Scam

[tigger222]

I know that this probably an old scam but my Grandmother just got a scammy call and I wanted to alert everyone to it.

She got a phone call from someone claiming to be my brother and that they were in a jail in Mexico and that they needed her to send money to get them out. My brother is in the Army so she thought that this might be true. But when she asked some very pointed questions like "Why didn't you call your wife?" And "How is the baby?" And "Why couldn't your parents send the money?" The responses that she got didn't add up so she hung up and called my Aunt who found out that this is a scam. She is fine just very freaked out about it and is making a point about asking very pointed questions when one of us grandkids calls right now.

And BTW my brother is fine and is at home with wife and baby right now and hasn't been to Mexico in years.

[Mytical]

*nods* That has become a very common scam. Always ask verifying information, and try to contact that person through another method also.

[lordlundar]

Trick questions are always a good approach as well, like asking "how's your brother?" when you know they don't have one. Because most scammers don't actually have the info, they try to play along and say "he's fine" or some other thing.

[csquared]

Some scammers are better than that. They can get half your life story off your Facebook page (probably where they got Gandma's name to begin with) and can easily fool her.

All those security/privacy features on Facebook are worthless when your BFF is careless about their security and has their account hacked.

[cashierbex]

Ha. Even with facebook, I still have stuff I don't post on there. And I almost post everything about my life cause its all friends and family. They catch up with me that way. /.

[Redbeard]

I got one of those emails once, let a friend know that his account had been hacked. It's always fun to start replying with thing like "Have you been violated yet? Remember, find the biggest, meanest cabron there and tell him that you'll be his little love tamale"

[dalesys]

... find the biggest, meanest cabron there and tell him that you'll be his little love tamale"

Thanks, but I want a taco.

[PepperElf]

another reason why i don't mind the fact that i keep forgetting to post to fb

[AnaKhouri]

I have heard of this. I actually wrote a short story about it, but the old woman in question was actually the widow of a Russian mafia boss, so the scammers got a bit more than they bargained for.

[AccountingDrone]

LOL last year I got an email on one of my accounts from a spammer faking one of my other accounts that I never use telling me that I was in London and needed me to send myself money

[I have account in my real name, and another on the same account @earthlink and then I have a @GMX account in the name of one of my EVE Online characters, one on @GMAIL in one of my LOTRO character name and an @YAHOO email in a different name entirely as well as an @99MAIN that is specifically a spamcatcher I use to sign onto webpages with a common misspelling of part of my real name I figure will sell my email addy to spammers.]

[Kogarashi]

AccountingDrone, that's hilarious.

I've gotten the e-mail version of this twice, once each from two of my sisters, both claiming to be in London but without cash or phone. And all I could think the first time was "since when did you go to the UK? And how did you get e-mail access but not be able to borrow someone's phone and call home? Let alone call Mom instead of your sister with the long and convoluted e-mail address you'd never actually remember?"

The first time, I suspected scam, and texted said sister who texted right back that she was fine. The second time, I knew it was a scam and sent the heads-up to that sister.

[Andara Bledin]

This has been trolling around since 2006.

I only know because I looked it up on Snopes on Monday because my workplace got one to a non-personal email account (we think it was culled from the email list of one of our eBay customers).

It's probably going to be around forever, just like the Nigerian scam.

It's particularly important that people with adult grandchildren or children than they don't see very often make some effort to confirm that the person on the other side is who they say they are. And don't ask easy stuff like birthdays or relatives or pets - people who do phone calls are more likely to have done some homework before dialing.

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

That's an old, old scam. I suggest that anybody who receives a call like that call the last known number for the person in question, or their parent, or a sibling--anybody who can verify where the person actually is.

[Pixilated]

*snip*
It's particularly important that people with adult grandchildren or children than they don't see very often make some effort to confirm that the person on the other side is who they say they are. And don't ask easy stuff like birthdays or relatives or pets - people who do phone calls are more likely to have done some homework before dialing.

^-.-^

This last part is very important, because yes, a lot of these people have gathered a considerable amount of information before they make the call.

I got an email from an aunt, about how she was in England and had been mugged and they got all her money and the British police were no help and the Canadian embassy was no help and sheneededmoneyrightawaypleasesendmoneyrightaway ...

I found this more than a little curious since I'd spoken to her on the phone not 24 hours earlier and she hadn't mentioned anything about going to England ...

This same aunt has gotten at least one call like that, allegedly from a grandson, but luckily she twigged to the fraud very quickly. I look forward to getting calls like that in the future, from my "grandchildren" ... since I have no kids. I anticipate having a lot of fun.

[AlmightyALT]

Code Words/Passwords. I've heard of this scam before (big news in Japan back in 2007) and worked out a system with my parents. If they get the call they'll ask for the password, three guesses. So far hasn't needed to be used.

My Karate Sensei's email got hacked and they sent the 'I'm in London, been mugged, blah blah blah' email to his contacts. Most of them mailed back, "Yeah... mugged.... Right..... You know you've hacked the account of a Karate Black Belt?"