Scams like these

[Deleted member]

One of my staff got this yesterday and was expecting a parcel..... what a mess he has created :evil:

My lawyer received an email purporting to be from Australia Post, the staff member who opened it didn't realise it was a scam. $20,000 later they have their computer hard drives and data back.

 

[Deleted member]

The ultimate scam:

I work out of home, around quite a bit.

Twice in the last ten days while I was home, located about 5 feet from front door (open behind security door), with clear sight of anyone approaching etc - Aust Post left a "we called but you weren't home - come pick up the parcel..." card.

Must be the ultimate scam.

Both times I had gone to check the mail box a few minutes earlier as postie normally arrives by a set time. Both times I heard the mail being shoved in the box but postie out of sight (around corner) before I walked out to get it.

NOT HAPPY JAN!

I'm tempted to get a motion activated camera to see who and what is happening at my front door, I'm sure there will be something available out there!

 

[Deleted member]

Received an email today from a known email address (friend). What made me auspicious was how impersonal the email was, no g'day Buzz, how ya goin'. Nothing. There was a link to an article "I think you might be interested in". I deleted the email and rang my friend. Picked up some virus that sent a message to everybody in his address book. Be cautious even when you receive something from someone you know.

I'm getting lots of these as well.

 

[Deleted member]

Home has been getting phone calls every Friday night stating "your windows computer has a virus". The person answering the phone they asks "which one? we have (either 6 or 50 depending on who answered)"
"The one connected to the internet"
"They all are"

They quickly hang up when told that the call is being recorded.

We very rarely receive any calls on the home line, it isn't listed and only 2-3 people know it. We use it for our ADSL hookup.
So when the phone rings at home I answer it a number of ways. My favourite is "Pronto"! Then silence. The caller asks hello is that Mrs GPH ? I respond in heavily accented "Que"? We the. Spar for a few minutes, him asking questions, me responding in nonsensical Italian ,
Our best effort though was when an Italian friend was here, I asked him to converse with the caller in Italian. We had a great afternoon, the guy called back 3-4 times. Eventually he gave up.

 

[mannej]

My lawyer received an email purporting to be from Australia Post, the staff member who opened it didn't realise it was a scam. $20,000 later they have their computer hard drives and data back.

Sounds like a family member of mine. Lucky for him they ransom was "only" ~1.4 bit coin to get his files back.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

We very rarely receive any calls on the home line, it isn't listed and only 2-3 people know it. We use it for our ADSL hookup.
So when the phone rings at home I answer it a number of ways. My favourite is "Pronto"! Then silence. The caller asks hello is that Mrs GPH ? I respond in heavily accented "Que"? We the. Spar for a few minutes, him asking questions, me responding in nonsensical Italian ,
Our best effort though was when an Italian friend was here, I asked him to converse with the caller in Italian. We had a great afternoon, the guy called back 3-4 times. Eventually he gave up.

Love this. That's the beauty of landlines... you pretty much always know who'll be on the other end.

 

[Julesmac]

Has she contacted the bank about this, as in she rings them? I've had "the bank" call me about fraudulent activity on my account and then start asking for a whole heap of secret information. When the bank called her did she give out account details, customer reference numbers, that sort of thing? Possibly unlikely if there has been a reversal. But are you sure that reversal was because of the bank or perhaps the fraudster, who did the call, sent a credit back to the card. Now ready to smash the card later.

I did have an experience of a small transaction (a few $) that was reversed on the same statement. Then the next month $3000 of fake purchases. Slightly different in that I didn't have a phone call like your daughter.

Thanks Medhead, I'll pass that info on and make sure everything's kosher

 

[OATEK]

Got this via SMS:

Congratulation!!! Your Number won you £520,000 Pounds in the Global Worldwide Mobile Promo.For claims send REF:GW101Z2 to [email protected]_.xx_

 

[drross]

Got this via SMS:

Congratulation!!! Your Number won you £520,000 Pounds in the Global Worldwide Mobile Promo.For claims send REF:GW101Z2 to [email protected]_.xx_

you must have only won second prize!! mine was 1.2M pounds

 

[coco50]

I'm getting lots of these as well.

A lot of people must think that I am inadequate, because since my ISP dropped a spam filter I keep getting emails offering products to improve erectile time and increase cough length.

 

[Quickstatus]

This might work for unwanted door knockers:

Anti-pest device charges unwelcome visitors a dime to ring doorbell / Boing Boing

 

[cove]

I need to deliver a gift to a US accountant who checked out a deal. It turned out to be a pretty good Russian scam using an American front.

 

[Buzzard]

Your lawyer should have had a backup plan GPH, start from scratch and save 20k

 

[coco50]

Love this. That's the beauty of landlines... you pretty much always know who'll be on the other end.

I detest these scammers that ring after 5 pm, when you want to relax with a nice glass of red and watch the news. If a scammer rings then, I reply in a phony as if Asian accent: "so sorry - I do not discuss business after business hours. Prease ring between 9 am and 5 pm."

I have never had one call back.

 

[JohnK]

IIRC a call centre in the Philippines, had problems with workers selling customer details to scammers.

I don't think it is related but I received ~17 scam/spam emails in a day a few weeks ago. Suspect someone had gotten a hold of email addresses and tried their hand at scamming. Slowly got that down to around 1-2 emails every couple of days.

I shouldn't worry what ends up in junk folder but for some reason I do.

 

[marki]

Biggest scam ever is back!!!!

 

[coles525]

**Admin, please edit if anything is not permitted**

Boy am I over this stupid call (Just wasted 5.27 minutes of my 2016 life!)... Called by number +44 314 993 7604.

English speaking gent, surprised phone number actually showed this time! I seem to be interested in gold, I straight away said I wasn't interested, and I told them last time (more then once over the last few years!) to stop wasting my time and never ring me again... (only the 1st time he rang me this year he quoted...).

Do I have a spare $10k - $25k to invest in gold?

I was polite (as usual!) to start with, being truthfully honest! That during previous calls, that all calls were being recorded (Androrec for anyone interested), and that the previous times it turned into a swearing match (I did swear again now saying I'm sick of them, he never swears (repeated so many times I didn't keep count!), then he let a word of few slip...

Long story short, I doubt I'll ever get rid of him/them, but (yet again!) said to never ring me again, as I'm -*--*-*-*--* not interested.

I wonder if the next chat with be in 2016, or 2017?

Ps: recording program isn't working for me nowadays, only occasionally

 

[marki]

Awful did you try this?

 

[coles525]

No I didn't, but I did read about it a day or few ago.

 

[Cynicor]

Identity thief has got my family, lost everything in savings account (90% of my net worth, basically). Rest of family lost money in some other accounts but a lot less. Am overseas with no phone but the number does not seem to have been ported so not sure how they did it. They ported the parents numbers.

Father seems to have malware on his computer, this is likely the root cause. Not sure though, until I figure out more about what they have and don't have. Still away for a while so will have to just monitor what I can and hope!

Have enough cash and b/u cc to keep me going though.