Reverend Conehead
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This is a really rotten one, and a slick one to watch out for. The scammer pretends to be working for Amazon.com. Of course, practically everyone has ordered from Amazon at one time or another, and the scammers know that. They know how to be friendly, professional-sounding, and how to get rapport with their "customers." So some scammer says that there's been a mistaken charge to your bank card for $400 (or some other amount), and they're calling to correct the mistake and make sure you get refunded. There are a few versions of what they do. One is to have you fill out a refund form that includes your bank's routing number and your account number. With that info, they simply help themselves to as much money from your account as they can get away with. However, thanks to improved bank security and people's wariness about their bank info, this version is less common. They're more likely to do the over-refund variation. With this one, they use their phony software that mimics that of your bank. They use that to show you your refund that doesn't actually exist. But ... woops ... they accidentally send you way too much. For example, if the refund was supposed to be $400, they "accidentally" type in two extra zeroes, making it 40,000. They rely on having established good rapport with the victim, and say something like, "Oh, my God, I've made a terrible mistake. I'm going to get in so much trouble." Then they might include some sob story about working long hours to support 5 kids, and how they're so exhausted that they made that mistake. Most people, who are decent, won't want to hurt someone like that, so they're eager to make the person whole. In this example, they think they owe the person $39,600. Many times the scammer has already done social engineering to know that the person has that much money. Maybe their checking account is tied to a savings account or a credit account with that much. So the person thinks they're just paying back extra money that was deposited by Amazon by mistake when in reality they're having their own money stolen. Some scammers ask them to buy that amount in Target or WalMart gift cards (a big red flag), and some even have them withdraw a bunch of cash to be sent to them. In that case, they have cohorts in the United States so that they can receive a package in the US without it going through customs. The US cohort takes a cut, like 10 or 15 percent, and then wires them the money or gets it to them some other way.
Most people think they would never get taken in by a scam like this, but these criminals are good at what they do. They know how to establish rapport and get you to like them, and then use that to manipulate your emotions. After all, most of us have empathy and therefore don't want to hurt anyone else, especially not someone we like. One important thing is to never let yourself get carried away by emotion or their sob stories. If there's a genuine problem, there would be a way to solve it by contacting the company. Never trust the phone numbers someone gives you over the phone. You can instead, hang up and call the organization yourself with the phone number for them that you know is legit. In fact, you should always store these numbers yourself. Some scammers have set up fake web sites with their phony phone numbers for Amazon, Norton, Microsoft, or whoever they're spoofing. So don't accept a phone number just because they showed it to you on some web page. If they're rushing you to get this done, that's a red flag. With real companies, problem transactions can usually be dealt with in a reasonable amount of time such as 30 days. And real companies like Amazon or Microsoft or whoever don't use gift cards for anything other than allowing you to buy a gift for someone. The biggest red flag is is they try to hurry you to fix the alleged problem. They'll tug at your heart strings with some sob story like they'll get fired and their kids will go hungry, and blah, blah, blah. They might claim that they must use the gift cards so that the problem is fixed quickly enough for them not to get in trouble with their boss. That's all hogwash.
There are a bunch of variations on this scam. Sometimes they say they're from Microsoft, Norton, Kaspersky, or even the IRS. If they try to rush you or get you to use gift cards or give them your banking info, it's almost certainly a scam. You can always take your time to fix it. You can always take the time to make certain you're calling the real company.
...
There's this Youtuber named Scammer Payback who thwarts these kind of scammers. He'll pretend to be a real one of their potential victims. The scammers often use a program that lets them control your computer, AnyDesk, for example, or another program like that. Those are legit programs. You could use one to control your office computer from your home PC, for example. But they try to trick people into installing it so that they can mine your computer for info. However, the Scammer Payback guy uses that against them. He uses Windows in a VirtualBox to keep them out of his legit computer, and then he somehow uses that AnyDesk connection to mine their computer for data. He can often find victim lists, which he'll download and then delete from their computer. Then he calls people and organizations up to warn them. Sometimes he's even able to call someone while they're already talking to the scammer, so he urges them to hang up. If he's able to find the scammer's AnyDesk ID, he reports it to AnyDesk so that they can ban them. He's helped a lot of people. He even collected enough data on a whole scam call center organization in India to get them raided by the Indian Police. He turned over his info to US law enforcement, who then worked with the Indian Police to catch the scumbags.
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I'm all for anything that thwarts scammers. If this post helps anyone to recognize a scam, great. These criminals are trash human beings. They don't care whom they hurt. It could be your parents or grandparents that they rob. These crooks don't care if it's an elderly person on a fixed income and they take their last dime. For most people like you and I, we could never do anything like that. We have too much empathy and therefore would never want to hurt anyone. They don't care about that. They're psychopaths who only care about themselves. In fact, they're skilled in using your own empathy against you. I personally won't even take a call if it's not a friend or family member. If it's a company I do business with, like my bank, Amazon, or whoever, I don't even take the call, and then I call that company with the number that I know is legit. Most of us are sick and tired of these piece of crap scammers. Even just the nuisance of getting calls out of the blue is bad enough, but it's much, much worse when they succeed in ripping people off.
...
Thanks for reading. Don't get scammed!
Most people think they would never get taken in by a scam like this, but these criminals are good at what they do. They know how to establish rapport and get you to like them, and then use that to manipulate your emotions. After all, most of us have empathy and therefore don't want to hurt anyone else, especially not someone we like. One important thing is to never let yourself get carried away by emotion or their sob stories. If there's a genuine problem, there would be a way to solve it by contacting the company. Never trust the phone numbers someone gives you over the phone. You can instead, hang up and call the organization yourself with the phone number for them that you know is legit. In fact, you should always store these numbers yourself. Some scammers have set up fake web sites with their phony phone numbers for Amazon, Norton, Microsoft, or whoever they're spoofing. So don't accept a phone number just because they showed it to you on some web page. If they're rushing you to get this done, that's a red flag. With real companies, problem transactions can usually be dealt with in a reasonable amount of time such as 30 days. And real companies like Amazon or Microsoft or whoever don't use gift cards for anything other than allowing you to buy a gift for someone. The biggest red flag is is they try to hurry you to fix the alleged problem. They'll tug at your heart strings with some sob story like they'll get fired and their kids will go hungry, and blah, blah, blah. They might claim that they must use the gift cards so that the problem is fixed quickly enough for them not to get in trouble with their boss. That's all hogwash.
There are a bunch of variations on this scam. Sometimes they say they're from Microsoft, Norton, Kaspersky, or even the IRS. If they try to rush you or get you to use gift cards or give them your banking info, it's almost certainly a scam. You can always take your time to fix it. You can always take the time to make certain you're calling the real company.
...
There's this Youtuber named Scammer Payback who thwarts these kind of scammers. He'll pretend to be a real one of their potential victims. The scammers often use a program that lets them control your computer, AnyDesk, for example, or another program like that. Those are legit programs. You could use one to control your office computer from your home PC, for example. But they try to trick people into installing it so that they can mine your computer for info. However, the Scammer Payback guy uses that against them. He uses Windows in a VirtualBox to keep them out of his legit computer, and then he somehow uses that AnyDesk connection to mine their computer for data. He can often find victim lists, which he'll download and then delete from their computer. Then he calls people and organizations up to warn them. Sometimes he's even able to call someone while they're already talking to the scammer, so he urges them to hang up. If he's able to find the scammer's AnyDesk ID, he reports it to AnyDesk so that they can ban them. He's helped a lot of people. He even collected enough data on a whole scam call center organization in India to get them raided by the Indian Police. He turned over his info to US law enforcement, who then worked with the Indian Police to catch the scumbags.
...
I'm all for anything that thwarts scammers. If this post helps anyone to recognize a scam, great. These criminals are trash human beings. They don't care whom they hurt. It could be your parents or grandparents that they rob. These crooks don't care if it's an elderly person on a fixed income and they take their last dime. For most people like you and I, we could never do anything like that. We have too much empathy and therefore would never want to hurt anyone. They don't care about that. They're psychopaths who only care about themselves. In fact, they're skilled in using your own empathy against you. I personally won't even take a call if it's not a friend or family member. If it's a company I do business with, like my bank, Amazon, or whoever, I don't even take the call, and then I call that company with the number that I know is legit. Most of us are sick and tired of these piece of crap scammers. Even just the nuisance of getting calls out of the blue is bad enough, but it's much, much worse when they succeed in ripping people off.
...
Thanks for reading. Don't get scammed!
