New form of fraud😡

[pucho812]

Well this was a new one.
Got a call that showed up as my bank.
The number registered as my banks 1-800 number and everything. We chat for a long time and they are saying they are the fraud department. That I had fraudulent charges on my bank card. They proceed to talk with me about it and even had some info that was legit that had me fooled. After my refusal to give out some details, they hung up.
Called my bank back and sure enough the incoming call was fraud and that they(nefarious individuals) are able to do that.
Oof. Luckily I only gave out my bank card and then cancelled it with my bank when I returned the call.

 

[pucho812]

So basically be on the lookout for a call posing as your bank that by all accounts is your bank. It shows up with a caller ID and number that is your bank but let me tell you it is not your bank.

 

[crazydoc]

That's why it's best to never give out info unless you've initiated the call to a number you know is legit. My wife almost fell for the "Grandma, I've been arrested and I need bail money" scam, but luckily I walked into the room. There are some pretty slick operators out there - I'll probably get screwed one of these days.

 

[pucho812]

That's why it's best to never give out info unless you've initiated the call to a number you know is legit. My wife almost fell for the "Grandma, I've been arrested and I need bail money" scam, but luckily I walked into the room. There are some pretty slick operators out there - I'll probably get screwed one of these days.

totally. But like I said they had some info that made it sound legit. Crazy.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Jun 29, 2022"Nigerian man dies and authorities find US$27 billion in his apartment" begins a graphic posted on Facebook. "He has been trying to give it away for 15 years but no one would return his email." The graphic, posted on 17 June 2022, includes a photo of piles of cash stacked in a room.



JR

 

[pucho812]

Best option if there is anyone calling to be your bank and claiming anything. Tell them you would call them back.

 

[cyrano]

So basically be on the lookout for a call posing as your bank that by all accounts is your bank. It shows up with a caller ID and number that is your bank but let me tell you it is not your bank.

I was under the impression that the US was finally going to do something about caller ID spoofing. A few US "marketeers" have been fined hundreds of millions and some of the execs have been hit with long jail sentences recently. But apparently it's only about political phone scams and even only in some states?

There is a secure protocol for caller ID, but the US has been refusing to implement it for decades. And as long as the biggest telco's choose to ignore the problem, smaller telco's will not invest, as there is no ROI.

Our local telco drops spoofed calls but it's a whack a mole game, as the scammers always seem to find unsecured telco's to continue that practice. The one good thing about it is that scammers seem to avoid our local telco a bit. The number of scam calls has steeply declined, but the amount of money scammed has gone up. Most people over here have no caller ID display on their landline phones, especially the elderly. And those are the main target for phone scammers, even when they are trying to scam small business now.

I almost never get scam calls, except the Microsoft variety. And those are mildly amusing. Of course, I no longer have a landline. And calling cellphones from abroad seems to be too expensive for scammers.

The most amazing one, was a farmer from Nigeria on FB. He was legit, not a scammer, seeking for a way to export rice to the EU. I even tried to help him, but his operation was way too small to stand a chance. And that was via FB messaging, not via phone.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I had to check to confirm that my landline was still turned on... I get some robo callers who are very persistent and leave messages on my machine. Most robo callers drop the call if you don't answer. The only way to stop the worst of them is to switch off my landline for a day or two.

At the moment my landline is turned on and spam calls are relatively quiet. I expect with next year's election the unwanted call activity will increase.

JR

[edit- maybe you could connect that nigerian farmer with other guy from his country with all that money he is trying to give away.... Sorry bad joke./edit]

 

[pucho812]

I had to check to confirm that my landline was still turned on... I get some robo callers who are very persistent and leave messages on my machine. Most robo callers drop the call if you don't answer. The only way to stop the worst of them is to switch off my landline for a day or two.

At the moment my landline is turned on and spam calls are relatively quiet. I expect with next year's election the unwanted call activity will increase.

JR

[edit- maybe you could connect that nigerian farmer with other guy from his country with all that money he is trying to give away.... Sorry bad joke./edit]

One day we will find a Nigerian Prince in his dwelling crushed by the stacks of money he was trying to give away and never could.

 

[Rusan]

Early this morning, there was a banner across the top of my bank's web page informing its customers of an authentic looking fake website, whose homepage appeared identical to their real one. I later received this e-mail from them:

"Centennial Bank has been made aware that a spoofed website attempting to mimic Centennial Bank’s main page, my100bank.com, was appearing in search results as a sponsored link. The website replaced the word bank with “bunk”. The cybercriminals utilized a new technique where sponsored links are manipulated so that fake websites appear legitimate and are listed at the top of search results on popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Centennial Bank’s Security Team acted immediately to have the spoofed website removed."

Fraudsters, thieves and crooks never cease to amaze me with their resourcefulness.

 

[JohnRoberts]

For the last two days I have been getting emails saying that my business (that I shuttered over 3 years ago) now qualifies for an unsecured line of credit $245,000.00 .

I was born in the morning but not this morning.

I haven't even clicked on the unsubscribe since I don't want to acknowledge that there are human eyeballs reading the email.

[edit Later today I got a text on my smart phone reminding me of "our date" tomorrow... I do not have a date or even exchange texts with anyone to possibly date. /edit]

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Today I got two more emails offering the unsecured $245k line of credit but saying it was my last chance....

JR

 

[cyrano]

Our banks warn their clients that they never call them, except to invite them to come to the bank's office.

One bank started a service during covid to help the elderly and anyone else who couldn't make the trip easily. They send a bank worker to their homes. That got copied in a few weeks. Fortunately, the scammers were local. They got arrested in a week. Of course, all phone numbers are identifiable here. And spoofing numbers can't be done from within the country. Still a few people are naive enough to get scammed.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Life is an IQ test.....

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Yesterday's emails said "last chance".
Today's emails said time is running out.

So they are liars too....

[edit Maybe this is an april fools joke.
Today's unsecured credit line offer dropped to $215k... These guys are slick.... They claim that I approached them late last year. /edit]

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

These suckers are still sending me emails. I didn't click on unsubscribe link because that just confirms they have a live email address.

Today's offer was upped to > $300k for months they were only offering me around $200k unsecured. I guess that's inflation.
======
We haven't received a response to our recent mailer. Due to an improved business credit score of 71/80, XXXXXXXXXX has been pre-approved for a credit line increase to $320,500 and a rate decrease of half a percent, now with no personal guarantee required.
========
This premise of a recently improved credit score for a business I shuttered 3+ years ago is laughable.

They also claim "You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a purchase from us. Bull_____ I never contacted them, They probably harvested my email from some other criminal activity.

Coincidentally I am getting warnings from safari about a password leak. I changed the password for my stock broker account, but didn't use their feature.

Computers suck.


JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Now three weeks later, this scammer is still spamming me.

Oddly they send two emails at the same time for different amounts. Today $285,500 and $345,500. Maybe that is part of the scam to make some unsuspecting business person think that they made a mistake and jump on the better deal.

I was born in the morning, just not this morning.

[edit- today's letter of credit offer is up to $395,500, unsecured.... for a business I closed 3 years ago. WTF/edit]

JR

 

[Script]

Why don't you flag that stuff as spam and create a filter that immediately deletes mails coming from them?

 

[JohnRoberts]

Why don't you flag that stuff as spam and create a filter that immediately deletes mails coming from them?

I have been marking them as spam and waiting for the apple email program to do that for me... It seems to sweep some stuff into my spam folder that isn't spam, like bills/notices from my web host.

These phishing attempts to suck me into a modern lending scam appear to come from two or three different people and at least two different companies. So a dedicated spam filter would require multiple ID tags. I am not ready to invest any more personal effort into this than required.

I am more than a little curious to observe their marketing strategy. They already do the typical "limited time offer", "last chance", nudges etc. They also increment the LOC (line of credit) offer amounts up and down irregularly. The amounts are likewise not round numbers.

They provide unsubscribe links, but since I am already skeptical about their intentions, I decline to confirm that they have a live (active valid email) on the other end of their phishing line. If this was a serious $300k LOC offer why would it be from a mailing list?

Did I mention life can be an IQ test?

JR

 

[JohnRoberts]

Today I only got one email offering an unsecured LOC, but it is for a new high amount $395,750, With a trailing comma instead of decimal point. Are they offering $395M? Or is this scam coming from overseas?

[edit and another higher offer.. this time $455,700, /edit]

They say that they noticed I am looking for a business loan (I am not). So apparently somebody put me on a small business sucker list, for a business I shuttered several years ago.

JR