Mild paranoia with regard to pay pal/credit card scams

#1. If this guy was a telemarketer legitimately offering me phone cards, why was he calling from a cell phone? (Also, the only telemarketing calls I get are on the weekend from the SF Chronicle).

I can't tell from your post if the guy was calling to just confirm your address to send you phone cards, or if he was trying to sell them? It's probably a scam -- you get $200 in phone cards for a convenience/shipping fee of $7.95 or whatever, and he gets your c.c. number to use as he sees fit. I personally don't ever answer the phone unless it's from a person I know; if it's important, the caller would leave a number. Incoming phone calls are just too freaking anonymous to trust the other party. Sad but true.

#2. Do you think the phone cards thing is pure coincidence?

I think so. It sounds like whoever had your friend's c.c. number was using it to buy easily re-sellable items like phone cards.

#3. I've never clicked on any faux paypal links before, I'm pretty conscious of things like that based on some stories I've read.

NEVER click on any links in e-mails that are unexpected from sites like Paypal, eBay, or any banks. Always go to the URL bar yourself and type in the company's address. The only time I click on links is when I am certain it's legit, and I even do this by looking at the e-mail headers to make sure the message was routed through Paypal's servers.

#4. What types of precautionary measures would you take if you were in this situation?

I think you're OK as it is. It probably couldn't hurt to go online and look at your c.c. activity every few days. Also, contact the 3 major credit bureaus and have a fraud alert put on your file. It will mean you won't be able to get instant credit at stores or online, without them first having to contact you to verify you are who you say you are, but that's a small price to pay.

#5. Am I being paranoid?

Nope. I was a victim of identity theft about 5 years ago and as a result I've gotten really cagey and naturally suspicious. There are a lot of angles that scammers can work, so your best bet is to be proactive in choosing who you want to do business with and not wait to be approached anonymously with some great offer or threatening e-mail.

(this is in the UK obv)

I got a few paypay emails the other day, and was all WTF? cause even though I was thinking of it, I never opened an account there.

heads up

From: hamidahh✧✧✧@ya✧✧✧.c✧✧

Subject: Dear Optimum Subscriber

"Resident, I can see you achieving and coming up in life, just let me help. Literally I am reeling in $870 per week. Charlie Sheen is my hero, the guy lives life the way he wants to. Don't you want to live life the same way? You can destroy any bad thoughts of failing with the blink of an eye, you just have to blink. do it. Stop running in circles and start running out of ways to spend the money you're about to make clik here Your live is what you make of it, What are you going to make out of it with this?"

Should I clik here?

Been getting the occasional call lately trying to run a Yellow Pages scam on me.

people have been buying shit w/ my card for the past day

eek, sorry you're getting scammed

What's the Yellow Pages scam?

Caller says "According to our records, the Yellow Pages listing you signed up for, the one where you pay for one year and get one year free, is about to expire. Would you like to renew it with the same buy one get one offer, or cancel it and just pay for the one year?"

Me: "I don't have any record or any memory of signing up for any Yellow Pages listing at all, so there's nothing for me to renew or cancel."

Caller: "Sir, I need to know one way or another if you want to renew the listing or cancel it."

Me: "I didn't sign up for it. If I do either one of the things you want, that would acknowledge that I signed up for it, but I didn't. Go away."

Caller: "Sir, I'll just have to turn this over to my supervisor and they'll be in touch with you."

Me: "...."
Caller: blah blah blah
Me: "...."
Click

I immediately hang-up on any phone call that isn't from my mum or grandpa.

i just screen calls and if i don't recognize the number, i don't answer. one of the great pleasures of caller ID.

I wish I had that, but upgrading my landline is a very low priority.

This is my work line, so unfortunately I have to take calls from numbers I don't recognize. I've gotten legit work calls from people at times when the caller ID says "private caller," but it's tempting to quit that. I've gotten the Yellow Pages scam for years and have pretty much figured out how to deal with these yahoos.

very nearly got caught two or three weeks ago with an extremely well formed scam which i'm still a bit too shaken/embarrassed to write up yet (everyone keeps saying that they were good and i wasn't an idiot but i feel i kind of was and knew better, right up until i didn't) (i realised quick enough and in the end lost no money only internal dignity BUT…)

ANYWAY, after that aggravating teaser, this is about a different phone-scam, if it is one -- bcz i don't see how it works?

you get cold-called, and they say "we're calling about your recent car accident"
you say "i haven't had a car accident"
they insist a bit, then start talking about other possible accidents
by this time i'm always getting them off the phone -- but how does it continue? does it only catch unsuspecting people who HAVE had some kind of recent accident?

(or is it just cold-calling to sell belated hence useless accident insurance?)

I get those all the time. I suspect some of my responses to these calls are used in training courses on how to deal with irate and abusive customers.

I'd like to think I'm immune to all these scams and would even stubbornly bat them off if they tried to acquire a ha'penny of mine, or even the steam off my piss. But my game probably isn't as good as I think it is. I just hang up on strangers and be careful about who I give card details to. I would deffo want to hear more on this clever scam.

... not so much irate as viciously sardonic. (xp)

mark s - http://www.scamnet.wa.gov.au/scamnet/Scam_Types-Phone_Scams-Car_Accident_Compensation_Phone_Scam.htm

"So far we haven’t recorded any monetary loss in relation to this ‘accident helpline scam’" <-- but i guess the "suckers list" is the key bit here

anyway cheers

calzino i will write it up i promise -- it was clever psychologically (and good teamwork) rather than intellectually, and i suspect one of its cleverer moving parts would actually drive most people to hang up much earlier

haha i'm saying "cleverer" bcz it's the thing that got the better of me: others when they read it will doubtless assign the IQ levels differently :)

rant time because i'm in a ranty mood.

this is one of the many, many things in 21st century america where we tend to blame the victim. somebody gets caught in a scam and it's THEIR FAULT. worse, we treat phishing scams as if they can be dealt with from the victims' side, like if you teach them enough the scammers will go away.

one of my good friends is dying right now. there's an online gang, we've known each other for decades, and there was a paypal collection for a gift. and i didn't give, mostly because i'm out of work and don't have much to spare, but partly because i'm paranoid about these sorts of things.

it's bullshit. objectively speaking i'm in favor of due process and all that but emotionally, right now, i want these scammers to have their fingernails pulled out.

I get automated calls about car accidents on a daily basis. Relatively few people claim for any kind of personal injury they might have a theoretical case about and there is an entire subclass of quasi-legal firms that exist to milk this. The general idea is that they make a claim for, idk, £2000 compensation, the insurance company realises it would cost them more to investigate and fight, and they settle. The bulk of the compensation is kept by the quasi-lawyers and a couple of hundred goes back to the injured party. It's essentially a mild form of extortion - with companies in other sectors as well scared into settling claims they have no real liability for - and people who have genuine claimed conned out of what might actually be a right to a lot more money.

The worst are the people who phone up recent migrants and claim to be from UK immigration - demanding hundreds of Pounds to sort out fake 'visa irregularities'.

I used to get them occasionally (despite my British passport) and request to be put through to the deputy director of UKVI at Lunar House, who I knew professionally, at which point they would swear at me and hang up.

cf also coldcalling re PPI claims

^^^i have a story abt this too (which makes me look a bit smarter tbf) but right now i have to give my niece a piano lesson

xp yuk that is low, the world is full of horrible ppl

so yes, the PPI story that makes me look not so foolish:

1: coldcalled by someone offering PPI lawyering
2: a PPI refund is something i was fairly sure i could actually get
3: got them to send me some stuff, researched it a bit, realised my chances were actually quite good
4: decided my my chances were just as good if i cut out the middleman and chased my bank myself
5: when the coldcallers next rang, told them this
6: long argument over the phone, colldcallers becoming first fake incredulous that i was passing up this chance ("why would you throw away money? why would you do that?"), then insistent, and then -- as i felt -- a bit abusive
7: i pointed out to them that their hardsell was getting as dodgy as the bank's PPI sell had originally been, haha i think i used the phrase "bordering on fraud"
8: they put down the phone before i'd completed the sentence with the word "fraud" in it (interesting: presumably everything is recorded and the coldcaller realised they'd strayed off-message)

9: now began pursuing it with my bank, lloyds (actually my former bank, i'd switched to the co-op a few years before bcz lloyds wound me up SO MUCH when dealing w/dad's account before and after his death)
10: lloyds said they'd do an investigation and get back to me
11: heard nothing for some months (and basically forgot all about it)
12: remembered, chased it up
13: was told they'd investigated, no dice, and sent me a letter
14: when?
15: six or seven months back
16: hmmm, can you resend the letter in case i want to appeal
17: we will re-send the letter but yr appeal time has expired

18: however when i switched away from the PPI coldcallers and researched myself -- via the "which" page i linked above -- i found out that you can appeal to the OMBUDSMAN if you are unhappy with the bank's investigation
19: so i rang the ombudsman -- super-friendly, super-helpful, i described the situation (basically i didn't recall being sold the insurance for my card AT ALL though there it was in the invoices, and had no paperwork for it, which is super-suspicious, i have paperwork back to the 80s on some stuff i am so bad at chucking things out -- and anyway, the insurance didn't cover the self-employed and i am self-employed)
20: ombudsman said yes, sounds like a case -- we will investigate but it may take 18 months, there are now SO MANY of these cases being dealt with, the ombudsman's office had to move into a much bigger builder and quadruple its staff to deal with them

21: c.14 months later i got a big settlement cheque from lloyds (q

oops not quite finished

22: and two days after that a letter from the ombudsman saying they had ruled in my favour and the bank would probably soon be contacting me (ie the bank had paud me off super-1

ffs

the bank had paid me off super-quick probably to ensure i didn't appeal again and claim more

moral: the original coldcall goaded me into pursuing this and it was a good idea

23. Party chez mark s

well yes, but all spent now (paying off card debt for another bank mostly)

"why would you throw away money? why would you do that?"

I am communist