Posted on 02/18/2024 2:23:09 PM PST by nickcarraway
Everyone thinks they’re too smart to fall for a scam until it happens to them.
Today, you might be making fun of the financial-advice writer who went viral for putting $50,000 in cash in a box and handing it to a stranger. Tomorrow, you or someone you love could be falling for a less dramatic scam. In her article for New York Magazine’s the Cut, journalist Charlotte Cowles describes in detail how she fell for an elaborate scam that used fear, technology and her data to convince her it was real. A caller posed as someone from Amazon, then transferred her to someone posing as a Federal Trade Commission liaison, then someone claiming to be from the CIA and finally the scammers convinced her to withdraw cash and hand it over to a stranger outside her home.
The end result sounds wild on its own, but broken down step by step the scam did include the kinds of convincing details that frequently trick people. Here’s what we can all learn from this scam.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Good story!
I wouldn’t bank on it. A lot of women tend to be EXTREMELY suspicious.
I have different tactics. Sometimes I keep saying “hello, hello” as if I cannot hear them..they usually hang up...or I strongly ask “who is calling”..as soon as they announce themselves, I tell them I don’t do business over a phone, then hang up. Sometimes I tell them that they are the third caller today with the same sales pitch and the answer is no. Sometimes I screen my calls on answer phone...they usually hang up.
Bottom line, don’t engage, don’t give out anyinfo.. don’t even admit you are who they are asking for....I wonder when some angry dude is gonna find one of those call centers and destroys the place
One thing I'll give Gen-Z credit for. They never answer their phones.
I strung an India accent MSTS guy on for maybe half an hour on a slow day at work.
Half the office hanging on every word while he tries to talk me into giving him control of my computer.
He keeps trying to get me to mash the windows key.
I'm super dense and can't find the windows key.
Exasperated he tells me to look at the bottom row and it's the third key from the left.
OH! You mean the clover leaf key?? I have a Mac. Have a good day.
He was still cussing in Hindi(?) when I hung up.
Lots of laughter from the peanut gallery...
I did the same thing one time just for the entertainment value. He wanted my Medicare number, so I read it to him with the digits all scrambled. I guess there must be a validity check one can run because he spotted it as a phony number right away. He still spent a half hour, which is probably their limit when making no headway, trying to get the correct number.
I just pretended to be unable to correctly read a series of digits. He was very frustrated at the end. It made my day.
[met Denise Milani]
Hello, my name is Peggy. What is problem?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8L2cI8brzQ
You’re a bad, bad man.
I have a good mind to report you to the admins!!
Excellent work.
[Paul Frampton, a theoretical particle physicist, met Denise Milani, a Czech bikini model,]
See, SHE thought he was PETER Frampton, so, you know.....
Many years ago, I was out and sitting next to me was an older friend (we were just friends) when some clown walks up and asks us if we know where ....... David Allen Coe (!) was and had we seen him. Right out of the blue.
So I immediately asked him, “What makes you think WE would know where David Allen Coe is?”
He said, “I heard he was here”. So I suggested he try a different spot, about 250 feet down the road.
I said to my friend, “I don’t know what he’s up to but that story was a complete lie”. She informed me that I was too paranoid.
A few minutes later, I see that guy looking at me from about 100 feet across the room. I just stared into his eyes until he decided to walk off. Yeah, buddy...
I went outside another direction and saw him get picked up in a car. He never even saw that I was watching him get in the car.
He. Failed.
Whatever it was that he was trying.
And he didn’t look too pleased that his scheme (whatever it was) didn’t work out.
I’m sure he (maybe) completed high school. Well, maybe junior high school. Maybe. He might have even acted in a school play in the 5th grade.
I worked with some of the best liars in the world when I was in Big 6. That kind of stuff usually gets my attention very quickly.
(O.K., typos - I’m getting sleepy, LOL)
“A caller posed as someone from Amazon, then transferred her to someone posing as a Federal Trade Commission liaison, then someone claiming to be from the CIA”
happens to me all the time, in fact, i get a call like this at least once a day ... i’m still trying to decide if they’re legit before i put the money in the box ... I’m thinking of “Asking Amy” ...
Never attend any physical meeting unarmed. Shoot the b@$t@rd!
Perhaps of men but too easily swayed by “a deal”.
I think men and women are equally susceptible to being taken by a talented con-artist.
Most who call you are not talented....but I think men are far less suckered in....they have a protective instinct wired in.
And you don’t think women have a ‘protective instinct’?
The fact that some don’t obey it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
(And I think men can get ‘rolled’ very easily, especially when their sexual instincts are preyed upon.)
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