Posted on 11/27/2021 3:30:44 PM PST by ThunderSleeps
Just a heads up on a new (to me) scam.
Got a robo-call today allegedly from Amazon. Something about suspicious activity on my account. Ok, I pushed the button to talk to a real person.
A guy comes on the line and asks if I was purchasing an iPhone 11. I of course said no. (I'm an Android guy) He said fine, the purchase would be denied. (this is a key part of the scam)
I had him on speaker phone and went to my Amazon account. There was no record of an iPhone purchase. Now he claimed they had denied it. But it is just part of the setup because they are not affiliated with Amazon in the least.
He then said their "cyber team" would help correct and protect my account. He asked what kind of phone I had, iPhone or Android. He then said for the cyber team to help correct my account I needed to go to the play store and install "AnyDesk." I looked it up, it allows full remote access to your device. H**l no.
That's when I hung up on him. So be forewarned fellow freepers - there are new scams coming out all the time.
I’ve gotten several of the fake amazon calls.
Also some “legal department” robo calls.
And most recently a “Customs has seized a package you ordered.”
robo call.
Just hang up.
Thanks.
They tried that with me a few months ago. I just hung up and blocked the number.
Yes, my email was through Verizon, with a verizon.net address, when Verizon quit offering email, they said for me to keep the same address I had to go through AOL. So AOL carries it. Any email sent to me goes to AOL then to me.
If I don’t recognize the number , I don’t answer the phone.
I have my contact list set a specific ringtone and my family and closest friends to another. Everything else gets a generic ringtone.
That way, I can tell just by the ring if I think I need to answer it.
Usually I don't. IF it is a number I don't recognize I let voicemail take it - if they even bother to leave a voicemail. However, just now I'm in the midst of changing jobs due to the vaccine mandate. Going to a small company with no mandate. There are some inevitable calls back and forth with company and HR types - not necessarily numbers I recognize.
Exactly. Almost nobody ever calls us, and if someone unidentified does, we just don’t answer.
I get many emails a week telling me that some item has been charged to my Amazon account or my Chase card has been charged (I don’t even have a Chase cc.) I don’t even answer phone calls from numbers I don’t recognize. If it’s important they will leave a message.
I get those and Emails saying the same thing. I block the number and delete the emails. If Amazon has a problem, they will send a legit email or if I am concerned, which I usually am not, I call Amazon.
stop-spoofing@amazon.com
Report Suspicious Emails, Phone Calls, Text Messages, or Webpages
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201909130
Delete the email. Do not even forward to Amazon. There are probably millions of these emails sent to people every year. Trust me, the scammers will not be deterred at all.
and emails are going out with the same scam as well ... i got one today what was claiming to be a 3rd party seller on amazon that sold me a giant 4K TV for umpteen hundreds of dollars ... i directly connected to my amazon account to make sure it hadn’t been hacked (it hadn’t) and deleted the scam email ...
At least a couple of minutes to find the play store app on my phone.
Pretend to start download, wait a couple more minutes - oops not enough room on device. Hey wait, I can do this from my computer.
Tell them it is a PC, not a Mac... Fail to mention I run Linux not Windows.
More delays as I look for the Start Menu - tell them "My son set this up with desktop icons for the things I use." Got to keep them interested, thinking here's an easy mark that doesn't know anything about computers. Little do they know I have a MS in Computer Science, been using and programming computers since punch-cards.
Pretend to have issues getting anything to run. Suggest resetting modem/router. "Just a minute, I have the modem admin password written down here somewhere..." Again, thinking I'm an easy mark, so un-aware of basic computer security I'd actually write down a password.
Ok, reset modem, but now my computer is disconnected from it, I'll reboot... Oh, look, it is installing an update, I have to wait...
Mix in a few other unrelated things - interruptions to let the dog out, then back in. Maybe another call I have to take.
Oh, perhaps even meaner, early on while pretending to wait for something... "Hey, while we have a minute, have you ever heard of Norwex cleaning products? My wife sells them, let me tell you, you need to get in on this, this stuff is great. Are you interested in a starter kit?" Of course he'll refuse. Then I'll keep bringing it up throughout the rest of the call. "You're being so helpful and patient, I really wish you'd let me help you out and hook you up with Norwex..."
And on and on al-la James Veitch. I'm even considering setting up a VM on my big system, then installing a clean version of Win 10 in the VM. Maybe dump a few files in there creating a "honey pot" system. Something mean, like an image file that is just a big sign making assertions as to what they do with farm animals. Then rename the image file as "Taxes_2018.xlsx" or some such. A few others like that - including a few big files. Then I set up the VM to be bandwidth limited to some ridiculously low number. Actually let them into my playground then frustrate the heck out of them trying to pull big files through a slow connection...only to find more frustration trying to open them and ultimately find insults. Meanwhile, I could be running trace-routes on them, blasting pings at their systems, poking at ports, basically seeing what alarm bells I could set off with them. ;-)
Since you have difficulty hearing telephone conversations, you should take some time to turn on your hearing aid, or ask the caller to speak louder.
If I am in the right mood I will make it my goal to burn up as much of their time as possible.
I just made up a Medicare number one time. Evidently there must be an algorithm to detect invalid numbers. They could quickly tell me that I got the number wrong.
I was careful to write down the fake number I gave them. The next time I gave it to them I just reversed a pair of characters. I tried to make them believe that I am even older and more feeble than I am.
After about half an hour they just hung up.
I don’t hang up on any of them. They hang up on me (after i’ve strung them along thinking they’ve got a live one and wasted as much of their time as possible). Yeah, i’m easily amused.
I am hard of hearing. I get many calls that I don’t understand on my cellphone. Through another special phone for Deaf people, i have learned they will call me about one of three things: wanting to buy my old house (sold), wanting to sell me a car warranty, or wanting to sell me medicare insurance. So when i get a call from a number that i don’t recognize on my cellphone, I answer and say, “I have sold my house. I don’t want car warranty or medicare insurance.” Usually before I fInish, they hang up. Oh, did I mention that I say this in a loud voice?
I never answer my phone unless it is from a number I know, i.e. in my contacts list. If it is legitimate they will leave and VM and even if it isn’t and they leave a VM I can tell it is a scam.
The email services make money on your account. They aren’t going to cancel it. Even free email accounts make money on it (advertising). They will NEVER cancel it. It is a scam.
ANY account that you have that asks that - it is a scam.
“Verify your XYZ account immeditly or you may lose access...”
Fedex, Amazon, etc.
The Fedex ones can sometimes get me to click on the email if I’m expecting a package.
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