Scam Alert - my mom got scammed (1 Viewer)

[Mrs. Rannous]

I constantly get random texts from numbers I don't know pretending like they know me.

Here are some recent ones:
"Kelly, it's Lynn. The perfume you gave Linda last time, I love the smell, can you order a bottle for me?"
"Have you forgotten your cup?"
"Do you have an update for me?"

What the heck are they trying to get from me... how does this "scam" work?

I usually respond with something like:
"Just send me your VIN and I'll get you the quote for your extended vehicle warranty"

That usually stops the thread.

I did respond to the one above "Have you forgotten your cup" with: "yes, and the two girls that came with it"

You are my hero.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Kitboga makes a living off exposing these EXACT scams... and gets a ton of them shut down.

His video the other day about creating a maze to waste the scammers' time was pretty damn funny.

The impossible password game is friggin' money

Do we have a link for this to share, or are you just gonna keep it to yourselves?

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

So how does a “Microsoft“ representative convince someone to send them gift cards from another business? I’m genuinely curious because it’s not just the elderly who are falling for these scams.

They target the gullible. I've heard they intentionally act super unprofessional as a way to filter out people who wouldn't fall for the scam anyways. Once someone falls for it once they get added to a list for repeat scams

That's also why they intentionally misspell words to target the less educated

How would they know?

Who know what?

How would the less educated know there were misspellings?

THTS the point. The the edgukated will notice the erors and move on

That's not the only reason. The romance catfishers are looking for people who will overlook obvious red flags. Those are often the ones who fall for that crap.

 

[fruity pebbles]

Sorry this happened. That's freaking awful and just a system failure at every level.

All the silly hoops we have to jump through just to access our every day accounts that NOBODY would ever hack (the silly password requirements....clicking pictures of stoplights and busses) and the credit card company allows this to happen to an 81 year old woman? And shame on Home Depot for not having a system in place for this (or just the person who I presume rung her up not saying something)

Just sucks all around.

While I very much feel for the OP's mom, I don't agree that this was some system-wide value. She went to Home Depot and made an in-person credit card purchase. Assuming she didn't tell some clerk this was for a Microsoft issue or something that would have alerted a reasonable person that this was a sketchy transaction, I'm not sure what you wanted either Home Depot or the cred card company to do. I could easily see a grandmother purchasing eight $500 HD gift cards as Christmas presents and if Home Depot questions her purchases well then they're arguably insulting her decision-making capability.

Yeah, given the time of the year I doubt it’s particularly rare.

 

[massraider]

and I would have expected anyone who uses the internet in the slightest would already be aware of this

I have an entire list of items that would be classified this way. And we would be completely wrong about every single one of them.

 

[SWC]

my lady helped run a fundraiser for our church and had to get a bunch of gift cards for prizes and the lady at walgreens asked her a series of questions about why she was buying them and informed her of scams using gift cards which i thought was pretty awesome that they were trained up on it take that to the bank brochachos

 

[massraider]

The romance catfishers

We had someone post a thread recently with one of these.

When those ones go badly, it's really bad

 

[Chemical X]

Sorry this happened. That's freaking awful and just a system failure at every level.

All the silly hoops we have to jump through just to access our every day accounts that NOBODY would ever hack (the silly password requirements....clicking pictures of stoplights and busses) and the credit card company allows this to happen to an 81 year old woman? And shame on Home Depot for not having a system in place for this (or just the person who I presume rung her up not saying something)

Just sucks all around.

While I very much feel for the OP's mom, I don't agree that this was some system-wide value. She went to Home Depot and made an in-person credit card purchase. Assuming she didn't tell some clerk this was for a Microsoft issue or something that would have alerted a reasonable person that this was a sketchy transaction, I'm not sure what you wanted either Home Depot or the cred card company to do. I could easily see a grandmother purchasing eight $500 HD gift cards as Christmas presents and if Home Depot questions her purchases well then they're arguably insulting her decision-making capability.

I hear ya...but the situation is so extreme I just can't believe common sense wouldn't cause someone to ask a few questions. $4,000 in gift cards is a major outlier and should raise some red flags.

I don't expect a cashier at home depot to make that call.....but if I'm in their corporate structure (knowing these sorts of scams are out there), I'm adding some sort of register trigger where a manager has to come in on gift cards over a certain amount in one transaction.

I've been to places where you CANT buy gift cards with a credit card at all (cash only). And while it might offend the occasional senior who feels you're questioning their competency, I think it's a small price to pay to avoid this situation. I mean....I got carded buying Sudafed a couple of months ago.

I haven't read this whole thread, but i just went thru my training for Elder Abuse, Financial Exploitation. It seems to me that FinCen only has certain "recommendations" for financials institutions, but i don't really remember seeing anything that says the institution or an individual working therein is liable. The financial institution is required to file a SAR (suspicious activity report), so the OP could always press the CC company on their internal controls, have they filed a SAR (they won't tell you) and in general make a stink using the Elder Abuse/Financial Exploitation verbiage.

The CC company should have software that alerts on this for an elder honestly. But then you run the risk of age discrimination.

It's fun working in the financial sector, did i mention that?

 

[Keerock]

Kitboga makes a living off exposing these EXACT scams... and gets a ton of them shut down.

His video the other day about creating a maze to waste the scammers' time was pretty damn funny.

The impossible password game is friggin' money

Do we have a link for this to share, or are you just gonna keep it to yourselves?

It’s at the top of jrt’s post above

 

[Steeler]

So how does a “Microsoft“ representative convince someone to send them gift cards from another business? I’m genuinely curious because it’s not just the elderly who are falling for these scams.

They target the gullible. I've heard they intentionally act super unprofessional as a way to filter out people who wouldn't fall for the scam anyways. Once someone falls for it once they get added to a list for repeat scams

But what's their pitch? As in how does someone from Microsoft end up convincing someone else that they need to go buy thousands in home depot gift cards? The two are so unrelated it seems like a huge stretch.

I'm not sure exactly what they said to my Mom, but part of it seems to be that they kept her on the line for 5 hours total, I think it just wore her down. They didn't spring the scam on her until hours into the call of them faking efforts to fix her computer.

 

[Steeler]

Any recommendations on apps to block spam calls? I'm aware of Robo Killer from ads, but not sure if that is a good one.

 

[fruity pebbles]

Any recommendations on apps to block spam calls? I'm aware of Robo Killer from ads, but not sure if that is a good one.

I use Aura for everything

 

[Maik Jeaunz]

my mom passed away a month ago, and reading this made me super angry...just the thought of an elderly person being taken advantage of like that.

the people who pull these scams should be doxxed, and targeted once we finally enable 'Purge Night'.

 

[need2know]

So what was the 4k in home.depot cards supposed to be for?

 

[massraider]

the people who pull these scams should be doxxed, and targeted once we finally enable 'Purge Night'.

Man, I'm not flying to India to beat up some scammers.

But I support anyone who would like to.

 

[Stoneworker]

my mom passed away a month ago, and reading this made me super angry...just the thought of an elderly person being taken advantage of like that.

the people who pull these scams should be doxxed, and targeted once we finally enable 'Purge Night'.

It really is sick. Elderly already have it bad enough losing all their friends and (sometimes spouses).

For many of them, it's just the faux companionship of interacting with someone that causes them to engage.

While they may have been perfectly capable of sniffing out and avoiding various scams in the physical world during their lifetime (and even obstinately claim they still know exactly what to look out for), in reality most are wholly unprepared for what comes at them in the digital world. Not to mention dementia kicking in.

It's really up to the kids to look out for them, and sometimes in strict and seemingly harsh ways. But once the assets are gone, they're gone.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Kitboga makes a living off exposing these EXACT scams... and gets a ton of them shut down.

His video the other day about creating a maze to waste the scammers' time was pretty damn funny.

The impossible password game is friggin' money

Do we have a link for this to share, or are you just gonna keep it to yourselves?

It’s at the top of jrt’s post above

I am totally putting the Wordle answer in my passwords.

 

[3C's]

What I love is when one of those scammer guys from India identifies themselves as Steve.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

What I love is when one of those scammer guys from India identifies themselves as Steve.

We usually refer to him as Bob from India.

 

[quick-hands]

My 81 year old Mom got scammed for 4K in Home Depot gift cards. I won't get into every detail of the story, but a popup message on her computer got her to call "Microsoft", and eventually they got my Mom to drive to home depot and purchase 8 $500 gift cards, then drive home and read the numbers to them. My Mom was apparently on the phone for 5 hours total. So frustrating and sickening that people can take advantage of the elderly like that.

She's been in touch with the attorney general in her state, and an elderly victims of crime advocacy group so she's getting some help. My sister has changed her passwords and all that from her computer (not my Mom's), so that's done. My questions are related to the credit card company and Home Depot - do they have any liability here? The credit card company may or may not forgive this purchase - that is still TBD. As soon as my Mom realized she was scammed she called Home Depot to try to block the numbers and they originally told her "it's probably too late anyway" and didn't do anything. Weeks later, Home Depot called her and asked what they can do - we'll it's definitely too late now!

I'm not trying to blame anyone, my Mom did purchase the cards, but it sucks Home Depot and the CC company allowed her to go through with the purchase. She typically has a ~$500 monthly balance that she pays off every month, so this was definitely outside of her normal spending habits yet the CC company didn't flag the purchase.

Maybe I'm just venting, I don't know. Anything else to consider?

they prey on old people because they lose their ability to discern lies. it's your job to constantly remind them.

 

[quick-hands]

I constantly get random texts from numbers I don't know pretending like they know me.

Here are some recent ones:
"Kelly, it's Lynn. The perfume you gave Linda last time, I love the smell, can you order a bottle for me?"
"Have you forgotten your cup?"
"Do you have an update for me?"

What the heck are they trying to get from me... how does this "scam" work?

I usually respond with something like:
"Just send me your VIN and I'll get you the quote for your extended vehicle warranty"

That usually stops the thread.

I did respond to the one above "Have you forgotten your cup" with: "yes, and the two girls that came with it"

yea I've gotten a few of these I responded a couple times to see where it's going. I think they want to sell a bitcoin scam.

 

[Keerock]

I constantly get random texts from numbers I don't know pretending like they know me.

Here are some recent ones:
"Kelly, it's Lynn. The perfume you gave Linda last time, I love the smell, can you order a bottle for me?"
"Have you forgotten your cup?"
"Do you have an update for me?"

What the heck are they trying to get from me... how does this "scam" work?

I usually respond with something like:
"Just send me your VIN and I'll get you the quote for your extended vehicle warranty"

That usually stops the thread.

I did respond to the one above "Have you forgotten your cup" with: "yes, and the two girls that came with it"

Here’s another one I’ve used… been a while… need to add it back into the rotation:

Can’t talk now… We’re back in the hospital because Tyler set his butthole on fire again.

 

[The Z Machine]

My MIL got a seemingly legit SMS from Wells Fargo asking if she made a purchase at a Kroger. It asked to call the 1-888 number in the text message. She flagged it for me, and we called the 1-888 number, which then sounded like a legit Wells Fargo computerized phone system. I thought that there's no way these scammers have a legit 1-888 number and set up a computerized phone system. But she was still concerned, so we hung up and called the 1-800 number on the back of her debit card.

She was right. It was a scam and that 1-888 number lead to the scammers. I was blown away that they are setting up legit phone numbers in the US to enable these smishing scams. Thankfully, no charges on her debit card or credit card. I'm happy she is cautious enough not to engage without checking in with me and my wife first. She's 80 and definitely slowing down cognitively, but still with it.

 

[massraider]

My MIL got a seemingly legit SMS from Wells Fargo asking if she made a purchase at a Kroger. It asked to call the 1-888 number in the text message. She flagged it for me, and we called the 1-888 number, which then sounded like a legit Wells Fargo computerized phone system. I thought that there's no way these scammers have a legit 1-888 number and set up a computerized phone system. But she was still concerned, so we hung up and called the 1-800 number on the back of her debit card.

She was right. It was a scam and that 1-888 number lead to the scammers. I was blown away that they are setting up legit phone numbers in the US to enable these smishing scams. Thankfully, no charges on her debit card or credit card. I'm happy she is cautious enough not to engage without checking in with me and my wife first. She's 80 and definitely slowing down cognitively, but still with it.

Really good point here.

Security types would tell you not to call that 888 number. Just call the number on the back of your card. If you call, they know it's an active number, and that they called it once, so the scammer might think you are a live one., and the calls/text messages will increase.

Google the number at most. Don't call it.

And don't get on the phone, and eff with them, or reply to the text messages. It will just flag you as a live number, and the spam will increase.

The only way to win, is to not play the game. #JOSHUA

 

[supermike80]

Somewhat related maybe..I read a tip somewhere to create a password to be shared with those you love and want to protect. Specifically because I read that scammers are starting to use AI to simulate a loved one's voice. They will call(usually the elderly) claiming to be their family member, and say they are in jail or something and need money to get out. Once I read that my wife and I created a word that has to be used before we go forward and we got one for her Dad too.

 

[TLEF316]

Some of these scam companies in Eastern Europe are incredibly sophisticated. The ones that run full blown cyber/ransomware attacks on companies....they have actual offices with receptionists that direct your call to the proper department (when you call to pay and unlock your stuff). It's only gotten worse as the software to carry these things out has become more readily available

 

[Keerock]

Somewhat related maybe..I read a tip somewhere to create a password to be shared with those you love and want to protect. Specifically because I read that scammers are starting to use AI to simulate a loved one's voice. They will call(usually the elderly) claiming to be their family member, and say they are in jail or something and need money to get out. Once I read that my wife and I created a word that has to be used before we go forward and we got one for her Dad too.

What's the word?

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Somewhat related maybe..I read a tip somewhere to create a password to be shared with those you love and want to protect. Specifically because I read that scammers are starting to use AI to simulate a loved one's voice. They will call(usually the elderly) claiming to be their family member, and say they are in jail or something and need money to get out. Once I read that my wife and I created a word that has to be used before we go forward and we got one for her Dad too.

What's the word?

The bird is the word

 

[DA RAIDERS]

One thing to tell our loved ones is that financial institutions won’t ever reach out through text, calls or even email about anything that’s serious. That is always done via mail

 

[Caveman33]

I think my parents will eventually get scammed. My father was already once momentarily tricked by a scammer. They target elderly people with either a male or female voice, and say "I'm in trouble, please don't tell anyone else in the family." The victim usually offers the name of whoever this voice sounds most like, and the scammers play along. "Yes, it's Billy, but you can't tell Mom and Dad about this right now. They would kill me. I just need some help getting home first, and then I'll explain everything to them."

 

[belljr]

One thing to tell our loved ones is that financial institutions won’t ever reach out through text, calls or even email about anything that’s serious. That is always done via mail

unless its a flagged purchase waiting for approval via CC

 

[Mister CIA]

Somewhat related maybe..I read a tip somewhere to create a password to be shared with those you love and want to protect. Specifically because I read that scammers are starting to use AI to simulate a loved one's voice. They will call(usually the elderly) claiming to be their family member, and say they are in jail or something and need money to get out. Once I read that my wife and I created a word that has to be used before we go forward and we got one for her Dad too.

What's the word?

Dontstop

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I constantly get random texts from numbers I don't know pretending like they know me.

Here are some recent ones:
"Kelly, it's Lynn. The perfume you gave Linda last time, I love the smell, can you order a bottle for me?"
"Have you forgotten your cup?"
"Do you have an update for me?"

What the heck are they trying to get from me... how does this "scam" work?

I usually respond with something like:
"Just send me your VIN and I'll get you the quote for your extended vehicle warranty"

That usually stops the thread.

I did respond to the one above "Have you forgotten your cup" with: "yes, and the two girls that came with it"

Here’s another one I’ve used… been a while… need to add it back into the rotation:

Can’t talk now… We’re back in the hospital because Tyler set his butthole on fire again.

I usually go with, "I've got to go. I left my cat in the oven."

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I think my parents will eventually get scammed. My father was already once momentarily tricked by a scammer. They target elderly people with either a male or female voice, and say "I'm in trouble, please don't tell anyone else in the family." The victim usually offers the name of whoever this voice sounds most like, and the scammers play along. "Yes, it's Billy, but you can't tell Mom and Dad about this right now. They would kill me. I just need some help getting home first, and then I'll explain everything to them."

My answer here would be, "Murgatroyd, is that you?"

 

[Kiddnets]

2 scams in the last year -

recent on my 75 yr old mom in law - faked a "crash" on her computer with a number from "Microsoft" to fix - she called and was on the phone with them for hours. She was on her way to the bank to wire $50K to "save" her accounts and thankfully spoke to a friend. The slimeballs scared her to death and made it seem time was of the essence to run to the bank with no time to talk to anyone

second was last year - im an atty and recd an email from a potential client which is not unusual. Spoke on phone, emailed back and forth - signed a retainer. Sent me a ton of stuff on the company he was terminated from. They had fake letterhead, phone numbers, emails from various people - they simulated a "settlement" and sent me a check to deposit which I was about to do when he asked me to wire the funds to an international account immediately which I wouldnt do - said time is of the essence - really became aggressive so I investigated deep and found this is a scam they run on small firm attys. They want you to deposit the check and then by the time it bounces the bank covers it from your account. I would never send/wire money until it clears the bank but a lot of attys I know dont do that - many have fallen for it and lost over $100K. I asked if they could find them and the answer was not a chance lol.

Moral is its not just the elderly though they are more suspectable - but always be on guard.

 

[culdeus]

I have mixed feelings about what kitboga and pierogi do in this space. Reportedly they make like 7 figures. It's probably whack a mole and what they do brings awareness to this topic as a whole so I'm pro kit.

 

[bryhamm]

Somewhat related maybe..I read a tip somewhere to create a password to be shared with those you love and want to protect. Specifically because I read that scammers are starting to use AI to simulate a loved one's voice. They will call(usually the elderly) claiming to be their family member, and say they are in jail or something and need money to get out. Once I read that my wife and I created a word that has to be used before we go forward and we got one for her Dad too.

What's the word?

Grease

 

[SWC]

Somewhat related maybe..I read a tip somewhere to create a password to be shared with those you love and want to protect. Specifically because I read that scammers are starting to use AI to simulate a loved one's voice. They will call(usually the elderly) claiming to be their family member, and say they are in jail or something and need money to get out. Once I read that my wife and I created a word that has to be used before we go forward and we got one for her Dad too.

did you actually create a word or did you pick one that already exists i hope you created it and i hope it was cool like brandyfication or chargerino those would both be pretty boss and bad azz words in my book take that to the bank brochacho

 

[Zow]

second was last year - im an atty and recd an email from a potential client which is not unusual. Spoke on phone, emailed back and forth - signed a retainer. Sent me a ton of stuff on the company he was terminated from. They had fake letterhead, phone numbers, emails from various people - they simulated a "settlement" and sent me a check to deposit which I was about to do when he asked me to wire the funds to an international account immediately which I wouldnt do - said time is of the essence - really became aggressive so I investigated deep and found this is a scam they run on small firm attys. They want you to deposit the check and then by the time it bounces the bank covers it from your account. I would never send/wire money until it clears the bank but a lot of attys I know dont do that - many have fallen for it and lost over $100K. I asked if they could find them and the answer was not a chance lol.

I usually can't stand our office's billing department because they are so careful and methodical and they usually seem to cause potential transactions to fall through than help facilitate them, but for reasons like you stated I'm glad we have them because they will absolutely not release any funds to a client that haven't cleared.

Also, to further support y our point that these scams can still happen to younger seemingly bright people like attorneys, like 7-8 years ago at my last office we had a new associate attorney nearly fall for one of these scams. The scammers spoofed one of the named partner's emails (by presumably sheer luck and happenstance the scammers actually picked the scariest named partner who primarily communicated by email) and convinced our new associate that, for reasons which remain unclear to me, that the named partner wanted like $5k in itunes gift cards put on the office's account. The associate was gotten so badly that he got the firm's credit card from our office manager and drove out to the Apple store in the next town over to buy them. Luckily, he called the named partner to confirm the increments and the named partner obviously told the associate she had no idea what he was talking about and to immediately stop whatever he was doing and to do nothing with the firm card.

Every time I see that attorney I still give him **** for nearly falling for the scam (he's actually now a prosecutor and when I have a case with him I love asking him if any fines required in his plea offer can be paid via itunes gift cards), but the reality is he's not a stupid person and was nearly had by one of these scams.

 

[Zow]

Some of these scam companies in Eastern Europe are incredibly sophisticated. The ones that run full blown cyber/ransomware attacks on companies....they have actual offices with receptionists that direct your call to the proper department (when you call to pay and unlock your stuff). It's only gotten worse as the software to carry these things out has become more readily available

I know of several very major, reputable law firms that have had their internal files hacked and ransomed for high six figures. I imagine that scammers will target any business with highly sensitive and confidential information (e.g. law firms, doctors offices, etc.). My office recently spent a good amount of money on heightened cybersecurity and we all went through some pretty rigorous trainings and must adhere to some pretty strict, annoying protocols (e.g. connecting to public wifis) to avoid this sort of thing.

 

[The Duff Man]

My 85 yr old father in law sent $80k to a scammer who was impersonating a widow, he met in a chat group after his wife passed.

When we found out afterwards and he showed her “picture” we google searched and it was a popular Asian actress in her 60s.

She “needed the money to buy equipment that would ensure she got a lucrative government contract then she would move to North America to be with him”

Since he sent the money willingly we could not get it back

He was a dirty old ******* but still a scam This was about 3/4 of his estate but didn’t impact his quality of life luckily since he had a pension that covered his expenses.

 

[Jobber]

Earlier this year, my mom (78) called me distraught. It turns out she also got a pop up message on her computer from “Microsoft”. Over the course of a few hours, the scammer talked her into going to her bank and withdrawing $15,000 in cash. CASH! And the ****ing bank let her do it. The scammer directed her to a sketchy gas station and told her to deposit the money into a bitcoin machine.

It was at that very moment that she hung up on them and called me. She came THIS close to losing it.

 

[Godsbrother]

I think my parents will eventually get scammed. My father was already once momentarily tricked by a scammer. They target elderly people with either a male or female voice, and say "I'm in trouble, please don't tell anyone else in the family." The victim usually offers the name of whoever this voice sounds most like, and the scammers play along. "Yes, it's Billy, but you can't tell Mom and Dad about this right now. They would kill me. I just need some help getting home first, and then I'll explain everything to them."

Yeah I mentioned that they really upset my mother with this scam more than once. fortunately she didn't give any money.

 

[Godsbrother]

So what was the 4k in home.depot cards supposed to be for?

Probably for new "Windows"

 

[NewlyRetired]

These stories are scaring the living hell out of me.

Ironically, I am not worried about my parents since I protect them, but I am worried about myself. I only have one child, and she will be under our care for the rest of our lives so I can't expect that she will protect us. On top of that, my family tree has a history of dementia so I think there is a high chance I will get it when in my mid 80's.

I don't quite know how to protect myself when I start to be vulnerable. My wife has a built in lack of trust of every one so that should help as long as she stays solid as she ages.

I just hope I got my moms genes instead of my dads in this area. She is 89 and sharp as a tack.

 

[Sand]

my mom passed away a month ago, and reading this made me super angry...just the thought of an elderly person being taken advantage of like that.

the people who pull these scams should be doxxed, and targeted once we finally enable 'Purge Night'.

Evidently it's even worse than that because the names of these known to be vulnerable people are sold (and worth a lot). So they get scammed and then sold to others to get scammed again.

I know of several very major, reputable law firms that have had their internal files hacked and ransomed for high six figures. I imagine that scammers will target any business with highly sensitive and confidential information (e.g. law firms, doctors offices, etc.). My office recently spent a good amount of money on heightened cybersecurity and we all went through some pretty rigorous trainings and must adhere to some pretty strict, annoying protocols (e.g. connecting to public wifis) to avoid this sort of thing.

One would think that law firms encrypt and backup everything so that even if a hacker gets in and steals data it's all gibberish. In this day and age that would be my baseline expectation as a client.

 

[ChiefD]

These stories are scaring the living hell out of me.

Ironically, I am not worried about my parents since I protect them, but I am worried about myself. I only have one child, and she will be under our care for the rest of our lives so I can't expect that she will protect us. On top of that, my family tree has a history of dementia so I think there is a high chance I will get it when in my mid 80's.

I don't quite know how to protect myself when I start to be vulnerable. My wife has a built in lack of trust of every one so that should help as long as she stays solid as she ages.

I just hope I got my moms genes instead of my dads in this area. She is 89 and sharp as a tack.

I can help.

Just send me your accounts information and passwords and such and I will be happy to keep an eye on things.

 

[Zow]

I know of several very major, reputable law firms that have had their internal files hacked and ransomed for high six figures. I imagine that scammers will target any business with highly sensitive and confidential information (e.g. law firms, doctors offices, etc.). My office recently spent a good amount of money on heightened cybersecurity and we all went through some pretty rigorous trainings and must adhere to some pretty strict, annoying protocols (e.g. connecting to public wifis) to avoid this sort of thing.

One would think that law firms encrypt and backup everything so that even if a hacker gets in and steals data it's all gibberish. In this day and age that would be my baseline expectation as a client.

We do (my office uses a very nice but expensive case management software that does all of this). But, like anything, its not full-proof as scammers seem to keep finding new ways.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

I see someone mentioned Kitboga already, who messes with these scammers on youtube. I remember him doing one for this exact scam. The scary thing is how much pain these scammers are willing to inflict on a person.

In the video, Kitboga was impersonating an old woman that the scammer was trying to take advantage of. He gave the scammer every chance to have a heart. Stuff like "the only money I have right now is my food money for the month" and the scammer tried to convince her to use that and that she would get it back right away. Dude was literally willing to convince an old woman to starve herself to get his payday.

And then, of course, when the scammer finally figures out that he's being scammed back, he launches into a tirade about how Kitboga "wasted his time" and how he had just spent an hour on this and blah blah blah. Just the absolute worst human being. Hard not to be angry when watching.

I know many of them are overseas anyway so nothing we can do on this front, but in general I think these digital scammers are way under-punished when caught. People that get caught doing this stuff don't get punished nearly as harshly as someone that holds an old lady up and steals her money or breaks into her house, but they should. At best they cause the entire world massive inconvenience and cause us all to have to spend money on security and protection we shouldn't have to spend on. At worst they are harming or even killing people by showing no remorse in scamming them out of the few dollars they have to support themselves. Just the absolute worst human beings.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

I was targeted by scam the other day that was actually really good, and almost got me.

They called claiming to be from coinbase, alleging an unrecognized withdrawal from my account. Right off the bat coinbase's interface makes it extremely difficult to track USD deposits/withdrawals so it wasn't quick and easy to log in and see that nothing had been withdrawn unless I remembered offhand exactly how much was in my account yesterday. But here is where things got really good.

Firstly, they said the withdrawal was triggered from a computer in Salt Lake City, which is about 45 minutes from where I live. So just close enough for me to consider that it could have been me and the locator not specific enough, but also far enough that I would be suspicious about it.

Then they started confirming my account details, which they must have gotten from one of those big data breaches. They wanted to confirm that my email was still XXXX and my phone number XXXX and my last 4 of SSN XXXX and they had all the info right. So far no reason to suspect this wasn't actually Coinbase calling, they hadn't asked me to provide any compromising details on my end, etc. It was a regular sounding American dude on the other end.

Then they gave me a case number of something like 17779283, and asked me to click a URL they were texting me to log in and view the withdrawal request so I could confirm if it was me or not. This is where I caught them, as the URL they sent me was www.17779283-coinbase.com. Of course I recognized that the URL isn't actually coinbase.com, which I mentioned to them and they relatively plausibly explained that it was coinbase.com, just a custom generated URL with the case number that they had previously given embedded in the URL. Again, regular friendly sounding American dude that was relatively charismatic.

I wasn't convinced, but I'd imagine a lot of people would be. The link went to a page that looked just like the coinbase login page, but I'm assuming once you enter your username and password it was just data entry fields submitting your username/password to them, which they could then use to log in to your account on the real coinbase.com and do whatever they want with your account.