Real life scams , whats the best you've seen ?

grfox92 said:
About 2 years ago, my wife got a call and the caller ID said *our county* Sheriff's Department. She answered and there was a guy on the phone claiming to be a sergant with the Sheriffs office. He told her she had missed a court date, had a warrant for her arrest that could be resolved by paying a fine with a surcharge.

She immediately thought it was a scam, but put the phone on speaker and searched the Sheriffs departments number and it MATCHED THE NUMBER SHE WAS TALKING TO. So she was totally freaked out and text me what was going on all while dragging the guy on the phone along while I played detective myself.

I called the Sheriffs office and before I could get one sentence into what was going on they immediately told me it was a scam, and they somehow were hi jacking the actual sheriff's department phone number to appear on the caller ID. They said they have gotten 10 calls already that day, and that tomorrow that scammer would move on to somewhere else in the counrty and do the same thing.

Pretty wild.
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Wow , I didn't know that they could hack the caller ID . Thats a diabolical move
 
CRJR45 said:
Wow , I didn't know that they could hack the caller ID . Thats a diabolical move
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20 years ago they were able to hack the caller ID’s. Wasn’t a scam but a couple of friends tried to pranking me on going up to the sheriff’s office to bail them out. They used a device to show the sheriffs office number on the caller ID. They forgot that my uncle worked for the department. So an easy call to him and they were busted. Lol.

I can only imagine what actual hackers can do now
 
Log “mill” next to my house. These guys are pro level con artists/meth heads. The only thing they’ve ever produced is a giant EPA disaster of wood chips/waste. Millions from Covid relief $, claimed way more employees than actual. Owe local and national equipment dealers and trucking companies millions. Owe a couple mil to county and state in fines.

Hire new “management”, guy has literal multi page felony
wrap sheet for defrauding elderly and disabled…

Some how keep finding new investors to “buy in” allowing them to negotiate minimal payoffs on debt and keep kicking foreclosure down the road. They haven’t even been allowed to touch logs in 2 years.

If these idiots can keep suckering people out of 6 figures, I’m convinced given enough meth you can take over the world.
 
mtnwrunner said:
It was my choice for sure. Hopefully karma is a bitch.
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I 100% believed the kid and the story at the time. I didn't not donate because I knew better. I just wasn't in a position at that time to be charitable. Had I been in a surplus month that month I probably would have thrown $20 at it.

Sent from my SM-S931U using Tapatalk
 
Jimmy said:
Couple years ago my grandfather got fooled by the "I'm your granddaughter and I am in trouble and need cash or the police are taking me to jail, you CANT tell anyone, please help me!"

We caught him leaving the house with several thousand dollars in cash. He was 85.
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My dad got one of these calls - dude said it was his grandson. He told them to hold and then called his grandson on another line. Then, when he knew it was a scam, got back on the phone with the scammers and had them going for about 10 minutes until he unleashed an unholy tirade on them and hung up. He spent his career making 'eyes and ears' for many-an alphabet soup agency so he's pretty sharp even at 85
 
CRJR45 said:
I've seen a few good ones .
1977 I'm working at Chevrolet down in the hole , Flint Mi. Two brothers in a white Coup Deville are setting outside the gate when the shift changes selling boxes of steaks . They had two boxes open and the steaks looked awesome , the rest where in white boxes tied up with string , ten bucks a box . They sold every box , turns out the next day everyone got suet in their boxes , no meat .
Next one was in 1979 , two brothers pull up at the carwash my girl friend was working at with a brand new Sony Trinitron TV , state of the art back then . The ex bought it for three hundred , took it home and it had a used black and white TV in the box .

People have been getting scammed for ever , since the beginning of time , nothing new here .
What are some you've seen ?
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The California democratic party!
 
grfox92 said:
About 2 years ago, my wife got a call and the caller ID said *our county* Sheriff's Department. She answered and there was a guy on the phone claiming to be a sergant with the Sheriffs office. He told her she had missed a court date, had a warrant for her arrest that could be resolved by paying a fine with a surcharge.

She immediately thought it was a scam, but put the phone on speaker and searched the Sheriffs departments number and it MATCHED THE NUMBER SHE WAS TALKING TO. So she was totally freaked out and text me what was going on all while dragging the guy on the phone along while I played detective myself.

I called the Sheriffs office and before I could get one sentence into what was going on they immediately told me it was a scam, and they somehow were hi jacking the actual sheriff's department phone number to appear on the caller ID. They said they have gotten 10 calls already that day, and that tomorrow that scammer would move on to somewhere else in the counrty and do the same thing.

Pretty wild.
Click to expand...
We got that same one. It took me a while to figure out it was a scam. The guy was damn good.
 
grfox92 said:
About 2 years ago, my wife got a call and the caller ID said *our county* Sheriff's Department. She answered and there was a guy on the phone claiming to be a sergant with the Sheriffs office. He told her she had missed a court date, had a warrant for her arrest that could be resolved by paying a fine with a surcharge.

She immediately thought it was a scam, but put the phone on speaker and searched the Sheriffs departments number and it MATCHED THE NUMBER SHE WAS TALKING TO. So she was totally freaked out and text me what was going on all while dragging the guy on the phone along while I played detective myself.

I called the Sheriffs office and before I could get one sentence into what was going on they immediately told me it was a scam, and they somehow were hi jacking the actual sheriff's department phone number to appear on the caller ID. They said they have gotten 10 calls already that day, and that tomorrow that scammer would move on to somewhere else in the counrty and do the same thing.

Pretty wild.
Click to expand...
This happened to me a couple months ago. Had me going for a few minutes too.
 
grfox92 said:
About 2 years ago, my wife got a call and the caller ID said *our county* Sheriff's Department. She answered and there was a guy on the phone claiming to be a sergant with the Sheriffs office. He told her she had missed a court date, had a warrant for her arrest that could be resolved by paying a fine with a surcharge.

She immediately thought it was a scam, but put the phone on speaker and searched the Sheriffs departments number and it MATCHED THE NUMBER SHE WAS TALKING TO. So she was totally freaked out and text me what was going on all while dragging the guy on the phone along while I played detective myself.

I called the Sheriffs office and before I could get one sentence into what was going on they immediately told me it was a scam, and they somehow were hi jacking the actual sheriff's department phone number to appear on the caller ID. They said they have gotten 10 calls already that day, and that tomorrow that scammer would move on to somewhere else in the counrty and do the same thing.

Pretty wild.
Click to expand...
This is the one that got our good friend. Masters Degree. Otherwise smart and reasonable person. 11-12k into a Wells Fargo bitcoin atm to resolve the issue. When she walked into Wells Fargo she immediately was told scam and she knew it. Was a 4-5 hour deal.
 
The lottery.
Your chance of winning the powerball: 1/300million
Government’s chance of winning: 100%

It’s the most insane return on an obvious scam in history.
 
I encountered a pretty good one this past Friday. I got a fraud text from one of my banks, a large prominent one, that someone had tried buying an I-phone on my card. I've gotten these before when legit fraud charges were occurring so I was accustomed to the process. I replied "NO" that I didn't authorize the charge and the auto text said an agent would be in contact. This is the same process I've gone through in the past for legit unauthorized charges.

5 minutes later an agent calls me. Totally professional, saying all the right things, "Rest assured we'll get this taken care of" and all that. The fella didn't ask me for personal information like SSN or anything. He did the "can you verify" thing a few times, which isn't uncommon. "Can you verify the bank accounts you have linked to your account?" He didn't ask for account numbers, just the names of the banks. In the moment it was still seeming above board. He proceeds to tell me that the perpetrator has authorized a wire from one of my linked bank accounts, with a very specific amount, something like $5,019.32. The other bank in question is also with a large known bank. He said he's going to put me on hold while he contacts that bank, and will get me on the phone with their fraud department. 30 seconds later I get a call from that bank. Even had their logo on my phone screen.

The second fella from the second bank was also super professional. He said that a wire was sent from one of my accounts with them. While I was on the phone with both of these guys, I was secretly logging into each of my bank accounts to look for any unauthorized transactions. A pending transaction always shows up pretty much instantly if it's legit fraud. All of my accounts looked normal. Anyway, this fella said that the pre-authorization for the wire takes 72 hours or some crap, and since it was end of day Friday, we needed to process a wire reversal to ensure it wouldn't go through by Monday, and the money would be gone. Throughout both 10 minute conversations they were very calm and professional. Got put on hold a few times, used all the right lingo, etc. The guy walked me through the process of doing a wire reversal. As I'm clicking through the process it's becoming clear they are trying to get me to send a legit wire, not some wire-reversal as he claimed. He was prepared to give me the proper information for me to enter to get the reversal processed.

At this point it was getting too fishy. I asked him to explain exactly what it was we were trying to do because I wasn't grasping it. He did. He explained several times, calmy, that my bank doesn't ask for personal information, which he didn't, and that I was indeed talking to the correct person. While I had him on the phone I googled the fraud number for the bank and it wasn't the same. I also googled the number he called from and nothing came up showing it was associated with the bank. At this point I hung up. I called the actual fraud departments with both banks in question. Both said there was no weird charges on my account, no wires pending, no nothing. They were surprised by the level of effort that went into this scam.

After letting the whole thing sink in, I started to realize how much the guy was phishing for information in a really subtle way. In hindsight he didn't actually know if I even had a account with the first bank. It was a guess. By asking me to verify my linked accounts, he was able to come up with a narrative that made sense, spoof the other banks phone number and logo, and move the scam along. Another thing that was fishy in hindsight was that BOTH phone calls kept cutting out. I don't know if that was on purpose or not, but I had to ask him to repeat himself several times. Once I'd hung up and was able to see where the calls originated from, they were both out of Amarillo. Neither bank is based in Amarillo.

Wild stuff.
 
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