|
|
Post by AussieMeg on Mar 21, 2025 22:24:54 GMT
They're infuriating! I do a lot of training at work about how to be safe from phishing and smishing etc, so I feel that I am informed enough to be able to spot pretty much all scams (but never say never, right?). These are the latest two that DSO and I have had:
DSO has recently made a claim on his car insurance (DS rear ended someone when he was driving DSO's car). Yesterday he got a text from the "insurance company", from the same phone number used by a different company he deals with at his work. So somehow the scammer has got access to his phone and/or emails, and done caller ID spoofing. If they had used the number from the insurance company, instead of a paving company, DSO may have fallen for it.
Then this morning I got a text from "Ticketmaster" telling me to click on the link to download tickets. Now co-incidentally (or so I thought) I am going to a day/night music festival today. But I had already downloaded my tickets into my Apple Wallet, and I noticed that the text said "TICKETMSTR" instead of Ticketmaster. I blocked and deleted straight away, thinking it was just a co-incidence that I had a concert today.
Then 20 minutes later I got another text from TICKETMSTER saying: "Download your SummerSalt event tickets to your wallet/phone before you arrive as the internet reception may be unreliable." SummerSalt is the name of the festival I am going to today, so on the face of it, it looked almost legitimate at first. But the link was to tktmstr.co instead of ticketmaster.com.au, so it was very obvious to me that it was fake. I can totally understand how someone in a hurry might click on the link. So the scammer has obviously got into my phone/emails too.
I'm not sure what the point of this post is, maybe just a PSA for everyone to be really really careful. Never click on a link in an email or text, go directly to the verified site that you know is the correct one. Never click on a link in an email to pay an invoice (I've heard of people losing tens of thousands of dollars doing this). Be super vigilant and careful everyone!
Anyone else have any clever scams you can warn us about?
|
|
|
|
Post by 950nancy on Mar 21, 2025 22:29:48 GMT
I keep getting the tolls scam and once in a while a bank or credit card scam. Once we dropped our landline, I stopped getting the IRS calls. Kind of makes me sad. I used to keep them on the phone just to piss them off.
|
|
|
|
Post by revirdsuba99 on Mar 21, 2025 22:33:53 GMT
I've been getting the toll ones also. I check the user email address. 'g' mail is a no no!
|
|
|
|
Post by monklady123 on Mar 21, 2025 22:37:53 GMT
The texts supposedly from EZPass are the latest going around here. Dd and I both have had multiple texts from them, but funny enough dh has not. What's funny about that is that it's dh who holds the account. haha Darn scammers.  |
|
|
|
Post by gar on Mar 21, 2025 22:45:29 GMT
Never hurts to be reminded, so thank you 😊
|
|
|
|
Post by Restless Spirit on Mar 21, 2025 23:16:44 GMT
The toll emails are getting very annoying.
In addition my iCloud payment has been denied. My UPS package cannot be delivered.
Oh - and Elon Musk is sending me emails telling me “not to pay my electric bill”. Sheesh.
|
|
breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,316 
Location: PNW
|
Post by breetheflea on Mar 21, 2025 23:37:41 GMT
No one has called asking about my cars extended warranty in a while, but I get multiple texts a week for the toll scam.
|
|
samantha25
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,320
|
Post by samantha25 on Mar 21, 2025 23:57:35 GMT
Here is one that my 87 yo MIL had happen. It was the cable company calling that she did not sign her check for payment, so would she have a credit card to pay. The CVC code was unreadable and so the card could not go through, but could she pay via her checking account. So she gave them her checking account number. After thinking about what she had done, she called family and we had her account shut down, but this was a Friday night, so could do nothing until Monday. So I flew out Saturday to calm her down and went to the bank with her on Monday. But, here's the kicker, she also gave them access to her land line phone number code and they forwarded her phone to a line in Ohio. I think so they could try and get the second method of authentication. I called the phone company and indeed, her calls were being forwarded. Tell parents to not give out ANY codes to any one. The scammers did not get anything, but caused undue distress on MIL as she just had a pace maker put in. UGH....
And then I went through her email with her and showed her that the USPS scammers want to get into your account with the fake package delivery. Do not click on any links, like mentioned above.
|
|
|
|
Post by katlady on Mar 22, 2025 0:01:02 GMT
I get the toll ones quite often. I also get calls that say they’ll help clean up the IRS back payments that I may owe. Our landline phone rings often, but we never pick it up unless it is someone we know. So the ones that don’t leave a message are most likely spammers.
|
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 22, 2025 0:34:26 GMT
I got a very real looking email stating something about a PayPal invoice for something I never would have bought. I hovered over the sender’s email which actually looked *almost* right. Went into my PayPal app and nothing was amiss so I reported the email to PayPal as phishing and then hit delete. I could totally see someone falling for it because it looked so real. LOL there was even a link in the email to “report phishing” which of course I didn’t click.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikklynn on Mar 22, 2025 12:19:52 GMT
I got scammed with a fake parking app. You need to download an app to use parking meters where I was. I figured out quickly that I messed up, but before I could call my CC company, they sent me a text to confirm or deny. Way to go, Bank of America!
|
|
|
|
Post by guzismom on Mar 22, 2025 12:29:25 GMT
I got a text yesterday that appeared as a receipt; however, when I googled the link they wanted me to click, it came to a business in MD (not too far from where I used to live). I checked all my financials and nothing was purchased fraudulently on my accounts.
In my email a few weeks ago I got an 'online greeting card invitation' to a dinner party from a person whose name I did not recognize. I clicked on the link but it was requiring me to add my email and password to open the invitation, which is where I backed out and contacted the company directly (by googling their email). They informed me that the invitation was not from them as the email of the sender was not their official email. Thankfully, I did not give them the personal information they were requesting. I have gotten greeting cards from them before, so I knew that I didn't need to do that in order to view the cards in the past.
|
|
FurryP
Prolific Pea
To pea or not to pea...
Posts: 7,797
Site Supporter
Jun 26, 2014 19:58:26 GMT
|
Post by FurryP on Mar 22, 2025 15:28:12 GMT
I recently got a text from my bank that said my second debit card was used (and declined) on an online website. They wanted me to respond yes or no if I attempted to make those purchases. I was too paranoid to even respond to an unknown number.
I signed on to my account on my laptop and yes there was a notification that they wanted me to confirm fraud or not fraud. I felt much better. For the record I do not use my debit card online anywhere!
|
|
|
|
Post by Restless Spirit on Mar 22, 2025 15:54:41 GMT
I got a very real looking email stating something about a PayPal invoice for something I never would have bought. I hovered over the sender’s email which actually looked *almost* right. Went into my PayPal app and nothing was amiss so I reported the email to PayPal as phishing and then hit delete. I could totally see someone falling for it because it looked so real. LOL there was even a link in the email to “report phishing” which of course I didn’t click. I got the PayPal email too. Mine was for “unauthorized bitcoin purchase”. Deleted that right away. |
|
|
|
Post by snoopy on Mar 22, 2025 16:44:39 GMT
My 92 year old FIL is dealing with banking issue right now, and I feel a little helpless because he lives 2000 miles away from us. Thankfully, he is still pretty sharp mentally. He usually uses a discover credit card for his purchases, but recently used his debit card at a car wash that does not take discover cards. Apparently somebody had skimmed his debit card number and cloned his card. A few days later, he logged into his online banking and saw $40,000 missing from his checking account. It was withdrawn inside a bank branch with a teller, and was four individual transactions of $10,000 each. I’m baffled as to why this was allowed to happen and apparently raised no red flags with the teller. The bank only issued him a new debit card, but did not change the checking account number, so another $900 was just stolen out of his account. My DH is on his Dad’s accounts, so he has talked to the bank a few times and has had to sign some paperwork related to this, but hasn’t gotten any answers about how this happened in the first place. We are going to have a conversation with FIL about the importance of freezing his credit with the three credit reporting agencies, because I’m concerned about how much personal information these thieves might have about FIL. We also are going to encourage him to change banks, because this really seams like negligence on the part of the bank. At least he has gotten his money back.
|
|
huskergal
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,084
Member is Online
|
Post by huskergal on Mar 22, 2025 16:45:40 GMT
I don't trust absolutely anything in a text. I don't care who they say it is. They are all red flags. Businesses do not use text messages for anything real. I would immediately contact the company.
|
|
|
|
Post by melanell on Mar 22, 2025 17:08:18 GMT
I keep getting fame emails from my "email provider" saying something is wrong with my account, but what they don't apparently realize is that our entire household has an account, but it is DH who is listed as the contact person if there is any actual issues with our payment, contract, etc.
And that's what stood out to me as being "wrong", because otherwise, the messages looked pretty darn convincing.
And both my MIL & mother have recently got caught up in the scammy sales that show up on Facebook. I keep telling them both not to buy stuff linked on Facebook, but man, those two are definitely more swayed by a pretty picture with a link attached than they ought to be in this day and age.
|
|
|
|
Post by kamper on Mar 22, 2025 17:33:25 GMT
My 92 year old FIL is dealing with banking issue right now, and I feel a little helpless because he lives 2000 miles away from us. Thankfully, he is still pretty sharp mentally. He usually uses a discover credit card for his purchases, but recently used his debit card at a car wash that does not take discover cards. Apparently somebody had skimmed his debit card number and cloned his card. A few days later, he logged into his online banking and saw $40,000 missing from his checking account. It was withdrawn inside a bank branch with a teller, and was four individual transactions of $10,000 each. I’m baffled as to why this was allowed to happen and apparently raised no red flags with the teller. The bank only issued him a new debit card, but did not change the checking account number, so another $900 was just stolen out of his account. My DH is on his Dad’s accounts, so he has talked to the bank a few times and has had to sign some paperwork related to this, but hasn’t gotten any answers about how this happened in the first place. We are going to have a conversation with FIL about the importance of freezing his credit with the three credit reporting agencies, because I’m concerned about how much personal information these thieves might have about FIL. We also are going to encourage him to change banks, because this really seams like negligence on the part of the bank. At least he has gotten his money back. I wonder if the teller was in on the scam. Did you report this to the police? |
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Mar 22, 2025 20:46:33 GMT
snoopy As someone who worked at a bank for 8 years, it’s highly unusual that that would be allowed without a lot of extra scrutiny. Transactions in those amounts would trigger additional paperwork needing to be filed with the IRS among other things. Any time anyone would want to withdraw a huge amount in cash, I would always question it. Most normal people would get a cashier’s check because they don’t want to carry around that much in cash. I also would be questioning why your FIL keeps that much cash in a regular checking account in the first place. I too would be looking for another bank, preferably a smaller local one that gets to know their clients well. ETA: Also, I would be asking the bank to review their security tapes. The bank I worked at has cameras at every teller window and every individual transaction can be identified by date, time and teller number. They should be able to look up the transactions in his account which would give them the time, date and teller number and from there pull the corresponding video to see who was at the window taking out the money. I know for the bank I worked at years ago, we kept the videotapes for at least 3-6 months before they were recorded over. These days I’m sure it’s all digital so those recordings could be kept for much longer. I would definitely ask about that.
|
|
|
|
Post by calgaryscrapper on Mar 22, 2025 20:51:49 GMT
We got a private number call this morning from Publishers Clearing House
|
|
|
|
Post by AussieMeg on Mar 22, 2025 21:44:42 GMT
So, in my OP, I said "I can totally understand how someone in a hurry might click on the link." Well guess what? One of my friends who came to the festival with us got the exact same text that I got, while she was rushing around in a hurry to buy stuff to take with us. She quickly looked at her Apple Wallet and there was only one ticket (there should have been two, for her and her DH), so she thought the text was legitimate. She clicked on the link, and when it was hanging for a while, she realised it was fake. She quickly shut down the site and logged into Ticketmaster directly.
I want to know whether the scammers are hacking into our phones or emails or into Ticketmaster's database??
|
|
TXMary
Pearl Clutcher
And so many nights I just dream of the ocean. God, I wish I was sailin' again.
Posts: 3,410
|
Post by TXMary on Mar 22, 2025 22:10:28 GMT
I got a very real looking email stating something about a PayPal invoice for something I never would have bought. I hovered over the sender’s email which actually looked *almost* right. Went into my PayPal app and nothing was amiss so I reported the email to PayPal as phishing and then hit delete. I could totally see someone falling for it because it looked so real. LOL there was even a link in the email to “report phishing” which of course I didn’t click. I got the PayPal email too. Mine was for “unauthorized bitcoin purchase”. Deleted that right away. I got that one too. And the tolls one. And the IRS debt ones. I hate scammers.  |
|
|
|
Post by snoopy on Mar 22, 2025 23:24:29 GMT
My 92 year old FIL is dealing with banking issue right now, and I feel a little helpless because he lives 2000 miles away from us. Thankfully, he is still pretty sharp mentally. He usually uses a discover credit card for his purchases, but recently used his debit card at a car wash that does not take discover cards. Apparently somebody had skimmed his debit card number and cloned his card. A few days later, he logged into his online banking and saw $40,000 missing from his checking account. It was withdrawn inside a bank branch with a teller, and was four individual transactions of $10,000 each. I’m baffled as to why this was allowed to happen and apparently raised no red flags with the teller. The bank only issued him a new debit card, but did not change the checking account number, so another $900 was just stolen out of his account. My DH is on his Dad’s accounts, so he has talked to the bank a few times and has had to sign some paperwork related to this, but hasn’t gotten any answers about how this happened in the first place. We are going to have a conversation with FIL about the importance of freezing his credit with the three credit reporting agencies, because I’m concerned about how much personal information these thieves might have about FIL. We also are going to encourage him to change banks, because this really seams like negligence on the part of the bank. At least he has gotten his money back. I wonder if the teller was in on the scam. Did you report this to the police? I haven’t talked to FIL yet, and all of DH’s conversations have been pretty short. We will talk to him tomorrow more in depth, so I will find out if a police report has been filed. I was also wondering about the teller because this seems so obviously suspicious. |
|
|
|
Post by snoopy on Mar 22, 2025 23:39:19 GMT
snoopy As someone who worked at a bank for 8 years, it’s highly unusual that that would be allowed without a lot of extra scrutiny. Transactions in those amounts would trigger additional paperwork needing to be filed with the IRS among other things. Any time anyone would want to withdraw a huge amount in cash, I would always question it. Most normal people would get a cashier’s check because they don’t want to carry around that much in cash. I also would be questioning why your FIL keeps that much cash in a regular checking account in the first place. I too would be looking for another bank, preferably a smaller local one that gets to know their clients well. ETA: Also, I would be asking the bank to review their security tapes. The bank I worked at has cameras at every teller window and every individual transaction can be identified by date, time and teller number. They should be able to look up the transactions in his account which would give them the time, date and teller number and from there pull the corresponding video to see who was at the window taking out the money. I know for the bank I worked at years ago, we kept the videotapes for at least 3-6 months before they were recorded over. These days I’m sure it’s all digital so those recordings could be kept for much longer. I would definitely ask about that. Thank you for your insight. I expected there would be extra paperwork and questions to answer for such large withdrawals, and I would fully expect there to be cameras at each teller station, as well as the entrance to the bank. That’s why I was flabbergasted that this would even happen in the first place. The bank has already reimbursed FIL for the missing money, so they clearly know it was fraudulent. I certainly hope they have more stringent protocols going forward. I’m not sure what personal information the tellers have available to them, but if they can see FIL’s date of birth, that should have raised a red flag, unless the thief was another 92 year old man (highly doubtful)! As for keeping that much in checking, he brings in much more than he spends each month, so the money accumulated. I think he has learned a lesson now, and has moved most of it into a CD, so it won’t be as easily accessible. I would feel much better if he had moved all of his money out of that bank and found another place, like you suggested. A local place that has familiarity with their clients. |
|
|
|
Post by OntarioScrapper on Mar 23, 2025 18:55:54 GMT
Monthly I have been getting at least 3 scam emails for my telecom company. I have cell phones and internet with Bell. I can stop the mistakes in the body of the email but it's usually the outrageous amount they want me to pay by clicking on the link.  |
|
|
|
Post by snowsilver on Mar 24, 2025 2:18:33 GMT
I got the iCloud one today and almost fell for it. It looked very official. But I balked when it advised me that I should click a link to install an antivirus that Apple was suggesting as a way to make sure my cloud documents were safe. I backed out and decided to wait for my son to call tonight and ask him. The minute I started telling him, his head started shaking "no, no no". But I had already figured it was a scam as about 20 minutes after the first scam email I got another and this one didn't look official at all! It was clearly from somewhere that English was not the first language, so I knew they were a scam. But I tell you, the first one looked very official.
|
|
|
|
Post by 950nancy on Mar 30, 2025 16:55:54 GMT
The toll emails are getting very annoying. In addition my iCloud payment has been denied. My UPS package cannot be delivered.
Oh - and Elon Musk is sending me emails telling me “not to pay my electric bill”. Sheesh. These go straight to spam on my email. I block/report as spam a lot of email addresses and phone numbers. When I check my spam folder, they are there. |
|
|
|
Post by twinks on Mar 31, 2025 16:07:41 GMT
I have received a very interesting text that I have an overdue toll that I need to pay. It is a utah.gov website but the remainder is weird. They want me to copy and paste the link to my server. Sorry! Not happening by tomorrow. I might be needing bail money.
I also received an email about my Social Security statement. It is available online. Surprise! Social Security's website has changed it's web address. No way am I clicking on that email or especially not logging in with Elon and his team around.
|
|
|
|
Post by papersilly on Mar 31, 2025 19:41:00 GMT
toll scams, we-can't-deliver-your-package, payment method is expired, IRS-is-coming-to-get-you......the scams are just endless. if i'm in the mood, i just forward those emails to phishing@(fill in the company).com
|
|
