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

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

#301

Post by asib » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 10:48 PM UTC

threads2 wrote: post #282

lostlogin wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong opening hours on Google is a niggle for me. And having been on the other side of the equation, changing the hours Google says a business is open is not always straightforward.

whoa, dude, language

Not sure if you're joking, but the etymology of this word does not appear to be racist. According to [0], it derives from the same root as "niggardly", which according to [1], is unrelated to the racial epithet.

[0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/niggle [1]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/niggard#English

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

#302

Post by zzzeek » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 10:49 PM UTC

klik99 wrote: post #21

There's one easy rule that could have avoided all of this - never give out any info on incoming calls. If I get a call or text about fraudulent transactions, I'll keep them on hold while I log into the bank website. If I get a call about a late payment, I'll thank them for the info and ask them to stay on while I pay online. If I get an inbound call with a more complex request, I'll ask them for their employee info a…

what information is actually being asked of people on incoming calls these days? I never seem to get any of these calls, but banks and credit cards etc. by now should be clued in enough to this stuff that when they actually call a customer, they do nothing more than alert that customer to proper channels they should initiate and follow to resolve the issue.

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

#303

Post by aceazzameen » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 10:49 PM UTC

mardifoufs wrote: post #295

brimble wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Target and Wal-Mart also sell third party shit. It's easier for me to just buy directly from brands I like, or to shop for them on a couple outlet sites I trust (so far) to sell legit (overstocked or lightly damaged) top-quality stuff and not lower-quality second- or third-tier versions (as some outlet stores do), than figure out how to avoid or disable displaying third party sellers on a bunch of different sites. By…

Best buy is filled with 3rd party sellers too but it's at least very easy to filter them out. If I could do the same on Amazon I wouldn't have any problem with 3rd party sellers, but they instead make it almost impossible to know even if you check manually.

That and Amazon commingles their inventory with 3rd party inventory, which can sometimes be counterfeit. And Amazon doesn't care if the counterfeit products are mixed in with the genuine products in their warehouses. As far as I know, Best Buy/Target/Walmart don't commingle their inventory with 3rd parties because they have physical stores that they can pull from.

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

#304

Post by xarope » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 10:50 PM UTC

Scams are getting more and more sophisticated. We've always known that when you write a playbook, sooner or later the red team will find holes in that playbook. Perhaps that's where ML/AI comes in, since you can train them, but you never really understands what they really "learnt" from that training (/s sort-of, but the famous amazing snow/husky classifier always comes to mind)

Personally, I've received such calls before, and the first thing I'd ask for is a case number, and that I would call the support number printed on my credit card, to get back to them. Of course, if someone co-opts that number, then I'm also SOL, but I'd imagine then this would be engineering on a larger scale, rather than a specifically targeted whaling attempt.

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

#305

Post by mcv » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 10:55 PM UTC

Galaxeblaffer wrote: post #139

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…

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…

> There's simply nothing here in Europe that gets even close to what Amazon offers.

I strongly prefer bol.com. No idea if they ship abroad, though.

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

#306

Post by drdaeman » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 10:55 PM UTC

buscoquadnary wrote: post #8

Security theater. I had a situation where I had to buy something online from a company in Europe (owl4thunderbird) I placed the charge and then right after I got a text telling me to call a # for a possible fraud alert. That's a big red flag there. So I try and find the phone # of the fraud dept of Citi because anyone can send a text message. Turns out can't find it anywhere in the official Citi site. So I finally gi…

Hell, I'd wish there'd be some zero-knowledge proof protocol that can be performed with a pen and paper over a phone call. You know, like Dining Cryptographers or Solitaire cipher. Maybe there is something, but I'm not a cryptographer and not aware about it.

Though, of course, it's completely unrealistic to expect that some bank person would agree to do some weirdo math tricks with SSN numbers :)

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

#307

Post by gowld » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 10:56 PM UTC

> I answered, the guy said he was calling from Wells Fargo's Fraud Prevention Department, calling to verify some transactions. 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.

No legitimate bank would do this. They say "call the number on your card, and mention reference # NNNNN"

Wells Fargo is a criminal organization: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scan... so there's no reason to assume an impostor would be worse.

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

#308

Post by specialist » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 10:58 PM UTC

jjoonathan wrote: post #19

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…

Yep. Amazon gets a cut and they act like it.

Well. Not directly. But same outcome. No actual conspiracy or collusion necessary.

Amazon profits so much that they're content to eat the rampant fraud and waste, than to run a proper legit market place.

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

#309

Post by wildrhythms » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 11:00 PM UTC

zzzeek wrote: post #302

klik99 wrote: post #21

There's one easy rule that could have avoided all of this - never give out any info on incoming calls. If I get a call or text about fraudulent transactions, I'll keep them on hold while I log into the bank website. If I get a call about a late payment, I'll thank them for the info and ask them to stay on while I pay online. If I get an inbound call with a more complex request, I'll ask them for their employee info a…

what information is actually being asked of people on incoming calls these days? I never seem to get any of these calls, but banks and credit cards etc. by now should be clued in enough to this stuff that when they actually call a customer, they do nothing more than alert that customer to proper channels they should initiate and follow to resolve the issue.

Entire generation of older Americans who will happily read out their credit card number over the telephone.

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

#310

Post by aceazzameen » Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 11:01 PM UTC

gkilmain wrote: post #188

aceazzameen wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I've been ordering from Target, Best Buy, and Walmart much more often these days. I just assume the product descriptions and reviews on Amazon are all lies.

Interesting. I would have lumped them all together. Why do you trust reviews on Target but not Amazon?

I didn't say I trust reviews on Target. Paid reviews exist everywhere. But if I have to choose, I'd trust Target's first. Amazon's extensive 3rd party marketplace is set up in a way that encourages vendors to game their system. Amazon does nothing about it because it's good for business.

And I trust Target's products are genuine and what you receive is what's in the product description, because they sell them in stores.