Dumb fraud/scam attempt I got this week (bank-related)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yesterday morning, I got a push notification directly from my bank’s app, letting me know that I was getting a $200 deposit through Zelle (which my bank uses for direct transfers) and that the funds were expected to be deposited that day.

This was good news!

Emphasis on the “news” part :face_with_raised_eyebrow: since I was expecting no such deposit.

Nothing ever appeared in my transactions, not even a pending item. Weirdly, the message inbox (once I’d logged into the account statement) had nothing recent at all, certainly not one word about two hundred incoming bones. It generally mirrors anything important enough to generate a notification.

Basically, no record exists for this so-called “deposit” except for this in-app notification. NOTE: not a text message, not an email.
NOTE II: You can’t respond to push notifications.

So, what the hell was someone phishing for?

I called El Bankorino today, and after being bounced over to the Zelle people - and then bounced back :face_with_raised_eyebrow: - I was eventually connected with my bank’s fraud dept. which took a bunch of info, including my internet provider, and had me change my username and password.

Seems like the dumbest scam hack ever. They can’t harvest anything from me, since I cannot respond to a push notification. I can’t do anything with or about it, except read it and then delete it off my phone.
That’s not visible activity to the hacker (…right?) so it doesn’t signal a live/active account, the way picking up the phone for scam calls marks your number as being answered & therefore, more valuable to resell to other scammers.

So far, it caused a minor annoyance in that I had to spend about a half hour or so of my “not at work during bank hours” time (which is not plentiful) plus another irritation in the form of a shriveled, dying dream of a random coupla hundred bucks showing up.

I’ll admit, for half a second I thought maybe this was how the government decided to handle a second stimulus check - since that’s the only incoming non-paycheck deposit I could imagine receiving at the moment.

2

The fact that it came through your app makes it sound more like just a glitch of the app rather than any fraud.

3

Yeah, the fact that your bank eventually sent you to their fraud department doesn’t necessarily mean it actually was fraud. It sounds to me more like they couldn’t figure out why you got that notification, and their procedures dictate that when something they can’t explain happens they must treat it as potential fraud, out of an “abundance of caution”.

My wild guess: There was a glitch in their system and you got a push notification that was meant for someone else.

4

That makes more sense than scammers, and is faintly reassuring … ?

“Our I.T. dept. fucked something up” beats the hell out of - and is a lot less likely to be verbalized than - “Aw, shit, you got hacked!”

At least the two hundred didn’t flow the wrong direction OUT of my account, amirite?

5

Eh, it’s only money, right???

she says from a safe, anonymous distance :wink:

6

Bumping this thread because … guess what push notification I got in my bank’s app today?

Exactly one month later.

Yet another $200 expected to be deposited today.
Kinda like I expect unicorns to deposit sparkles.

7

You want dumb? The email I use for the Dope has recently been the target of claims that I bought Norton Lifelock and to call some 888 number if I have questions or want to cancel. Thing is, I received these notices from two different domains over two consecutive days.

The kicker? The idiots don’t even bother to remove the final line of the email template they use!

Paste 1234 S. Broadway St. City, State 12345