topic Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam in Community Chat

FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

KingstonsMom — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 20:47:05 GMT

From ABC News:

Often times, the scammers will “spoof” authentic numbers and credentials “of well-known government and law enforcement agencies," the agency said in an announcement Monday.

The FBI says scammers will say a person's identity was used in crime, such as a drug deal or money laundering scam, and they will ask for personal information to verify their identity such as their Social Security number and date of birth.

"The victim is threatened with arrest, prosecution, or imprisonment if they do not pay to remove charges or assist in the investigation against the "real" criminals," the FBI said.

"Payment is demanded in various forms, with the most prevalent being prepaid cards, wire transfers, and cash, sent by mail or inserted into cryptocurrency ATMs. Victims are asked to read prepaid card numbers over the phone or text a picture of the card. Mailed cash will be hidden or packaged to avoid detection by normal mail scanning devices. Wire transfers are often sent overseas so funds almost immediately vanish," the announcement said.

The FBI urges consumers to protect themselves saying that "officials will never contact members of the public or medical practitioners by telephone to demand any form of payment, or to request personal or sensitive information."

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

chrystaltree — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 22:47:38 GMT

I think a person has to be awfully dense and clueless to fall for such an obvious scam.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

Icegoddess — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 22:53:13 GMT

Those don't sound new at all.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

millieshops — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 23:08:16 GMT

@chrystaltree I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for those who "fall" for the scammers, but I fear for those who have lost the capacity to make the judgment between scam offers and legit ones.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

rms1954 — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 23:10:42 GMT

"NEW"??? How is this new. Been going on for years.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

Sage04 — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 23:39:05 GMT

@Icegoddess wrote:
Those don't sound new at all.

@Icegoddess they are not. I've been waiting for the Sherrif to come and arrest me now for about 13 years. That's when I first moved to Atlanta so I remember it well.

After that, the calls came a few other times. Now nothing. They gave up.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

Sage04 — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 23:40:48 GMT

@rms1954 wrote:
"NEW"??? How is this new. Been going on for years.

@rms1954 maybe the FBI just heard about it lol

Nobody told them.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

Katcat1 — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 02:20:39 GMT

Those are some really pathetic people to live their lives scamming. Get a job and pay taxes and quit trying to live off others.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

KKJ — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 02:30:24 GMT

@Katcat1 You said it! These scammers are low-lifes for sure. I have an elderly relative who had her bank acct. cleaned out by these jerks. They prey on elderly women who are also very gullible--well, my relative is anyway.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

dooBdoo — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 04:03:30 GMT

I receive the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center news and alerts (ic3.gov) via email.

Sometimes the alerts and news releases are warnings of new concerns, other times they issue reminders and updates of existing scams and crimes.

This one was a news release sent out 3/7/22 but it wasn't presented as a new scam, although I can see why it might appear to be so.

When I read it my impression was that it was a reminder of an existing problem, since they talk about an "ongoing" fraud scheme.

At any rate, it's good information and I think reminders such as this are good for us to stay aware and cautious, so thank you, @KingstonsMom, for sharing it.😊

Here's the first part of it:

"The FBI is warning the public of ongoing widespread fraud schemes in which scammers impersonate law enforcement or government officials in attempts to extort money or steal personally identifiable information..."

The complete public service announcement:

https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA220307

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

bonnielu — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 06:16:56 GMT

I get one of two scam attempts every few days. Some by email, some by phone and some by mail.

Most memorable was the grandson scam. And then the Amazon scam trying to get me to help my friend who needed a gift card for her niece. Her entire account was taken over and my email back to her saying NO WAY was used to call me and tell me lies about my Amazon account. She had to change her email account and had no idea it was happening until most of her friends were contacted.

The funniest one was when I was threatened to be arrested and the police would be right over to get me UNLESS I paid. We live rura, meaing when I called the real police they insisted to come right over to save me. Who showed up a former student! We got a real laugh since I was one tough teacher in my day and probably would have dismantled the person coming over. LOL

I could go on and on. No way to stop these horrible people legally since most are OFF SHORE.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

qualitygal — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 10:33:45 GMT

People who are trusting, and don't understand, as you and I do, that it's a scam, just try to be helpful and do the right thing. If this post helps or reminds someone, it doesn't hurt. It helps. @chrystaltree

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

cindyNC — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:08:30 GMT

Between my cell and our landline, we had 6-8 spam calls or texts yesterday.

The worst ones are from somebody claiming to be a veterinary office regarding appointments for a pet. I so want to reply to that one and let them know they have the wrong number.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

teganslaw — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:17:15 GMT

Yesterday I got two on my cellphone, both starting with area code 161 and 141. Both codes are scams. I didn't answer the phone and don't have voicemail set up, so nothing came of them. It's unusual because I never have gotten telemarketers on my cellphone before yesterday.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

Krimpette — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:30:09 GMT

These days, I just don't answer the phone at all if I don't recognize the caller.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

chrystaltree — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:39:48 GMT

@millieshops wrote:
@chrystaltree I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for those who "fall" for the scammers, but I fear for those who have lost the capacity to make the judgment between scam offers and legit ones.

Yes, I do have sympathy for those who don't have the mental faculty to make good judgments but those people are also incapable of understanding warnings and advisories.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

KingstonsMom — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 18:39:07 GMT

@chrystaltree wrote:
I think a person has to be awfully dense and clueless to fall for such an obvious scam.

@chrystaltree

I don't agree with your "awfully dense and clueless" comment, a lot of victims who "fall for" these scams are the elderly, mentally challenged, or those who don't keep up with what's going on in the world via the internet, so their cognizant abilities are also challenged or they haven't heard anything about it when that call comes in.

I sure give my Grandma a pass when she fell for the 'your grandson has been arrested (or kidnapped) and sent money.....she doesn't even have a grandson.....just one granddaughter.

Bless her heart!

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

VanSleepy — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 18:57:27 GMT

@cindyNC wrote:
Between my cell and our landline, we had 6-8 spam calls or texts yesterday.

The worst ones are from somebody claiming to be a veterinary office regarding appointments for a pet. I so want to reply to that one and let them know they have the wrong number.

If the vet's office has been calling continuously and leaving messages, why can't you call to tell them they've been calling the wrong number.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

chrystaltree — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 21:00:06 GMT

@Katcat1 wrote:
Those are some really pathetic people to live their lives scamming. Get a job and pay taxes and quit trying to live off others.

Scammers are not some guy sitting at a laptop at his kitchen table. Lol. Today, It's organized crime and they operate like huge corporations. They have call centers with scores of employees, sophisticated technical equipment, computer prigrams. Most operate out of foreign countries where they are protected and unreachable. That's why stopping them is impossible.

Re: FBI Warning About 'New' Scam

Sage04 — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 22:17:22 GMT

@cindyNC wrote:
Between my cell and our landline, we had 6-8 spam calls or texts yesterday.

The worst ones are from somebody claiming to be a veterinary office regarding appointments for a pet. I so want to reply to that one and let them know they have the wrong number.

@cindyNC you can do so by blocking your number before you make the call in case you don't feel comfortable. I received one about picking up a child from school. I was able to google the number and found out that it was a real call but I still dialed *67 and then the number and told them they had the wrong number.