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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

#351

Post by mdavis6890 »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #128
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...

The point is not that banks don't suck - it's that a professional will not inject that sentiment into a post on another topic. And if a professional does mention it, they will do so in a way that doesn't sound like blanket griping, but will instead focus on specific facts about that bank that cause them to recommend against them. And finally - it would be a former bank, not a current one.

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

#352

Post by ceejayoz »

aceazzameen wrote: post #205
tempestn wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is good advice, despite it being a pain sometimes! I once got a voicemail from the fraud department at my bank, with a number to call back. I googled the number and all that came up were stories about being scammed. So I was 95% sure it was a scam, but called my bank directly just in case. The person who answered assured me they hadn't contacted me, and it was indeed a scam. I later got a follow-up voicemail fro…

I had something similar. One time I got a phone call from a "Scam Likely" and decided to answer it. And it was an automated message from my bank asking if some purchases in another state were real or fraudulent. At this point I began to second guess if it was a scam or not, but had to assume it still was. I ended up logging into my account and seeing the same fraudulent purchases that it listed over the phone. So I c…

Some scammers are making fraudulent charges, then calling victims as the bank to “fix” them. Skips over a bunch of red flags because the bank has every reason to be calling.

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

#353

Post by n4bz0r »

throwaway48375 wrote: post #344
brk wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, most IP cameras cannot be accessed this way when you look at the global pool of IP cameras. However many on them on Amazon, particularly from OEM companies like Reolink that are more of a custom relabeller vs. a real camera manufacturer have all kinds of backdoor access methods. Best practice is to put your IP cameras on a separate isolated network, connected to a dual-NIC recorder/PC running trusted software (…

Can't you just use VLAN tagging and firewall rules?

You sure can. And as a result you will get...

> a separate isolated network

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

#354

Post by zorpner »

amelius wrote: post #267
m463 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think ordering on amazon has become a little like getting your car towed. Towing companies appear to be a large shell game where your $200 tow is handled my one or more middlemen who eventually get some poor independent towtruck driver to tow you for $75 Amazon should do something that would allow partnering with decent brands. Customers would be happy, brands could keep their reputation, amazon could get a reasona…

I'd like to see an economist's view on how the free market is failing here, and what we can do about it.

I mean, roughly, there's no such thing as an ideal free market, and in all real markets all the ways in which it's not an ideal free market are being exploited by people to collect the margin. The concept of an ideal free market is promulgated by the same people who are making money off those margins.

As far as what you can do about it, you could start with preventing those people from interacting with markets. I leave the mechanism as an exercise for the reader.

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

#355

Post by jeffparsons »

A lot of people seem to be telling similar stories in the comments about how their banks also act like scammers, which trains you to trust the actual scammers.

For this reason, I am extremely stubborn about inbound calls. When my bank/superannuation/etc. call me about something and ask for any personal details, I explain to them why it's really not okay for them to be doing this, request a way to call them back via some telephone number that is published on their official website, and then later follow up with a formal complaint.

Who knows whether it actually does any good. Probably not. :/ EDIT: I mean, it definitely protects me, but I don't know if any of these orgs have changed their practices.

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

#356

Post by Wistar »

rhizome wrote: post #124
acheron wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Related. Finding real locksmiths has become so difficult that I have resorted to calling a business across the street and asking them to tell me if there is, in fact, a locksmith at the purported location.

Maybe there is a business in physically verifying a given business is the actually the real thing.

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

#357

Post by greedo »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #333
amelius wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to see an economist's view on how the free market is failing here, and what we can do about it.

Your regular reminder that theoretical free market assumes perfectly rational and informed consumer, no lies and no misleading or withholding information In other news a car has infinute milage on a frictionless surface in a vacuum

First imagine a spherical cow...

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

#358

Post by bliteben »

aceazzameen wrote: post #178
carabiner wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

God I wish walmart’s site was better, it is like punishment shopping there, why does home depot outclass them in every way?

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

#360

Post by yesenadam »

josephg wrote: post #320
jameshart wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the day, folks would have more than one phone in their house. Someone would call and all the phones would ring (or you might turn off the ringers on some of them so only one main phone actually rings). So someone might pick up the phone in the entrance hall and the caller would ask to speak to Becky, and Becky’s mom would yell up the stairs ‘BECKY PHONE’ and then put the receiver back down while Becky runs in…

I saw this sort of thing in american sitcoms as a child, and I was always mildly triggered by it. Here in Australia the landline phone system disconnects as soon as either person hangs up. On the shows they would sometimes hang up the phone, then somebody else picked up a receiver and the call continued?? Phones don't work like that! Go try it on your real phone, and you'll see! It never occurred to me that US phones…

> On the shows they would sometimes hang up the phone, then somebody else picked up a receiver and the call continued?? Phones don't work like that!

Well, a few decades ago (80s-90s), at least, landlines sure did work like that in Australia, if you were the one who received the call. I played around with that a lot as a kid. Maybe you just tried it on calls you initiated?

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