# How to avoid the ever growing numbers of scams that target us



## retired_dodgers_fan (Nov 30, 2022)

Hi friends, This is my first post. Two years ago my older brother was scammed for $24,000 (his life savings) by some SoB from India in collaberation with someone in the States. I've since made it my mission to spread awareness about these evil people so I've written the below for you all:

There are an increasing amount of scams targeting the retired community all over the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

There are so many different types of scams (Amazon, Tech Support, SSA, Refund). It's hard to understand all of them, so I will outline the backbone of most of these scams for your information, I will list some tips that if you follow them you could be SCAM PROOF. And finally how to handle scam callers.

*HOW MOST SCAMS WORK*
They can broadly be split up into three types of scam:
1. Fake services - people posing as big companies charging you anything from $50-$5,000 to 'fix' your computer or smartphone, they will try and scare you by telling you hackers and or viruses are running on your computer and stealing your data, in reality, even a really smart computer expert would need to spend hours with your computer (in person, never over the phone) to figure out if hackers have been on your computer. This is a scare tactic to squeeze money out of people.

2. Advance Fee - You will be promised fortune, such as a business opportunity like a share in a startup, large amounts of money being held in trust. No matter what the bait is there will always be a smaller fee they will ask you to pay up front in order to access the 'jackpot'. Example: I have inherited $20million, I just need someone to pay my lawyer fees of $1,500 to get access to the funds, obviously you will never hear from them or your $1,500 again.

3. Refund scam - This is one of the most prevalent and lucrative for scammers. They pretend to be a company that has charged you for something (it could be an unfamiliar thing like 'Norton Services' or something more familiar like Amazon). These scams involve the scammer connecting to computer, asking you to fill out a refund form, then they will trick you into believing that they have accidentally refunded you more than you were due (normally in multiplications of 10, because when you type the refund amount they will add 0's to the end). They will then use drama and pressure to compel you to return the money that they 'over-refunded' you by, this could be:
-Wire transfer to a random citizen (not a company)
-Cheque
-Gift Cards (sometimes referred to as unblocking cards)
-Mailing CASH

RED FLAGS
-No company will EVER ask you to pay with GIFT CARDS, or by mailing cash or ask you to open a separate account such as Zelle or CashApp
-No legitimate caller will threaten you with legal action or arrest warrants
-No legitimate caller will ever pressure you to do ANYTHING
-No legitimate company will ever OVER REFUND YOU. EVER.
-No legitimate company representative will get mad on the phone if you don't do everything they ask you to

WHAT TO DO
If you have received a robo-call concerning back taxes, court hearings, SSA, Amazon (or any other online retailer) fraudulent or incorrect charges made to your account. HANG UP.  If it's too late and you're already on the phone to them, then hang up, call your bank using the number printed on official literature or a bank statement or from the back of your charge card, tell them someone is trying to scam you, and they can check your recent transactions and put a hold on any high value future transactions until you approve it personally.

Ask them lots of questions, then right at the end ask them how they can prove they're for real, often they will get a little mad and give away they're fake because no professional will act like that, and remember CALLER ID's CAN BE FAKED EASILY.

IF they have asked you to follow a bunch of instructions for downloading and installing any app(s) on your phone or computer, disconnect your computer from the power or internet (whichever is easier) then contact a trusted family member or friend to help you remove this software.

If anyone has any questions, I'm a bit of an expert on scams and scammers and how to thwart and stop them so please feel free to ask anything you like, I'll do my best to get back to you.

REMEMBER - we all like to think we're way too smart to fall for these things no matter how old we get, but these people are master manipulators, so getting scammed doesn't make someone foolish, it makes the scammer a bad person, and bad people can be very smart about how they do bad things. It;'s on them, not you.

Peace and Love Brothers and Sisters


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## Ruthanne (Nov 30, 2022)

My motto is:  Trust No One!!


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## Packerjohn (Nov 30, 2022)

No social media for me except this site.  Don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number.  Don't open email that I don't recognize and I don't answer "pop ups" especially if they have women showing their breasts and the little sign telling me I have only 3 minutes to answer if I want to "date" her.

Remember what that circus guy said, "There's a sucker born every minute."


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## hollydolly (Nov 30, 2022)

Packerjohn said:


> No social media for me except this site.  Don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number.  Don't open email that I don't recognize and I don't answer "pop ups" especially if they have women showing their breasts and the little sign telling me I have only 3 minutes to answer if I want to "date" her.
> 
> Remember what that circus guy said, "There's a sucker born every minute."


...and sadly there's a lot of them which makes scamming so lucrative for the thieves...

Just today I heard of people who think they are computer  scamming savvy.. be robbed because they replied to a 'survey'; purporting to come from one of biggest electrical stores..   the mail was faked, asking them to complete a  short survey , and they would ''win'' a Mac Notebook or a Top of the range Kettle .. ( Smeg).. and all they had to do was give their name & address, age.. and send £3..

..... and hundreds who say they're ''usually very careful of scams''.. fell for it and did just that.

 Of course the Department store ( Currys).. said they would never put out any such Survey.. and the Banks say they've had hundreds of customers calling to have their cards blocked.. once they'd relalised it was a scam.. but really when are people going to learn not to send money for anything.. if it seems to good to be true then it probably is !!


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## Kika (Nov 30, 2022)

When I was still working, the IT department would randomly send out test emails that "looked" real.  The emails mimicked scams.

If you deleted the email, or forwarded it to IT, you received a certificate for a free ice cream in the cafeteria.

If you took the bait and furnished the requested information, a huge FAIL appeared on the screen with a link to a mandatory online computer safety refresher.   People laughed about failing, and surprisingly a good number of FAILs were people in high positions.


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## Packerjohn (Dec 1, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> ...and sadly there's a lot of them which makes scamming so lucrative for the thieves...
> 
> Just today I heard of people who think they are computer  scamming savvy.. be robbed because they replied to a 'survey'; purporting to come from one of biggest electrical stores..   the mail was faked, asking them to complete a  short survey , and they would ''win'' a Mac Notebook or a Top of the range Kettle .. ( Smeg).. and all they had to do was give their name & address, age.. and send £3..
> 
> ...


Amazon always sends me a little survey when I buy something.  Years ago I did 2 or 3 but after that I stopped.  Amazon got millions and their success does not depend on my little feedback.  Anyway, life is short and I got lots of "stuff" to do before I point my toes skyward.


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## Indiana Joe (Dec 15, 2022)

Packerjohn said:


> No social media for me except this site.  Don't answer the phone unless I recognize the number.  Don't open email that I don't recognize and I don't answer "pop ups" especially if they have women showing their breasts and the little sign telling me I have only 3 minutes to answer if I want to "date" her.
> 
> Remember what that circus guy said, "There's a sucker born every minute."


Do you have the phone number of that chick that showed her knockers?  It's been a while.


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## Indiana Joe (Dec 15, 2022)

Indiana Joe said:


> Do you have the phone number of that chick that showed her knockers?  It's been a while.


Sometimes it can happen that getting an e-mail from someone on your contact list can be a problem.

My wife and a few of her friends actually got e-mails on their phones supposedly sent by another member of her group of friends. The e-mails were fakes from some hacker. The friend whose phone number and name were used must have had her phone "owned" by some hacker. That ain't difficult to do for them. I've read that hundreds of those apps available on Google or other sites are infectious malware. 

I had my wife explain that to the lady, but she, like most of smart phone  users, didn't understand. I don't know if she ever did anything about it, My wife and the others blocked her number.  As I alluded to before, the average user of a smartphone or desktop simply has no idea about the prevalence of malware.


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## Jace (Dec 15, 2022)

Yes, I just had a call from "my daughter"...who sounded so sorriful...saying she broke her nose..."playing along"..
I asked which daughter...I have five...NOT!!
Can you believe she hung up on me?!?

Please ALL be so careful...be aware of the many, many 
scams out there.


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## win231 (Dec 15, 2022)

I got an e-mail saying that my nephew was stuck in England & his wallet was lost & he needed $2,000.00 to get home,
while he was standing next to me.


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## Jules (Dec 15, 2022)

A text message yesterday actually made me pause.  It was ~ “This is an automated message from Canada Post. We were unable to deliver your parcel ……”. I have sent a couple of tracked parcels recently where my phone number is required.  I have tracking numbers so went and checked them first.  Considering the number of parcels sent at this time of year, this is probably a very successful trojan horse.


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## Chet (Dec 15, 2022)

I let the answering machine pick up and if I recognize the voice I answer. It's actually fun to hear some of the nonsense they try.


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## Right Now (Dec 15, 2022)

retired_dodgers_fan said:


> Hi friends, This is my first post. Two years ago my older brother was scammed for $24,000 (his life savings) by some SoB from India in collaberation with someone in the States. I've since made it my mission to spread awareness about these evil people so I've written the below for you all:
> There are an increasing amount of scams targeting the retired community all over the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.
> 
> *If anyone has any questions, I'm a bit of an expert on scams and scammers and how to thwart and stop them so please feel free to ask anything you like, I'll do my best to get back to you.*
> ...


Taking your advice, why would we trust you to direct us as to how to go about stopping a scammer?  You may be one yourself.  You may not be one, but how would we know that?  See, I am wiser already.


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## Indiana Joe (Dec 15, 2022)

Right Now said:


> Taking your advice, why would we trust you to direct us as to how to go about stopping a scammer?  You may be one yourself.  You may not be one, but how would we know that?  See, I am wiser already.


Not really.  You're just overextending from the small bit of knowledge you do know. It's normal for one to be paranoid when one finds out how distrustful certain people or things are in their lives.

The cure is to learn more on the basics of malware and how it is disseminated and stored on one's computer.  You then have a better means of ascertaining who or what can be trusted, and to what degree.

Matter of fact, just the fact you have clicked on this message has cleaned out your bank account, transferred your Social Security payments to my bank account, and has melted everything in your freezer.

Now you know more about malware from a personal standpoint.


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## Right Now (Dec 15, 2022)

Indiana Joe said:


> Not really.  You're just overextending from the small bit of knowledge you do know. It's normal for one to be paranoid when one finds out how distrustful certain people or things are in their lives.
> 
> The cure is to learn more on the basics of malware and how it is disseminated and stored on one's computer.  You then have a better means of ascertaining who or what can be trusted, and to what degree.
> 
> ...


Actually I'm computer literate, not paranoid.  Simply pointing out a way to stay wary, and safe.


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## Packerjohn (Dec 15, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> ...and sadly there's a lot of them which makes scamming so lucrative for the thieves...
> 
> Just today I heard of people who think they are computer  scamming savvy.. be robbed because they replied to a 'survey'; purporting to come from one of biggest electrical stores..   the mail was faked, asking them to complete a  short survey , and they would ''win'' a Mac Notebook or a Top of the range Kettle .. ( Smeg).. and all they had to do was give their name & address, age.. and send £3..
> 
> ...


An X number of years ago, I did a survey for Amazon.  Then I did another one but it was rather negative.  I said clearly why I did not like the product.  I got an answer saying that my comments are not acceptable.  Seems they wanted only positive comments.  That seemed unfair to me and way to subjective.  That was nice because since then I never do surveys.  They are not paying me and I have a life to live.  Couldn't care less about those surveys.


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