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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

#121

Post by renewiltord »

I'm a gullible motherfucker: I have memories of handing a $20 to a random guy walking up to me and saying "Hey, man, my car's stuck and I need some cash for gas".

That said, I've had a lot of these calls and fortunately not fallen for them once. The funny thing is that eTrade (I think) has a system where you can ask for a callback but then they'll go right into taking your information. When that happens, I followed the play book: I asked for a phone number that I could find on ETrade that I could add an extension for to get to this person. He gave it to me and everything along with some sort of quick access code I was supposed to use to get whomever I hit to pass me along.

Well, I did the whole thing and the person at the other end in the ETrade system that I dialed said "It's okay, I'll just take care of it, sir". I mean, at this point I just sucked it up and went through with the process since I figured I dialed the number from their website to get there and then the extension so surely it has to be legit, right?

But I just know someone is going to point out a way that I could have been scammed through this mechanism.

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

#122

Post by jimmaswell »

carabiner wrote: post #108
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…

Amazon today is a street side flea market. You really don't know what you'll get. I've started ordering more stuff from traditional retailers. Their online operations these days are really good, and at most a few dollars more than Amazon. Clothes from macys.com, home goods from homedepot.com and target.com, and so on. You're not flooded with choices with these stores that are mostly garbage, instead you get only 1-3…

These days I'll order certain things from Wal Mart if I'm wary of what I see on Amazon.

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

#123

Post by iforgotpassword »

whimsicalism wrote: post #55
iforgotpassword wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As TFA starts out, it is always easy to point out all the mistakes after the fact. People underestimate how prone the mind is to just trying to play down danger, inconvenience and generally unpleasing situations. Even after a few minutes on the phone, after you built up the most basic "relationship" with the person on the other end, you simply don't want this to be a scam. Avoiding cognitive dissonance. Just like whe…

Look, I certainly believe that as you get larger and larger groups of people, law of large numbers it becomes inevitable that someone becomes scammed. And I certainly don't doubt that I could be scammed at some time, especially by a phishing email or something of the sort. But I don't think I'll ever give out a 2FA code to anybody that's not me. It's a really simple rule of thumb. Just never do it, there is never any…

Yes, it's easy to convince yourself you're way too smart to make this mistake. At the same time, you now deliberately skipped over the fact twice that he just skimmed the mail and didn't fully realize it was specifically a 2FA code, just assumed it was some verification code. I mean, the wording explicitly talks about entering this code somewhere to enable stuff. That's already two dead giveaways. Otherwise you'd be implying this guy, being an expert, doesn't fully understand how 2FA works. Pretty unlikely, but sure, not impossible. But I mean realistically now that this has been overstressed I actually do believe you'd never make that specific mistake in the future.

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

#124

Post by rhizome »

acheron wrote: post #40
dqv wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well this initiated a rant, not directly related to ads, but Google in general. This is an internet literacy issue I’ve noticed more and more. People will refer to Google listings as an authoritative source even if the data comes from some third party. “Is this Jordan’s Tiles?” “No. This is Patrick. You have the wrong number.” “It says on their website this is the number!” “Their website is wrong, this isn’t Jordan’s…

Yeah, you hear about this with the people who get taken in by Grubhub or whoever that's spoofing a restaurant's phone number/ordering site. I would never take a third-party source as authoritative, but apparently people do it.

I never take restaurant phone numbers directly off of Google, I always check their (hopefully existent) website before calling, or at least crosscheck it against other sources. There is no way Grubhub or any of the other mediating greedholes will get even Caller ID data from me if I can help it.

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

#125

Post by alana314 »

gnicholas wrote: post #10

> He verified my name, he had the last four digits of my debit card number, and everything generally seemed to follow the normal script of a transaction verification call There's a red flag right there — I've never found a bank willing to provide any verification of who they are when calling me. They call me and ask me to give them a code or card number without providing me with any proof of their identity. I've trie…

I had a similar scam fraud call from my bank and I asked them to verify the last 4 of my SSN. They had it! But later they said they'd send a text verification but it was asking to add my card to apple pay. So I hung up and called my bank back and they had no record of the call. It was freaky that the scammer had so much info though.

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

#126

Post by rhizome »

ejb999 wrote: post #36
dqv wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well this initiated a rant, not directly related to ads, but Google in general. This is an internet literacy issue I’ve noticed more and more. People will refer to Google listings as an authoritative source even if the data comes from some third party. “Is this Jordan’s Tiles?” “No. This is Patrick. You have the wrong number.” “It says on their website this is the number!” “Their website is wrong, this isn’t Jordan’s…

I've had that happen to me as well - person finds a wrong number online someplace, calls me, and then is mad at me that I am not who they are looking for...go figure.

"Call Google. Ask for Sundar."

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

#127

Post by BeefWellington »

e40 wrote: post #48
cjg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling on the official number is a good rule. But my neighbour followed that and was still scammed for tens of thousands. The critical extra step that they missed was to check that the line was disconnected before calling out. They were using a landline. The scammers called them, but didn't hang up. Then, when my neighbour called out to their bank, they pretended to be answering that call - going through security, e…

The neighbor hung up, but the scammers didn't, and the call was not disconnected? That's not my experience. Is this what you meant?

Yes, and this is how it works as another responder mentions.

The thinking by phone companies is essentially: guy calling pays for the call, so we can milk each call for a few extra cents each time even if they're shady or a wrong number.

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

#128

Post by BaseballPhysics »

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?"…

> I'm so skeptical of these "experts" especially if they write a blog post where they hate their bank.

Really? That's the thing that makes you skeptical and feel the need to use scare quotes?

Banks suck. Hell, mine hasn't even implemented proper 2FA.

And Wells Fargo is so bad they've been caught scamming their own customers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scan...

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

#129

Post by itslennysfault »

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…

Reason #99,999 that I don't use Amazon anymore. Just buy stuff in-person, pay the shipping, wait the week, or whatever. You'll be fine I promise.

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

#130

Post by alana314 »

Anechoic wrote: post #117

There was one time I thought I was being scammed, but it turns out there was an actual issue with my bank account. Sitting at my desk at work, I get a phone call from my bank on by cell phone. "Mr. Anechoic, there appears to be a security issue with your bank account. We can resolve it for you. For security purposes, can you give your checking account number and the last four of you SSN"? This is clearly a scam, righ…

That's so dumb! No wonder the industry is rife with scams.
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