Were you ever scammed or almost scammed? Share your story.

[SecondAttempt]

A $1300 I phone has been ordered on my amazon account

Something similar happened to me but it was real. Someone somehow was able to order a new iphone on my Verizon account. They did it over the phone and not online. I got an email notice that the phone had shipped. I logged into my Verizon account and sure enough, saw the order. I was going through a divorce at the time so I contacted my wife to see if she had ordered it. (That would have been ok) But she hadn't.

I immediately called Verizon and they were able redirect the shipment and credit my account.

But now anytime I call Verizon they make me jump through extra security hoops. It's understandable but still annoying. There are several things I can't do online as well like ordering a new phone.

 

[tmm99]

I answer every call on my cell unless the phone tells me it's a spam call, but I hang up a lot. If I say "Hello", and there's no answer on the other side right away (if I detect a noticeable delay), I hang up. If it's a live person selling something, I hang up. I don't even bother saying "No, thank you." Sign of the times.

I haven't been scammed yet, that I know of.

 

[Telly]

Here was an in-person attempt on me a few years ago:

It was a weekday afternoon, I was out doing some trimming on a front yard oak tree. A guy came by slowly in a pickup, and stopped on the street. He came over to talk to me with a stack of papers in his hand. He gave one to me. Black and white copy, hand written. It had his name, phone number (with an area code of a city at least 3 hours away). Said he was a degreed Arborist, degree from UT (Austin). He told me he was in town visiting his mom for a couple weeks, said she lived on the north side of town. I asked him whereabouts, and he gave me the street and where it (the street) was. I knew of it well. Said after he was "home" for a while, his mom got on his nerves and he needed some time out, so he was doing some tree trimming work here and there. He said he could do whatever I needed done, would only be $100. I told him thanks, but I do my own work. I think he rapidly assessed by my comments, knowledge, and equipment, that I knew what I was doing and he wasn't going to get any $ from me. But he wanted to leave the sheet with me in case any neighbors needed someone.

When I was done working, I set it down in the house, a few days later I threw it out.

Skip forward at least a year... read an article about a con man scamming people in my town and surrounding area. The same guy! I remembered his name! Scammed a guy out of something like $1,800 for tree trimming that little work was actually done. He convinced the homeowner that what the homeowner wanted done would cost much more, or else he couldn't finish, needed the $$. He got the money, never did the rest.
It was in court, article said that he had been in state prison for the same kind of fraud, was released not long before he stopped by my house. The trial result was to send him back for another stint of free room and board.

He was a good talker, but he was too good. He jumped on everything I said or asked with an immediate answer, even when it was wrong! I can imagine, though, that if he found someone who wasn't comfortable doing the work themselves, and didn't know much about it, that they might be taken in by his friendliness... evidently!

 

[SecondCor521]

Two or three near misses that come to mind:

The first time I was about 18 years old. I was in Manhattan late at night walking towards Penn Station. Got approached by two fellows who asked me to help them. They had some cash that they needed someone to watch for them for 15 minutes for some reason. Being a helpful guy and not aware of this classic scam, I did entertain the thought of helping them. I talked with them for a few minutes but then things started not adding up, so I walked off.

The second time I'm not sure what happened. I was getting married and my soon-to-be wife and I were going to honeymoon in Europe, so I was getting a passport. My fiance and I went to the passport office at the same time, sent our applications in at the same time, but then hers arrived and mine didn't. Called the passport office, and they confirmed they mailed it to my address on such and such a date. I think I even spoke to the mail carrier about it and he claims to have delivered it.

Long story short, my landlord at the time lived in the main house in front of the apartment / carriage house which I was renting from him, and he disappeared around that same time. There was a front page article in the newspaper a bit later about how he had apparently been bilking old people in the town out of their government benefits. I think the FBI even came to chat with me to ask if I happened to know where he went.

I always suspected that he somehow stole my passport and used it to get out of the country. Just before we left on our honeymoon, he mentioned he'd be out of town on a business trip for a few months, and if I'd pay several months rent in advance he would give me a discount. I declined but the other renters took him up on the deal. I'm fairly certain the landlord knew the feds were closing in and he used the other renters' cash in his getaway.

 

[Dtail]

Almost got scammed on one of those CD deals which was discussed on this forum, but checked it out before any monies were transferred.

 

[Badger]

" ...text message left a message to call a number. I called that number".

Stop right there. A text like that has "spam" written all over it, the last thing you do (unless you are just curious about the scam) is to call a number or email or website that they give you.

If you have any real concern of it being legit, go immediately to your second step - call the company directly using a publicly available number. If people did that, there would be no scams like this. It's pretty simple.

And if you gave them $300, they'd start in on the next play, and say something else requires $3,000. They know they have a 'live' one.

-ERD50

+1 This! My first step. Always.


Cheers!

 

[freedomatlast]

Was out walking the neighborhood with my grandson a few weeks ago and there was a contractor at a house checking out the roof. I presumed the homeowners asked for a roofing estimate. He saw us, crossed the street and asked if we lived in the neighborhood. I said that we did. He then went on and on about how there was a major hailstorm in this area over the summer and everyone's roof is damaged and must be repaired before winter. And the best part was he would work with my insurance company directly and it would be a free roof with the insurance company paying nearly 100%. All I had to do is pay him a sizable deposit to order materials which would be refunded once the insurance company paid him.

He gave me his card and I told him I'd consider his free inspection offer in order to end the discussion. I did not tell him which house was mine.

The fact is there was no hailstorm over the summer in this neighborhood, that I was up on the roof last week checking that my gutter guards were all intact before the leaves really started falling, and the shingles were not damaged at all. Furthermore, if I ever needed any roofing work, competitive bids would be solicited.

Funny thing is, I've seen this guy's truck all over the area doing a lot of roofs. I hope it works out well for his customers.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Email scam: Got a scam email from a friend’s account saying they needed money and asked us to get a gift card and give the info to him. Retired music teacher, living in a CCRC. DH and I have separately worked projects with him and his wife, and he was one of DS’s private music teachers, so we knew this made no sense. And we have his phone number.

When I got the email, I called the music teacher friend and let him know his email had been hacked and his contact list was being used to scam people. A mutual friend got the same email and got the gift card for “him.” I’m convinced a large portion of the population are really not very bright. She certainly is not the brightest bulb. Which is why these scams continue to work.

 

[Jerry1]

This is an interesting article in our local paper about how scammers take advantage of stressful situations and stress in general to successfully scam people. It points out how at any given moment, anyone could fall victim to a scam.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/p...02/scammers-stress-emotions-scams/8568806002/

 

[EastWest Gal]

There’s a short YouTube video of a scammer who called the wrong couple and they engaged to trap him. He kept asking for money and started making threats. Unfortunatel for the scammer, the husband was the only person who had served as both the FBI director and the CIA director, William Webster. The scammer ended up serving almost six years in prison.

 

[donheff]

Ditto on the Norton email scam. Luckily, I don't get many calls on my cell phone but I get a boat load on my land line (part of my FIOS package). I set it to go to voice mail after two rings and never answer it. Legitimate callers stay on the line and leave a voice mail message which comes to me as an email. The email shows the length of the VM. Most are 2-5 seconds. I delete all of them. Some are longer and I listen - they are usually legit but rarely worth hearing. I have seen an increasing number of text scams coming to my and DWs cell phones but I don't recall what they were.

 

[olyveoil]

Robokiller. For spam calls to mobile phones. $20/year and eliminates ~80% of these calls.

 

[athena53]

Call from the 'grandkid'. 'I'm in jail in Mexico, send money, don't tell mom & dad'. Cost a family member several k.

Dad fell for that- to the tune of $7,500. He thought it was my niece who works in healthcare and she'd been driving around with friends, not knowing they had drugs in the car... Poor Dad panicked because he knew anything drug-related would mean the end of my niece's career.

They tried something similar on Mom- she thought it was DS and "he" had been at a bachelor party and had gotten drunk...DS is a teetotaller. Mom held her ground and they hung up.

Almost forgot... occasionally when a friend's FB account is cloned I add them as a Friend and almost immediately get an IM. "Have you heard the news?" "No, what news?" "I just won $30,000 in (some sweepstakes or other) and your name was on the list of winners, too. Just text your contact info to this number..."

I jerk them around for awhile and then ask them a question they would be able to answer only if they were that person. Then I tell them to go away.

 

[Music Lover]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the "computer scams"

This is Microsoft technical support and we see that your computer has been infected with...

Sure it has...

I got one of those calls once. I asked the fellow to verify which version of Windows I was using but he didn't know...

 

[Music Lover]

Actually I did PG&E a favor. When I discussed the scam with PG&E and I told them about my call and that the scammer was waiting for me to call them back with the security code of the cash card.


PG&E informed me that they intend to call that number and identify the scammer as myself and give them a false security code and then attempt to tie up the phone line so that the law enforcement can trace the phone number to the location. In any case, this scam is common but they needed a live person on the other line for a certain amount of time in order for law enforcement to trace the line.

Due to computers and technology they don't need time to trace a call these days, but it's still used in movies to add drama.

 

[jfn111]

Traveling from Mexico to the U.S. last week we had to get a Covid test in Mexico for $18 each in order to fly back. The negative results came via email to my phone after I paid the $18 for the test, but before the actual test (nasal swab) occurred

Obviously was scammed for $18!?

My lovely wife asked if anyone tests positive. The medical technician said politely that positive never happens and now I understand why.

A friend had the same thing happen in Egypt. A Covid test was required to fly back to Paris and the Travel agency arranged for the Dr to give him the certificate for $75.00, no test ever given.

 

[scrabbler1]

I get those scam emails and phone calls and texts all the time. A few times a week I get those scam emails telling my I have have renewed my subscription of Norton or McAfee or some other antivirus program which costs in the $300-$400 range. The car warranty scammers are even more frequent. They always promise me it will be the "last time" they try to contact me. Dang, why can't they EVER keep that promise?

Junk texts are the worst, though, because with my low-end cell phone plan, I have to pay for each text I send or receive. A few months ago I was getting a junk text every week (and it was a big one, so I got charged more) from some company I never heard of trying to peddle so pills. I found them on line and reported them to the FTC or FCC, I forget which. I also found their contact info and wrote them, telling them I had reported them and demanded to be taken off their list (they had kept texting me despite repeated phone calls to them to stop).

With any email or call or text, I post the number (even in emails, like the renewals) to a website called 800notes.com. It's a pretty popular website where users can post about their dealings with this junk. Most of the time, I am the first one to post about a given number. But sometimes, I am not, and others have posted about their woes. Legit numbers get posts about them, too.

 

[KarenF]

DirecTV scam

I got a call from "DirecTV" one time. They had an offer (actually, this does happen with DirecTV, or used to). They knew my name, they knew my husband's name, and some details about our account. I did not get any red flags until they asked for my account pin. Nope - called DirecTV and it was a scam. These scams can be very realistic, and they prey on your fears with urgency. I am sorry this happened OP.

 

[KarenF]

Call from the 'grandkid'. 'I'm in jail in Mexico, send money, don't tell mom & dad'. Cost a family member several k.

I used to get voicemails warning that my 'social security account is about to be canceled'. My phone's been doing a pretty good job of labeling 'potential spam'.

My father-in-law got a call that said our son was in jail. He said it was very realistic. Thank goodness he did not bite because he knows my son well and knew it would 1) be very unlikely for him to be in jail and 2) he would have called us, his parents, first if he was in jail.

 

[kingkarmann]

Never!!
I never give up anything unless I initiate the contact PERIOD!!
Friends and family included!
I do however love to screw with any of these dirtbags any chance I get.
It’s my favorite retirement pastime!

 

[aja8888]

Never!!
I never give up anything unless I initiate the contact PERIOD!!
Friends and family included!
I do however love to screw with any of these dirtbags any chance I get.
It’s my favorite retirement pastime!

When they call me, I put a "crackle" in my voice and tell them I am in a nursing home. I tell them I need a credit card sent to me so I can play the horses from my cell phone. They hang up.

 

[Amethyst]

I never answer a phone call unless I recognize the number. Real callers leave a message.

One type of scam that's unique to modern times (social media) is the catfishing FB friend request. Every woman I know in my age group gets these; they are all the same; a photo of a man, not a young man, but far younger and better-looking than any of us deserves at our age; usually but not always in military uniform, who has been charmed by our sweet faces and wants to get to know us better. Often, the man in the photo is holding a furry pet. Some of the women enjoy messing with these scammers; me, I just hit the "report" button.

 

[Lewis Clark]

... One type of scam that's unique to modern times (social media) is the catfishing FB friend request. Every woman I know in my age group gets these; they are all the same; a photo of a man, not a young man, but far younger and better-looking than any of us deserves at our age; usually but not always in military uniform, who has been charmed by our sweet faces and wants to get to know us better. Often, the man in the photo is holding a furry pet.

The last time I served on jury duty, the defendant was accused of catfishing. The male defendant was accused of chasing after teenage boys. It's a very common scam these days, and easy for a lonely person to fall victim to it.

 

[CoolRich59]

One of my hobbies is "scambaiting."

What a great 'blast from the past'. It's been a few years, but I used to be an avid fan of the site 419 Eater.

The guy who runs this site actually convinced one of these scammers to fly from Africa to Scotland (IIRC) to collect his money. A lot of the calls were recorded. The call from the scammer once he realized he'd been had was priceless.

 

[CoolRich59]

Here was an in-person attempt on me a few years ago:

It was a weekday afternoon, I was out doing some trimming on a front yard oak tree. A guy came by slowly in a pickup, and stopped on the street.

I don't know if it qualifies as an out-and-out scam, but a few years ago a fellow pulls into our driveway. He tells the DW that he is the boss of a paving crew. They finished a job in the neighborhood early, had the time and extra materials on hand, and could resurface our driveway for $xxx (I can't recall the specific amount).

The DW says "OK" and soon the paving crew shows up and starts work on the driveway. They get about 3/4s of the way done and the boss knocks on the door. He tells the DW that he "miscalculated", that the driveway was going to take longer than he thought and require more material than he anticipated, so it'll be another $100 to finish the job.

The DW tells him 'This is your line of work. If you can't quote the work accurately, that's your problem, not mine. I expect the driveway to be completed for the price we agreed. If not, I'm calling the police'.

My DW is not one to be trifled with!