Phone and Computer Scams Thread

[Rockfish]

Thought it could be useful to have a thread on this subject and perhaps keep some of us or those we know who are vunerable from getting scammed.

Just had a scam call come in on a phone. Call display showed an Ontario 613 number but of course that means nothing as they can so easily be spoofed to display anything the scumbags want, even displaying that the RCMP or Revenue Canada is calling.

This one was a well crafted robo call and was along the lines of claiming to be from one of the major credit card companies advising me that two large suspicious charges had been made to my credit card this am for a gift card etc. As this was unusal for my account they have flagged it and if I want to deny payment press 1 and if I want to allow payment press 0. I hung up without pressing either but I can see how vunerable people would panic and press 1. I could tell it was a dangerious scam call as I understand credit card companies don't do this and they claimed it was for a credit card brand that I do not have. If it was a brand of credit card I do have, I would still not have pressed 1 but would perhaps have called my cards emergency contact number to report it.

 

[Fisherman Rob]

I get the scam call claiming to be from Revenue Canada on a regular basis. The message sounds very similar to Revenue Canada's message you get when you call them, except when it states "there is a warrant out for your arrest, press 9 to speak to an operator...". Once I did press 9 and told the operator what a scum bag he was. In the moment it felt good, but it didn't stop the calls of course, and might have even increased them. What I wish I could do when I see unknown or suspicious looking numbers come up on call display is to ignore the call and not have it go to voicemail. Right now you either answer the call, which confirms the random dialer got a valid number, and then your on a spam list, or ignore the call which will go to your voicemail which also confirms your number.

 

[Gong Show]

I literally just had a conversation with staff about a call she received saying her SIN was suspended.
I said that was great, she didn't have to pay taxes anymore!

Late last November I had a call from CRA, allegedly, I told him he was a scammer and to contact me via another method.
He was upset, I told him I hated scammers, then received a fax confirming he was valid.
Stupid CRA, why do a call like that when they know all these scams are rampant.

 

[Pippen]

Just a heads up as I did not know this service existed as I am a TELUS customer. I bought a new phone last Friday and since then have had contacts ask me when calling why they get a message something to the effect of saying "This number has call control, please press number __ to continue and connect". I guess it was automatically turned on when I renewed my subscription with the new phone.

Basically for any call coming in not from a human the robo call won't know that it has to press a specific number to proceed with connecting. I am sure other providers must also have this. Not one spam/crap call since last Friday!!

Call Control for mobile devices explained | TELUS Support

Learn about the new free Call Control feature for mobility that helps screen out unwanted robo-callers.

www.telus.com

 

[AlK]

One way to handle the CRA scammers is to play them, ask a lot of stupid questions, play dumb and waste their time. Time to them means no money.

 

[Doug]

Years ago when we were living in Scottsdale AZ and getting 2 to 3 scam calls a day, I discovered a trick to answering the phone.

When ever a phone call came in, I would answer “D&D Fishing Charters, Doug speaking”. As soon as they heard we were a company 80% of the calls hung up. They do not want to talk to businesses. I started telling my friends in AZ what I was doing and they started answer with similar answers like John’s Pizza Palace. Same results.

If they did start talking with me, I would hit them hard with you just called a fishing charter company. Come on book a charter I’ve got lots of availability and I would keep talking none stop hounding the caller to book a trip. My friend used a pizza business name and right away he hounds them about buying a pizza. They always hang up.

In the last few years the scams are now hitting Canada a lot more but not as bad as in the US yet. Blocking phone numbers doesn’t help because they use rotating phone numbers.
Next time answer your phone with a made up company name and see what happens.

 

[SpringVelocity]

This is new one to share. Its a business one. The person finds someone at university or college and creates a fake email address. Then through hacks they create a PO that looks authentic claiming the school is buying whatever you are selling.

They ask for price lists etc.

I had one of these was able to contact the university directly to set up everything with a credit check etc. Turns out person contacting was scammer. They buy the goods, and drop ship them to another location with a stolen credit card.

If you have a business please be aware. Some of these purchases can be large volume.... It was a pretty sophisticated scam in my opinion and easy to fall for.

 

[Rockfish]

There are other business scams such as the rip off sales scam. These are sometimes done by actual real but scumbag companies selling things relevant to your business, and often it is office supplies. They will phone to talk to an admin staff about an order your company/Govt. dept. etc. has supposedly made and wanting details, delivery address, credit card info. etc. to facilitate shipping. Essentially these are scumbag sales persons, and they will take the cooperation of an unsuspecting admin who is just trying to help on an order they think as already been made, as an order and will ship you some greatly overpriced goods, a case or two of laser printer toner cartridges for example, either with an invoice or already billed to your company credit card and all sales final.

 

[Rockfish]

My neighbour fell for this scam. She responded to a free trial offer that she called on, skin care products or something, and they needed her credit card number in order to ship. They do in fact send the free trial products, and a bunch of other products that they asked if she wanted to also try for free. However, they are only free to try for a very short period of time and all of the products must be returned by x date which is all hidden in a lot of very fine complex print. In no time at all she received a massive bill on her credit card for incredibly overpriced products that were not returned in time. She got burned and trusted them so little that she even cancelled and got a new credit card as she did not trust them with a valid number after that experience.

 

[Corey_lax]

Years ago when we were living in Scottsdale AZ and getting 2 to 3 scam calls a day, I discovered a trick to answering the phone.

When ever a phone call came in, I would answer “D&D Fishing Charters, Doug speaking”. As soon as they heard we were a company 80% of the calls hung up. They do not want to talk to businesses. I started telling my friends in AZ what I was doing and they started answer with similar answers like John’s Pizza Palace. Same results.

If they did start talking with me, I would hit them hard with you just called a fishing charter company. Come on book a charter I’ve got lots of availability and I would keep talking none stop hounding the caller to book a trip. My friend used a pizza business name and right away he hounds them about buying a pizza. They always hang up.

In the last few years the scams are now hitting Canada a lot more but not as bad as in the US yet. Blocking phone numbers doesn’t help because they use rotating phone numbers.
Next time answer your phone with a made up company name and see what happens.

My favorite is "Buck Wild Taxidermy. You get em, we gut em"

 

[Rockfish]

Victoria retailer loses thousands of dollars in Bitcoin fraud

Victoria police are warning the public about a sophisticated Bitcoin fraud that targeted staff at two outlets of the same retailer in Victoria and Saanich.

www.timescolonist.com

I can see how there could be lots of variations of this fraud scam. So many of the scams seem to work by creating a sense of urgency, emergency or threat (you are going to be arrested) and inducing the victim to help resolve it by giving up information or money in one form or another.

The good news is that it has been a couple of years since I got a call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft offering to help fixed my compromised computer system. That phone scam was everywhere for a few years.

 

[Bryan Allen]

Got one yesterday..Said there was a suspicious charge on my Amazon account so please call this number if I dont want to pay for it. Click- Gone