Peak Communications purporting to be acting on behalf of Verizon Nationwide

This morning I answered a call purporting to be on behalf of Verizon.  The customer had my last name and confirmed "is this the King residence?"

She went on to explain that this was a courtesy call from Verizon and they were the long distance partner for Verizon.

As a sign of goodwill Verizon wanted to reduce my monthly bill from $15 to $5 and they were going to reduce my long distance charges to $x per minute (I can't recall the actual number) but this is where my spider senses really went into overdrive.

We don't pay long distance per minute.  We have unlimited long distance with Verizon.

Next she said she would just need to confirm some information before she could make the change ... at this point I hadn't asked for a change ... again the bullsh#t meter climbed further into the red zone.

Before she could ask another question, I said: "I have three concerns.  First I have no idea who you are.  You can say you're with Verizon but I don't know that.  Second, if I want to change my service I'm going to call Verizon or visit on of their offices in person"  I didn't get to number three as she already had hung up the phone.

I can see how seniors especially (or anyone who is trusting by nature) would fall for this scam.

Do not take people at their word when they call you.  They could be anyone anywhere.  If you sense something is off, it probably is.  If they really are legit, they won't mind you phoning Verizon (or whoever) back or stopping into their retail location to make a change.