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Phone and email SPAM and SCAM alerts

RadioFan2J3 said:
Second one, perhaps a bit over a year ago, a fellow worker of my youngest daughter got a phone call at work, from a scammer running the you failed to report for jury duty scam. My daughter was the phone order taker and got the fellow worker to the phone and immediately, the worker said she had to leave work and take care of the matter. Daughter thought the worker was going to go either to Duval County Sheriff's Office or Duval County court system, but no, unfortunately, she went out and bought gift cards, maybe in the $2K range and gave the numbers to the scammers.
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They really need to publicize the fact that nobody legit is ever, ever, ever going to ask for payment in the form of gift cards. I'm not sure what goes through the minds of people who think the government will ask them to pay a fine in Apple gift cards, but it's such a common thing, and so many people do it, that it needs an anti-scam advertising campaign.
 
Kelly A said:
Occasionally I get this call, usually from a (206) area code. When I do answer, mostly it's this cheery southern-sounding radio-voiced guy asking 'if I appreciate the service the proud men and women of fire and EMS do for our communities, and whether I'd like to donate to the benevolent society of police and fire blah, blah'.
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I used to get calls like this but I am very certain it was a real person and they would start by telling me all the things they recommend that I do (I don't even remember what those were, but it had nothing to do with a charity) and then they would start talking about what police officers needed that was provided by the charity. They would mention several amounts and ask which one I was comfortable with. Obviously the lowest. Oh, so you DO want to give? For a while I did.

I'm sure these were real and at one time I would promise to write a check but I quit doing it when they rushed me and told me there was a deadline, sending the request in the mail.

One charity had a person who was rude who made remarks when I said I couldn't afford to give. I made sure to say no. But I couldn't remember which one was which, so the rude charity might have gotten something.

Now that I have an answering machine I don't get these requests.
 
Kelly A said:
When I have the time, I love messing with these people. That's assuming they're people:
Occasionally I get this call, usually from a (206) area code. When I do answer, mostly it's this cheery southern-sounding radio-voiced guy asking 'if I appreciate the service the proud men and women of fire and EMS do for our communities, and whether I'd like to donate to the benevolent society of police and fire blah, blah'.
Just for grins, after his opening shpeal, I pause for about one beat and ask: Are you a robot? This is usually followed by an obvious (processing) pause, followed most recently by a different sounding voice saying 'no'. So next I'll say I'd be pleased to donate, if they would tell me what the weather is like where they are right now? Without fail, the call drops.
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I've done similar things with those types of calls. At other times where the first contact is automated and I don't have much time I'll just answer with "Hello automated scammer!!!" A lot of times they will hang up when I do that.
RadioFan2J3 said:
I had talked with one legit insurance rep in south Florida who said he or his agency paid about $15 per phone referral. Being a retired person with perhaps more time on my hands than, well, brains, I have zero problems baiting the call centers and being connected to the insurance peddlers in the United States. Some are boilerplate operations, some are smaller independent insurance sales agencies. In my conversations with them, most don't seem to understand how the call referrals work, get upset with me because I am wasting their time and frankly, unless they get a sale for an insurance plan, so what.
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I've had calls from insurance companies claiming they aren't scammers and some of them may be telling the truth. But I've told them that they need to change their tactics and stop random calls.
 
anotherguyTN said:
I've done similar things with those types of calls. At other times where the first contact is automated and I don't have much time I'll just answer with "Hello automated scammer!!!" A lot of times they will hang up when I do that.
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Some years ago, I started getting messages from a male caller with a heavily accented voice, threatening me with arrest if I did not contact him immediately about some vague tax-related problem.

I happened to be home one day when this cretin called. I picked up the phone, and using every four-letter word in my vocabulary, advised Mr. Attempted Federal Agent that I had a tracer on the call, I knew exactly where he was, and any further calls from him would result in HIS arrest. Never heard from him again.
 
-
From: Derrick Shafer <[email protected]>
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2023 at 08:32:05 PM EDT
Subject: My name

U have to act swiftly if you do not want me to destroy u, because I have got all your contacts from ur electronic address and a very unpleasant video of u. You should have been more focused on ur safety, and now there is nobody but u to blame. I provide you with the chance to rectify your mistake, you have forty-four h to send 1147 usd here LTBvNWpHbnTXMaMa6gSRTy2haxiQibvpsE Litecoin. There're a lot of fascinating things to do in the world, but you chose the way of self-destruction. I cannot even imagine how you exist with it, if I am embarrassed to even think about u. I am disgusted by the fact that I witnessed you masturbating when I accessed to ur webcam.

Oh dear, I am so worried.
 
RadioFan2J3 said:
-
... and a very unpleasant video of u. You should have been more focused on ur safety, and now there is nobody but u to blame.
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I have gotten those. Of course, I have no camera in my computers that I use for mail, business, my website, etc. But they claim they have some kind of nasty pictures! (At my age, even a head-shot is "nasty")

I usually don't have the time to listen to those calls or read the messages, but I do find the ones claiming to have embarrassing videos to be kinda' amusing.
 
Because there will always be people who fall for every trick in the book.....
Ignorance can be remedied through education....but...as Mortimer Snerd said:
"There ain't no cure for STUPID!!!";)
As long as there are gullible people....Folks in places like Nigeria will continue to be wealthy on OPM*
(* -- Other People's Money)......
 
Theater of My Mind said:
How are there 45 pages of people still answering their phones from unknown numbers in 2023?
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I guess everyone has their own level of entertainment. I am an amateur scam baiter, nowhere near the level of some folks on YouTube, such as Kitboga, Wenja92, Pierogi Scammer Payback or Jim Browning, but I figure every minute the scammers are on the phone talking with me, that scammer can't be bothering someone who is, well, past the point of being cured for their stupidity.

Shifting topic slightly, we should view the efforts of Mark B. Rober, the glitter bomb engineer who attempts to combat the theft of packages delivered to customers. I think he is now up to version 5 of his glitter bomb systems.

Now, I will agree with you in one aspect, if everyone never answered any unknown numbers, the scammer call centers would be hard pressed to stay in business,
 
This thread, which is now up to 45 pages, started in 2014. In addition to phone calls, these posts expose scam e-mails we've gotten in this time, including crap I got, which I posted about in the last few years.
 
In thinking about the posts made over the years, in one manner of thinking, we are preaching to the choir.

I'd like to consider that the majority of posters and readers to this discussion group, not just this specific thread, but the overall contents, that we are pretty savvy in our worldly dealings and few of us would fall for any of these scams. From that standpoint, perhaps discussing them, the scams, is a bit of a waste of time. Those discussions might be more effective in other forums where there is a broader spectrum of readers.

On the other hand, by posting here, we can keep up with the shift in scams, such as the pathetic claims that my web camera is spying on me, yea the one which I do not have on the desk-top system.
 
RadioFan2J3 said:
In thinking about the posts made over the years, in one manner of thinking, we are preaching to the choir.
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True. But in many cases it helps us with family members and friends who may not be as "aware" as we are... particularly when some new practice comes up.

Where I am, there is a high percentage of retired people and I am constantly hearing of new angles used to deceive seniors about critical (and potentially frightening things) like Medicare, Social Security, missing jury duty, new laws that "require you to act now" and the like.
 
Kelly A said:
Wait, an answering machine, or voicemail, Chimp? If an answering machine that uses cassette tapes, that makes sense somehow.
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The wire coming from the phone jack plugs in to a box with buttons on it. From there another wire plugs into the phone. There are no tapes. If I have any new messages, the red light flashes the same number of times as the number of new messages.
 
Attention E-mail Owner
Yahoo/Spam


  • Western Union <[email protected]>
    Bcc: [email protected]

    Mon, Apr 3 at 7:22 AM


    Attention ,

    Your first payment of $5000 is about to sent today the Scam Victims
    compensation funds of $2.5Million Dollars which was approved to be
    release to you by the President of this Country Mr.Patrice and
    You are advise to contact us with your full information such as below
    and Know we will be sending your First Payment of $5000 per day until
    your total fund sum of $2.5 Million USD have been Completed.

    Your name.....Your country....City.........Your phone
    number.......Your address.........

    Best Regards,
    Dr.Java Johnson
 
Subject: Good news
Date: 2023-04-06 19:42
From: ROBERT WILLIAM <[email protected]>
[The "Reply To" address is different from the "from" address.]
--
Hello how are you doing today I am mr Stephen McAllister the attorney of mr Davis bon I am here to let you know that mr Davis bon is a celebrity man here in United States of American and he has two companies of Dealership of ford car here in New Jersey and other one in Texas and there cars and four houses two here in New Jersey and other two in Texas and he have 30 billion dollars on his account and mr Davis bon have any accident last month with his two children and his wife and he lost his family all and mr Davis bon is now in the hospital and why I contact you is that mr Davis bon gave me your contact and he told me that he want you to hand over all his property to you that he knows you as a good one and mr Davis bon which I am telling you about now has been already given date by doctor and he will die by next week and that is why mr Davis bon told me to contact you that he wants all his property belongs to you so he will sign the document and he all the property will be yours okay so get back to my text right now
 
As of late I have been getting text messages along the lines of...and they all contain the same grammatical errors.
Your (Netflix, Amazon, Venmo) account has been disabled. To recovery your account please re-entery your information.
Kinda knew it was a scam as I don't have Netflix, have never used Amazon, and no idea what Venmo even is. HaHa.
I know often it is advised to warn older folks of potential scams like this, but most people my age and older seem to smell this out. Might be a good idea to warn some of the younger folks. Don't click on a link and give out your banking information.
I delete and report these texts (that always tend to show up around 0200-0300 Mountain Time).
 
RadioFan2J3 said:
Now, I will agree with you in one aspect, if everyone never answered any unknown numbers, the scammer call centers would be hard pressed to stay in business,
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I have a feature on my Motorola Android phone which will automatically ask me if the call is not listed in my contact list do I want the caller questioned (name, reason for call etc.) and will take a message if I so choose. I have found it invaluable.

I tend to get many more bad 'calls' via email than phone calls however. If you don't examine the email addresses and text you can get hustled pretty easily.
 
landtuna said:
I have a feature on my Motorola Android phone which will automatically ask me if the call is not listed in my contact list do I want the caller questioned (name, reason for call etc.) and will take a message if I so choose. I have found it invaluable.

I tend to get many more bad 'calls' via email than phone calls however. If you don't examine the email addresses and text you can get hustled pretty easily.
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I don't understand how my answering machine works. The robot voice says it won't allow callers from blocked numbers to leave messages (I heard this when answering) but blocking calls is a feature that costs extra.
 
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