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

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

#21

Post by saiya-jin »

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.

Jeez man, get off your high horse a bit. There are billions of people out there, young and old, who have no clue about these things (meaning some prepaid vouchers aren't a normal form of pay for IT stuff).

Its not about ignorance of how world works, their normal world doesn't involve such technology and they never get to the point of being comfortable of new cool tech and don't follow it. Its not ideal, and it doesn't absolve them from their share of blame for the situation, but it is what it is.

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

#22

Post by dboreham »

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 have a friend who got to a bogus HP support line via a Google search. This was a few years ago.

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

#23

Post by code_duck »

saiya-jin wrote: post #21
thundergolfer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Jeez man, get off your high horse a bit. There are billions of people out there, young and old, who have no clue about these things (meaning some prepaid vouchers aren't a normal form of pay for IT stuff). Its not about ignorance of how world works, their normal world doesn't involve such technology and they never get to the point of being comfortable of new cool tech and don't follow it. Its not ideal, and it doesn'…

If you read about the world of scams, people routinely receive calls from people claiming to represent entities such as the IRS or a Sheriff's Department, and convince the victim they are in legal jeopardy which can be alleviated immediately by transferring significant sums of money in the form of eBay, iTunes or Amazon gift cards. So, it's not just about tech repair.

I don't think it can be argued that it's reasonable to think the sheriff or the IRS can be paid through iTunes gift cards.

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

#25

Post by pryffwyd »

stubish wrote: post #8
B_Throwaway wrote: post #3

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

Yes, you can play with statistics that way if you want to sweep the problem under the carpet. If only the victims could get their potentially life changing losses amortized over the country's population somehow.

Chicago citizens were on average murdered .0002 times in the last year

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

#26

Post by ecf »

valleyer wrote: post #12
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.

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.

I don’t buy the “tech-illiterate” idea.

In my opinion, these are the same type of people that would have given all their livestock to a medieval-traveling pastor because God would have smite them if they didn’t.

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

#27

Post by Scoundreller »

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…

It’s not surprising.

People want to be able to call someone for help.

Meanwhile most companies do NOT want you to call them, but want you to figure out how to solve the problem yourself with varying quality of online help.

I ran a small directory of phone numbers, like gethuman before it was a thing.

Every time I came across a company that made it difficult to find their support number, I’d publish a page.

It wasn’t hard for me to rank higher than large telcos or banks in my country.

No wonder why people fall for someone offering a convenient number for help.

Because the vendors themselves certainly aren’t.

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

#29

Post by mnorton »

chewyland wrote: post #16
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.

Kitboga YouTube. Very entertaining.

this is worth checking out. helps to have someone explain what is going on. youtube is a good place to start. guy also has a twitch channel with a phenomenal amount of viewers.

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

#30

Post by thundergolfer »

saiya-jin wrote: post #21
thundergolfer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Jeez man, get off your high horse a bit. There are billions of people out there, young and old, who have no clue about these things (meaning some prepaid vouchers aren't a normal form of pay for IT stuff). Its not about ignorance of how world works, their normal world doesn't involve such technology and they never get to the point of being comfortable of new cool tech and don't follow it. Its not ideal, and it doesn'…

No clue that major corporations don't take payment in the form of gift cards and vouchers?

Don't think I'm on a high-horse. Believing that is monumentally stupid.

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