When a Colorado man did not respond to repeated demands that he withdraw funds to pay supposed back taxes, scammers posing as him called 911 and said he was armed and eager to kill police officers, prompting law enforcement officers to surround his home.
I played along for about five minutes and then started abusing the guy. I told him his parents must be real scumbags to have raised a son who makes his living scamming old ladies.He finally hung up on me, telling me in his thick Indian accent that he "had no more time for this unpleasant conversation". LOL.
Had the guy on the phone for about 20 minutes, even asked me to go to a bank branch to transfer funds. I was hoping to get some information I could pass along to authorities when the scammer suddenly broke character and accused me of trying to scam him! Great times.
The article notes a guy in California shelled out $136k (!) after being called repeatedly... with that kind of cash just lying around, one would think he'd at least have the sense to contact an attorney, or st least the IRS independently? Jeez...
I played along for about five minutes and then started abusing the guy. I told him his parents must be real scumbags to have raised a son who makes his living scamming old ladies.He finally hung up on me, telling me in his thick Indian accent that he "had no more time for this unpleasant conversation". LOL.
Interesting. I never pegged you for an old lady. The internet is amazing.
I heard on the radio these guys stole more than $300 million. Is that even possible? If so, yeah it's good they finally caught these guys but that's an extraordinary criminal enterprise using the telephone to scam your victims.
Now that people know that there is that much money to be made
I heard on the radio these guys stole more than $300 million. Is that even possible? If so, yeah it's good they finally caught these guys but that's an extraordinary criminal enterprise using the telephone to scam your victims.
It's possible because these guys have a small army, and they're constantly calling people. In most cases, they're after small amounts that convince people that it's just cheaper to pay to go away than to consult a professional.
They also managed to steal quite a bit of money by grabbing people's banking credentials, which is how the anti-virus scams work. They call you saying they're from Microsoft (you know, Roger from Mumbai) and that they need access to your machine to repair it. They seemingly make some changes that don't appear to do any harm, but most of the time they're installing keyloggers that report back all of your usernames and passwords, which they later use to drain bank accounts.
Basically - someone took the malware concept and implemented it using meat computers.
do anything someone says on the other side of a phone. Even if its someone you know is a member of the authority, any sensible person would ask for identification/court order/warrant/whatever. Simply giving up money over the phone makes no sense to me.
Even when my doctor's office calls me for an outstanding balance, I ask them to send me a bill and I'll pay by mail or online.
do anything someone says on the other side of a phone. Even if its someone you know is a member of the authority, any sensible person would ask for identification/court order/warrant/whatever. Simply giving up money over the phone makes no sense to me.
Even when my doctor's office calls me for an outstanding balance, I ask them to send me a bill and I'll pay by mail or online.
A staggering percentage of this country is susceptible to pretty simple guile. People just arent distrusting enough, and generally lack sophistication to smell out bullshit in a lot of ways (particularly when it comes to finances/numbers). A staggering amount of our economy and political discourse relies on this.
do anything someone says on the other side of a phone. Even if its someone you know is a member of the authority, any sensible person would ask for identification/court order/warrant/whatever. Simply giving up money over the phone makes no sense to me.
Even when my doctor's office calls me for an outstanding balance, I ask them to send me a bill and I'll pay by mail or online.
I think there's like a psychological switch that catches people off-guard. How does anybody ever fall for the penny behind the ear trick... but a professional (sleight of hand magician or regular con-artist) knows how to push these buttons, and put their marks at ease in order to catch them off-guard.
Here's a pro-magician stealing a watch off of a very-aware anchor on live TV on the Today Show...
Nobody falls for the Indian IRS agent trick anymore, bc we've all had Nigerian princes trying to scam us through email hundreds of times over the last 11 years.
But somebody's grandma, who only gets phone calls from doctors and immediate relatives, and doesn't email so has never met the Nigerian prince, might not be so savvy. pick-pocket on Today Show - ( New Window )
do anything someone says on the other side of a phone. Even if its someone you know is a member of the authority, any sensible person would ask for identification/court order/warrant/whatever. Simply giving up money over the phone makes no sense to me.
Even when my doctor's office calls me for an outstanding balance, I ask them to send me a bill and I'll pay by mail or online.
A staggering percentage of this country is susceptible to pretty simple guile. People just arent distrusting enough, and generally lack sophistication to smell out bullshit in a lot of ways (particularly when it comes to finances/numbers). A staggering amount of our economy and political discourse relies on this.
When phishing first started becoming a problem, the FTC did a presentation to finance security people illustrating the types of methods the perpetrators were using. One of my favorites was a regional bank in the Midwest whose name escapes me, but it was named after the region itself (Native American name + Valley).
The attackers completely butchered the English on the page (misspellings, bad grammar), and managed to misspell the name of the *bank* - and this didn't stop people from logging on to the page and handing over their username and passwords, which prompted one FTC rep to turn to me and say 'this would never have happened in NYC, you people don't trust anyone'.
I've been getting blasted by some company American Home Security or some such fuckwads. They keep changing their call from numbers so even though I block them every time they call, I still get two calls a day on my business line. Really annoying. With all the hoops and compliance we have for email spam, you'd think there was something that the telco companies would do to prevent these telemarketers. But, you'd be wrong AT&T and Verzion don't give a hoot.
for a hospital bill and they wanted me to pay over the phone. Must have called 3 or 4 times and each time I told them to send be the bill so I can verify charges with my insurance and that I'd be happy to pay after that.
crap out of my Mom with that scam, hence my old lady comment.
Cracked me up with him calling himself "Phil Johnson of the Internal Revenue" with his heavy Indian accent. He kept asking me questions from his script, and I kept giving him answers he didn't expect. He would just go quiet and then ignore my answers and return to the script, even though the next scripted question made no sense after my previous answer. I also called the guy a "Pakistani cocksucker", which really seemed to rattle him. I wish I had recorded it.
My dad passed earlier this month. He was in a long illness and we were fortunate enough to take care of him at his apartment along with help from aides. These guys called all the time, and even though we repeatedly told him not to worry -- in fact I wrote down a note for him to remind him that he would not be contacted this way by legitimate IRS agents -- he still was understandably distressed. Real shame, not what he should have even spent one moment out of his last months worrying about. Vultures.
They asked for me to verify my name and social, and I came up with some complete nonsense like Mitch Cumstein, 867-53-0999, and the response was, "Oh yes, Mr. Cumstein, I have your file right here. You owe the IRS $12,475 and a warrant has been issued for your arrest. The police are going to come to your house and arrest you now!"
and a woman in front of me wanted to wire $2000 in iTunes cards to who knows where. A Scammer had called her, and told her that they were the County Sheriff, and she needed to pay to get her son out of jail. Lucky for her the cashier wouldn't do it.
The article notes a guy in California shelled out $136k (!) after being called repeatedly... with that kind of cash just lying around, one would think he'd at least have the sense to contact an attorney, or st least the IRS independently? Jeez...
It's possible because these guys have a small army, and they're constantly calling people. In most cases, they're after small amounts that convince people that it's just cheaper to pay to go away than to consult a professional.
They also managed to steal quite a bit of money by grabbing people's banking credentials, which is how the anti-virus scams work. They call you saying they're from Microsoft (you know, Roger from Mumbai) and that they need access to your machine to repair it. They seemingly make some changes that don't appear to do any harm, but most of the time they're installing keyloggers that report back all of your usernames and passwords, which they later use to drain bank accounts.
Basically - someone took the malware concept and implemented it using meat computers.
Even when my doctor's office calls me for an outstanding balance, I ask them to send me a bill and I'll pay by mail or online.
Even when my doctor's office calls me for an outstanding balance, I ask them to send me a bill and I'll pay by mail or online.
A staggering percentage of this country is susceptible to pretty simple guile. People just arent distrusting enough, and generally lack sophistication to smell out bullshit in a lot of ways (particularly when it comes to finances/numbers). A staggering amount of our economy and political discourse relies on this.
Even when my doctor's office calls me for an outstanding balance, I ask them to send me a bill and I'll pay by mail or online.
I think there's like a psychological switch that catches people off-guard. How does anybody ever fall for the penny behind the ear trick... but a professional (sleight of hand magician or regular con-artist) knows how to push these buttons, and put their marks at ease in order to catch them off-guard.
Here's a pro-magician stealing a watch off of a very-aware anchor on live TV on the Today Show...
Nobody falls for the Indian IRS agent trick anymore, bc we've all had Nigerian princes trying to scam us through email hundreds of times over the last 11 years.
But somebody's grandma, who only gets phone calls from doctors and immediate relatives, and doesn't email so has never met the Nigerian prince, might not be so savvy.
pick-pocket on Today Show - ( New Window )
Quote:
do anything someone says on the other side of a phone. Even if its someone you know is a member of the authority, any sensible person would ask for identification/court order/warrant/whatever. Simply giving up money over the phone makes no sense to me.
Even when my doctor's office calls me for an outstanding balance, I ask them to send me a bill and I'll pay by mail or online.
A staggering percentage of this country is susceptible to pretty simple guile. People just arent distrusting enough, and generally lack sophistication to smell out bullshit in a lot of ways (particularly when it comes to finances/numbers). A staggering amount of our economy and political discourse relies on this.
When phishing first started becoming a problem, the FTC did a presentation to finance security people illustrating the types of methods the perpetrators were using. One of my favorites was a regional bank in the Midwest whose name escapes me, but it was named after the region itself (Native American name + Valley).
The attackers completely butchered the English on the page (misspellings, bad grammar), and managed to misspell the name of the *bank* - and this didn't stop people from logging on to the page and handing over their username and passwords, which prompted one FTC rep to turn to me and say 'this would never have happened in NYC, you people don't trust anyone'.
Never saw a bill.
Cracked me up with him calling himself "Phil Johnson of the Internal Revenue" with his heavy Indian accent. He kept asking me questions from his script, and I kept giving him answers he didn't expect. He would just go quiet and then ignore my answers and return to the script, even though the next scripted question made no sense after my previous answer. I also called the guy a "Pakistani cocksucker", which really seemed to rattle him. I wish I had recorded it.
Gold!
Bastard federal Judge let him out bail and electronic surveillance free.
Link - ( New Window )