Off Topic FYI Online Fraud

[packrat]

facebook is also bad for fraud attempts----had a message from someone i know but account name didnt quite add up-----after a few pleasantries got into the hard stuff----"just won $200,000 from Facebook as a prize blah blah ----did you get yours

 

[Octavius Brine]

@hvyhaul good call about your mom. One of those bastards got a friends grandmother for quite a bit of money with the scam where they cozy up and build trust first.

But still, some older folks are cautious as hell. My grandmother is turning 93 this week and we saw her yesterday, first thing she told me was good thing my wife and kids came because she didn’t recognize me and wouldn’t have opened the door It’s been like 4 years but she can’t get used to me with facial hair

 

[hvyhaul]

The Wife and I are heading up today for mom's reassessment, take more prepared meals and Mother's Day.

We are trying to get her more in home help and this is the process to hopefully get it.

Every time I go up, at least 80% of her mail is,"Send us money" so I am always ragging on her to just throw them away without opening them, but the elderly are very prone to being duped.

Forced Mom to get her taxes current, four years behind, and now she has a bunch of money coming in that she was missing out on.

I hope to get the call soon, "Get your mom's stuff ready, she has a room" and at that point my brother and I will handle all of her affairs, not just the ones we've been able to wrestle out of her stubborn hands. LoL

 

[hvyhaul]

Follow up.

The scam letter is a 2005 rehash, totally laughable when I saw it.

Very worthwhile trip. The reassessment uncovered cause for more psw care, potential in home Dr visits and so on.

Resolved some banking concerns and had a good visit with mom.

Actually came away with, "Wow, we actually got a lot of positive things done for a change." LoL

 

[FlyingViking]

Depending on my mood, I may or may not "play" with them for a little while. Calls about a credit card are always fun because I DON'T have a credit card, and I don't want one, nor do I have an Amazon account. They've been telling me for years my computer is about to crash and for a minimum fee they can make that problem they've spent the last half hour or 45 minutes "fixing" go away permanently, which is when I tell them I don't have a computer, which gets me called all kinds of nice names before they hang up on me.

Duct cleaners are always fun to play with. I always tell them I don't have ducks. Chickens, cows, pigs and fish, (the meats that are generally in my freezer) but no ducks.
It's also fun to tell "Johnny" that isn't his name, listen to him mildly protest that his name IS "Johnny" and then hang up on him. I might even mimic his accent when I do it.

If I'm in a bad mood, or they wake me up, I'm not so nice. Ask me about the Spanish lady who called privately and I'll give you the details of that call. She woke me up and I wasn't very nice.

If it's an email from someone I don't recognize, I don't bother to open it and just delete it, especially if it's a job offer for a job I never applied for. If I get a text from someone but the only thing its asking me to do is download something with no message attached, I delete it as well on the premise that if someone I know is going to send me something that I need to download via text message, they're going to start a conversation with me as well or they'll call me and let me know they're sending me something.

The duct cleaner naturalized Canadians call and I simply say “yes, they have never been cleaned and I think this is the year. I’m off next week, let’s do this”!!!! They get sooo excited with the native accents…

Then I provide the address for the neighbor across the street and watch the excitement upon the day of the agreed “duct cleaning”. 3 times just last year!

 

[HTHM]

I usually give 24 Sussex drive Ottawa as the address.

 

[hvyhaul]

Just for the hell of it, here is the letter my mom got.

Mom's last name and initial. Incomplete address and just enough correct postal code the be delivered.

Immediately seen as garbage to me, but sure got my mother wrapped up in details both written and unreal but concluded by her.

 

[Ticker]

I love the phone calls
Couple ways I deal with it :
" hold on please let me get the owner on for you " than just put the phone down and go back doing whatever I was doing at times they stay on waiting for 10 minutes
" nem tudom mit mondasz "
Translation : don't know what you saying
Only have to say it 3 times never get a call back
Funny as hell to me anyway and that's in my native language
I had calls pretending to be CRA , I hang up and call the number back it's usually not in service
One time they left a number to call back with threats, I called them and told them it's the RCMP officer got the building surrendered don't run come outside with your hands up
I'm sure where ever they were was looking out the windows
Emails I delete
No mail so far
Almost forgot I have a long lost relative with lots of money who passed away to get the money send $20000