I can always spot a scam call right away—often before answering, since the caller ID usually flags it as “suspected scam,” and it always is. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I just hit “cancel.” But if I’m feeling bored or annoyed, I’ll pick up and have some fun at the scammer’s expense. I never disclose any real information; I just string them along until they hang up. In my view, every minute I waste of theirs is one less minute they can spend swindling someone who might not know better.
In all my years, I’ve never bought or divulged anything important from a cold call and I’m not about to start.
I got one from a local call who was eager to offer me a loan.
I was working at the time in a small start-up, open office where everyone could hear me. Got a call offering a loan. LEAPT (all caps, bold emphasized) on the offer because I was unemployed, was in debt, drug problems
borrowed money from my family but they don’t talk to me after I never paid them back, my boyfriend died of AIDS, I am too scared to get tested… every possible bad signal I could think of was sent. About 10 minutes of expounding on how I needed the loan but could not get one anywhere else and the reasons, full on gish-gallop and not letting them get a word in…
Then I followed up with, “thank you, how soon can I get the loan?” which was met with a very taken-aback, “sorry, you do not qualify”. Never heard from them again.
I got a little applause from my work-mates who listened to it all.
While looking for a new place to live I came across a place on Facebook Marketplace that sounds a little iffy to me. The Price was great, but the place she is offering for long-term rent is also available for sale on Redfin and Zillow. She wants me to send $29.99 to a “security check firm” then pdf the results to her. Does "http://xxxonline2.criminalhistorychecks.homes (leave out the xxx) sound legit to you?
More humorous than fucking, but I got an email in my junk folder “Humbly Asking You to Donate $50 to the Democratic Party” (which brought to mind the much-maligned “kindly do the needful”). Didn’t even need to hover over the sender before pulling the “permanently delete” trigger.
Worth mentioning that there is a PayPal scam that is quite common where you receive a payment request for something you have not purchased, from PayPal - it’s a scam, but the email genuinely does originate from the PayPal system.
It’s made possible because anyone with a PayPal account can send a ‘money request’ (basically an invoice) to anyone who has an email address - and the PayPal money request process allows the sender to customise part of the narrative text - so it typically contains a message to the effect ‘if this order is in error, please phone this number’ (and the phone number is the scammer - who will attempt to extort actual money).
If you receive one of these, it may seem to imply that the charge has already been made to your account (it hasn’t); best course of action:
Don’t click any links in the message (parts of the message are things the scammers entered)
If you’re concerned, log into your PayPal account independently to check it (not via the links in the email)
Don’t phone the number in the email
Forward the message to phishing@paypal.com (it’s not a phishing scam, but that’s the name of their scam reporting mailbox)
She can’t deal with it? And wouldn’t the best way to “deal with it” be to do nothing?
Now, we won’t reveal your trick if you want to be the shining hero who says “Step aside, little lady, I’ll protect our home from these interlopers… clickety clackity clack clack … There! The Canadian Mounties won’t bust down our Floridian door now!”
eta: Oh, you could mean it’s a phone call and your wife doesn’t want to answer it, but you do because you want to mess with the caller. All of our scams are email in nature…
She’s afraid to take any action, including just deleting the email, so she usually comes and gets me. And some of them look very real, so she’ll ask me to look at them. I assume that any and all emails that involve either sending money or calling some phone number are bullshit.
You’re a good husband… especially if you can do that without being judgemental.
(I’d be thinking “If only she’d read The Straight Dope, she’d be cynical enough to swear at this scammer and delete their email with extreme prejudice.”)
Waves of scam text messages impersonate EZpass, EZDriveMA, Sunpass, and various toll collectors from Texas, California, Connecticut, etc.
Those who fall for the scam are asked to provide payment card data, and eventually will be asked to supply a one-time password sent via SMS or a mobile authentication app.
Also, they seem to like image heavy texts:
“While traditional smishing kits relied heavily on SMS for delivery, nowadays the actors make heavy use of iMessage and RCS because telecom operators can’t filter them and they likely have a higher success rate with these delivery channels,” he said.
…these phishing websites are dangerous because they are operated dynamically in real-time by criminals. If you receive one of these messages, just ignore it or delete it, but please do not visit the phishing site. The FBI asks that before you bin the missives, consider filing a complaint with the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), including the phone number where the text originated, and the website listed within the text.
The email I had gotten did not claim to be from PayPal, but there was an attachment that looked like a PayPal invoice. The “Invoice” did include a customer service number to call if I had any questions.
I did go to my PayPal account to verify that there were no erroneous charges, I will forward the email to PayPal as you suggest. I’ve done this before when I’ve gotten scam emails supposedly from credit card companies asking me to verify my password.
I got one yesterday in point of fact. Quickly ID’ed and marked as spam (thanks to the typos and iffy link), and I went to check my EZPass account via my normal bookmarked link. Turned out that my autopay didn’t go through on the 1st like it should have. Of course the spam was just a coincidence, the bastards didn’t actually know that.
I got one or two of those in my spam folder that genuinely looked like it was from PayPal so I separately logged into PP & of course there was no recent activity. I just figured it was a well spoofed email address that I just wasn’t seeing. Thanks for setting the record straight for us
I’m still getting the ones that have accessed my porn viewing and my camera and want to send images to everyone I know. Since as noted before the most scandalous thing I watch is naked cat video ( some are even hairless!), I am not too worried I also found it amusing that they said that they accessed my camera given that I actually had to call my IT guys to find out why my camera wasn’t working for telemedicine visits ( turns out I had the lens cover on-didn’t know that was a thing but they have basically treated me like a computer idiot ever since I couldn’t find the on/off switch on my new laptop).
I’d rather do that on a daily basis than have her fall for some asshole’s ploy. The ones that are really onerous are the ones that try to take over your computer and tell you that you MUST contact Apple support at 1-819-MUMBAI and Do Not Attempt To Turn Your Computer Off!!!