One of my Japanese friends is chatting online with a scammer.
A couple of days ago, the scammer sent this text:
That’s right, it’s a Tropical vessel on that route. You seem to know shipping lines, which is a good thing. No pirates so far, thankfully. Although we received signal of an attack on a vessel passing through higher-risk areas, our Captain was able to direct us through a safer route. I’ve previously witnessed pirate attacks on different occasions and can confidently say that it’s not a pleasant experience, the most recent attack resulted in the deaths of 5 members of my crew.
We have been busy offloading the product, while the remains are being shared amongst myself and two senior colleagues, that’s how we make extra money each time a shipment is made. I’m sharing this information with you because i trust you, so please keep this a secret between us, okay?
So the senior people get a share.
Today, the message:
Hello dear, i’m doing well and you? Today i met with the local buyer and sold my share of the crude for $1,950,000, but I’m disappointed because the buyer was unable to pay via BTC, which is the standard and safest method and instead, handed me cash because most of the local buyers are uneducated and find it difficult to conduct transactions online. We’ll start sailing back tomorrow and when i return home, i plan on getting you an expensive gift since you make me happy and i want you happy as well.
So the crew member’s share is almost $2 million!! That’s just the “extra money” they make.
My friend knows it’s a scam and is playing with the guy. This isn’t her first rodeo and she strings them along for a while. But it will end soon.
I know I haven’t posted here for a while, the advance fees scams have moved to asking for payment on first contact. No payment, no further contact.
I have attracted the attention of romance scammers but their messages tend to be insanely long but I can keep them going for weeks. Who knew I could be so good at playing a desperately lonely old man?
I did get a message today from someone wishing a long list a happy new year. (And now the idiots are responding to the email with “reply all”.)
He neglected to make the recipient list a BCC so I went through it all and found some interesting names.
First off, I spotted some obvious references to our own @Mangetout.
mange_trout
John Warosa [john.barosa.xxxxx@xxxxx.com]
Manfred [manfred.barosa@xxxxxxx.com]
Davis Bon [davis.bon@xxxxxxx.com]
Then some that might be potential scambaiters.
Notay Honaypout
maru_kobayashi
Ass McCock
spambox[spambox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com]
2 different emails @malspam.uk
scameru@[xxxxxx.com]
'Uge Wanka [simon.hallett@xxxxx.uk]
Samuel Langhorne Clemens van Keamstards
Rob Johnson [spamcollector84685@xxxxxxxx]
penisman
Basil GoLightly [cherkicentral@xxxxxxx]
(Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
Got a text from my mom, “Microsoft is going to call me back at 4 about my computer getting hacked.” Knew that wasn’t good. I told her to turn her computer off. Of course, she’s willing to follow complicated instructions for an hour over the phone from some stranger, but when I give her a direct and simple instruction, she does something else. Unplugging and closing the lid on the laptop at least put it to sleep, so it was off the network, but “turn it off” means turn it off…
To start the story, her Apple computer started beeping, and had a big window up saying it was hacked and to call Microsoft. The guy at the other end walked her through installing Hoptodesk and Anydesk; which are remote desktop apps that can record her screen and keypresses.
Then, after a delay to investigate, the guy told her that her private IP address had been made public, so she was going to have to change her passwords! He told her to not expect anything to happen for 15 days, and after that things should be cleared up.
She claims she was suspicious, but it was the guy telling her “not to tell anyone” that she says made her realize it was all a scam. Of course, she didn’t text me that she had been scammed, but that she was expecting a call back later that day…
So to recap, my brother and I both are computer experts (or whatever), but instead of calling either of us, she called the number that was beeping.
Offline, I uninstalled the remote desktop apps, ran some scans on the computer, and poked around in the settings. It doesn’t look like there are any scripts or anything to redownload stuff. I also installed the LuLu reverse firewall, to warn me of any outgoing connections. I think it’s clean.
This time props to my mom who did the right thing in response to a postal mail scam the same day as the events in my last post.
She received a letter that was an urgent message from her bank, except for the fine print where it said it was not affiliated with her bank. She needed to contact them immediately about her mortgage, call this number!
Then there was something that looked like a check for $199, except for the fine print where it said “not a check”. There was a place on the front of the not-check for a signature, but no contract weasel words or anything. Just decoration I suppose.
She called the bank directly, not the number on the form, and they told her that its a scam they’ve been getting reports about. They told her to call the police non-emergency line to report it, even though that was just a way for the police to get a record of how frequent these things are.
I really hope she called the bank directly, and not the number on the letter, because the bank did a good job verifying that my mom was who she claimed to be, but that does nothing to verify the bank is who they claim to be.
I have a close friend that answers calls from these hucksters all day. She answers every call politely, tells them that she is not interested, then asks them politely to please take her of their list. She of course is seeing an increase in these calls and her phone’s mailbox is full.
And yes, I have told her what she is doing wrong.
As I’ve mentioned before, at the grocery store where I work we’re often the last line of defense for people who’ve been suckered into sending cash to scammed via gift cards or wire transfers. We got a new variation on the scam today.
Woman comes in, wants to buy $2500 in Apple cards. She speaks little English and can’t explain what they’re for. We call the assistant manager, who speaks Spanish, over to talk to her. It comes out that “ICE agents” called her and threatened to deport her friend to Colombia unless they got a payoff.
I’m not surprised that scammers are taking advantage of the blatant corruption and illegality being perpetrated by our government right now, but at the same time I wouldn’t be surprised if in this instance the scammers actually WERE ICE agents.
Just wanted to mention it’s that time of year again for TurboTax related scams.
I’ve spent all morning working with my parents (600 miles away) because while they did recently install the new version of TT, they just got called by someone claiming both their systems (one of which isn’t even online), their phones, and many of their files are corrupted and immediately tried to sell them emergency AV and firewalls, but that they could give a discounted price. Since we’re moving into that time of year, be mindful and watch out for others in your friends and family.
