It is apparent that you’re not listening.
We’ve written countless times about the many scams out there today. On their face, they would seem rather obvious and easy to defeat – but on the contrary, they’re working.
Danville residents recently donated $100,000 to their cause, and police there admit there is little they can do to recover that money – except issue more warnings about the scams. Even with that, people are lining up at Target and Walmart to purchase gift cards for scammers threatening them with “arrest” from Karachi, Pakistan and elsewhere.
If you want to read about these scams plug “scam” into our search window and see what pops up (it’s a lot). If you want to watch a dedicated and creative techie torture one of these long-distance thieves watch the attached video. Watch a scammer threaten a crying “old woman” with arrest and promise to ruin her life.
This is pretty simple, pretty obvious stuff to many of us. But a lot of people are still falling for it, apparently. The video should give you some insight into the scam and the mindset of the scammers.
Someone gave these idiots a hunny thousand?
He gives a pretty good indication of what he thinks of us – her just before he hangs up.
That voice alteration software is the bomb.
Do they ever arrest these people? Can they?
Caning. Followed by a good tar and feathering. Followed by more caning. I volunteer to do the caning. My parents get these calls every week.
That scammer is losing his shit!!! Love it! Hopefully it gave him an ulcer.
Did you say $100,000 DOLLARS??? In gift cards????
If we had to bet we’d say there was a wire transfer (probably Western Union) in there somewhere. Shocking thing is loss stems from relatively few cases so folks are getting hit HARD.
Dayum
Caller ID, and don’t answer the phone unless you recognize the name and number. Let your middle aged children go through your phone, and give you your “real calls.” Step up to the plate… middle aged adults. One day you’ll miss being able to do this for your elderly parents and in-laws. Very, very sad…
You mean they aren’t satisfied with the stuff they’re stealing out of our cars?
Apparently not, Pat…
I didn’t know the IRS had offices in Pakistan. Oh, my!
Why rob the elderly? “Because that’s where the money is.”
Also because they are often the most vulnerable – which makes the scam and the scammer that much more loathsome.
I have a relative with some mild dementia. She was contacted by “Microsoft”’claiming she had a bad virus on her computer but a $1000 in Visa gift cards would clear it up. So she headed to her local Safeway in Concord to buy them. At the register, an alert checker asked about her gift card purchase and immediately figured out this was part of a scam. She instructed my relative to call my sister so she could explain what was going on. Bless her heart! She saved her $1000! Will be forever grateful.
As to the scammers?! Hell is too good for them.
Yes, Janet… it happens so much, and often to the most vulnerable among us. The video is a pretty good example of how these scammers think and how they try to motivate their victims. It’s a telephonic grooming. Glad your relative escaped their grasp and big Thumbs Up to that Safeway employee for heading it off. We are hearing of cases where police officers are asking for phones in use by seniors/victims at a local store – only to find a scammer dangling on the line. We’d like to see something done about this – besides Hell, which is a good start – but we don’t like this happening to people.
Amazing.
The best thing we can hope for is that these assholes step out of whatever pukey scam center they work and in front of a beer truck. There are very few protections and little or no enforcement for these soul less criminals and they regard the US as a giant piggy bank ripe for their picking.
Until about 2016 I thought Americans were too smart to fall for some guy with an East Indian – Jamaican – Nigerian accent demanding $4000 from them to pay off a “FBI warrant.” But now I know better.
Absolutely no threat of punishment — and lots of gullible targets.
Americans aren’t very smart and they have money – what do you expect?
He is syskeying — getting control of their desktop and deleting their files!! Pretty sweet.
My favorite is the Scottish hacker who located a Calcutta scam center and turned on their webcams so he could watch and record them at work!! Amazing insight into this international crime no one is doing anything about.
No one seems too bothered by all this. It’s almost like we have the money to spare.
Americans are targeted specifically mainly because many of us are just not very smart.
And Canada… they also like Canadians.