Is it wrong for my work to enforce a policy of refusing to comply with bomb threats over the phone?

[Gravitycollapse]

I work in a location that sells prepaid debit cards. Phone scammers usually call in and tell the clerk they are IT and request that they activate cards at the register which can run into the range of thousands of dollars. The clerk gives them the card information and the scammer makes quick money.

Loss prevention instructs us to simply hang up. Which was fine until now...

Now other stores in my company have been receiving similar calls but the caller threatens to detonate a bomb if we do not comply.

Loss prevention has instructed staff to hang up and dial 911. This despite the fact that it is company policy to comply with armed robbers.

I told my managers that I would likely comply with the call, because even if the risk is remote, the consequence of a real bomb threat could be catastrophic.

I think the company is basically calling the bluff of the scammer, and putting its employee's lives up as the bet. This seems dangerous.

[randys1]

1. sounds like typical employer, doesnt care if you die, welcome to america

[Scootaloo]

2. Wow. lets you know your value to the company, for sure!

The nursing home I worked at instructed us to collect information from the caller. Everything we could about the "bomb," and hte situation. Notifiy a superior and if there was less than twenty minutes on the threat, evacuate and call police. (if more than 20 minutes, probably still evacuate, and definitely still call police)

[msanthrope]

3. Hang up and call 911. nt

[Gravitycollapse]

4. Aaaand a bomb explodes. Then what?

Assuming I'm not dead.

[NightWatcher]

5. what are the odds that a phone scammer will put a bomb in your building?

What are the odds that the scammer even knows how to find your building?

Control the access to your building and hang up on scammers, knowing that they have not accessed your building.

I used to work at a facility where we asked bomb threat callers exactly where they placed the device or how they entered the facility and a few other questions to include basics about the building you could tell from the parking lot. If they (which they never did) could answer these questions, they'd be taken seriously. If not, we hung up on them.

[ManiacJoe]

6. That would be the better method of handing the calls.

[Gravitycollapse]

7. I work in retail. Thousands of people enter the store each day.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Pretend to comply and call 911.

[hunter]

9. Your call has been forwarded to Stark Industries Loss Prevention Services.

Please hold while we lock in your coordinates.

click, click...

Thank you. Good Bye.



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http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Stark_Industries

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Yes, I am that flippant in real life, yet still I walk and breathe.

I don't know what to tell you other than that your job sucks, but you already knew that. Life in the U.S.A., and all that.

One thing that works for me is to simply hang up before any threats can be made. These scammers will simply think they've lost their crappy international internet phone connection and move onto the next mark. Or you can pretend not to hear them. "Is anyone there? This seems to be a bad connection... Hello? Hello?"

Sadly, you'll probably irritate your supervisor if you transfer the call up to them, which is the way it ought to work. I'll bet they don't pay you enough to deal with this crap.

Document, document, document... sigh.

[HooptieWagon]

10. Your company would face huge liability ...

if they didn't evacuate the building and there actually WAS a bomb. It would only take once.

My suggestions (and by no means am I an expert).
Take every bomb threat seriously.
Call 911.
Evacuate people to a safe area in an orderly manner.
Train security personel to be on watch for unattended packages, bags, backpacks, etc.
Let trained LEO conduct search for bombs.
Phone # monitoring and tracking so FBI can find sources of calls.

[REP]

11. Unlikely they will detonate a bomb while they're in the location for a couple K

If they set of the bomb, they're the one most likely to be injured by it. Does that make sense? Suicide bomb for a few hundred or thousand dollars? Nope. I'd call that bluff, but then again, I had a job where we'd get real threats (armed nutcases in our building, which was not public).