# Scumbags tried to scam my parents today **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 29, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scumbags-tried-to-scam-my-parents-today/790156 "2017-06-29T19:16:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scumbags-tried-to-scam-my-parents-today/790156/21 "2017-06-30T14:04:57Z")
> [@obbn](#): > > Also, while I’m sure must of these scams are originated over seas have any of these scumbags ever been caught and prosecuted? To address the only part of a pretty good MPSIMS OP which actually qualifies as a General Question, yes, apparently, sometimes they [catch the masterminds](http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2017/06/microsoft-scam-callers-arrested-after-years-of-terrorising-the-technically-challenged/) behind the operation. > [@Gizmodo UK](#): > > Those shameless scammers that cold-call people pretending to be from Microsoft and demanding money after walking users through supposed problems with their computers? They’re going down, it seems, with four people arrested in the UK for enabling the rip-off. > > City of London Police and Microsoft, the real Microsoft, have been working together for two years to trace the operators of the scheme, with the four people – two from Woking and two from South Shields – arrested on suspicion of fraud. These aren’t the schlubs in the Delhi boiler-rooms making the calls. Allegedly, these are the punks who set up the scheme, wrote the scripts for the phone drones, contracted with the war-dialers and the bullet-proof-hosters and the malware writers. The “brains” of the operation, and the assholes making the money off it. So apparently it happens, once in a while. In Great Britain, any way. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scumbags-tried-to-scam-my-parents-today/790156/22 "2017-06-30T14:27:00Z")
This scam has been particularly popular in Japan and Taiwan. In both countries, payment by bank transfer is the common method of payment so elderly people who are not computer savvy are frequent targets. The scammers can get out the cash and no one can trace them. Even arrests are rare, let alone successful prosecution. In Japan, the scam is only from other Japanese, but here in Taiwan there are many Mainland Chinese attempting it. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scumbags-tried-to-scam-my-parents-today/790156/23 "2017-07-02T16:19:03Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > …snip… > > “She” unfriended me, at that point I figured this was probably fake. When I went to facebook’s help section they had a section, specifically, for reporting ‘friends’ contacting you from a foreign country claiming they’re on vacation, getting mugged, and needing money to get home. Well, that answered that. So I reported her profile. > It also dawned on me that ‘she’ unfriended me to make sure I couldn’t write anything on her wall to warn people. ‘She’ also reported my profile, presumably because it locked me out of my account and I couldn’t warn people even from my account. > > …snip… I found the scammer’s defensive moves an interesting part of your story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scumbags-tried-to-scam-my-parents-today/790156.md?page=1)