Scammers be a'scamming.

[Line6 HXFX]

Just had someone ring me, with an Irish accent, explaining they are from PayPal, and then just straight out asked for my login details.

They knew my name, first and last, and I, instead of saying "I don't have a PayPal account", I stupidly said "well you could litterally be anyone on earth, so I am not going to give you that info am I".

She said she understands perfectly and that I should just log into PayPal and check my account.

So she now knows (as well as my full name, telephone number etc) I have a PayPal account too.

Rule 1..
Don't inadvertently tell them you have a PayPal or Amazon or whatever bank account etc, just say you don't have one an they must be mistaken.
Change your login details if you do screw up like I just did.

Thank ew, and here hendeth the lesson.

[TB63]

Yup, had an email the other day from PayPal asking me to change my password..
PayPal.com/UK.... Err, nope...

[ASMO]

Never ever tell them anything, also never even open the emails as they will know its a live mailbox. I run everything on a Virtual Machine on my home PC, so nothing can get through, if the machine becomes fecked, i just trash the VM and spin up a new one in seconds

[CM11]

Never ever tell them anything, also never even open the emails as they will know its a live mailbox. I run everything on a Virtual Machine on my home PC, so nothing can get through, if the machine becomes fecked, i just trash the VM and spin up a new one in seconds

How do/can they know it's read on Gmail?

[ASMO]

Never ever tell them anything, also never even open the emails as they will know its a live mailbox. I run everything on a Virtual Machine on my home PC, so nothing can get through, if the machine becomes fecked, i just trash the VM and spin up a new one in seconds

How do/can they know it's read on Gmail?

They will insert a little bit of code into the mail to tell them. there are services and apps that do it too

https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/56-h ... ad-receipt is just one example

[Mahoney]

Never ever tell them anything, also never even open the emails as they will know its a live mailbox. I run everything on a Virtual Machine on my home PC, so nothing can get through, if the machine becomes fecked, i just trash the VM and spin up a new one in seconds

How do/can they know it's read on Gmail?

Depends whether or not it's configured to download remote resources like images - if it is the URL for the image will have a unique id in it, so opening the mail will trigger a request for the image which effectively tells them you opened it.

It's a pain but configure your mail client to ask you before loading remote content like images.

[.OverThere]

Nahhhhhh, its all now sorted.
Apparantly I was swindled, (don't tell anyone nothing went out of the a/c), and I'm now going to get million's of bucks compo.
Somebody else suggested that if I opened up 10 more e-mail a/cs I might be lucky and get loads & loads more compensation.

FBI Headquarters
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20535 USA

Attn: Beneficiary

After proper and several investigations by the Western Union, Money Gram, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations (UN) Offices we found your name amongst those that have sent money through Western Union and Money Gram in the course of receiving your Inheritance, Lottery, United Nation compensation funds which proves that you have truly been swindled by those unscrupulous persons by sending money to them through the above mentioned means.

To this regard United Nations (UN) held a meeting with the Board of Directors of WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM, INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) the FBI alongside with the MINISTRY of FINANCE. As a result of our investigations it was agreed that the sum of Six Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (U.S.$6, 500,000.00) should be transferred to you from the funds set aside by The United States Department of the Treasury to compensate scam victims.

The compensation scheme is open to people who wired money to scammers via Western Union and MoneyGram between January 1, 2004 to December 19, 2019, The deadline for lodging these claims is November 12, 2020.

This case is being handled and supervised by the FBI therefore we have submitted your details to affect the transfer of your funds to you. Contact the Western Union agent office through the information below:

Contact Person: Betsy Holden
Address: Western Union Post Office, California
Email: bestyholden@gmail.com

Yours sincerely,
Christopher Wray
FBI Director

[Hal Jordan]

I get those emails every day to my work email. I am actually disappointed if I don't get at least one missive from a high ranking official in a government department or business requesting my assistance in shifting huge sums of money via my account.

I was also pleased to receive a call the other day about my recent car accident. The old ones are the best.

[Sandstorm]

I get those emails every day to my work email. I am actually disappointed if I don't get at least one missive from a high ranking official in a government department or business requesting my assistance in shifting huge sums of money via my account.

I was also pleased to receive a call the other day about my recent car accident. The old ones are the best.

You should stop logging onto Redtube on your work laptop.

[Plato’sCave]

Don’t say anything, your “yes” and “no” answers can be recorded and used when accessing other telephone services that use verbal responses. Just hang up.

[Raggs]

Not quite the same, but I once had a customer calling me over the course of weeks. At first he was convinced we'd stolen his money. We hadn't. Then he demanded a refund, despite the fact his cash had already been spent. He then called, pretending to be a lawyer, told him I can't discuss anything that's related to the account with anyone else. Next up he started pretending to be the FBI, how they were going to raid our offices, and the fact they were bugged etc.

It was at that point I asked him if he knew where our offices actually are (they are not in the states), I didn't tell him where we were, but I did point out that we weren't in the states, and that we hadn't done anything illegal. I did follow up by telling him that our calls are recorded, and that impersonating a member of the FBI is an offence, and that I'm going to pass on his details, along with the recordings, to the FBI.

I didn't actually do that, but he stopped calling :D.

[Glaston]

Big rise in those weird pre recorded messages purporting to be from Amazon etc in recent months.

Have had a lot of warnings via Neighbourhood Watch about the rise in scammers.

Had the one about loft insulation, which was vaguely believable as we did have problems when they installed it (one of those Govt schemes for pensioners) . They must have got a phone list some how from the installers.

Then had a call which was supposedly about my step fathers shareholding in BP. True he did have shares in BP but he died 14 years ago.

There were also some cases in Somerset at the start of the C19 when people were panic buying.
The scammers would go to elderly, single pensioners offering to help get their groceries and vanish with the cash.

[Uncle fester]

Work do test scam emails every now and then so we are expected to click on the suspected phishing button in outlook.

Some of them, you would need to do a couple of reads not to get caught out.

CEO emails get sent there naturally.

[Slick]

I overheard my mum getting a really hard sell from a fairly legit company the other day for washing machine insurance. Even as I was sat watching her she was getting convinced despite saying no several times - it was pretty hard to watch but she was getting angry with me for getting involved so I had to walk away.

Anyway, the next day, having signed up, she has second thoughts and emails them to cancel - cue a flood of calls to speak with her. Eventually she lets me take over and I have to get very aggressive with the guys for them to eventually fuck off.

I'd never witnessed the hard sell on an elderly lady before, it was fucking disgracful.