Scammers

[Eamonnca1]

Anyone getting phone calls from tech support scammers lately? I got one yesterday. I usually don't answer to obvious fake numbers, but it was a slow day at work so I thought I'd play along. He was an Indian lad working from a busy office by the sounds of it. Claimed to be working for AT&T. Talked me through some PC stuff (I have a Mac, so I had to do some googling as he talked to see what I was supposed to be seeing on my screen). After we got as far as the event viewer I couldn't think of a way of stringing him along any longer, so I just asked "Look, do you just want to skip to the part where I give you my social security number and credit card information?"
Him: "Did I ask you to do that?"
Me: "No, but you're going to eventually, aren't you?"
Him: "I'm calling from AT&T, not some random XYZ company..."
Me: "Yeah, right."
Him: "Look, motherf***er, if you don't want to take part in this call, you're free to hang up any time."
Me: "Why are you doing this? Can you not get a real job? There are plenty of honest jobs out there, you don't have to earn a living by robbing people."
Him: "... and don't you dare waste my time. I don't need advice from you, so stick your advice up your a$$hole..."
Me: "I think you need to calm down, go home and re-think your life." - click -

Funny how quickly they become abusive once they realise you're on to them. I got one a few days ago from an Indian lady.
Her: "Hi, I'm calling about your vehicle's warranty which is expiring soon and would like to offer you a chance to renew it."
Me: "Which vehicle?"
Her "Uhhh, your Ford."
Me: "Which Ford?"
Her: "uuuuuh, Escape."
Me: "Oh, okay." (We have a VW Jetta, but she doesn't need to know that.)
Her: "So would you like to renew your warranty?"
Me: "What about the warranty on our other cars?"
Her: "Uh ... uh ... uh ..."
Me: "Are they expiring soon too?"
Her: "Uh ..."
Me: "Come on, tell me about my other cars, since you seem to know so much about them"
Her: "Uh ..."
Me: "What other cars have I got? You must have all that information in front of you"
Her (screaming): "You keep repeating yourself as if I can't hear you!" - click -

[Square Ball]

Got loads of you were in a car crash calls, took one for the craic. Said yes I was, said that they had £2000 for me but needed my full account details along with my security code which would verify it was the correct person. Said I diddnt have an account but would happily take a cheque, sorry we can't do that, well tell you what, I will take £1500 and you can all take £500 for helping, no sir that's not the way it works, well final offer, 50/50, he hung me.

[Eamonnca1]

Ha! You made a generous offer too!

[LeoMc]

Got 1 the other day about issues with my BT Open rich (!) line and it was going to be cut off. Strung her a long for a bit as she asked about different lights on my modem before I told her I didn't have one and she hung up.
15 minutes later I got one about insurance on my Sky broadband. Again kept them from bothering someone else for a few minutes before he started to threaten to cut off my sky broadband.

I have neither.

[Milltown Row2]

The sad thing is that a lot of very smart people are scammed by very clever get rich quick schemes! Losing their pensions to oversea property scams or other 'guaranteed' high percentage pay offs!

I'm glad I've no savings!

[t_mac]

Anyone getting phone calls from tech support scammers lately? I got one yesterday. I usually don't answer to obvious fake numbers, but it was a slow day at work so I thought I'd play along. He was an Indian lad working from a busy office by the sounds of it. Claimed to be working for AT&T. Talked me through some PC stuff (I have a Mac, so I had to do some googling as he talked to see what I was supposed to be seeing on my screen). After we got as far as the event viewer I couldn't think of a way of stringing him along any longer, so I just asked "Look, do you just want to skip to the part where I give you my social security number and credit card information?"
Him: "Did I ask you to do that?"
Me: "No, but you're going to eventually, aren't you?"
Him: "I'm calling from AT&T, not some random XYZ company..."
Me: "Yeah, right."
Him: "Look, motherf***er, if you don't want to take part in this call, you're free to hang up any time."
Me: "Why are you doing this? Can you not get a real job? There are plenty of honest jobs out there, you don't have to earn a living by robbing people."
Him: "... and don't you dare waste my time. I don't need advice from you, so stick your advice up your a$$hole..."
Me: "I think you need to calm down, go home and re-think your life." - click -

Funny how quickly they become abusive once they realise you're on to them. I got one a few days ago from an Indian lady.
Her: "Hi, I'm calling about your vehicle's warranty which is expiring soon and would like to offer you a chance to renew it."
Me: "Which vehicle?"
Her "Uhhh, your Ford."
Me: "Which Ford?"
Her: "uuuuuh, Escape."
Me: "Oh, okay." (We have a VW Jetta, but she doesn't need to know that.)
Her: "So would you like to renew your warranty?"
Me: "What about the warranty on our other cars?"
Her: "Uh ... uh ... uh ..."
Me: "Are they expiring soon too?"
Her: "Uh ..."
Me: "Come on, tell me about my other cars, since you seem to know so much about them"
Her: "Uh ..."
Me: "What other cars have I got? You must have all that information in front of you"
Her (screaming): "You keep repeating yourself as if I can't hear you!" - click -

You are a genuis, you typed all that shite as if you are first it has ever happened to, its 2019, check your phone bill next month, these folk like to keep you talking whilst charging you a fortune a minute, you are as well to hang up.

[Tony Baloney]

The sad thing is that a lot of very smart people are scammed by very clever get rich quick schemes! Losing their pensions to oversea property scams or other 'guaranteed' high percentage pay offs!

I'm glad I've no savings!

I listened to a documentary on Radio 4 the other evening (sure sign of getting old!) about an old girl who got taken to the cleaners to the tune of over £400k. It amazes me that people can be so gullible and I think in this instance her family didn't rein her in as the potential windfall was going to them as inheritance.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b5lb

[Eamonnca1]

I very nearly fell for a good one last year. I was selling a mattress on Craigslist. A fella texted me from out of state saying he was moving to California and would send movers to pick it up. He would send me a cashier's check (bank draft) for $220 (I only wanted about $20 for the mattress). The movers would come to pick up the mattress and I'd pay their $200 moving fee by wiring money to an out-of-state address by Western Union. He gave me some bogus excuse about the movers not being able to accept payment from him. I deposited the check in my credit union and the funds cleared, so for a second I thought it was legit. Then he texted me on a different number, saying his old phone died and this was his new number. Western Union's website says never to send money to someone you've never met. I did a bit of googling and found that this is called an "overpayment scam." I rang the credit union and they investigated, called me back to confirm that it was a fake check the fella had sent me, and they deducted the funds back out of my account. The fella started getting belligerent in his texts, demanding to know when he was going to get reimbursed.

If I'd wired the money to him I'd probably have had no comeback.

I went to the local cops to report it but it was a holiday weekend and they were unavailable after office hours, or something, so I never bothered following up. I probably should have. Might have been a case for the FBI or something if it's an ongoing scam running across state lines.

From the DoJ website:

The scams work like this: Someone responds to your posting or ad, and offers to use a cashier's check, personal check or corporate check to pay for the item you're selling. At the last minute, the so-called buyer (or the buyer's "agent") comes up with a reason for writing the check for more than the purchase price, and asks you to wire back the difference after you deposit the check. You deposit the check and wire the funds back to the "buyers." Later, the check bounces, leaving you liable for the entire amount.

The checks are counterfeit, but good enough to fool unsuspecting bank tellers.

[grounded]

Local bank manager told me this one. Older lady(in her 80's) went into the local branch and asked to withdraw her savings. Was only a few thousand but was her entire savings. The cashier twigged something was a miss and asked her why she was withdrawing the cash.
      The wee lady told them that she had been contacted by the bank who had asked her to withdraw the cash so it could be moved to a more secure location. They would then come to her house to pick the cash up at an arranged time. Police were contacted and two men arrested.
      Hard to believe someone could get caught out like this but it does happen.

I remember this other case which was more elaborate
  https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/mum-advised-to-find-77000-after-email-scam-or-lose-another-30000-31603014.html

[under the bar]

Scammers? 
When I read the title first I thought the thread was about T-mac and his Armagh mates! lol

[t_mac]

Scammers? 
When I read the title first I thought the thread was about T-mac and his Armagh mates! lol

Seriously drinking every night isn't good for you kid, are you not seriously embarrassed by the shite you post, then again you are from Tyrone, the cheating and diving they do prove they have a neck for anything. Hows your club mates at Man U getting on this weather.

[David McKeown]

Used to get loads and loads of calls years ago from scammers about renewing my mobile phone contract I would always politely decline. After a few drinks one night though I decided to play along. As it got to the end of the call they began asking me for my bank details which I refused to give them. From there the conversation went like this.

Scammer: why won't you provide those sir?
Me: why would you need those I don't pay the bill myself.
Scammer: Do you use the phone mainly for business or leisure.
Me: neither,
Scammer: what did you mean neither?
Me: it's for governmental work
Scammer: why what do you do
Me: I'm a double 0
Scammer: oh so you wouldn't make the decision on the new phone?
Me: No
Scammer: oh who would sir?
Me: Well Q looks after all of our technology but you'd probably be better speaking to M she's the one in charge.
Scammer: Click

That was about 16 years ago and whilst not particularly funny or clever I've never been phoned by scammers since. I hope they've added me to their list of time wasters.

[Pearse Blue]

Scammers? 
When I read the title first I thought the thread was about T-mac and his Armagh mates! lol

Not going to lie, I did also think this was going to be about Tmac and topsoil feud yesterday..

[Square Ball]

Latest one doing the rounds is about not paying your Amazon or Netflix account, we will close it down blah blah blah. Problem with scams is that people fall for them, that's way they keep doing it

[Itchy]

Anyone getting phone calls from tech support scammers lately? I got one yesterday. I usually don't answer to obvious fake numbers, but it was a slow day at work so I thought I'd play along. He was an Indian lad working from a busy office by the sounds of it. Claimed to be working for AT&T. Talked me through some PC stuff (I have a Mac, so I had to do some googling as he talked to see what I was supposed to be seeing on my screen). After we got as far as the event viewer I couldn't think of a way of stringing him along any longer, so I just asked "Look, do you just want to skip to the part where I give you my social security number and credit card information?"
Him: "Did I ask you to do that?"
Me: "No, but you're going to eventually, aren't you?"
Him: "I'm calling from AT&T, not some random XYZ company..."
Me: "Yeah, right."
Him: "Look, motherf***er, if you don't want to take part in this call, you're free to hang up any time."
Me: "Why are you doing this? Can you not get a real job? There are plenty of honest jobs out there, you don't have to earn a living by robbing people."
Him: "... and don't you dare waste my time. I don't need advice from you, so stick your advice up your a$$hole..."
Me: "I think you need to calm down, go home and re-think your life." - click -

Funny how quickly they become abusive once they realise you're on to them. I got one a few days ago from an Indian lady.
Her: "Hi, I'm calling about your vehicle's warranty which is expiring soon and would like to offer you a chance to renew it."
Me: "Which vehicle?"
Her "Uhhh, your Ford."
Me: "Which Ford?"
Her: "uuuuuh, Escape."
Me: "Oh, okay." (We have a VW Jetta, but she doesn't need to know that.)
Her: "So would you like to renew your warranty?"
Me: "What about the warranty on our other cars?"
Her: "Uh ... uh ... uh ..."
Me: "Are they expiring soon too?"
Her: "Uh ..."
Me: "Come on, tell me about my other cars, since you seem to know so much about them"
Her: "Uh ..."
Me: "What other cars have I got? You must have all that information in front of you"
Her (screaming): "You keep repeating yourself as if I can't hear you!" - click -

You are a genuis, you typed all that shite as if you are first it has ever happened to, its 2019, check your phone bill next month, these folk like to keep you talking whilst charging you a fortune a minute, you are as well to hang up.

You will have to explain that to me, how does he get charged for taking a call from a scammer and keeping the conversation going? I think every moment you have them on the phone is a minute less they are scamming some poor vunerable people. When that "Windows TEch Support" one was doing the rounds I used to manage to keep them on the phone for 10 mins at a time claiming my computer was restarting/freezing. It was funny to hear the frustration on the other end. My father got the same call and thought it was real and only he couldnt figure out how to follow your mans instructions then he would have been scammed.