Fraudulent thieving Bastards!

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

I will never understand scammers, are their lives that miserable that they feel the need to try and destroy that of others?

[westlondonmist]

3 minutes ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

I will never understand scammers, are their lives that miserable that they feel the need to try and destroy that of others?

While you could say this about plenty of criminals, the affect these scams have on people is dreadful. They target specific types of people, usually old but plenty of other types too. It's such a personal crime. A burglary upsets people but they get over it (I think), this embarrasses and dehumanises the victims. They have been tricked, they feel judged and for old people who will often have their judgement questioned feel that they are losing it. With the grandmother in law, at first I did wonder how did she fall for it? But the reality is that they were organised, knew the target and what would likely work. If the person twigged then chances are there was no come uppance as it was a call. They develop their skills and tactics and it is why they do it. 

[King of Hamptons]

My mum once rang me on my mobile, while she was on the phone to a scamer, telling me that the Barclays had rang her saying there was suspicious activity on her account and could she confirm her account number to them... I repeat back to her what she had just told me and she just replied with "shit. Its a scam isn't it?" 

 

She's 71 but pretty savvy now about scams, thankfully! 

[DEF]

21 hours ago, Nostalgia Nonce said:

Yes. Yes there was. Her judgement was impaired because she was targeted and manipulated by someone who has developed the skills necessary to cause someone's judgement to be impaired. That's what they do. That's how the scam works. It's not just an opportunist asking for money on the off-chance she'll hand it over.

To be clear I'm not the one asking that question. The bank fraud team are.

[Surf Digby]

57 minutes ago, DEF said:

To be clear I'm not the one asking that question. The bank fraud team are.

I got that, I'm just ranting.

[Jazzy G]

Someone tried the old "This is Microsoft, your internet isn't working" scam with my Gran. Fortunately she's got no need for the internet. There are all sorts of them around. At one point I received so many spam texts that whenever I reported them to my network operator the automated response from them would automaticaly get filtered into my spam folder.

I like watching Jim Browning's videos about these kinds of things on YouTube. There's one called Atomic Shrimp as well, who just messes with various email scanners as well, trying to waste their time as best he can.

[SaitoRyo]

Luckily my folks are relatively young, savvy and switched on, but I've warned them about some of the scams in this thread, so cheers for the heads-up! My mam actually replied with 'How do I know this is you?' as I was messaging her about one of them, so it's good to know I've got her nice and paranoid. 

I had a rather pitiful scam attempt come my way a few months back. Someone from 'Microsoft' in Washington rang mew - which was weird because my phone told me the number was a German one -  about my laptop being in serious danger. 

I called him out on it and tried to take the piss a bit as he scrambled for answers before he got very frustrated and screamed 'I WILL FUCK YOUR WIFE!' before hanging up the phone. 

[DEF]

Good news, the bank have sorted the money for my Mum. Hopefully they took it from the bastard who did this but who knows.