Fucked up shit

[Dave's Not Here Man]

No other words to describe it.

lawandcrime.com/crime/man-kills-woman-uber-driver-in-grisly-shooting-after-scam-caller-triggered-tragedy-police/

It's past time for the govt and it's agencies to come up with a plan to catch and eliminate the people and their capabilities to continually, incessantly harass us with these scams. Far too many lives ruined already, and now lost, because some asshole in India has a job trying to scam as many people as possible over the phone. If India and those nations that host these call centers won't aggressively act to stop it, then maybe it's time we cut some cords.

 

[minx]

It actually mostly done by folks in Ghana and Nigeria now. The AI has become sophisticated enough that they don't even need to speak fluent English anymore.

No excuse for that dude to have shot that poor woman though. He was close enough to take away her cell phone, so she couldn't have been THAT much of a threat. And he never tried to go back inside or call 911 before he pulled the trigger as she was trying to go back to her car.

I 100% get him being paranoid and scared. At the same time the guy told police that he never believed at any time that the scammers would hurt anyone else he knew - just him. So why not disconnect the call and call 911 before going outside?

It's hard to catch the scammers - like drug dealers, the middle guy seems to be the one who gets sent to jail, while the head of the ring just moves on to collect more worker bees to spread their evil. I've read a few books about the scammers themselves - they're all usually beyond dirt poor and are told that they are only calling rich people who can easily afford to send money. And that once they start, to keep those greedy bastards from stop sending more. So they think it's not a big deal.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I used India because that's usually ground zero for all this crap. I follow this hacker's channel
www.youtube.com/@scammerpaybackbut where a great deal of his targets originate in said country. Might be worth noting that I haven't seen him deal with this particular type of scams as most of the ones I've watched involve your old "DANGER WINDOWS MUST SHUT DOWN" or some variation, which prompts you to call and set up a remote user on your computer.... by scumbags.

It just befuddles me that there doesn't seem to be any kind of plan to deal with it from every angle- telecoms, ISPs, FBI, FTC, FCC, banks, retailers (gift card scams), Intensive national, state, and local PSA campaigns all in plain view in the newspapers, on magazines (AARP sends me one every stinkin month) on the radio stations (traffic and weather together on the 8s, brought to you by ScammersBeGone.com), or a flyer stuffed in every mailbox.

I feel like you can blame just about everyone but the poor lady. Uber for example. How does Uber not know who is involved in sending her to that house? Believe me, you can't just put the app on your phone and not expect them (Uber, Telecoms, FCC) to have a slew of info as soon as it's installed. Then there's the destination she's supposed to deliver it to, well, what about that? Is it a park bench at exactly 3pm come alone and wait for the signal? No.

[minx]

Agreed on all fronts. And it amazing at how sophisticated some of these scams have become too. I got one via email a while back purporting to be from the ssa. "You haven't logged into your account for a while - don't forget to do so and verify that your income is up to date!"

Everything about it looked legit at first glance - logos were all clear and in the right places, wording was in clear English and not asking anything weird of you. Even the return email looked legit at first ([e-mail]).

I could see lots and lots of people clicking that link and not realizing that every federal agency has a domain of .gov.
(and yes if you hovered over the link, it was directing you to a weird site, but I think most people don't bother with that sadly).

One of the only reasons my spidey senses were tingling was that I had logged in to check my statements less than two weeks before. I did warn my sister (who can be quite careless when it comes to emails) that it was out there and NOT to click on that link. And I reported to the SSA, who actually responded and said that others had reported it as well, and they were able to shut it down. Shocking.

Is scammerpayback the guy who is able to switch the remote connection and take control of the scammer's computer and CCV network? Jack showed me one of his videos and it was hysterical.
"Michelle, why are you trying to cheat me?"
"What? My name is not Michelle!"
"But it's on your desk, right next to Jerry!"
"How the hell do you know that?? Where are you??"
"I'm watching you on the security camera - is that pizza good?"

It's fucking hysterical. He's very vague about how he does it, but evidentially he's gotten many scamming centers busted.

And too many people are arrogant and think that THEY would never fall for this shit, which is way sad.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Yep in all likelihood it's the same guy if he calls them some slur, I can't recall what it is but it's equivalent to some of the finest true dedinitions of offense to the people he's literally turned the tables (and cameras, and phones) on.


As for the first part of what you wrote I can't say I'm all that surpised by the resourcefulness of these jagovs and at the very same time was floored by the part about the website. I'm always going to check out what the actual link is but no doubt at least 3/4 of people my age would just click that link. Again, some intensive psa's would save a lot of people a lots of pain by no fault of their own.

[minx]

One of the problems in this day and age is how to get the message out - so many people don't watch network TV (or record and fast-forward through commercials), and many don't read any type of newspaper.
You can't really email, because a lot of scams take place that way.

One easy thing that could be done is to ask places to put up banners on websites and put a small insert into a mailed bill.

Doesn't have to be fancy - something like 'Don't be a victim - scammers are always looking for new ways to take your money!' in bold with maybe three bullet points:
- Never pay your bill over the phone unless you have called the number printed on your bill.
- We will never call and ask for your account information.
- We will never ask you to pay using cryptocurrency or gift cards.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT AND PROTECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS!!

To learn more go to www.xxx.com or call 800-get-fucked.
To report a scan go to www.yyy.com or call 800-stop-it

And I truly think those websites and phones should direct you to a government-run hotline, so you can report this for what it is - a crime!

And I 100% support a push for all platforms to have a similar message. Log into Netflix and maybe once a month the banner comes up and you have to click on ok to clear it. Same with places like FB, TikTok and the like.
Any place that allows you to send money should have a check that asks you if you try to buy a gift card or do a money transfer over a specific amount (Let's say $500), or buy several gift cards in one transaction. (Many scams ask you to use your Venmo account to transfer a large amount of money - are you sure that this is a real person or business?

And I know it's a lot to ask of store employees, but the same should go there - you're in wally world buying 5 Visa gift cards for $400/ea? Cashier should politely say "This is a lot of money - I need to let you know that many people who are trying to scam people ask for gift cards. Just make sure you can verify that the people you are giving these to actually exist and aren't trying to rob you, okay?"

You get the choice on whether to continue, but at least you've been warned, right?

[minx]

Speaking of scams - here's the latest spam email one.

Company sends you an email "Get the best vitamins today!" You know it's spam, so you click on it and select 'report spam'. Next box that pops up from your internet provider informs you that this is from a newsletter - did you want to unsubscribe? Click on yes, you go back to the email, which of course has an unsubscribe option so you can verify to the scammers that this is indeed an email being used by someone, so it can be sold to others.

Bastards. Utter bastards. I do click on 'report anyway', but I also wonder how many others do.

Our company does 'cyber security' training each year. Usually it's (don't let anyone else use your badge to get into the office and use your computer). This year it was actually helpful. Talked more about phone and email scams. Things like getting a text from your 'boss' asking you to log into a company site and update your information before lunch - here's the link. Or an email from IT telling you that your account has been hacked. You need to log in and reset your password immediately to keep your account from being locked.

They then gave steps to help you protect the company. But they apply to yourself in real life as well.
1) Stop and think. Why would your boss be sending you a text rather than walking over to your desk? And why would they be sending you a link?
2) Look. Look at that link. Is it to an actual website on your company's domain? Is everything spelled and formatted EXACTLY as it should be? So the site is fugworld, not fug-world for example? And it isn't fugw0rld? Don't click unless you are absolutely sure!
3) Beware. Anything that has wording saying 'act now' 'immediately' or has a veiled threat 'your account will be locked' should make you suspicious.

Take these actions
1) Call
- Call the person who sent the email, but DO NOT use the number on the email or text.
2) Check
- Ask another person to look behind you or call/email a person in charge. Hey John - I just got this weird email from IT that looks fishy. Can you take a look?
3) Stop. Most scammers are looking for an easy target. Don't respond if you have doubts of any kind. Instead report the incident.

I was pleasantly surprised to have some real world training. And they did go pretty in-depth about how to detect a fake email or website, which was good.


And did you know that there is a feature on your phone called 'Silence unknown callers'?
It's in the phone's settings, and when you turn it on, the phone will only ring if that caller is in your contacts. Otherwise, the call goes straight to voicemail and you can see the number in your recent call list. I had no idea, but its been turned on now! (and yes, if you're going to do this, you have to enter things like your doctor's office into your contacts if you want calls from them)

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I only answer calls from my contacts or a known number, and that's it. Wish they would block them from leaving messages too, since I still occasionally get calls re the business that's been closed for 6 or 7 years at least.


They say the scammers are always a step ahead and sometimes I wonder how that could be, but then I remember how easily someone could vote for a tyrant.

[minx]

I actually am glad they can leave a message, because in some cases those unknown numbers were actually from people/businesses I needed to talk to.

But I do wish they could be labeled as 'potential scam' then the number - just one more visual alert for folks.

And I'm not sure there's really a correlation between scammers improving their techniques and Trump. One group is smarter than shit, and one group is stupider than hell.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

In was talking more about the ones that are known spam that I have blocked. They are still able to leave voicemails even though I've blocked them. She has been getting multiple calls a day for a couple of weeks now and they all come from 540-202-xxxx with the last 4 always being different. New ones come in while I'm blocking the old ones. Now tell me how the FCC and others have no way of shutting that down when those bots are using the data lines from the telecoms, which don't just provide free and easy access to their services without setting up accounts, which include signing a EUA.

As for Trump, he's a third rate scammer and as long as there's people gullible enough to believe him then the bar is actually lowered for the ones trying to get you to send gift cards via instacart to keep you from being arrested for not paying your taxes.

[k9krap]

I use an app that flags spam and sends them to voicemail. Texts, too. It’s called Nomorerobo. I believe there is a yearly charge but to me it was worth it at the time. You can either have the calls flagged as spam and allow them through or send them to VM. With all the iOS updates, I’m not sure it is still necessary but I’ve kept it. The only thing I don’t like is that you have to open the app every so often to update the blacklist. I wish it would update automatically.

[minx]

I agree on the robocalls where the only thing that changes are the last 4 digits. You should have an option when you block to say that you want to block any calls from this type of number. So all calls starting with 540-202 will automatically be blocked.

Still not fully liking the automatic VM thing - got a spam call yesterday - went away, but not before the phone rang once. Goddamned phone shouldn't ring AT ALL!

[Dave's Not Here Man]

There's a little microscopic dude in your phone operating the little microscopic switchboard and sometimes he accidentally plugs the call in by accident.

Remember the worst problem with phones ever was that fuckin bell ringer?

[k9krap]

My phone never rings for calls that are not in my contacts. Ever. But I do get that voice mail tone.