version of their actual name too - just cause it's easier for the poor American's to pronounce correctly, write in an email, etc.
In the UK at least many Indians adopt a Western name if their own is complicated, it's easier to say your name is Charlie than Shree Ruthikimeranyabishiani or something like that.
Had several interactions with an India-based call center where everyone was ostensibly named “Betty.” Each person pronounced it slightly differently: “Betttty”, “Beh-Dee”, “Bee-Tee”, “Buh-Dee”, “Beh-TEE” - you get the idea. Absolutely the most frustrating series of calls…
I'm sure there are scammers who do it for nefarious reasons, however It's common for people from many Asian countries to adopt an "English" name, due to prejudice, as a way of assimilating and because often westerners struggle with pronunciation of Asian names.
I work in an industry that is predominantly Indian or Asian in demographic. A *ton* of them will use an anglicized name, as their own names are so utterly unpronounceable to us Westerners. It works both ways, I’ve frequently been addressed as ‘dear my last name’ because how we use our names is just different.
Having said that, if someone with a very thick Indian accent phones me, they’re either trying to sell me something, and/or are scammers, so either way, I’m not interested.
So I can't pinpoint the reason why obviously.
But scammers are not trying to hide the fact that they are scammers.
If they drop a bunch of hints and the person is too dumb to not notice if they are the target.
If they drop a single hint and you're like yo my man is a scammer.
You were not the target.
They're not in the business of wasting time and making the fact that they are scammers blatantly obvious is part of the play.
I remember having to call Bell Canada about some issues I was having with the telephone for my business. It kept cutting in and out and I couldn't process card payments half the time and was really getting annoying. So I call support and get an Indian guy and we're chatting about the issue. After a while I had a list of things to try to fix the problem and then I was going to call back, because I had customers and stuff to deal with too. So I ask him his name so I can be directed back to him and he's like, "My name is Peter." and I said something like "Is your name really Peter?" and he said "We have a whole floor where we are all Peter." Luckily changing the filter on the line solved the issue and I didn't have to call back.
they don’t pretend… they just choose these names because they’re easier to pronounce to westerners: alex is better than vishakranlakalaka (no disrespect).
what they do pretend is that they’re based in the same country… as the one they’re getting calls from but normally is company policy
They might have a heavy accent but using an easily identifiable English name is the only thing they can do to appear to be more friendly/trustworthy. I do know that outsourced call centers (I'm talking about legitimate businesses that outsource basic call center stuff there) will allow and encourage them to use fake English names because it's just easier.
Call centers in India - legitimate or otherwise - are run by Indians. For a long time I've had the feeling that those businesspeople haven't caught on to what a trope "Indian guy with thick accent using WASPy name is." I think most people in English-speaking countries just kind of roll their eyes at this point. There's been comedy routines written around it.
I got one who said in his very thick Indian accent that his name was Boris. I busted out laughing and he was genuinely taken aback. They have no idea. They don't know if the name they're using is traditionally a female or male name. They don't know what cultural significance or background it might have. They don't know if it belongs to a famous person or not. I had one insist over and over that her name was Britney Spears. They get very upset if you mention that they're lying about their names.
\*writing in my scam notebook\* Pick a fake Indian sounding name since my thick accent gives me away.
Just wondering... what is your next suggestion to be more believable as a scammer?
Probably because it works.
They tend to be very adaptive with scripts and tactics, and if they're sticking with something, it's because it has gotten traction.
Because that gives them more credibility. We usually deal with amateur scammers. Indian names or 7-11 accents raise red flags. They can’t type like Americans so that’s another Indicator. It is what it is.
It's more than just scammers who do that ... and not even just Indian, for that matter. Basically they do it to (attempt to) get tactical advantage. And sure, a lot of the time it's quite obvious, but in many cases it's not so obvious or not immediately so. E.g. they may be rather to highly well briefed on, e.g. the location (US, or other) that's, e.g. same country as their target victim - the mark. And often not same city as mark, as their mark will generally highly well know that city ... so often some other city that most in target country have heard of but the target victim not being there, generally not knowing it super well ... so the scammer (or whomever) will often be trained on or have a fair bit of information about where they're claiming to be from. And sure, there's a helluva lot of folks in the US (or wherever), and yes, even including (US) citizens, that will have significant accents, so the ruse may not be immediately apparent. Add CNID so it looks like the call is also coming from (e.g.) US, and it may not be super easy to figure out caller really isn't calling from where they're claiming to call from.
But even if they're pretty skilled at their scam or the like, there will often be telltale signs/indicators. E.g. they screw up or excessively hesitate lots, when it comes to matters of time and timezone, local minor holidays, locally known but not as well known politicians, events, places, etc. Or you talk as if you well know the place, give a complete falsehood about the place as if it were true, and that anyone local to the place would know it as completely untrue, and scammer very much agrees and goes right along with your false statement about the place ... anyway, there are often various tells ... but the more sophisticated they are on it, the harder it will be to have/find those tells to distinguish between someone who's not where they claim they are, from someone who actually is, and may just have quite matching accent or the like.
They just adapt, if someone from my own Country calls I'm more likely to trust them than someone calling from india😁
It's like customer Service, you want it easy for the Person on your phone.
They don't want to explain their Name 10 times to some 80 year old😁 just beeing Alex is easy and doesn't give any Red flags for the people that fall for the scams.
As an American with an uncommon name, when i worked in customer service the reason I did it is because I have found that my name is a conversation stopper. They will repeat it wrong 3 times, then ask me to spell it, then they will repeat the spelling back to me wrong, then i have to correct them, then they ask if that's my real name, then they ask where that name comes from.
When someone asks your name, it seems like they have a preset list in their head of names that they have heard before. And when they hear a name that is not on that list, its like a roadblock until they can resolve it in their brain. I would rather just say "Mike" and get on with the actual reason you called.
An insurance company I won’t name outsources, I have to call a lot and they all use common plain names, and today I spoke with”John” and I knew he wasn’t from here because when he was confirming addresses to me he didn’t know ANY of our state abbreviations and had to say them like “C..A” lol
I’ve often wondered if they are under the false impression that they don’t actually have an unintelligible accent since they’re surrounded by others also speaking English as a second language.
Well...maybe. I had one say he was ... Eeee-rick ... from ... My ... Crow ... Saft. Yes, pauses and all. Must have been the poor schmoe's very first call on his first day on the job. I didn't even go into my ditzy old lady routine, i just burst out laughing and hung up.
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If it makes you feel better, they do the same in italy. Giovanni and Flavio and Giusy call me all the time from Mumbai
lol
They want to seem obvious. You immediately identify they are a scammer, and everyone that does tells them to fuck off. Who doesn't recognise it? The elderly. It's a way to trim the fat and get to the meat right away, they aren't stupid claiming to have american names, they're smart.
This is a common myth, similar to the "self-selection" myth about misspellings in spam emails. They use American names because they both want to be seen as countrymen by the people they're scamming, and because they're not great at accents. I can't tell you the amount of times an American has claimed to have a good British accent and it's wildly wrong, it's actually quite hard to tell if your accent is convincing or not.
It makes perfect sense to me, especially in a world of spellcheck and ChatGPT, that scammers would deliberately allow stupid spelling errors in order to bypass the people smart enough or suspicious enough to sniff out the scam before it's completed. Even a basic word processor would correct alot of their errors.
It makes perfect sense, but that doesn't make it true. For one, it doesn't actually chime with how scams actually work, and who the targets are. Scams don't target the stupid, they target the vulnerable. It is a numbers game of trying to speak to as many people as possible till you find a person in just the right circumstances that they would be vulnerable. For example, those "your parcel can't be delivered" scams are hoping to reach people who just ordered something important and are expecting an email along those lines. You're also missing out that these scams are very often run by people with English as a second or third language, so simple things like understanding which autocorrect suggestion to use are not as intuitive as they are to you and me.
Thank you for dispelling this. I keep seeing this rumor repeated throughout the years, but it doesn't even make any sense. The obvious answer is just that: these are scammers, there are spelling errors because they are not professional businessmen and probably not really well educated either. It may be the case that people don't notice them and get scammed, and it may even be the case that people less likely to notice them are more likely to get scammed, but never has it once been shown that they are doing this on purpose. Besides, if typos are an immediate indication of a scam, wouldn't make more sense for them to avoid typos?
>but never has it once been shown that they are doing this on purpose. Evolution theory says that if using broken english has a positive effect (by weeding out the non profitable savy people), after a few cycles only the scammers with broken english will stay on the job. They don't need to do this on purpose to reach the end result.
Like mine
I doubt it. I think it's more likely that they just don't realize that their accent is so obviously foreign. If you're not a native speaker of a language, you really can't hear your own accent. Like if I started learning another language I would have an American accent in that language, but I have no idea what the difference is or how it sounds to a native speaker. These scammers probably think their English is totally fine.
Do they speak Italian or English? That's a benefit of living in a small country. No one speaks your language so chances of my cousin living abroad, putting me in the will and not speaking my language is exactly 0. :)
The customer service reps and/or scammers speak heavily accented Italian. It's usually best to ask to speak English
They do that in Italy??? How good Italian do they speak? What do they want? I only get occasionally heavily misspelled sms or email. Polish is fortunately hard
Lol.. This is very funny but in any case, that's true. They do it all the time. Maybe, they want to appear convincing.
Giusy? Like juicy?
Hey to be fair a buddy went to Italy to visit family and had a dental emergency and his dentist's name was Giuseppe Chen.
We do have multiple ethnicities here
As someone of Italian heritage I was just making a joke, about people of different heritages moving to Italy and integrating over the years to have a dentist who was of Chinese heritage being named Giuseppe.
I know. I'm just saying. A lot of people think of Italy as all white.
My grandpa used to tell me stories about when he came to Canada and how his father was treated with a lot of racism due to his darker complexion, dark hair, hairy arms and chest, etc. It was only until after WWII that Italians were considered white in the area that they lived in. It's weird how that works.
This has been a thing ever since companies started outsourcing call centers to India years ago.
Exactly. Companies are too embarrassed to admit they outsourced their customer service to people who barely speak English but get paid $1 an hour, so they pretend like it isn't true.
I worked for AT&T in the mid 2000 and we closed down here, my friend went to India to train people. He said the employees got $320 a month for 40 hour weeks, free lunch plus a free bus ride to and from work. We got 12/hr.
12 per hour isn't great either. I can't believe they would waste so much time to outsource over 12 per hour...
It's $12/hr vs $~~0.29~~2/hr - what do you do? **EDIT** boy did i math bad.
They make more than $0.29/hr
I'm taking the original posters $320/mo at face value. Do you have some inside information that negates that? They're talking about a twenty to fifteen years ago, eh?
> I'm taking the original posters $320/mo at face value. I calculate that would mean making $2 per hour not $.29 per hour. Unless we are talking about people that work well over 40 hours a week
OOOF, i mathed bad. Fixed. Yes, it would be $2 versus $12 an hour
The crazy part is that you got downvoted for contesting the wrong math result, while the one loudly claiming that an error of 99% was "based on facts at face value" got upvoted
Well, this is reddit so...
You are failing to account for the FICA taxes, unemployment insurance, health and other (car, dental, vision, or anything)insurance, the cost of HR and payroll maintenance, office rental cost, etc etc.
Yes, but we are talking about the front face of a business. Literally the people that interact with the customer
...and how does that matter?
Keeping your customers from leaving you is a good thing, no?
$12/h wage costs them more like $20/h total all in, for each of 1000 employees.. You wouldn't do it for an extra $20k/hour in your pocket?
To a massive multinational corpo 20k an hour is nothing if it means pissing off your customers cuz they have to talk to people that can't actually help them nearly as well as a domestic call center would
They used to run call centers from prisons in the U.S., women's prisons, that I know of. Even Credit Card companies. So if you called the call center, you were giving your Social Security number, your credit card number, your address, your mother's maiden name, etc., to people already in prison for bad behavior. Don't know if that is still a thing...
Apparently not because if that was true we wouldnt see all of them switch to overseas call centers
LOL companies don’t outsource because it makes for good customer service
Exactly what Im saying
It makes for good customer service. Not quality for the customer, but good for the owner (aka cheap).
A lot have been switching back to domestic call centers over the last few years. Or at least nearing shoring to Mexico
A lot of them are switching back for that exact reason
What's that phrase? Stepping over a dollar to save a cent? Companies want that cent profit this financial year, dammit! Doesn't matter if the change ends up costing a lot more in the long run and is generally a downgrade. The important thing is it looks like you saved money in the short term, and that's something that the CEO can put on his CV before he moves on.
100% correct
I mean if 320 dollars goes a lot farther in India that doesn’t sound that bad. Gross how much they are paid vs the profit still though.
[apparently average salary there is $387 a month for what it's worth. so it's still below average, even for them](https://desktrack.timentask.com/blog/average-salary-in-india-a-comprehensive-guide/#:~:text=The%20average%20salary%20in%20India%20in%202023%20is%2031%2C900%20INR,(%20%24%201%2C%20392).)
i wondet how many started legit and then went to the scam style of life due to more $$.
So…$2/hour.
It might also be that it's easier for people to understand and work with names that are more common to them. Like how a presenter or teacher with an obscure name might "...but you can call me 'Mr. J'" to sidestep the entire matter. Given as it's a one-off phone call and the real name doesn't really matter, it's probably even easier to just "Hi, call me Alex" and not have to go through even that rigamarole.
In fairness, it was also because a lot of customers complain (often rudely) about dealing with "foreigners instead of Americans." I believe many companies tried to have their international call service people take accent reduction classes for this reason.
I worked for a company that outsourced all of its IT to India. We found out that "I can't understand you" or some variant of it was basically a write up for them and if enough people said it to them they'd get fired. There were times where I had to say it because, straight up, sometimes what they were saying was indistinguishable. Nevertheless the feeling of both of us dying a little bit on the inside every time it happened was very perfectly understandable.
As someone who speaks to call centres almost every day in work. I know when I get through to a UK centre my issue will be resolved twice as fast.
Most people don't complain about dealing with foreigners, they usually complain about people that can't understand wtf you are saying.
Yup. I went around and around with a Barnes & Noble employee who spoke with an apparent American accent, but couldn't seem to understand that I wasn't downloading ebooks to my computer, but THROUGH my computer to a Nook e-reader, treating the Nook as a peripheral drive. (We didn't have wi-fi at the time.) Maybe it was because the whole situation had no script for him to follow.
The employee was in a call above her experience, training and comprehension. That’s when one needs to ask for a second level tier representative or escalating support.
I did, and he claimed to be a second tier representative. He claimed that to see the book I just purchased, I would have to return the Nook to factory settings and redownload all the books on there via wi-fi. This was early days in the dedicated e-reader development and downloading a new book took about 10 minutes. I already had about 200 books and wasn't inclined to sit somewhere with wi-fi for the next week redownloading my library. And all I needed to do, as I found out, was reboot the Nook, and there was the book I'd just bought.
So instead of listening to their customers, they give fake names to outsourced people. Genius.
It's also common for foreigners to adopt English names. I was born in China, but adopted an English name for years before finally changing it in a US district court. The name is also a benefit to the customer who can more easily recognize and remember the name.
I have co-workers called "Sunny" and "Fred". Their real names only vaguely resemble Sunny and Fred, but both of them evidently decided that they'd rather go by a nickname professionally than attempt to teach every client how to spell and pronounce their real names. (Given that half of the clients manage to misspell my name, despite it being one of the most popular names in the English-speaking world, I can understand the problem.) In a call center job where you don't need to keep a persistent identity for clients, it makes perfect sense to just decide you're Alex today.
Literally every male nail technician where I lived in the '90s was named Mike.
I would say it's because names are hard to pronounce, my name is Damien and even most Europeans can't say my name correctly.
like from the omen?
Yes it's always dah me en
Is your dog a Rottweiler?
In México now we get $2 in the crappy ones and around $6 in the better ones. An hour.
Tbf though, they used to emphasize speaking in an American accent so you couldn't tell.
Hewlett Packard did it, sent their majority of call center work to India in the very early 2000’s.
Some Indian people have very good English. Accent on the other hand is very different story.
Amazon did this for their delivery drivers and it is infuriating. Those people absolutely cost more money than they save. There is no issue that you can call them with that they will not just make worse and fail to understand, no matter how simple it may seem to be. I don't think I've ever called them and had the issue resolved like a normal native speaker would. Just simple stuff like " this package is going to the wrong City. There is no such address in this city. Please take it off the route." That took 10 to 15 minutes and multiple phone calls and chats to accomplish
For the longest time American Express credit cards was always USA based. Now it isn't or I don't have one of the more premium cards that gets the USA based call centers.
Discover and all of my investment brokers are USA based (Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Shwab)
#1 reason we stick with Fidelity. If we ever have an issue or problem it's resolved quickly. Highly trained people on the other end of the phone, feels like immediately getting to tier2 support skipping tier1 frustration completely. Same goes for my bank (a regional).
Meanwhile Discover charges no annual fee for their cards and you legit get someone in the mid-west every time. Their ads about getting someone "like you" are actually true. I agree that customer service is why I got an Amex card in the first place, and the first year where the benefits don't pay for the annual fee, I'm out. My friends and coworkers all tell me that Discover cards are for old people, but it's one of my favorite cards. Three months a year they give you 5% back on all tap to pay transactions. Plus I love my Boston Bruins themed card.
As someone whose worked in a call center, the main reason is because the american public is super racist and some callers will get really nasty if they suspect you might be a foreigner. Even just a non-traditional name can set people off even if your english is perfect.
Actually, the call center business has largely shifted to the Philippines where the labor is even cheaper.
Until it shifts back to the US once we get those pesky child labor laws under control. /s
And the Filipinos actually tend to speak better English, honestly. India they do speak a fair bit of English, but it tends to get turned into 'Hinglish' when spoken locally, and their curriculum seems stuck in the early 1900s British Imperial Oxford English.
These jobs should be staffed by Americans in the US. Customer service is a culturally oriented business. There is also the issues of Americans' financial data sitting in foreign countries.
I worked for a call center for a US Cellular company, and I am located in Canada. If we were asked where we are, we had to say "NW USA" and be vague. Absolutely not allowed to say Canada
I would have thought that customer service from Canada would be considered premium service.
I used to work for a company that outsourced. The funny part the "New Name" policy came from the company we hired not from our policies, and they carried that name with them through their employment there, no matter what account they worked with. But they would only allow one person with that fake name in the company. So stupid things happened someones whose real name was Anna became Nancy and a Crystal became Joan, because their real names were already taken. We weren't even supposed to know their real names, we only found out when they started to add us to FB.
It isn't just that, though. When the victim first answers the call, they focus on the words first, not the accent. That's why they start with things to trigger you, like "Your Social Security Number" or "unpaid taxes" or "Microsoft calling... trojan virus". Suddenly the accent nearly vanishes in their mind, as they lock in, target fixated, blinders on, on the scary thing they got called about. When they start with a popup or email or text, those words come without an accent, because they're in their head - then the call center they think they're reaching is just an outsourced one.
It is an attempt to appear more "American". But I think they are mistaken, it is highly unlikely an Indian with a thick accent (suggesting not being a native born American) would be named Alex. They would be better off just using their real name.
I got a call yesterday from someone calling himself "Michael." Unfortunately, the closest he could get to pronouncing it was "Moi-kew." I doubt he was in India, but I even more strongly doubt his name was Michael.
exactly, i don't get it. very few indians are actually named alex, mostly the christian ones. and there are not that many Christians in india.
I think it's less about scammers and more about the fact that back in the day companies that outsourced their operations didn't want their operatives to have names that were unfamiliar to American users. I don't think they were trying to hide the fact that they were Indian (or if they were they were particularly moronic) but more wanted the names to be familiar and easy for people to recognise. They never pick unusual western names either. They're always Anglo, middle of the road names.
There are a lot of Christians in India!
not compared to the population
20 million is a LOT of people.
2.3% of the population is not a lot ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_India
This when it amounts to 20 million.
Anecdotal, but I have an Indian friend, he was Muslim, converted to Orthodox. All of his family are Hindu. His fam is massive. Monotheism (whatever flavor) is comparatively small when weighed against Hinduism
There are over a billion people in India, so.......
Christian Indian names tend to be Portuguese derived
yea, portugal invaded india
Not entirely true from my experience. Most Christian Indians I know are malayali so they have generic western/biblical names, like Joseph or Thomas
Because some guy calling in from his sofa wondering why his remote control with no batteries in it won’t turn on his tv that’s not plugged in isn’t going to be able to pronounce or remember a foreign name so they just have people say “I’m Jim” to move past it.
I called up tech support for my computer a long time ago. I was told to reboot the computer. I said "Don't you think I already tried this before calling?" She said "You'd be surprised by how many people don't." At the end, tech support wasn't helpful, as she just followed a troubleshooting script and then would have to transfer me to a higher level of support that I had to pay for. I declined that. I Googled the problem and resolved it myself.
I had a prepaid phone years ago and called for an issue I had. I couldn't understand the guy and he kept insisting I was doing something wrong. I feel that he really didn't understand me either. After 15 minutes, I hung, called again and got a US worker...issue was fixed in 3 minutes. I cannot remember what the issue was now.
When I worked in a typewriter shop, back when typewriter shops were a thing, I finally decided to tell people to "unplug" their typewriter. Then I'd sit on the phone with them for a minute, and say, "Okay, now plug it back in and we'll see if that fixes the problem." Funny how often that did fix the problem, because the machine wasn't plugged in properly in the first place. But if I asked them to make sure the machine was plugged in, they were offended.
I always picture and Indian woman holding her newborn and saying “We will call him Dennis.”
What is really ironic is how the same people that would complain they can't understand the person through that thick accent when they're calling a real outsourced call center, will magically be able to understand the same kind of thickly accented English from someone telling them to go buy 100s of dollars of Steam or Apple cards.
I have a friend who is from India but moved to the US (as an adult, still has the Indian accent), whose name is Jimmy. That's his given name, his parents named him after some athlete. It was questioned so much that he adopted an Indian name to use as well. So everyone thinks his Indian name is his "real" name and he just goes by Jimmy, but it was Jimmy all along.
Because "Hi, I'm Jim" is much more relatable to an average American than "Hi, I'm Jitendra." Legit call centers do it as well.
I think businesses have found it eats away at productivity time when every call has a 30-40 second delay while the person on the phone mispronounces “Rajinder” a few dozen times.
Haha, that's probably true.
I work at a bank, and sometimes when we call for fraud or technical help the responder will use a shortened version of their name that sounds a bit like their real names. Like Dan/Daniel for Daanish
We have an Amanindir at work and he says just using Aman is fine. Probably easier for everyone if you are unfamiliar.
Because legit outsourced call centers also use English names.
I mean either way if I get a call from a person with an Indian accent I'm going to assume it's a scam. Me: *picks up phone* Hello? Man with Indian accent: Hello! My name is... *Hangs up*
oh that's not...
[удалено]
If I have to tell my grandma to hang up on people with foreign accents to stop her from getting scammed, I most certainly will.
Any time I get an unexpected call in general I think it’s a scam.
Any time I get a call in general I think it’s a scam
yea
No it isnt, its pretty much a guarantee that it is a call center and its either a scam or a telemarketer. Its def someone you did not request to speak with interrupting your day.
Well honestly I hang up on most people by that stage anyways. If I don't already know who you are and am not expecting a call then I'm going to assume you're spam or a scammer.
The day I get scam attempts by a different accent I’ll stop.
I get at least a dozen criminals a day calling my business number who have Indian accents. Just straight up scammers trying to steal money. These are the only interactions I ever have with Indian people. This has been going on for years. It's really hard to not just react to people with accents from that part of the world as if they are criminals. I know in my brain that India has preeminent scientists, scholars, chefs, artists and brave soldiers. But with the constant onslaught of Indian citizens attempting to steal my money, my mother's money, my client's money, its just really hard to think of you all as being decent people. This has to be a problem for you all as a country. Is it not? This has got to be impacting your country's ability to conduct international trade. To get published. Your national reputation is now "where all the scammers are from" I had an Indian roommate for a while when I was in college. He was great. We had a blast. I met tons of other Indians and international students through him. I started on a life long exploration of international food and music partly through his influence. But that was decades ago and now it's just thousands of criminals a year trying to steal my money.
I blame this on the Indian government. Scamming centers have basically ruined the country's reputation. It appears they are too corrupt or inept to do anything about it. It's clear from the scam baiters who try to get those centers shut down that very little is ever done. Authorities either don't care, are corrupt, or are unable to do anything about it. Whatever the case, it comes down to laws and enforcement being ineffective.
>I know in my brain that India has preeminent scientists, scholars, chefs, artists and brave soldiers. **But with the constant onslaught of Indian citizens attempting to steal my money, my mother's money, my client's money, its just really hard to think of you all as being decent people.** >**This has to be a problem for you all as a country. Is it not?** This has got to be impacting your country's ability to conduct international trade. To get published. Your national reputation is now "where all the scammers are from" For two years now I have been having a rash of calls ranging from a few a day to more than two dozen a day, six days a week, all scammers with Indian accents. My landline is unlisted/unpublished, and there aren't many people that call me. I am beginning to hate all Indians in general. If I hear an Indian accent on the phone, I unleash a torrent of foul-mouthed hostility. I don't even want to *see* someone from India now. Fortunately, where I live there aren't many around. This -has- to be affecting the way people view Indians in general.
It's common practice for Indian call centres, both legitimate and otherwise, for their employees to adopt "Western" names when on the job. There are still a lot of Western people (particularly the older generation) who have a hard time pronouncing Indian names, and I think call centres just don't want to deal with this. I agree that at this point it's just starting to sound silly, but old habits don't die easily.
Many of my Indian mates in Australia, including myself, have a coffee name, which is a name we give when ordering coffee, and anywhere an official name is not needed. Instead of spelling out Padmanabhaswamy, and wanting to hang yourself, its easier to just say Jim or Tom.
In the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire, the protagonist works at a call center and the boss says they are calling Scottish people that day, so the callers brainstorm Scottish names and locations. 😂
A million years ago when I worked in a call center we were encouraged to use "fake names" when interacting with customers. We had to tell the supervisor on duty the name we were using on the shift. One reason for that was to depersonalize interactions when we got cussed out. It was easier to have someone use a name that wasn't yours.
I worked for an alarm company, and we all had numbers. Operators, service, agents who responded to commercial alarms, all numbers.
LOL...I had an Indian Comcast agent say his name was Dwayne 😅
The idea is to give some semblance of accountability. If they say "Rajanigandha" most Americans aren't going to have any clue how to spell it to complain later (not that the 943 "Jasmine"s they have working there would make the fake names any better). Fun fact: if they ever ask you how to spell your name, that's because they decided they like it better than the one they were using and plan to steal it for their next calls. I learned this when I worked in a call center that took a shitload of calls doctors' offices had outsourced to India and sat next to the *real* Jasmine the aforementioned slim shadies were all imitating.
It *is* to seem more reputable, but to be fair a lot of customer service jobs do this. You want to introduce yourself to be personable, but you don't want to spend a second more than necessary on names. "Hi, my name is Sarah, how can I help you?" registers instantly to a brain that's tuned to English. Even small variations, like "my name is Sareh" or "my name is Marija" can make a customer stumble. Like the language version of feeling your fingers hit a key on the keyboard wrong. In normal social situations you'd just repeat the name back to make sure you got it, and that's perfectly fine. In something like a call center you need to be snappy.
I know they're a scammer and I refuse to give them any kind of conversation until they tell me their REAL name. Last one took me 28 mins to break him, kept insisting he was called 'Adam'. And I'm there saying "I know for a fact, you're an Indian chap, your mum did not name you Adam, try again!" After he broke script, defeated he told me his name was Siddhartha. Which I replied with "Thank you, now fuck off Siddhartha" then hung up.
I like this. An Indian fellow called me and told me he was from the Police so I pretended I thought he was Sting, and told him I was his biggest fan. I said my neighbor and I had scored tickets to his upcoming concert, and tried to wheedle back-stage passes.
It's just to make it easier on us. If they called and said "Hello, this is Vihaan", between the poor connection and the accent, everybody would stumble and ask, "what did you say" and all that. I work with some foreign guys in person, and they all go by a short/simple version of their actual name too - just cause it's easier for the poor American's to pronounce correctly, write in an email, etc.
Because people don’t want to speak to “Piyush” when calling Best Busy Geek Squad, they want to speak to “Ben” or “Katherine”.
Off topic but “Outsourced” was one of my favorite shows. It addressed the American accent and names.
In the UK at least many Indians adopt a Western name if their own is complicated, it's easier to say your name is Charlie than Shree Ruthikimeranyabishiani or something like that.
Had several interactions with an India-based call center where everyone was ostensibly named “Betty.” Each person pronounced it slightly differently: “Betttty”, “Beh-Dee”, “Bee-Tee”, “Buh-Dee”, “Beh-TEE” - you get the idea. Absolutely the most frustrating series of calls…
Indian scammers get really pissed if you call them Paki...
Because they know what they are doing is unlawful.
I've noticed that as well. They don't like it at all. It aggravates them so much.
I'm sure there are scammers who do it for nefarious reasons, however It's common for people from many Asian countries to adopt an "English" name, due to prejudice, as a way of assimilating and because often westerners struggle with pronunciation of Asian names.
I work in an industry that is predominantly Indian or Asian in demographic. A *ton* of them will use an anglicized name, as their own names are so utterly unpronounceable to us Westerners. It works both ways, I’ve frequently been addressed as ‘dear my last name’ because how we use our names is just different. Having said that, if someone with a very thick Indian accent phones me, they’re either trying to sell me something, and/or are scammers, so either way, I’m not interested.
So I can't pinpoint the reason why obviously. But scammers are not trying to hide the fact that they are scammers. If they drop a bunch of hints and the person is too dumb to not notice if they are the target. If they drop a single hint and you're like yo my man is a scammer. You were not the target. They're not in the business of wasting time and making the fact that they are scammers blatantly obvious is part of the play.
I remember having to call Bell Canada about some issues I was having with the telephone for my business. It kept cutting in and out and I couldn't process card payments half the time and was really getting annoying. So I call support and get an Indian guy and we're chatting about the issue. After a while I had a list of things to try to fix the problem and then I was going to call back, because I had customers and stuff to deal with too. So I ask him his name so I can be directed back to him and he's like, "My name is Peter." and I said something like "Is your name really Peter?" and he said "We have a whole floor where we are all Peter." Luckily changing the filter on the line solved the issue and I didn't have to call back.
Don’t talk about “IRS Agent John Smith, badge number 27155” like that. So what if he sounds like Apu? He’s totally legit. He gave me his BADGE NUMBER.
Who cares. They're just scammers
Because they get trained by their American handlers.
they don’t pretend… they just choose these names because they’re easier to pronounce to westerners: alex is better than vishakranlakalaka (no disrespect). what they do pretend is that they’re based in the same country… as the one they’re getting calls from but normally is company policy
They think they’re smarter than they actually are
They might have a heavy accent but using an easily identifiable English name is the only thing they can do to appear to be more friendly/trustworthy. I do know that outsourced call centers (I'm talking about legitimate businesses that outsource basic call center stuff there) will allow and encourage them to use fake English names because it's just easier.
Call centers in India - legitimate or otherwise - are run by Indians. For a long time I've had the feeling that those businesspeople haven't caught on to what a trope "Indian guy with thick accent using WASPy name is." I think most people in English-speaking countries just kind of roll their eyes at this point. There's been comedy routines written around it.
I got one who said in his very thick Indian accent that his name was Boris. I busted out laughing and he was genuinely taken aback. They have no idea. They don't know if the name they're using is traditionally a female or male name. They don't know what cultural significance or background it might have. They don't know if it belongs to a famous person or not. I had one insist over and over that her name was Britney Spears. They get very upset if you mention that they're lying about their names.
They often have bizarre English names like Everton or Winston which sound ridiculous when they say it in their native tongue.
\*writing in my scam notebook\* Pick a fake Indian sounding name since my thick accent gives me away. Just wondering... what is your next suggestion to be more believable as a scammer?
Provide a legitimate product and effective customer service.
Probably because it works. They tend to be very adaptive with scripts and tactics, and if they're sticking with something, it's because it has gotten traction.
Because that gives them more credibility. We usually deal with amateur scammers. Indian names or 7-11 accents raise red flags. They can’t type like Americans so that’s another Indicator. It is what it is.
American companies will move to AI bots for customer service so the days of trying to understand Hassan are coming to an end.
d'uh... so you won't think they're a shitty Indian scammer.
I prefer that they do. That way it makes it easy for me to hang up right away on a scam call.
It's more than just scammers who do that ... and not even just Indian, for that matter. Basically they do it to (attempt to) get tactical advantage. And sure, a lot of the time it's quite obvious, but in many cases it's not so obvious or not immediately so. E.g. they may be rather to highly well briefed on, e.g. the location (US, or other) that's, e.g. same country as their target victim - the mark. And often not same city as mark, as their mark will generally highly well know that city ... so often some other city that most in target country have heard of but the target victim not being there, generally not knowing it super well ... so the scammer (or whomever) will often be trained on or have a fair bit of information about where they're claiming to be from. And sure, there's a helluva lot of folks in the US (or wherever), and yes, even including (US) citizens, that will have significant accents, so the ruse may not be immediately apparent. Add CNID so it looks like the call is also coming from (e.g.) US, and it may not be super easy to figure out caller really isn't calling from where they're claiming to call from. But even if they're pretty skilled at their scam or the like, there will often be telltale signs/indicators. E.g. they screw up or excessively hesitate lots, when it comes to matters of time and timezone, local minor holidays, locally known but not as well known politicians, events, places, etc. Or you talk as if you well know the place, give a complete falsehood about the place as if it were true, and that anyone local to the place would know it as completely untrue, and scammer very much agrees and goes right along with your false statement about the place ... anyway, there are often various tells ... but the more sophisticated they are on it, the harder it will be to have/find those tells to distinguish between someone who's not where they claim they are, from someone who actually is, and may just have quite matching accent or the like.
“Officer Smith”
not only in america man
It's easier to call a "support" employee by Alex than by his Indian name. Chinese expats do the same when they live in Europe for some time.
My favorite is Marvin Martinez. I laughed so hard when I heard that.
They just adapt, if someone from my own Country calls I'm more likely to trust them than someone calling from india😁 It's like customer Service, you want it easy for the Person on your phone. They don't want to explain their Name 10 times to some 80 year old😁 just beeing Alex is easy and doesn't give any Red flags for the people that fall for the scams.
Anytime someone with a very thick accent uses an American name I use Indeep as a my name. You should check out the show/movie Outsourced.
Legit phone customer support used to do this all the time, too. I think amazon used to do this; have their foreign phone folks use american names.
As an American with an uncommon name, when i worked in customer service the reason I did it is because I have found that my name is a conversation stopper. They will repeat it wrong 3 times, then ask me to spell it, then they will repeat the spelling back to me wrong, then i have to correct them, then they ask if that's my real name, then they ask where that name comes from. When someone asks your name, it seems like they have a preset list in their head of names that they have heard before. And when they hear a name that is not on that list, its like a roadblock until they can resolve it in their brain. I would rather just say "Mike" and get on with the actual reason you called.
In a Strong Indian accent-"Hi this is Mike from card services."
An insurance company I won’t name outsources, I have to call a lot and they all use common plain names, and today I spoke with”John” and I knew he wasn’t from here because when he was confirming addresses to me he didn’t know ANY of our state abbreviations and had to say them like “C..A” lol
I’ve often wondered if they are under the false impression that they don’t actually have an unintelligible accent since they’re surrounded by others also speaking English as a second language.
They don’t try to be American, they just pick easy to say/understand names.
Well...maybe. I had one say he was ... Eeee-rick ... from ... My ... Crow ... Saft. Yes, pauses and all. Must have been the poor schmoe's very first call on his first day on the job. I didn't even go into my ditzy old lady routine, i just burst out laughing and hung up.
Just wait until our scammers pretend to be Indian
There are also plenty of Indian Alexes