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*** Scams Alert! *** + FRAUDULENT #s (effective May 3, 2024)

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213K views 285 replies 65 participants last post by  Ponderling  
4
#1 · (Edited)
#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
This is a good guide for todays world, the only thing I saw in it that I would question is their suggestion that you use a sevice like PayPal when dealing with online purchases. Although PayPal has been the standard for a long time(mostly due to it's association with Ebay), I have had problems with them, and heard first hand from aquaintances and various forums and online sources that claim to be totally frustrated with them in the past couple of years. Administrative mistakes that end up costing us users money coupled with difficulty getting through to anyone at PayPal for help are the main ones. Some cases involved that I'm familiar with would have faired better if they had of paid via credit card, especially in the cases where payment was made for a product that never arrived. I realize this is not a scam(I hope), but it can cause a consumer to have been "ripped off" all the same.
 
#19 · (Edited)
This story falls under the title: There IS NO FREE LUNCH!..people.

An Ottawa couple have spent three days leading on scammers who are trying to manipulate the couple into paying thousands of dollars to receive a lottery prize.

"[They were] so persistent, it's unbelievable," said the wife.

This kind of scam is called an advance fee fraud, in which victims are conned into paying taxes on millions of dollars they've supposedly won before they can receive the prize money.

On Tuesday night, Paul and Carole <name withheld) received a phone call telling them they'd won $2.5 million and a 2014 Mercedes Benz. The scammers told the couple they qualified for the lottery prize just by using their credit and debit cards.

"We immediately were skeptical of it, but I had time on my hands so I thought, OK, I'll just see what the scam is," the husband said.
"It was kind of fun for a while."

The couple were emailed a raft of official-looking documents, pictures of supposed former winners, pictures of the car and an invoice for $5,000 dollars in taxes and fees, the amount they'd have to fork over before getting the payoff.

The scammers also kept phoning back, telling the couple not to let anyone else know about the transaction and win, including their own bank teller.

When the couple finally told them they were onto the scam, other people called the <namewithheld> claiming to be lawyers, wondering why they didn't want the prize.

"I contacted the police and they have so many calls of this type that they just can't address them," said the husband.

Ottawa police say no legitimate lottery will ask for money up front.

"So if you ever get a call saying you've won something but have to send them money, that should be a red flag right there," said the Ottawa Police Staff Sgt.
Click to expand...
So the moral of this story is folks..if you smell it's a scam from the start..DON'T LEAD THEM ON pretending you
may be interested. They will continue to bother you with all kinds of nuisance phone calls.
JUST HANG UP IMMEDIATELY ON THEM.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Beav; I read that story on CBC News. The 80 odd year husband (who recently had to go into some kind of seniors LTC?) was the one that fell for it.

It was some kind of discount coupon/travel promotion thing that he and she never used. Because he agreed to enroll and gave them THEIR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER to set up automatic monthly deductions, they were "on the hook" until someone (friend I think) called that 800 number to cancel the monthly withdrawals.

The wife never was responsible for the financials during her marriage and depended on the husband to do it all, so she didn't have a clue about the monthly withdrawals..not a good thing in any case.

Yes, it is still can be considered targeting seniors..but the spokesperson at the 800 number mentioned
that "they don't specifically target seniors".......in other words..they will target anyone that responds to
their phone calls and is naive enough to give them banking information for services that they really don't
understand or can use.
 
P
#230 ·
Thought I would add another scam I almost got caught on today. I received a FB friend request from one of my friends who I was already friends with. This sometimes happens when someone unfriends you by accident, or you do something to deletes them out. It had their profile picture and their regular background picture. I recognized the pictures and the person and accepted. They send me a message asking how I was after accepting. Then said they were reaching because they were concerned for me, and to see if I receive CBR - some Covid bonus. I said no, they offered the link. I double search them, and found two profiles for my friend, who I was still friends with. They looked identifical, except the fake didn't have all of the personal info where the person worked ect. I told the fake, that I wasn't eligible, and they disappeared. I immediately blocked/unfriended and reported.

Just letting others know, as this one totally caught me off gaurd. I even problems making sure I reported the right account because they looked exactly the same.
FB has taken the down the account. So now, I am checking FB to see if there are anyone with my name AND profile picture.
 
4
#233 ·
^ Your last sentence confirms it's a scam with the saying to go with it "if it is too good to be true, then it is".

Besides, what other benefit is anyone expecting that's gonna to "EXPIRE" on Jan 25, 2023? Does government benefits expire if the person is still alive? I'm not aware of that.

That text goes to the junk box if not delete.
 
F
#245 ·
J
#247 · (Edited)
fedupcan$ said:
QR code scam steals $10K from Calgary family....
posted a stroller for sale on Facebook Marketplace......
Click to expand...
This actually illustrates one reason I hate these Interac e-transfers.

The whole thing was based on email to begin with, so they have trained Canadians to accept/click email based links. This is the same reason there have been a lot of successful Interac phishing scams. The legitimate Interac transfers send links around, and we've trained people to think that's normal, and click them. They are very hard to distinguish from scam versions.

So for example when I get a class action settlement, and money is coming my way, that comes as an Interac e-transfer notice with links in it. It's just about impossible to know if it's fake or legitimate... that's really dangerous (and I blame Interac and the banks for this). They should have known better when designing this.

But now that people are used to this method, the same behaviour extends to things like following a QR-based link. Or link sent by text message, or WhatsApp. People are trained to just click and follow links for Interac e-transfers because Interac and the banks have made them believe it's normal to do this.

My advice:

(1) Make sure you have autodeposit enabled (register your email address through your bank) and then make sure you never click any links inside any Interac emails. No matter how legitimate the Interac / bank email looks, never click any links, even if you're expecting the transfer.

(2) Do cash transactions when possible. When buying and selling stuff, meet in person and exchange real cash.

(3) Don't do any financial or banking stuff on your smartphone. Yes I know that sounds crazy but this is the advice I give in my security consulting work. Smartphones should not be used for banking or payments. I also think it's reckless and dangerous for the banks to encourage their customers to do phone-based banking.
 
4
#257 · (Edited)
^ I ask myself a simple question whenever I get one of those - "did I expect a package or delivery or a wire-transfer (never on this)"? No, then EFF OFF to the sender aka scammer and DELETE!!!!

And this goes for the landline phone marketing callers - my machine takes care of it. Leave a message. No? Then DELETE at end of the day so my machine doesn't get cluttered.

Much like recycling or upcycing bins - keep sending me them flyers and feed it to keep them happy. Plus depending on the paper - like newspaper which I can use to wrap bottles or stock-like which I can use for other purposes (which can save me a ton of money in buying!). Back of annual reports can be used as tracking paper too, etc. Besides, I'm paying for waste/recycling management anyways.
 
L
#261 · (Edited)

I was a target of this scam multiple times today. After receiving the voice message multiple times today about my suspicious IPhone purchase, I decided to see how it would play out. I did press one and then the "operator" sent me a text message to use as a reference code to verify the cancellation for the account. He then wanted me to recite the verification code back to him. Once I started to ask some questions (name, employee number, requested info about my account etc. he got spooked and hung up

added: since posting I have received 2 more calls. If they are resourceful at least they are persistent. :D
 
4
#262 · (Edited)
... very true these MOTHER-FVKERS are very very persistent. Since you answered, you'll become a "target" or "hit" on their list. This happened to my number where a family member answered and "politely" said we weren't interested. What happened? We keep getting these crank calls with no message on the machine until I got fed up and replied on the next incoming "I'm CALLING THE COPS" and believe me on the next one, I'm reporting it. I have reported crank calls in the past to the cops. Not only where they registered too, but tracked to the source ... and to court. If the source wasn't in a public building, and I had unlimited funds, the MOTHER-FVCKERS including females btw would have certainly gone to jail. I'LL HUNT YOU DOWN.

Btw, such "persistency" is now known as "HARRASSMENT" and not just "marketing annoyance" and harassments are ILLEGAL!
 
4
#264 ·
Year 2024:

This is not e-transfer but the use of a cc issued by the bank whereby you get scammed and the banks respond "tough luck, you're on your own" ... only way to get back your money is to give the banks the publicity that it so desire:

Shuttle ride in Mexico sets Ontario man back more than $3K. Here's what happened

And where's the $50 "liability" term sh1t the banks have for the use of its cc????
 
A
#4 ·
I found it interesting to learn why so much spam/phishing is done with such poorly concealed fradulence. Apparently they are targeting the very most gullible or obtuse people they can. They don't use very sophisticated or convincing scams because they don't want to waste time on marks that may be drawn in initially but get a bad vibe and back out.

Realizing that, it seems very difficult to protect these people from scams. The only thing I can think of is to waste scammers time to reduce their ROI. Think of it as community service...
 
A
#5 ·
If they want to talk to you, just let them talk and talk and talk. Put the phone down on speakerphone and ask a bunch of inane questions and play along, but don't give any personal info. Eventually they will get frustrated and end the call.

Same goes with the Nigerian prince scammers...
 
4
#8 · (Edited)
#10 · (Edited)
Not sure if this falls under scams..but certainly a novel way to collect money from all the suckers out there ($100 a piece) in order for them to "qualify" for winning their home.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...blogs/dailybrew/why-want-own-house-ontario-couple-unloading-home-203112809.html

Assuming they find 300 suckers that are each willing to part with $100 at the opportunity to win this ..home, and who knows what pitfalls await them after taking
possession...it still is a novel way of "selling your home"..and collecting possibly more than it's worth on the open real estate market.
 
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