Another slick scam

[MarkF48]

That's not a HughNet website, it's a copy, and please don't do things like click the 'links'. You never know what they may do or where they may take you.

If I'm suspicious of a website with links, usually if you hover the mouse over a link it will expose the real address destination in most browsers. Most times will give a clue whether you want to go there or not. If in doubt, don't click.

 

[marchanna]

Good rule of thumb, be skeptical of any email you were not expecting. Never click on a link in an email that is regarding financial or account (any type of account) information.

 

[mark02tj]

The REALLY SAD thing about all of this - the scams must be working a percentage of the time or "they" would try something else.

Mostly target the elderly - which makes it even sadder. Emails and phone calls which are designed to fool them into thinking that a grandchild is in some sort of trouble and needs "bailed out." About a year ago we had an elderly gentleman in the Township that fell for this. The "cops" had him go to the Apple store to get an iTunes gift card for about $1500 or so. They convinced him that they had to do it this way because their police department only had Apple computers. He bought the card, called them back and gave them the card info. They called him back a few minutes later and told him that the judge had increased the bail amount. It was only when he went back to the Apple store to buy a second card that someone there figured out he was being scammed. Very sad. I know of a few more that fell, or nearly fell, for similar scams.

The CBS sit-com show, Life in Pieces, had a "story" on this last week. Click on the little dot around the 15:30 mark. Would have been funny if it weren't so true.

 

[forgeblast]

ebay and paypal spoofs get sent to me, I send them (forward them) to spoof@ebay.com or paypal. They have a crew that looks into them.

 

[MacLawn]

NEVER, never click on an email link. Never.

Y'all wonder when to click on email link? I'll tell you...look above.

 

[drizler]

My steadfast rule to completely avoid this is simple. Any query or request from ANY site or organization like this i never respond to from the furnished link. Just use what you have saved in your favorites or google it up and go into your account that way. Then you never risk sending information to some Nigerian phisherman.

 

[cqaigy2]

My steadfast rule to completely avoid this is simple. Any query or request from ANY site or organization like this i never respond to from the furnished link. Just use what you have saved in your favorites or google it up and go into your account that way. Then you never risk sending information to some Nigerian phisherman.

That's a good point. I'll use a few different search engines to see what kind of results i get.

 

[Mendonsy]

Another simple thing you can do is to place the mouse pointer over the link. Most browsers will display the contents of the link and it is usually obvious that the link does not belong to any legitimate site.

 

[jmc]

The REALLY SAD thing about all of this - the scams must be working a percentage of the time or "they" would try something else.

I couldn稚 help overhearing a conversation between a bank teller and a 30-something immigrant who was in there trying to comply with an obvious scam promising free money. The teller was great and gently told her it was almost certainly a scam. The customer had an odd look on her face when she left. Maybe disappointment, or maybe anger at the bearer of bad news.

 

[EddieWalker]

A guy in Austin Texas was arrested last year from scamming people online. He made over $7 million by the time they caught him. For all the people that don't fall for the scam, enough do to make it worthwhile. Sadly, most are elderly who are too trusting or wanting to help. Same thing with most charities. They target the elderly with their fund raising. To me, they are all scams too. Number one donor for animal groups are widowed women. The more you can make an animal suffer in a video clip, the easier it is to get money from them.

Most popular scam going on around here is a phone call from the IRS demanding payment or else. Then they get you to pay on a credit card of some kind.