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Woman loses over $44k after downloading third-party app to buy fish

straitstimes.com

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Re: Woman loses over $44k after downloading third-party app to buy fish

#61

Post by tzs »

izacus wrote: post #33
vegetablepotpie wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree that it’s a social problem. But it’s getting worse, not better. There are hard security rules that you should always follow, for example, never click on links from an unknown sender. In the last five years I’ve noticed a trend of bureaucracies in every institution now want you to violate generally accepted security rules for their own convenience. For example, I got a text from a new number saying (sic)…

Did you try getting your government to prosecute those scammers? I'm always confused by Americans inventing 100 different software ways to try to lockout people from their devices for "security", but noone wonders why exactly this kind of egregious scammage isn't actually punished and money retured?

Much of it not punished because many of the scammers are in other countries.

Re: Woman loses over $44k after downloading third-party app to buy fish

#62

Post by yokairider »

izacus wrote: post #35
jjtheblunt wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems so easy to take full control of phones these days. What? The lady agreed to install and run an app, because someone asked her to do so. She literally handed over control of her phone with its bank account accesses, essentially. Also, that's an Android phone, which might or might not matter, but i imagine this social engineering (as if) scam would work in general. In the words of Laocoon, "quidquid id est,…

I think the OP implies that she should not be allowed to control her own phone to the point where she can't do that - more corporate control and more corporate baby sitting.

Actually I was saying more of, one app can just allow a hacker to take control of your phone completely. It’s quite scary especially knowing that the public isnt well-educated on this yet.

Re: Woman loses over $44k after downloading third-party app to buy fish

#63

Post by smegger001 »

panarky wrote: post #58
ugh123 wrote: post #42

My wife had a $50k transfer initiated yesterday from her savings account (Bank of America). She was able to cancel the transaction by calling the bank in time, but still have no idea how it happened. Uses an iPhone 12 and hasn't downloaded any new apps in a while. Primarily uses a Mac Air but sometimes does banking on a Windows machine but is admin-managed by her (large) corp. Getting scary out there... Edit: Has 2FA…

My policy: No financial apps on the phone. Only other apps are from big companies with a reputation for strong security practices. That means no sports and weather apps, no restaurant or game apps, no Samsung or Tmobile apps, no TikTok. Banking and brokerage are all in the browser, on a Chromebook, with no third-party extensions installed. This means no adblock and no other browsing on that user profile. Most banks a…

I'm not that stringent I also allow open source apps from FDroid where I can see what permissions the app wants before I install it

Re: Woman loses over $44k after downloading third-party app to buy fish

#66

Post by chrismcb »

worksonmine wrote: post #37
fbdab103 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Look, idiot, if you do not perfectly follow all of this op sec, your money could disappear at literally any moment. In which case, sucks to be you. Oh, and also those crypto exchanges where people leave their money - those also have a good chance of disappearing in the night. Best to keep it under the digital equivalent of your mattress." I will stick with a bank which is regulated to protect my money, and heads wil…

> I will stick with a bank which is regulated to protect my money, and heads will roll if funny business happens. When did that ever happen? Did even a single head roll for the bullshit with subprime mortgages? Some people get a bonus when the scam is big enough.

Well some banks went out of business.
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