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I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

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Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#91

Post by giaour »

Zachsa999 wrote: post #79
hunter2_ wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. I wonder what the state of the art is in human-friendly challenges.

Please select pictures containing a boat.

"What is pictured on the front of my card?" might not be a bad question (assuming the bank allowed account holders to choose from a large variety of images or upload their own). It's data that the bank could capture on card issuance, that anyone who has been in the physical presence of the card could answer, and that would not be captured by payment systems.

Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#92

Post by civilized »

buscoquadnary wrote: post #32
nopeYouAreWrong wrote: post #22

I'm so skeptical of these "experts" especially if they write a blog post where they hate their bank. I've been with Wells for over a decade. They have never called me. Never. I have had "fraud" alerts hundreds of times. They always happen at certain POS, and it's always a text alert. Some of the stories I read make me viscerally react with "what in the world are you doing with something as simple as a bank account?"…

My wife used Well's Fargo, I've heard about how they don't like to bother customers, in fact they hate it so much they didn't even bother notifying customers when opening new accounts for them, or performing actions on their behalf to generate fees.

Also, no one asked for the account to be opened or for the fee-generating actions to be performed.

(They're still not out from under that Federal Reserve asset cap!)

Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#93

Post by giaour »

droffel wrote: post #90
onaworkcomputer wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be unreasonable to ask someone to perform a hash of those last four digits (how would your mom respond if the bank asked her for the sha256 hash of her card number?), but it could be helpful to ask questions that don't reveal too much information, like, "is the sum of the last four digits even?" or "is the sum evenly divisible by 3?" It would be difficult to come up with something you could reasonably ask an acc…

The dataset for hashed credit card numbers is small enough that it can be easily represented in a static lookup table, or brute forced.

Brute forced by a human voice on a phone call? You must talk quickly.

Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#94

Post by taylorfinley »

Nextgrid wrote: post #12
rolobio wrote: post #6

I nearly got taken by a scammer because Amazon transferred me to one. I purchased a set of Reolink cameras on Amazon, (they've been great) one of them failed a couple months in. I contacted Amazon customer support (via my Amazon login and in their interface) and they wanted to troubleshoot with their technical team. Eventually the (very helpful) Amazon technician suggested contacting Reolink for support and started a…

> I was blown away that Amazon would transfer me to a scammer. I contacted Amazon again and let them know what had happened. Hopefully they will figure out how their guy got this scammers phone number and teach him how to find a 3rd party phone number... 1) Amazon is complicit in shady behavior on their platform, whether it's inventory commingling, sketchy sellers repurposing existing, well-reviewed listings for a to…

It’s pretty shocking but most IP cameras can be accessed with nothing more than their serial number. Here’s a somewhat recent DefCon talk about it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_gKEF76oMM

I use Reolink cameras, in the admin interface there’s an option called UID. Turning that off (theoretically) disables the backdoor. I have my cameras and NVR (which is actually just a python script on an old laptop that uses ffmpeg to capture streams) on their own airgapped lan so I don’t have to worry about blackhats or the ccp using backdoors to watch my kids.

Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#95

Post by simoneau »

I'm surprised at the level of scamming we tolerate as a society. As technologists, we have a good chance of not falling for it, but my parents are sitting ducks.

Some combination of new consumer protection laws, infrastructure improvements, and law enforcement attention is desperately needed. I don't know why this doesn't get more attention. Is it just the historical attitude that each of us are responsible for protecting ourselves? Is the line too blurry between a legit business and an outright scam?

Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#96

Post by spicybright »

mattbee wrote: post #69
nopeYouAreWrong wrote: post #22

I'm so skeptical of these "experts" especially if they write a blog post where they hate their bank. I've been with Wells for over a decade. They have never called me. Never. I have had "fraud" alerts hundreds of times. They always happen at certain POS, and it's always a text alert. Some of the stories I read make me viscerally react with "what in the world are you doing with something as simple as a bank account?"…

The author does seem to bang on about his "reasonable assumptions" for how much Wells and Apple Pay suck, so he should continue the call! Like he's just too clever to follow the advice he'd give everyone else to hang up and call back.

I'm honestly surprised he even wrote this if he claims to be an expert.

He literally ignored half of what the rep was saying because he was busy fiddling with the computer, then willingly gave up all his personal information because of the distraction.

You would think an expert would know how to properly use 2 factor auth too. Giving someone the code is exactly how you defeat it.

Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#97

Post by tempestn »

I wish the title hadn't given away that it was a scam call. Perhaps it could have implied it was a gripe about Wells Fargo at first. Reading it while already knowing it was a scam, it seemed blindingly obvious to me, and it was hard to imagine how I could have made the same mistakes. But that could be overconfidence.

Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#98

Post by sshine »

I was never attempted scammed online, and I think (naively like the author) that it wouldn't happen to me.

But I was pick-pocketed twice in my life. Both failed attempts, but only because of dumb luck. And I thought that would never happen, "because I'm that much present always."

One time I'm wearing a hoodie, and a cheery guy distracts me and sticks his hand into a double-ended pocket and my hand, resting in the other side, instinctively grabs his; a trigger-happy hand-shaking mechanism and a bad choice of pocket. I quickly walk off because his grumpy friend looks like someone who would stab you.

Another time I'm running for the bus, my phone is thrashing forth and back in my pocket, so while running, I quickly grab the phone and stick it in another pocket; two seconds later, a young guy bumps into me, and his hands reach all the way down in the now empty pocket. We land, we stare at each other, and I run for the bus rather than him; I'd have no chance catching him anyways.

So... with some humility: The only way to stay out of trouble is to apply really dumb protocols.

Re: I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed

#100

Post by dangus »

The author ("scam prevention expert") was extremely uncomfortable at multiple points in the interaction and just...kept going.

I know that this scam is relatively sophisticated compared to others, but I have to think if I was a scam prevention expert that I wouldn't tarnish my own name by putting a story with this much raw honesty out there.

They basically violated rule #1 of scam avoidance which is that no legitimate business cold calling you will need you to do anything with urgency.

Either that or it's a way to make potential customers feel better about the obvious mistakes they made.

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