I'm a scam prevention expert and I got scammed • Hacker News Board

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

#541

Post by nullc » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

throwaway2474 wrote: post #215

I wonder who these well-spoken, educated scammers are and how they’re recruited. Pet theory: voice recordings will be the next fingerprints/DNA, at some point it will be trivial to identify the person based on old recordings. At which point we can retroactively convict these people years or decades later, when they thought they were out of the woods.

> retroactively convict these people years or decades later, when they thought they were out of the woods

Limitations exists for most crimes and torts. Prosecuting someone years or decades later when potentially exculpatory evidence is less available (e.g. no one, even themselves can remember their alibis, etc.) would be highly unjust.

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

#542

Post by xeromal » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 4:27 PM UTC

solidasparagus wrote: post #379

paxys wrote: post #71

I expected some crazy new attack vector that was so sophisticated it could fool this Scam Prevention Expert, but this post is laughable. They fell for textbook "scamming 101" that my grandma knows to avoid. Here's one tip for this expert – if you get a 2FA code over text or email that clearly has the line "we will never contact you for this code over phone or text" right under it, DON'T give it to a "support agent" o…

This feels like an unreasonably nasty and condescending response to an article about how anyone can make mistakes in the moment. I thought it was a pretty good article about how easy it is to sit at your computer and look down at people who fall for scams, but that scams are effective precisely because they take advantage of mistakes and the fallibility of people - even knowledgable ones. I feel like this comment mis…

Yeah, I felt like I was taking crazy pills seeing comments agreeing with this nasty comment. Thanks for counteracting it.

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

#543

Post by nullc » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 4:30 PM UTC

alienchow wrote: post #436

It's actually also quite frustrating when financial institutions don't have proper secure practices in place. If you've ever wired money from SFCU, you'd know they would ask you to fill out a form with a handwritten wire password. You submit the form and someone from the credit union would call you to verify your wire password. When I received the call from them, they asked for my date of birth and other information.…

To be charitable, it may well have been a waste of time simply because of how terrible the rest of the bank security is.

I've had close to 100% success social engineering confidential information out of financial services companies and other service providers about myself using only information that would be available to a scammer.

So, if a scammer knowing your name and address could call your bank and talk them into giving out your DOB, then going through the effort of calling them back before giving it to them really would have been a waste of time.

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

#544

Post by newbamboo » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 4:36 PM UTC

imtringued wrote: post #481

mypalmike wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's selection bias. People with a bad experience with Amazon are more likely to dive into it here. And dive they do, nearly any time Amazon is mentioned. Even in a thread about Wells Fargo we somehow get sidetracked into "Amazon just sells counterfeit garbage". Out of the thousands of items I've bought through Amazon, I think maybe one set of Henckels steak knives might be counterfeit (I've ordered two sets…

I try my best to not buy from third party sellers. Then I occasionally get surprised that I am buying from a third party seller. So I simply stopped because the perceived risk is too high. Amazon is overpriced anyway so why bother buying from them?

If you buy Amazon basic brand items you don’t have to worry. And the Amazon basic products are generally really high quality, from clothes and more high end niche items to daily necessities, Amazon basics items are best in class. People who complain about Amazon are usually buying crappy items from dodgy vendors, and then they idiotically blame Amazon.

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

#545

Post by ciabattabread » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

danpalmer wrote: post #536

atum47 wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon is complicit in shady behavior on their platform Bought some wireless earbuds a while back, they sent me a horrible knock off. Contacted the store, he said the delivery guy made the switch, took forever but sent me new ones. Left a review stating all of this and warning users not to buy from this sketchy store, my review never saw the light of day.

At this point I only really buy things from Amazon that are essentially fungible. Cables, adapters, toiletries, tools, none of these matter enough to me to care about exactly what I get, as long as it’s roughly what’s in the picture, and to be honest they’re not even worth counterfeiting. For everything else there’s rarely a reason to not buy directly from brands or niche specialist retailers. Customer support is typ…

Toiletries? You trust Amazon to not swap out your lotion with a cut-rate adulterated copycat?

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

#546

Post by rcurry » Sat, Apr 02, 2022, 9:25 PM UTC

ineedasername wrote: post #397

rcurry wrote: post #258

It gets even weirder when your bank acts like a scammer. A few weeks ago I was trying to help my wife add her USBank credit card to Apple Pay and Apple Pay said I needed to call this number to finish setting up the card. So I call the number and the guy is very friendly and asks me for a bunch of identity verification details, which I provide to him, but then he asks us to send a code back that will be coming over te…

What happened after that, was it a hassle to unblock things? Though at that point I'd probably just close out my account & switch to another bank's credit card.

They were actually quite nice about it, unblocked my card and down the road I went. Good for them, but they should have terminated that guy because he really did get so obnoxious that I actually thought I was taking to a scammer.

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

#547

Post by hex4def6 » Sun, Apr 03, 2022, 3:17 AM UTC

atum47 wrote: post #378

Nextgrid wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Amazon is complicit in shady behavior on their platform Bought some wireless earbuds a while back, they sent me a horrible knock off. Contacted the store, he said the delivery guy made the switch, took forever but sent me new ones. Left a review stating all of this and warning users not to buy from this sketchy store, my review never saw the light of day.

Amazon filter out those sort of reviews "because theyre not about the product but the supplier". Of course, they don't make it easy to report the supplier.

I've bought ssr relays rated at 40A, with the actual picture of the real product shown. What I got was a fake that was literally an electrical fire waiting to happen. Maybe my complaint to support actually made it to the supplier, because they Photoshop blurred the product picture listing so the real brand name was obscured. Still had phony specs though.

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

#548

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 » Sun, Apr 03, 2022, 10:25 AM UTC

mypalmike wrote: post #271

Galaxeblaffer wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really hard recognizing the image Amazon have in the US compared to my personal experience with amazon.de . The service is stellar, shipping both ways is free as long as you buy products covered by prime. Refunds are with no questions asked (as long as you don't start abusing it i guess). As soon as you go into 3rd party sellers the experience gets muddled, though I've had plenty of good experiences with those a…

I think it's selection bias. People with a bad experience with Amazon are more likely to dive into it here. And dive they do, nearly any time Amazon is mentioned. Even in a thread about Wells Fargo we somehow get sidetracked into "Amazon just sells counterfeit garbage". Out of the thousands of items I've bought through Amazon, I think maybe one set of Henckels steak knives might be counterfeit (I've ordered two sets…

Using this logic, you could quickly dismiss all criticisms of any company. It's not a very compelling argument, especially because no one is arguing that individual, atomic, anecdotal comments describing negative experiences with Amazon represent a statistically significant evaluation of Amazon as a company.

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

#549

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 » Sun, Apr 03, 2022, 10:38 AM UTC

newbamboo wrote: post #544

imtringued wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try my best to not buy from third party sellers. Then I occasionally get surprised that I am buying from a third party seller. So I simply stopped because the perceived risk is too high. Amazon is overpriced anyway so why bother buying from them?

If you buy Amazon basic brand items you don’t have to worry. And the Amazon basic products are generally really high quality, from clothes and more high end niche items to daily necessities, Amazon basics items are best in class. People who complain about Amazon are usually buying crappy items from dodgy vendors, and then they idiotically blame Amazon.

Except it's almost impossible for the majority of customers to distinguish between the 'good' sellers and the 'bad' sellers, and we shouldn't pretend this isn't a deliberate effort on Amazon's behalf. Not only do Amazon often make it onerous to find out who is in fact selling an item, they also:

1) Co-mingle the inventory of multiple sellers in their distribution centers, so even if you buy from a good vendor you've used in the past, you still might end up with garbage from a shady vendor. 2) Allow widespread and rampant review manipulation / botting across every product category on the site, making it even more difficult to distinguish 'dodgy vendors' from so-called good ones. 3) Allow vendors to BRIBE customers with things like free items or amazon credits for 'organic' reviews, again, making it a Sisyphean task for most customers to find reputable vendors.

> and then they idiotically blame Amazon

This a callous and inane assertion. If a customer buys something from Amazon's website, and pays Amazon, and Amazon emails them a receipt, and Amazon delivers the product, the customer has every right to blame Amazon if the product they receive is crap. I'm frankly flabbergasted that you somehow think it is the fault of the customer.

> And the Amazon basic products are generally really high quality, from clothes and more high end niche items to daily necessities, Amazon basics items are best in class.

This reads like ad copy to me -- Amazon basic products are fine, but they certainly are not 'best in class' or 'very high quality'. Amazon doesn't even go that far (they items are literally called 'Basics'.). Furthermore, if the only thing a customer can feel confident purchasing on Amazon is a Amazon Basic items, it kind of defeats the point, doesn't it? There are not Amazon Basics versions for most product categories on the site, and the allure of Amazon is that you can get anything you want from one vendor, delivered quickly (A to Z).

(Not to mention, I've seen a lot of cases where Amazon Basic items are clones/knock offs of well-reviewed, high volume products designed and manufactured by third party companies. Amazon then copies these products and promotes its own listings, which isn't exactly the most ethical practice IMO)

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

#550

Post by newbamboo » Sun, Apr 03, 2022, 2:07 PM UTC

9935c101ab17a66 wrote: post #549

newbamboo wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy Amazon basic brand items you don’t have to worry. And the Amazon basic products are generally really high quality, from clothes and more high end niche items to daily necessities, Amazon basics items are best in class. People who complain about Amazon are usually buying crappy items from dodgy vendors, and then they idiotically blame Amazon.

Except it's almost impossible for the majority of customers to distinguish between the 'good' sellers and the 'bad' sellers, and we shouldn't pretend this isn't a deliberate effort on Amazon's behalf. Not only do Amazon often make it onerous to find out who is in fact selling an item, they also: 1) Co-mingle the inventory of multiple sellers in their distribution centers, so even if you buy from a good vendor you've…

“Amazon then copies these products and promotes its own listings”

…for the consumer’s benefit. It’s a win/win.

They are one our best companies. From the climate change perspective alone, think of how much better off we are, as a planet, thanks to Amazon. People are appallingly ungrateful. And the criticism is typically something along the lines that he allows too much freedom (“they let anyone sell stuff, even chinese vendors gasp) or oddly, they complain about logistical efficiency (“eww commingling! I would never!” as they clutch their pearls), when it’s acthually exactly what other retailers do. If people were so worried about their packets commingling we wouldn’t have the internet, the us postal service would stop functioning if mail didn’t get commingled. Commingling is good, progressive.