Phishing scam increase

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I'm seeing a dramatic increase in attempts to phish me, personally on phone texts, WhatsApps, email and work email.

The UK recently outlawed SIM farms in the UK, a poor start right.

Not enough IMHO but with the obvious undertones of the world let's try and stear clear of why and who on this thread.

I'm intrigued if it's a worldwide uptick not on everyone's 1984 predictions or country based finger pointing, we all know the who's anyway.

Might end up post light but if even the regulars just vote we might see.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Yep, I've notice a large uptick over the last 2-3 months.... My mother even fell for one and they charged like 2000 to her account pretending to be Xfinity.

 

[R0H1T]

Here's a good Samaritan trying to make me a millionaire

Spoiler

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Counter-terrorism Division and Cyber Crime Division
J. Edgar. Hoover Building Washington DC

Dear Beneficiary,

Series of meetings have been held over the past 4 months with the secretary general of the United Nations Organization, this ended 7 days ago. It is obvious that you have not received your fund which is to the tune of One Million, Two Hundred Thousand United State Dollars ($1,200,000.00) due to past corrupt Governmental Officials who almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reasons and some individuals who have taken advantage of your fund all in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to so many losses from your end and unnecessary delay in the receipt of your fund. The National Central Bureau of Interpol enhanced by the United Nations and Federal Bureau of Investigation have successfully passed a mandate to the current President of United States Of America His Excellency President Joe Biden to boost the exercise of clearing all foreign debts owned to you and other individuals and organizations who have been found not to have re ceived their winnings.

Now how would you like to receive your payment? Because we have two method of payment which is by Check or by ATM card?

ATM CARD: We will be issuing you a Custom Pin based ATM Card which you will use to withdraw up to $2,500 per day from any ATM Machine that has the Master Card Logo on it and the Card have to be renewed in 4 years time which is 2027. Also with the ATM Card you will be able to transfer your funds to your local bank account. The ATM Card comes with a handbook or manual to enlighten you on how to use it. Even if you do not have a Bank Account.

CERTIFIED CHECK: To be deposited in your bank for it to be cleared within three business days. Your payment would be sent to you via any of your preferred option and would be mailed to you via DHL because we have signed a contract with DHL which should expire in the next two weeks which gives you the edge in paying the sum of $270 instead of $600 thereby saving you $330. So if you pay before the two weeks grace period, you save $330. Take note that anyone asking you for some kind of money above the usual fee is definitely a fraudster and you will have to stop all communication with every other person if you have been in contact with any. Also remember that all you will ever have to spend is $270.00.. Nothing more! Nothing less! And we guarantee the receipt of your fund to be successfully delivered to you within the next 48hrs after the receipt of payment has been confirmed.

Note: Everything has been taken care of by the Government Of The United States, The United Nation and also the FBI including taxes, custom papers and clearance duty as all you will ever need to pay is $270.

DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE UNTIL YOU READ THIS: The actual fee for shipping your ATM Card/Check is $600 but because DHL have temporarily discontinued the C.O.D which gives you the chance to pay when package is delivered for international shipping, we had to sign contract with them for bulk shipping which makes the fee low from the actual fee of $600 to $270, nothing more and no hidden fees of any sort!

To effect the release of your fund valued at $1,200,000.00, you are advised to contact our correspondent, the delivery officer Agent Donald Anderson with the information below,

Name: Agent Donald Anderson
Email: fbi.donaldanderson@mail.ee
Telephone: (218) 815-6075
WhatsApp: (913) 414-5956
Telegram: (815) 710-7394

Didn't realize Biden signed up for this

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Yep, I've notice a large uptick over the last 2-3 months.... My mother even fell for one and they charged like 2000 to her account pretending to be Xfinity.

Some have been quite clever TBF.
Very easy to see how that can happen, unfortunately, informing my self describing "Non Techno" mum (TF right DNB is better) what to avoid has made her very paranoid and in general scared.
She can be daft as a brush though so I think it better to know.

I saw her light her nose with a lighter once, the cig she expected had Not been picked up, wtaf right.

Ps That story explains nothing about me my thoughts are affected by three heavy heavy RTA's, they're why I'm daft.

 

[GerKNG]

i get a lot of scam emails but to be honest i never had a scam phone call in my whole life. neither my parents.
same with physical mail, text messages or other ways like whatsapp.
either i am so irrelevant that not even scammers care about me or it's because a lot of them are in english and that doesn't really work here.

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

Probably it's region specific. I'm getting as much as I usually do. What I started getting more is death threats from people I don't know confusing me with a similarly named bozo.

 

[Double-Click]

I've been getting lots of scam texts posing as undeliverable UPS packages.
New # every time I block/report it.

Not so many scam calls, though it is always amusing when I have Google Assistant screen them before blocking.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

I won 3 free tool sets today already...

But getting less calls than in the past, more emails and texts now. Probably AI generated text.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Some have been quite clever TBF.
Very easy to see how that can happen, unfortunately, informing my self describing "Non Techno" mum (TF right DNB is better) what to avoid has made her very paranoid and in general scared.
She can be daft as a brush though so I think it better to know.

I saw her light her nose with a lighter once, the cig she expected had Not been picked up, wtaf right.

Ps That story explains nothing about me my thoughts are affected by three heavy heavy RTA's, they're why I'm daft.

For me personally I just figured it was due to me buying a house again.... I usually see an uptick whenever making a large purchase for whatever reason..... Somebody is likely selling my information.... Email/Home Address/phone number etc.

AT&T my wireless carrier does a pretty good job of screening spam/malicious calls though at least for me.

 

[R0H1T]

either i am so irrelevant that not even scammers care about me or it's because a lot of them are in english and that doesn't really work here.

A bit of both, btw anyone has UN Secretary General's email? I need to contact them for my lottery

 

[Shihab]

Didn't notice any change.
Campaigns peaked during the heydays of crypto, but they've normalised since then.

 

[the54thvoid]

Here's a good Samaritan trying to make me a millionaire

Spoiler

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Counter-terrorism Division and Cyber Crime Division
J. Edgar. Hoover Building Washington DC

Dear Beneficiary,

Series of meetings have been held over the past 4 months with the secretary general of the United Nations Organization, this ended 7 days ago. It is obvious that you have not received your fund which is to the tune of One Million, Two Hundred Thousand United State Dollars ($1,200,000.00) due to past corrupt Governmental Officials who almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reasons and some individuals who have taken advantage of your fund all in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to so many losses from your end and unnecessary delay in the receipt of your fund. The National Central Bureau of Interpol enhanced by the United Nations and Federal Bureau of Investigation have successfully passed a mandate to the current President of United States Of America His Excellency President Joe Biden to boost the exercise of clearing all foreign debts owned to you and other individuals and organizations who have been found not to have re ceived their winnings.

Now how would you like to receive your payment? Because we have two method of payment which is by Check or by ATM card?

ATM CARD: We will be issuing you a Custom Pin based ATM Card which you will use to withdraw up to $2,500 per day from any ATM Machine that has the Master Card Logo on it and the Card have to be renewed in 4 years time which is 2027. Also with the ATM Card you will be able to transfer your funds to your local bank account. The ATM Card comes with a handbook or manual to enlighten you on how to use it. Even if you do not have a Bank Account.

CERTIFIED CHECK: To be deposited in your bank for it to be cleared within three business days. Your payment would be sent to you via any of your preferred option and would be mailed to you via DHL because we have signed a contract with DHL which should expire in the next two weeks which gives you the edge in paying the sum of $270 instead of $600 thereby saving you $330. So if you pay before the two weeks grace period, you save $330. Take note that anyone asking you for some kind of money above the usual fee is definitely a fraudster and you will have to stop all communication with every other person if you have been in contact with any. Also remember that all you will ever have to spend is $270.00.. Nothing more! Nothing less! And we guarantee the receipt of your fund to be successfully delivered to you within the next 48hrs after the receipt of payment has been confirmed.

Note: Everything has been taken care of by the Government Of The United States, The United Nation and also the FBI including taxes, custom papers and clearance duty as all you will ever need to pay is $270.

DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE UNTIL YOU READ THIS: The actual fee for shipping your ATM Card/Check is $600 but because DHL have temporarily discontinued the C.O.D which gives you the chance to pay when package is delivered for international shipping, we had to sign contract with them for bulk shipping which makes the fee low from the actual fee of $600 to $270, nothing more and no hidden fees of any sort!

To effect the release of your fund valued at $1,200,000.00, you are advised to contact our correspondent, the delivery officer Agent Donald Anderson with the information below,

Name: Agent Donald Anderson
Email: fbi.donaldanderson@mail.ee
Telephone: (218) 815-6075
WhatsApp: (913) 414-5956
Telegram: (815) 710-7394

Didn't realize Biden signed up for this

Who would actually fall for this? It's insane. I don't consider this to be a scam because it's so transparent and stupid.

There are real threats out there, many of them are moon shots, though. I still get calls from call centres with people speaking in central asian accents (sorry, it's true) about this or that. Had one yesterday from Sky. Apparently I've overpaid and I'm due a £200 refund. The lady gave me my postcode to confirm, which I didn't, then I said what I normally say, which I won't repeat.

Left Sky two years ago, and I know they'd not be chasing me to give a refund.

 

[R0H1T]

Well for one it's not targeted at a native English speaker, so it may work on many of those in this part of the world with little to no "PC" knowledge.

 

[Double-Click]

For me personally I just figured it was due to me buying a house again.... I usually see an uptick whenever making a large purchase for whatever reason..... Somebody is likely selling my information.... Email/Home Address/phone number etc.

AT&T my wireless carrier does a pretty good job of screening spam/malicious calls though at least for me.

Did they fix the exploit where spam/scams were coming in through emergency alerts?
Because that freaked me the heck out months back (also AT&T), I just disabled all of them baring the National ones that everyone gets.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Did they fix the exploit where spam/scams were coming in through emergency alerts?
Because that freaked me the heck out months back (also AT&T), I just disabled all of them baring the National ones that everyone gets.

Honestly I've never received one of those...... I have continuously gotten text saying Cynthia you have won blah blah blah from like 25 different numbers I just keep blocking them.

 

[R0H1T]

You're not the former Congressman Santos by any chance?

 

[R-T-B]

Sadly, these always rise around the holidays. They hope to exploit the vulnerable.

 

[Bill_Bright]

It goes with the holidays. But also, here in the US, the annual Medicare open enrollment period runs from October 15th to December 7th each year. There are 17 companies for each eligible Medicare recipient (or so it seems ) each trying to convince unsuspecting seniors into signing up for supplemental plans they don't need. And then there are another 17 genuine bad guys trying to convince seniors into giving out their personal information for non-existent supplemental plans.

Well for one it's not targeted at a native English speaker

I don't understand what you mean by "it's" but they sure are targeting at native English speaking people, and just about everyone else. And sadly, many of these scams have become very sophisticated to where looking for obvious grammar and spelling errors, and other red flags is no longer a simple thing.

This is why what everyone needs to remember (and be reminded of) is to keep our OS and security current and don't be click-happy! That is, don't click on unsolicited links, downloads, attachments, and popups.

 

[R0H1T]

I don't understand what you mean by "it's" but they sure are targeted at native English speaking people, and just about everyone else.

I mean those in places who don't speak English fluently or natively are probably more vulnerable, but of course the ones in English speaking nations are more targeted also in part because they're wealthier countries.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I mean those in places who don't speak English fluently or natively are probably more vulnerable

I suppose that is true. I don't know how it works in other countries, but to me, if I was, for example, German and lived in Germany, I would expect fake emails from my bank to be in German, not English. At least if not in German, that would be the first red flag - for me.

 

[damric]

I spoke with 3 different people this week that each had some sort of scam involving unauthorized debit card charges. One was someone trying to get $80 worth of fast food with my wife's card number. I assumed it was just local petty criminals but I guess 'tis the season.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Most text have been political bs like can we count on your vote blah...
All others have been email and yes majority are really obvious but there's a sucker born every second lol
Also best scams so far are elderly so they get targeted for many types of scams date/.... these stupid people give life saving for no more than a email conversation so it's no wonder why they don't really have to be very sophisticated the people are dumber than dirt

 

[R0H1T]

these stupid people give life saving for no more than a email conversation so it's no wonder why they don't really have to be very sophisticated the people are dumber than dirt

You'd be surprised what people would give for things which are arguably far "lesser" (for many) in life. Not sure why you're taking potshots? I'd rather smack the TikTok gen & confiscate every one of their phones!

 

[Beginner Macro Device]

$80 worth of fast food

I would become immobile after consuming such amount. Dead level immobile that is. Big Mac is shy of $2 here so you get why.

This is why what everyone needs to remember (and be reminded of) is to keep our OS and security current and don't be click-happy! That is, don't click on unsolicited links, downloads, attachments, and popups.

And if you suspect someone scamming you over the phone call remember to fake a different voice so they can't understand what your genuine voice is and can't exploit your biometric data.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I get both emails and calls. Its gotten to a point where if the number isnt recognised, I dont pick up. Emails are pretty obvious.

If its really important that someone wants to speak to me. They'll leave a message for me on voicemail. 99% of the time when they do go through to voicemail, they hang up after a few seconds. Thats one way to know they are on some sort of dialer. They'll wait for you to say hello before connecting you to the scammer