Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#11

Post by ryandrake » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 8:42 AM UTC

mcrae wrote: post #5

My girlfriend was speaking to her father (mid-60s?) who was complaining about what a pain in the ass it was to get his new iPhone configured. He had called Apple support who would come the next day, but now he had to go to Wal-Mart to pickup the giftcards to pay for the service. Wait. What? So I guess he had Googled for iPhone support and got some bogus phone number. Aside from the potential monetary loss, the scary…

By now there are clear red flags that everyone should know about. For example: no legitimate service anywhere asks to be paid by buying gift cards. No company’s tech support, no police departments, and no government agencies will ask for gift cards. A lot of places that sell gift cards now even have signs up warning people about scams. Why do people keep falling for this one?

If you have elderly parents, no matter how sharp they are, it’s worth it to take some time and sit with them and go over the basics.

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#12

Post by valleyer » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 9:08 AM UTC

mike_hock wrote: post #10

mcrae wrote: post #5

My girlfriend was speaking to her father (mid-60s?) who was complaining about what a pain in the ass it was to get his new iPhone configured. He had called Apple support who would come the next day, but now he had to go to Wal-Mart to pickup the giftcards to pay for the service. Wait. What? So I guess he had Googled for iPhone support and got some bogus phone number. Aside from the potential monetary loss, the scary…

How are people so "gameable" (gullible)? Tech support, from a big-name company no less, wanting to get paid in Walmart gift cards? Jesus fucking Christ, how can you believe that.

If you’re an older person who grew up in, say, the 1940s, is “company wants to be paid in scrip purchased at local store” really weirder than “instant social interaction worldwide via a small handheld piece of glass”?

In other words, the world is new and different to some people. What’s obviously “gaming” to you is not necessarily clear to others.

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#13

Post by incompatible » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 9:13 AM UTC

B_Throwaway wrote: post #3

Alternative headline: Americans lose on average 16 cents to phone scams in the last year.

It seems remarkably low, especially since it's supposedly the victims reporting to the FBI "some sort of phishing scam", (just phone scams, or including email etc?) "A whopping 26,379 people."

Australians are expected to report over $532 million (AUD) in losses in 2019: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news/record-losses-expected-as-...

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#14

Post by thundergolfer » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 9:14 AM UTC

mike_hock wrote: post #10

mcrae wrote: post #5

My girlfriend was speaking to her father (mid-60s?) who was complaining about what a pain in the ass it was to get his new iPhone configured. He had called Apple support who would come the next day, but now he had to go to Wal-Mart to pickup the giftcards to pay for the service. Wait. What? So I guess he had Googled for iPhone support and got some bogus phone number. Aside from the potential monetary loss, the scary…

How are people so "gameable" (gullible)? Tech support, from a big-name company no less, wanting to get paid in Walmart gift cards? Jesus fucking Christ, how can you believe that.

The victims are overwhelmingly elderly. Are they experiencing normal cognitive decline, is it a brain disease, or were they always like this?

You have to be astonishingly ignorant of how the world works to fall for this stuff. What does this say about their ability to participate in an election? They’re eligible to vote, but it seems like even a 12 year old would run circles around them mentally.

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#15

Post by mschuster91 » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 10:37 AM UTC

thundergolfer wrote: post #14

mike_hock wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are people so "gameable" (gullible)? Tech support, from a big-name company no less, wanting to get paid in Walmart gift cards? Jesus fucking Christ, how can you believe that.

The victims are overwhelmingly elderly. Are they experiencing normal cognitive decline, is it a brain disease, or were they always like this? You have to be astonishingly ignorant of how the world works to fall for this stuff. What does this say about their ability to participate in an election? They’re eligible to vote, but it seems like even a 12 year old would run circles around them mentally.

> What does this say about their ability to participate in an election?

The USA elected someone to Presidency who is widely suspected to suffer from mental degeneration.

IMO it's a cultural difference: there are people who constantly engage their minds even at age 70+ and can make young people look pale against them in using computers, and there are people who stopped using their minds in their 40s and it shows.

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#16

Post by chewyland » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 10:52 AM UTC

mike_hock wrote: post #10

mcrae wrote: post #5

My girlfriend was speaking to her father (mid-60s?) who was complaining about what a pain in the ass it was to get his new iPhone configured. He had called Apple support who would come the next day, but now he had to go to Wal-Mart to pickup the giftcards to pay for the service. Wait. What? So I guess he had Googled for iPhone support and got some bogus phone number. Aside from the potential monetary loss, the scary…

How are people so "gameable" (gullible)? Tech support, from a big-name company no less, wanting to get paid in Walmart gift cards? Jesus fucking Christ, how can you believe that.

Kitboga

YouTube.

Very entertaining.

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#17

Post by ricc » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 11:18 AM UTC

It's also quite common here in Germany especially with the elderly... But sometimes: https://www.dw.com/en/seniors-outsmart-con-men-posing-as-pol...

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#18

Post by koolba » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 11:27 AM UTC

That's barely $0.15 per person which seems way to low. This is only the direct loss though.

The real amount would include the millions of hours we collectively spend deleting voicemails from "Rachel from card services".

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#19

Post by TeMPOraL » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 11:33 AM UTC

grandmczeb wrote: post #6

mcrae wrote: post #5

My girlfriend was speaking to her father (mid-60s?) who was complaining about what a pain in the ass it was to get his new iPhone configured. He had called Apple support who would come the next day, but now he had to go to Wal-Mart to pickup the giftcards to pay for the service. Wait. What? So I guess he had Googled for iPhone support and got some bogus phone number. Aside from the potential monetary loss, the scary…

No data to back this up, but at least in my experience victims finding a phone number directly from a Google search is actually pretty uncommon. Although, sometimes you’ll see fake numbers posted in the comments of news articles or YouTube videos that rank highly for search terms like “fix virus iPhone.” The most common way people get targeted is either via a pop-up while browsing (e.g. “Your iPhone has a virus! Call…

I've read on HN that "bad"[0] numbers pop up on Google Maps, though this was in reference of businesses making fake listings to capture customers that look for a service near where they live. Could scammers be doing that too? I imagine "iPhone repair" being something people type into Google Maps.

--

[0] - What would be the right word for both scammers and dishonest but technically legitimate businesses?

Re: Americans lose $50M to phone scams in the last year

#20

Post by treyfitty » Mon, Nov 04, 2019, 11:37 AM UTC

grandmczeb wrote: post #6

mcrae wrote: post #5

My girlfriend was speaking to her father (mid-60s?) who was complaining about what a pain in the ass it was to get his new iPhone configured. He had called Apple support who would come the next day, but now he had to go to Wal-Mart to pickup the giftcards to pay for the service. Wait. What? So I guess he had Googled for iPhone support and got some bogus phone number. Aside from the potential monetary loss, the scary…

No data to back this up, but at least in my experience victims finding a phone number directly from a Google search is actually pretty uncommon. Although, sometimes you’ll see fake numbers posted in the comments of news articles or YouTube videos that rank highly for search terms like “fix virus iPhone.” The most common way people get targeted is either via a pop-up while browsing (e.g. “Your iPhone has a virus! Call…

Last year, I had to call Brother customer support to debug a WiFi issue for my printer. I googled their customer service number and clicked on the first page on the SERP. The page looked legit, and when I called, it was an Indian man who offered support. This wasn’t the first time I called support, and the first time, I was directed to a phone tree. This time, someone picked up directly.

Everything else seemed very normal, until he told me he needed to install 2 programs- 1 was something I had no idea what it was, and the other was a screen sharing + remote login service (I’ve never heard of this software before).

My suspicions were high, so I probed why he needed me to do all this, and he said “because it’s standard service sir. Please let me provide the same.” I noped out of there. Point being: I really wasn’t sure if I was being scammed, but had I not been exposed to various screen sharing software before, I would’ve easily agreed to share my screen in desperation and installed something I’ve never heard of.

Just an anecdotal story of how easy it is to get defrauded off a google search.