| Author |
Message |
Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Saturday, May 05, 2018 - 2:06 pm 
Got the Apple iCloud scam call today. I’d heard about the scam before so knew what it was. Basically it’s a recording saying they are from Apple and my iCloud account has been hacked. I hung up but read about it on the Internet. Some versions ask for a credit card to fix the problem while others go as far as to ask for your Social Security Number so that they can “verify” if you’re the correct owner. Of course neither Apple or iCloud have or require your SSN.
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Friday, May 11, 2018 - 6:04 am
Saw an article this morning on an individual/company hit with a $120M fine for making something like 86 million robocalls. Whether or not the government thinks they’ll actually collect the fine I find it interesting they went that high. I don’t know if it is representative of the kind of money they think was scammed or if it’s that high just to prove a point. By the way the scam was supposedly a call from a well known hotel chain or Internet travel agency offering a free or greatly reduced vacation. Truth was they wanted you to respond and then they’d try to sell you a timeshare or other vacation packages. I did learn a new term called “neighbor spoofing.” I’d never heard or seen that before but it’s when the robocall comes from your area code so it looks like a local call.
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Kitkat
Member
08-23-2008
| Friday, May 11, 2018 - 11:19 am
We have had the "neighbor spoofing" in our area for sometime now. It does pose a real problem when you are expecting a call from a known person, but the call comes in as "unknown".
The June 2018 issue of Consumer Reports has an article: "Protect Yourself From These 7 Scams". Several of these were new to me. The 7 are: (1) Smishing and Spoofing, (2) Shimmer Scams, (3) Facebook "like" farming, (4) Tech Support Fraud, (5) White label ticket scams, (6) Ransomware, and (7) Online Charity scams.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Friday, May 11, 2018 - 11:30 am
I like how the phone companies are fighting back against these spoofers.
I've been getting many calls that say "illegal scam" or "likely fraud" as the name of the person calling. 
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, May 11, 2018 - 9:05 pm
I have been getting "neighbor spoofing" calls for about three years. It is just incredible the number of calls I get from Everson, WA, a town of about 500 people out in rural Washington.
I occasionally answer unknown caller calls when I am home. I do not say hello, however, because I have figured out the robo-calls that are not blocked by NoMoRobo are voice activated. I just say nothing, and they eventually hang up. Or, if it is somebody I know actually calling me I say hello when they start yelling, "hello" "HELLO!!"
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Grooch
Member
06-16-2006
| Friday, May 11, 2018 - 9:17 pm
So that's why there's never anybody on the other end when I get those calls. I never knew they were voice activated.
Makes want to try it out and see if it's true. And get a bullhorn ready to blare if someone does get on the line.
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Saturday, May 12, 2018 - 6:28 am
I haven’t gotten the “illegal scam” or “likely fraud” caller ID yet. Most often all I get is “unavailable” and occasionally “blocked” or “private”. Once in awhile a robo call will actually hit a real number and I get a person’s or business’ name. They used my number at least once and I got a call from a really unhappy guy telling me never to call him again.
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Sadiesmom
Member
03-13-2002
| Saturday, May 12, 2018 - 8:53 am
ha! I got several calls from my own number. I always wonder how they fool the computer that way.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Saturday, May 12, 2018 - 11:48 pm
quote:I like how the phone companies are fighting back against these spoofers.
I've been getting many calls that say "illegal scam" or "likely fraud" as the name of the person calling.
I have NEVER seen that on my Comcast caller ID, which I love, by the way. Maybe Colorado has some sort of law that causes that notification to display?
I would love for our phone company to do the same thing.
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Sadiesmom
Member
03-13-2002
| Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - 11:19 pm
I got the same thing on my caller id in NJ.
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Kitkat
Member
08-23-2008
| Friday, June 01, 2018 - 10:22 am
A "heads up" about another scam.
A Scam targets Catholics. Can you do a favor for a priest?
"the emails contain fake requests from priests asking that iTunes gift cards be sent to another address so they may be given to someone in need."
"scammer use the pastor's personal name, but with a fake Gmail address, not the parish address."
"the card can be sold online for less than face value."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/A-scam-targets-Catholics-Can-you-do-a-favor-for-a-priest-_168718001
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Strategist
Member
07-01-2014
| Monday, June 04, 2018 - 12:25 pm
I just want to give you a heads up that I just had my first ever conversation with a hacker, who took over the Facebook Messenger account of one of my colleagues. Brenda gave me permission to post the complete message so that you are aware of how this scam works (sorry for long post.)
Here goes:
HACKER (pretending to be Brenda)
Brenda is waving at you!
Hi
ME
You accepted Brenda's request.
HACKER
Hello how are you doing
ME
Hi Brenda,
I'm doing very well. Just keeping busy with [work] stuff. How about you?
HACKER
Good to hear from you,I'm doing great and extremely happy with what has been happening to me just wondering whether you have heard about the good news yet
ME
What's the news! You have me on pins and needles.
HACKER
Wondering if you have you heard about the health and human service of the health and government grant offer?
ME (finally cluing in that it's not Brenda)
What are you referring to, Brenda?
HACKER
This new program was established by the Federal Government with the conjunction of World Bank to helps people in the society to meet up their needs, i got $15,000 delivered to me when i apply for it and you don't have to pay it back, you can also apply too
ME
Never heard about it. Sounds interesting. Tell me more.
HACKER
The money is tax free which you don't have to pay it back .Do you know how to apply?
I will send you the agent info so that you can also apply...is that okay?
ME
Yes. I would love to hear about this.
HACKER
I was told to pay for clearance fee before the UPS can Deliver my Grant Money i choose $90,000 and the charges was $1000 that all i did to get my Grant Money delivered to my doorstep
The program is from the office of the Federal Reserve inconjuction with the UNICEF to serve as an economic aid to all member of the citizen
It so easy to apply , I still have the agent number , lf you willing to apply
HACKER (again)
??
ME
Brenda knows how to spell and has great grammar. I've been on the phone with her for the last ten minutes.
Hacker and scammer, you are a liar and a thief. You are a rotten excuse for a human being and you need to get a life. God save the lives of the people you destroy and God help you save yourself from a wasted life.
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Dfennessey
Member
07-25-2004
| Monday, June 04, 2018 - 1:02 pm
my roommate got a message like that from someone she used to work with (or so they claimed) I told her she should call the person who this came from to find out if she sent it.
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Strategist
Member
07-01-2014
| Monday, June 04, 2018 - 1:08 pm
I called Brenda and told her what had happened with her account. I also reported and blocked the messenger account.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, June 13, 2018 - 7:39 am
New scams on businesses
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Wednesday, June 13, 2018 - 8:35 am
Interesting read Seamonkey. Just this morning the local news had a report on phone scams and reported research says it is a $9 billion a year business world wide.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, June 13, 2018 - 11:24 am
I went to a community meeting mostly with business owners, and reps from our Fire and Police departments.
Apparently they actually could be used if they ask for photo id when someone uses a credit card.
And when a card is denied, if it is a fake, the number on the back reaches someone who oks using the card.
The Fire Department reports inspection fraud on businesses, where a person with fake forms arrives and threatens the owner that without a cash payment, they will be shut down. They particularly target Spanish and Vietnamese speakers.
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Firebird05
Member
08-24-2001
| Friday, June 29, 2018 - 5:33 pm
I received a spam call yesterday from Henrietta NY.
They left a voice mail saying that something is going to expire (I could not make out the first sentence)
It when on to say that you will be taken under custody of local police, for four serious allegations pressed on your name, at this moment we would request you to get back to us so we can discuss about this case before taking any legal against you.
I checked on reverse white pages and it was flagged as extortion but said the potential for fraud was Medium Risk.
Apparently many others received the same call as I did on the same day.
Turns out that the first stuff I missed was about how I was in trouble with the IRS.
It made me laugh because first off it isn’t close to correct English.
Second because I’m an accountant and know for a fact that the IRS is not going to send the local police to get you.
The IRS does not arrest you, they send you nasty mail and will take your stuff if you dont respond.
Mostly they try to work out any issues they have with you.
They save arrest for the big fish and get them for tax evasion mostly when they have committed other crimes.
The number was 5854447148 so if you get this call just ignore it and block them .
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Saturday, June 30, 2018 - 7:22 am
In as much as this scam is probably being run out of India like the previous group blocking the number is of little to no use. They busted the last group a year ago in Mumbai, India and I was surprised at how much money they had been able to scam. At the time the estimate was running as high as $300 million.
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Jimmer
Moderator
08-30-2000
| Saturday, June 30, 2018 - 8:03 am
Ya for a while I was getting recorded calls from this guy with a strong accent warning that I’d be in big trouble with the IRS if I didn’t call him back. I can’t remember his speech now (I heard it so many times on my voicemail that for a while I had it memorized) but it was kind of amusing. 
Not funny though for people who are scared or defrauded by these scams. 
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Firebird05
Member
08-24-2001
| Saturday, June 30, 2018 - 8:07 am
I agree Mack. I blocked them and they just call back from a different number. It’s hard to believe people actually fall for these scammers. They seem so obvious to me.
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Karuuna
Board Administrator
08-30-2000
| Saturday, June 30, 2018 - 9:09 am
That's because they don't use real phone numbers. They generally steal them, and the phone number is spoofed. So blocking does no good.
I got a lot of those and the computer problems one. But honestly I find the most annoying the recorded credit card calls, that pretend I'm currently a customer and they're going to give me a better rate. I can't even play, since it's just a robot.
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Saturday, June 30, 2018 - 9:12 am
Haven’t gotten a call since they busted the first group early last year but agree it’s hard to believe people actually fell for the scam. The article I read when they arrested the leaders said they had run the scam in the US, Canada, and Australia. They had at least eight call centers in the Mumbai area and one some place else in India that I don’t recall. I always got a kick out of this heavily accented voice sometimes speaking just passable English saying they were Agent John Wayne or Steve Martin or George Patton from the IRS. 😀🤪
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Firebird05
Member
08-24-2001
| Saturday, June 30, 2018 - 9:57 am
Sometimes if I’m in the mood I like to play with them. One time this guy called, speaking broken English, for every question he asked me I said Why do you want to know. Must have made him crazy, he cursed at me a lot then hung up. 😂🤣
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Monday, July 02, 2018 - 5:49 am
How about saying, I can't hear you, can you speak a little louder. Then keep it up. That can be fun too.
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