Arrgh! Dad fell for a scam!

[Little_Pig]

@AaronX

This is interesting. So I wonder if it can happen to ANYONE, as long as they’re old enough, or is it possible to keep healthy skepticism throughout my life?

YEARN for healthy skepticism, AaronX. Given you are posting on the SDMB is a good start, yes?

[RTFirefly]

@drachillix

I have received this call twice at my shop and one time a customer received the call while I was there fixing his computer.

The second time at my shop, I was prepared

Once I figured out what it was I stated the following:
ME: <facing away from phone like I am talking to someone else>
Confirmed trace to IP: 206 . 243 . 22 . 16 and notify the team we will have location momentarily.
ME: “Sir, please stand by, Pursuant to Homeland Security Act Section 101 B-1(a) this is a secured federal installation. Please be advised this call is being recorded and traced, and a team will be dispatched to your location to investigate.”

Scammer: “No sir, you misunderstand, it is your home computer, maybe we should call you back at home.”

ME: “The simple fact that you have this number at my workstation means a security breach has taken place and we will be needing your contact information for reference in the investigation, do not hang up or we will have to assume this is a hostile breach attempt on your part and the CIA entry team will be authorized to use lethal force in obtaining arrest, have I made myself clear.”

Scammer: “Yes”

Me: “What is your name”

Scammer: “Uh, I think I have wrong number”

Me: “Sir, Do not hang up, things will get very messy if you disconnect this call”

Scammer: <click>

I’'m gonna have to print this out and tape it next to my computer.

[robert_columbia]

@CurtC

A scam that they almost got my elderly mother with recently was one where she swore that she talked to her grandson (my nephew, who’s 39), and he told her he had been arrested in Mexico and needed $900 wired to him to get out, and not to tell his mother (my sister)!

It got stopped only because my sister happened to call my mom, who sounded rattled, so she headed over to my mom’s house to check on her. My sister had a hard time convincing my mom that the grandson was at my sister’s house just an hour or so earlier, and the person she thought she talked to was not him.

A friend of mine got hacked by a scammer and they used her email account to send me a plea for emergency funds to afford a ticket home from Cyprus. I knew immediately that it was a scam because she never travels anywhere, especially internationally, without telling everyone about it repeatedly until we’re tired of hearing it, I don’t give or withhold NYC travel privileges to anyone, just go already!

[curious11]

Is it true that these calls are coming over land lines? Has anyone experienced a call like this over a cell phone?