Scam Calls and Emails (6 Viewers)

[nolaspe]

i always speak spanish when i get a spam call-----works every time.

I always use the 'ol tried and true go to... 'Donde estan mis pantalones?'...

 

[Rysilk]

I once, just once, actually listened to a spam call pitch. This was probably 10 years ago, so it was an actual person. I started to say no thanks at the beginning, but this girl was like the micro machine guy, flawless fast talk that was so impressive it stopped me and I had to see it through. When she got done I apologized and said that I wasn't interested, but her fast talk was so impressive that I had to listen. She laughed and then I hung up.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I knew someone who kept an expired/zero balance Visa gift card and would give that number out to scammers

 

[Optimus Prime]

Elderly man dies by suicide after falling victim to ‘romance scam’

A New Jersey couple is accused of perpetrating the extortion scheme, and scamming the man out of more than $87,000

www.independent.co.uk

 

[GeauxWhoDats]

Elderly man dies by suicide after falling victim to ‘romance scam’

A New Jersey couple is accused of perpetrating the extortion scheme, and scamming the man out of more than $87,000

www.independent.co.uk

Bullet to the head for both of them IMO. Scum of the Earth.

 

[RaginCajun83]

I’ve been getting a large amount of spam texts lately. Most have to do with deliveries or packages

 

[LonghornSaint]

I actually answered a phone scam the other day, said hello, and then nothing while I walked around the grocery store. I was curious to see how long they would stay on the line trying to talk to me. About 40 sec.

 

[Optimus Prime]

And yet another instance of “No refund turns into refund when the press gets involved “
==============================

A grieving mother was left distraught by Amazonafter a laptop bought to plan her child’s funeral disappeared in an alleged scam – despite the website claiming to protect the purchase with a one-time password.

Clare Buchanan ordered the £800 MacBook Air the day after the death of her 11-year-old son Oliver from a brain tumour, and had planned to use it to write his funeral service at the hospice where he died.

When the laptop arrived, the courier refused to release the parcel, claiming there was a problem with the one-time password (OTP), a six-digit code that Amazon issues to customers to verify deliveries. The laptop was then recorded as delivered. Amazon refused a refund because tracking claimed it had been handed over.

“I’d ordered it to be delivered to my parents’ address where we’d been staying at the end of Oliver’s life,” said Buchanan. “I have a large funeral to plan and a eulogy to write so I wanted a lightweight laptop that I could use while sitting with him in the children’s hospice where he is staying prior to burial.

“I gave the OTP to my father while I spent the afternoon at the hospice and I duly received a text stating [the laptop] had been delivered.”

She discovered she had been left empty-handed when she returned to her parents’ house. “My father had handed over the OTP, at which point the driver said his handheld scanner wasn’t working and he would have to take the parcel back,” she said.

“It seems the driver then used the OTP to trigger the ‘delivered’ notification. My poor father is already distraught and this has just made him feel even more dreadful.”

Buchanan said Amazon refused to investigate when she complained.

“I called customer services, tweeted them and messaged them via chatbot,” she said. “The general response is that it’s been delivered and there’s nothing they can do about it. It appears that this is a known scam but Amazon do not seem to be doing anything at all to protect their customers or to amend what is obviously a highly flawed procedure.”


Amazon issued a refund and promised an investigation after Guardian Money intervened……..

However, an investigation by the consumer group Which? found that the system had failed to prevent thefts, with customers complaining that their orders were driven away or found to be swapped out after they had provided their OTP.

Which? said it had received numerous complaints from empty-handed customers who were refused refunds by Amazon because their OTP had triggered a “delivered” notification.

Guardian Money has been contacted by other customers who have experienced the same problems.

One reader said that the £470 Xbox he had ordered for Christmas had been switched for a box of Snickers. Amazon failed to refund him and successfully contested the chargeback claim he issued with his bank.

Another claimed that she submitted the OTP for a £799 iPhone and received a pull-along duck.

Both were refunded after contact from Guardian Money.…….

Grieving mother falls victim to Amazon one-time password ‘scam’

Clare Buchanan left empty-handed after a MacBook Air from Amazon went missing in ‘known scam’

www.theguardian.com

 

[Doug B]

… the one-time password (OTP), a six-digit code that Amazon issues to customers to verify deliveries.

I see the people in the article are in the UK. Does Amazon use passwords for deliveries in the USA? Only for high-dollar items, maybe?

 

[Sailorsaint]

I see the people in the article are in the UK. Does Amazon use passwords for deliveries in the USA? Only for high-dollar items, maybe?

Not that I've noticed. What I have noticed is my Amazon package sitting on the porch without so much as a knock on the door to let me know it's there.

 

[Doug B]

Not that I've noticed. What I have noticed is my Amazon package sitting on the porch without so much as a knock on the door to let me know it's there.

Same experience here, although the most expensive thing I've ever had dropped on my porch was a $150 air fryer.

If I really were to order a laptop or gaming system or something ... I'd want to get it delivered somewhere I could pick it up in person (an Amazon drop location, or maybe a UPS store).

 

[Optimus Prime]

I got a spam call from my own number once! Imagine seeing your own number pop up on the caller ID. Maybe it was by accident, but maybe they intentionally used my number.

But if it was by accident, man, 7 identical numbers matching...I should have bought a lotto ticket that day.

Maybe it was you from the future trying to help you avoid a catastrophe "Don't let "spouse/child/parent" drive to the store tomorrow"

 

[Optimus Prime]

An elderly grandmother who chats about knitting patterns, recipes for scones and the blackness of the night sky to anyone who will listen has become an unlikely tool in combatting scammers.

Like many people, “Daisy” is beset with countless calls from fraudsters, who often try to take control of her computer after claiming she has been hacked.

But because of her dithering and inquiries about whether they like cups of tea, the criminals end up furious and frustrated rather than successful.

Daisy is, of course, not a real grandmother but an AI bot created by computer scientists to combat fraud. Her task is simply to waste the time of the people who are trying to scam her.


O2 rolled out “AI granny” Daisy for a short period to show what could be done with artificial intelligence to counter the scourge of scammers who have become so ubiquitous.

Using a mixture of ambivalence, confusion about how computers work and an eagerness to reminisce about her younger days, the “78 years young” Daisy draws sighs and snapping from fraudsters on the other end of the line.

In one call O2 released, a scammer tries to take control of her computer after telling her it is riddled with viruses. He is kept on the line while she looks for her glasses and bumbles about trying to turn the machine on and find the Internet Explorer icon.

“You know, back in my day we didn’t have all this technology. Everything was much simpler. What about you, dear?” she says. When he reacts with anger, saying that her “profession is bothering people”, Daisy says: “I wouldn’t want to bother anyone. I’m just trying to have a little chat.”

Another call has a scammer again trying to take control of her computer, but Daisy delays by talking about how she usually just uses it for knitting patterns and recipes for scones. “I see a lot of options, dear. It says things like back, forward, reload and, oh, what’s this? Save as. How do I find the homepage?” she asks.

When a third scammer tries to get her to download the Google Play Store, she replies: “Dear, did you say pastry? I’m not really on the right page.” She then complains that her screen has gone blank, saying it has “gone black like the night sky”.

“If you are wasting our time, ma’am, you are going to lose your money because someone is trying to take your money and we are trying to upgrade your security,” says the exasperated scammer.…….

‘Dear, did you say pastry?’: meet the ‘AI granny’ driving scammers up the wall

Daisy’s dithering frustrates phone fraudsters and wastes time they could be using to scam real people

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

How to protect yourself from scams: six easy ways to stay safe

Whether on social media, online shopping or fielding calls, there is plenty you can do to cut the risk of being caught out

www.theguardian.com

 

[saintmdterps]

I’ve been getting a large amount of spam texts lately. Most have to do with deliveries or packages

And "unpaid tolls"