I was snookered!

[Jstpssng]

We lost my mother and father-in-law last year. During their last year or so we had to answer every single phone call we received as we got calls from everywhere about supplies we needed. What bothered me was my phone would label some of the calls 'potential spam'. And they would be from Medicare or a medical equipment supplier that I really needed to talk to. It has been over a year now and we have weeded out and blocked many numbers and our spam calls are down to only a few each month.

What I can't understand is that calls from my bank or doctor's office sometimes intentionally will show a bogus number, for "Privacy" reasons. When they were calling me to schedule surgery it would have been nice to know who was calling.

 

[WinterDeere]

I did some Googling and came up with this:

Liability for Fraudulent Charges​

Federal law limits your liability for fraudulent charges using your debit card to $50. To take advantage of this law, you must report the fraudulent charges within two business days of the charge. After two business days, your liability goes up to $500. If you do not report the theft for more than 60 days after receiving your statement, the bank has no obligation to refund your money at all.

Better than nothing, but still risky if charges are somehow not caught in 2 (or 60!) days.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Two unusual things come to mind: one is years ago (20?) my wife gets a $1,200 bill from the city of Baltimore for an unpaid parking ticket! So I call the Baltimore number on the bill asking questions. They got her car and tag number correct (her '55 Chevy BelAir), I ask when & where offense occurred. Parking ticket was $1,200 because Bill had gone unpaid for months. My wife and that car had never been to Baltimore, the car stays in a locked garage and date they gave me we happened to have engine out rebuilding it and I had proof, machine shop receipts, etc. They dismissed charge.
How could Baltimore court system know her name, car and tag number?
The other happened today (hoping a tech savvy person could explain). This morning I get a cell phone (Samsung A20) from a fellow wanting to schedule a phone meeting with a financial consultant "Bob Smith". We discuss times and choose Tuesday January 10th at 3 p.m. So I go to my phone calendar, click on Jan. 10, 2023. In title as soon as I type B everything automatically fills out!
Bob Smith, company name, 3pm. Will alert me at 2:50pm.
How the h&&& can that happen? Scared the crap out of me.

 

[ponytug]

Two unusual things come to mind: one is years ago (20?) my wife gets a $1,200 bill from the city of Baltimore for an unpaid parking ticket! So I call the Baltimore number on the bill asking questions. They got her car and tag number correct (her '55 Chevy BelAir), I ask when & where offense occurred. Parking ticket was $1,200 because Bill had gone unpaid for months. My wife and that car had never been to Baltimore, the car stays in a locked garage and date they gave me we happened to have engine out rebuilding it and I had proof, machine shop receipts, etc. They dismissed charge.
How could Baltimore court system know her name, car and tag number?
The other happened today (hoping a tech savvy person could explain). This morning I get a cell phone (Samsung A20) from a fellow wanting to schedule a phone meeting with a financial consultant "Bob Smith". We discuss times and choose Tuesday January 10th at 3 p.m. So I go to my phone calendar, click on Jan. 10, 2023. In title as soon as I type B everything automatically fills out!
Bob Smith, company name, 3pm. Will alert me at 2:50pm.
How the h&&& can that happen? Scared the crap out of me.

Sorry, but it happens with some regularity, at least to me. I have gotten them for bridge tolls (sorry folks the car was 1000 miles away at the time with proof), parking tickets. The few that I have tracked back had a plate number, from which they got the rest of the information for the DMV. The trouble is that the original plate number wasn't right. I have seen a ticket that the color and vehicle type wrong, but they ran with the plate number and the rest is history.

On the appointment, it is possible that the person texted you an invite, or sent it via Outlook, or Google, if you use outlook or Google...

Basically, I assume that I have no privacy online, and plan accordingly. I once was shown what Facebook has on me for information, and it was pretty detailed, and I don't use social media.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Oaktree]

What I can't understand is that calls from my bank or doctor's office sometimes intentionally will show a bogus number, for "Privacy" reasons. When they were calling me to schedule surgery it would have been nice to know who was calling.

I think it depends on the doctor. Mine used to block their caller ID, but don't seem to do it anymore. I asked the caller one time (I picked up when I heard her leaving a message on the answering machine), and she wasn't even aware it was being done.

Two unusual things come to mind: one is years ago (20?) my wife gets a $1,200 bill from the city of Baltimore for an unpaid parking ticket! So I call the Baltimore number on the bill asking questions. They got her car and tag number correct (her '55 Chevy BelAir), I ask when & where offense occurred. Parking ticket was $1,200 because Bill had gone unpaid for months. My wife and that car had never been to Baltimore, the car stays in a locked garage and date they gave me we happened to have engine out rebuilding it and I had proof, machine shop receipts, etc. They dismissed charge.
How could Baltimore court system know her name, car and tag number?
The other happened today (hoping a tech savvy person could explain). This morning I get a cell phone (Samsung A20) from a fellow wanting to schedule a phone meeting with a financial consultant "Bob Smith". We discuss times and choose Tuesday January 10th at 3 p.m. So I go to my phone calendar, click on Jan. 10, 2023. In title as soon as I type B everything automatically fills out!
Bob Smith, company name, 3pm. Will alert me at 2:50pm.
How the h&&& can that happen? Scared the crap out of me.

The only thing I can think of with the car is that someone with a similar license # did get the ticket, but maybe the officer either transposed a couple digits or made a typo. The rest of the info would be easy enough for the DMV to obtain if they had that #.

There really is no such thing as privacy anymore. I changed Medicare advantage plans this year to a new company. As part of setting up my online access there were some multiple choice security questions to answer...ones like "which county did you once live in" or "which of these streets is closest to your home address". I'd never done business with this company before, I have no idea how they knew this stuff.

Cellphones or Alexa-type devices are even worse. They're always listening, and speech-to-text software is getting scary good. I'm sure some some programmer thought it would be a cool feature for it to analyze phone conversations, and if an appointment was made to create a reminder.
I won't have either one.

 

[jyoutz]

I did.

I don't know about rule changes. Yet about 15 years ago a friend had money charged against her debit card from a Sears down in Florida. She's never been to Florida. Once the CU started investigating they found that somebody at the Florida store had manually entered the wrong card number for a purchase. It just happened to be her card number. With the help of a bank officer she eventually received a check from Sears for the amount of the error. However, she still had to cover an even larger amount in overdraft fees which were not her fault; Sears refused to come good on them, and the CU wouldn't waive them.

My bank (Bank of America) immediately shuts down the card and orders me a new one when I contact them about a fraudulent transaction. Then they say they will investigate and credit the charge back to my account within 7 days. They have done this a couple times for me over the years.

 

[jyoutz]

Sorry, but it happens with some regularity, at least to me. I have gotten them for bridge tolls (sorry folks the car was 1000 miles away at the time with proof), parking tickets. The few that I have tracked back had a plate number, from which they got the rest of the information for the DMV. The trouble is that the original plate number wasn't right. I have seen a ticket that the color and vehicle type wrong, but they ran with the plate number and the rest is history.

On the appointment, it is possible that the person texted you an invite, or sent it via Outlook, or Google, if you use outlook or Google...

Basically, I assume that I have no privacy online, and plan accordingly. I once was shown what Facebook has on me for information, and it was pretty detailed, and I don't use social media.

All the best,

Peter

You just added a comment on social media.

 

[newbury]

Basically, I assume that I have no privacy online, and plan accordingly. I once was shown what Facebook has on me for information, and it was pretty detailed, and I don't use social media.

I, and many others I used to work with had some rules -
Unless you transferred info or data over a known secure network or where you were positive no one or machine could hear/see/intercept the info assume the info/data is not secure.
If you wrote it down it will get around
Phones are not secure
It's not a secret if 2 people know it

There is no privacy if someone wants to expend the effort to gather information.

I assume that all my online activities may be monitored and my only hope is that I confuse the watchers with quantity.

 

[ponytug]

You just added a comment on social media.

Ok. Guilty as charged officer.

 

[charlessenf]

THEN it came... "I am out of town but if you will give me your address or account number I will send you the money, and my agent will pick it up."

I sent him one last text which read simply "Yeah, RIGHT".

Well, aside from the opportunity of string her/him along ("How will I recognize your agent?" and later "will she/he have a Photo ID?"*) My approach is to use a secondary email account on Craigslist and NOT put any personal identifying info in my ads, I might pick a nearby intersection and Town/Zip Code. Craigslist uses a Blind Email which is perfect. Use it! I add teh following to ALL my ads:

"If you want the (Tractor, Saw, Sheep, etc.) put I WANT YOUR SHEEP in the subject line, and your name and your phone number in the email and I will call you to arrange inspection and pickup. I will NOT respond via email."

As tempting as it might be to reply to the message that does NOT comply with this "POLICY" of mine, it works. I either sell the SHEEP or the WOOL or not - but I never get the fun around from some tire kicker or scammer beyond the one call I make to the phone number he/she sent via email (in writing/traceable).

BTW I do not give out our address during that call. Instead, I ask "Where are you? How far are you from here? When would it be convenient for you to pickup the SAW? , etc." Often tehy (even the legit folks) need to think about making an appointment.

I tell them "OK, TUESDAY NOON, call me when you're on your way and I'll give you the GPS address and directions."

We are in strange time - people shooting up schools, power plants and churches and a neighbor, down the road flying a Red, White & Blue Flag with the words "**** Your Feelings" and Trump 2024 right in front of his house - the South once was known for it's hospitality**!

Be careful out there - they are dangerous, likely well armed and nuts?

When we get SCAM PHONE CALLS, we save each number in teh address book and label it "SCAM CALLER" in case they use it again. We also add a distinctive ring tone to all the callers we might want to speak to and add their names to the digital 'phonebook' on out answering machine.

When A SCAM CALLER does call, I often oblige to see how long I can keep a real person talking before they realize I am scamming them so the police might trace the call (Nah, the police don't want to be bothered - hell, they have an exception so they can call asking for money for their Benevolent Fund!)

It would be cool, though, if they did have a way you could trace such calls by calling the PD on your other line.

* They often email with questions, regardless - esp "Do you still have the SHEEP." As often as not within hours of my posting the ad, or at 3AM EST - another giveaway. These are likely scammers seeking to engage you, Ignore then or report them (Craigslist has a link for reporting SCAMS, SPAM Unwonted and/or annoying emails, I use it in such cases).

** Well, unless your skin wasn't obviously white, of course.