Scammers, Con-artists, Etc.

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Janice Martin, Apr 27, 2017.

  1. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    When I get an e-mail which is asking me to up date my information. I put that in the phishing it means that they are trying to give them information so they can use it probably not for your benefit. If you check your junk tab and drop it down you will see phishing that reports that link as fraud.
     
    #16
  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    That phishing area in your junk tab depends on your email provider. For example, Yahoo email has an address (phishing@cc.yahoo-inc.com) you forward phishing emails to. I'm sure every email provider has their own method to report this stuff. I'm not sure it does any good...
     
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  3. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Verizon only allows you to block 3 or so phone numbers for free. Then you gotta pay for it. My problem with blocking those not on my contacts list is when doctors' offices call. They use a different number than the main one, and if you don't reach a human on your callback, and they return your call on a rotating trunk line, there's no way to connect.
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Robin switched us all over to a T-Mobile plan for veterans, and they allow blocking of any numbers, but our iPhone also has an option to send any non-contact calls straight to voicemail. I mostly just get calls from family, or spam calls, and this filters them out really well.
    Maybe your phone has an option like that, too ? It is not specifically blocking a certain phone number, just not having your phone alert you for a call unless it is in your contacts. I just add any numbers that I need to get calls from into my contacts, and that works great for me.
    It is easy to turn that function on and off, so if I am expecting a call from someone who is not in my contacts, I just turn off that feature temporarily.
     
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  5. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Years ago I started out on T-Mobile but they lacked the coverage I needed. Then the company I was with got us discounts with Verizon. I'm really married to them here, as they are my internet provider (and they are still the only coverage game in town.)

    I just looked at my phone. I don't seen an option to only allow through calls from Contacts. I'll swing by my local Verizon store and get Krystal to help me with it. She's been doing this stuff for years and is real helpful. I feel silly that for all the technology I was on the leading edge of in my career, I feel like the cliché old person with the VCR perpetually blinking "0:00" as far as cell phones are concerned.
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    This morning I found a pending hold when I checked my bank account to make sure that my SS pension check had arrived. The pending hold is apparently from google, and it shows zero dollars, but it worries me just the same, so I will call my bank and ask about it once the bank is open.

    It says “card hold/google * temporary g.co/helppay#CAUS” and shows it pending until 11/6, and amount of $0.00. I do not have any kind of paid google account, like youtube or the google music, and didn’t sign up for any free trials; so I can’t think of any legitimate reason for this to appear on my bank statement.

    When I looked it up, apparently a bunch of people have had the same thing happen to them, and actually had money taken from their accounts, so I definitely need to talk with my bank and see what is going on and have them cancel the pending withdrawal, because the next one might actually have charges with it.
     
    #21
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  7. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    We get scam calls on our mobile phones most days ( we don’t have a home phone ) we block the number
    We’ve now made a habit of ignoring any calls from unknown numbers.

    I get texts from time to urgently update my PayPal or bank account passwords, I delete texts and do any checking directly through the online banking or PayPal .
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    So what happened with the bank?
     
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  9. Bibbi Wright

    Bibbi Wright Very Well-Known Member
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    We hardly ever get scam calls thanks to a free service called Nix. You register your phone number with them and they stop companies that you’re not a customer with or been a customer with from calling you. Like you we also block other unknown numbers.

    We’ve also had mails from ”Paypal” asking us to update our account. One problem - we’ve never used Paypal. Any mails from our ”bank” are trashed and we phone the bank.
     
    #24
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  10. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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  11. Janice Lynne

    Janice Lynne Well-Known Member
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    The two latest incidents here were an email from Norton Antivirus and a couple text messages from ATT.

    The first warned that my Norton subscription was about to expire, and provided a handy link to 'renew.' Very suspicious, since I was only five months into the subscription

    The ones that claimed to be from ATT said that they were about to 'disable' my device (a Consumer Cellular flip phone with no internet connection) and advised me to clear out old files or something like that? Didn't really understand what they were asking!
     
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  12. Bibbi Wright

    Bibbi Wright Very Well-Known Member
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    These are typical scams. We’ve also had mails telling us that certain accounts or devices would be cancelled or disabled. Straight in the trash.
     
    #27
  13. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    The bank said that they could not tell what the pending notice was for either. They said I could come down and cancel my card if I wanted to. However, then I have to chance over everything to a new card number for payments that come out automatically .
    Since there was no money involved with the pending hold, I decided that I would wait and see if it happens again, and if I get another notice for actual money, then I will cancel my card and do everything over.
    So it is still just as much of a mystery as ever.

    Edit to add: The bank cancelled my card anyway, so now I have to go down and get another one. I tried to order from Sam’s Club this morning, and it said my card was not accepted, so I called the bank to find out why, since I didn’t think that the card was already cancelled.
     
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    Last edited: Nov 4, 2021

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