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

[Souschef]

Keim's post reminded me of something that happened to my condo assn years ago. Apparently the treasurer was a gambler, and cashed some personal checks at the bank at which we had the condo's account.
The checks bounced, and the bank took the funds from the condo account. It took some time to get the money back, and the condo assn was out attorneys' fees and lost interest.
The man had the unmitigated gall to still live in our complex, until he was evicted by the mortgage company.

 

[scrabbler1]

In another thread, I described texts I've been getting from "real estate agents" (who knows?) asking if I know if so-and-so would be interested in selling their home. The tone of the texts is importunate, implying "I'm not asking much, why can't you respond?" I keep blocking these texts, but they pop up again.

The weird part is that the home in question is five counties away.

I have gotten some of these over the years, too. But instead of being only a few counties away, they are a few states away! I do reply to them, telling them not to text me again; not only do I not live nearby, but I live in a dang apartment!

While it has died down over the years, I still get occasional calls and texts directed at the previous owner of my cell phone number. Took me a while just to get his last name, not that it helped. Then, I thought I found the guy because there was someone with the same first and last name in my county (and same area code) who was a doctor. But when I called his office, his staff told me he hadn't changed his cell phone numbers in many, many years (so he wasn't the culprit).

 

[COcheesehead]

People pay for texts? Now that sounds like a scam. LOL.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, who pays for each text?

I know, some people must because they warn you about it every time you sign up.

 

[scrabbler1]

Some of us here rarely text or use our cell phones. I don't want to pay some big monthly rate for unlimited cell phone use because, on a per call/minute/text basis, it would be far more expensive than to pay a tiny amount for the service but pay a little more per call/minute/text.

It therefore becomes an annoyance when unwanted texts arrive because I don't know who sent them until I view them (and get charged for them). At least with unwanted calls, I can terminate them or refuse to answer them without burning up my minutes for nothing.

 

[COcheesehead]

Bundled plans, some which include a new iPhone, are pretty cheap right now. All texting included.

 

[Sunset]

Yeah, who pays for each text?

I know, some people must because they warn you about it every time you sign up.

Yes, all companies have to post that warning, in case I sign up, since I pay for texts.

My cell phone is not used much, so this year my phone and DW's cost a total of $61 for service for a year (or $30.50 each avg'd out).

Some year's it's $10 each , other year's it could $40 each.

We own our phones.

 

[2177V]

The OP was talking about a threat to cut-off power to his wife's business. I just now recall a similar incidence with my business office quite a few years ago.

I managed a local business office for a small company of which I was a partner, and the rent and electric bill were paid by our financial guy in the main office on the east coast. One day, I received a letter by the electric company threatening to shut off the power soon if they did not receive last month's bill soon. Mad as I was at the financial guy who forgot to pay the bill, I had to drive to the electric company office to pay in person.

A legitimate business would not make you pay via a gift card, or through Western Union, or any untraceable means.

Your comment was ironic in my situation because when I protested paying the $300 deposit using a cash card from Thrifty store they responded that I had to go to San Francisco PG&E headquarter office to pay the $300 deposit to avoid the disconnection. Going to San Francisco was not an option due to traffic and parking so it was a bluff by the con artist. I could not simply ignore the text message because I had the potential of losing $1000 to $2000 in daily revenues. I actually did lose this business revenue in the past during a legitimate power outage. They had it thought out very carefully except for the method of getting the money from me. I definitely agree with your point about con artists needing money via untraceable means.

 

[athena53]

People pay for texts? Now that sounds like a scam. LOL.

Before Ting changed its plan to include unlimited voice and texts for only $1 more per month, the first 100 texts added $3 to the bill. I'm not fond of texting and that first text always annoyed the crap out of me, especially if it was an unwanted one, because the bill jumped $3. Talk time was 90 minutes per month and additional minutes added maybe $5 to the bill so I was not happy when my cell number was used to follow up with surveys or solicitation for additional business.

Yea, I AM cheap.

 

[COcheesehead]

Before Ting changed its plan to include unlimited voice and texts for only $1 more per month, the first 100 texts added $3 to the bill. I'm not fond of texting and that first text always annoyed the crap out of me, especially if it was an unwanted one, because the bill jumped $3. Talk time was 90 minutes per month and additional minutes added maybe $5 to the bill so I was not happy when my cell number was used to follow up with surveys or solicitation for additional business.

Yea, I AM cheap.

I won’t derail this thread anymore, but there are many positive uses of texts these days, two factor authentication, my car dealer uses it to keep me informed of service status, I get my COVID shot news, I get instant rebates, it’s how my younger relatives communicate with me, so I embrace the technology.

Now back to hour regularly scheduled program.

 

[ivinsfan]

Your comment was ironic in my situation because when I protested paying the $300 deposit using a cash card from Thrifty store they responded that I had to go to San Francisco PG&E headquarter office to pay the $300 deposit to avoid the disconnection. Going to San Francisco was not an option due to traffic and parking so it was a bluff by the con artist. I could not simply ignore the text message because I had the potential of losing $1000 to $2000 in daily revenues. I actually did lose this business revenue in the past during a legitimate power outage. They had it thought out very carefully except for the method of getting the money from me. I definitely agree with your point about con artists needing money via untraceable means.

Why wouldn't you simply go online get the real number for the power company and call them directly? You could have ignored the text and gone directly to the provider.

 

[prudent_one]

In another thread, I described texts I've been getting from "real estate agents" (who knows?) asking if I know if so-and-so would be interested in selling their home. The tone of the texts is importunate, implying "I'm not asking much, why can't you respond?" I keep blocking these texts, but they pop up again.

The weird part is that the home in question is five counties away.

I got an actual phone call from a live person yesterday asking about buying our vacant property. Not a junk text, an actual living human being. He said he is buying properties in our area and noticed (no doubt by scouring the county real estate data) we had a piece of vacant land, and would we be interested in selling. I asked him what interested him about the property, he said he represents a firm who is investing in vacant land in the area.

So I said to make me an offer, and he offered me the same $300 value that our county assigned to it.

It was clear he didn't look into it any further, as it's a 18 inch wide by 200 foot long strip of land that separates my neighbor's property from ours. Back in the day we were told the home was built too close to the property line and that narrow strip had to be acquired from the neighbor to satisfy zoning issues. Who knows.

I never dug into it any further but was tempted to take the $300 offer just to learn what they would do with a 1.5 foot wide strip of land that has zero practical value.

 

[Walt34]

The scam I do think I have seen mentioned in this thread, which can be money related: online dating.

That does bring back some memories! When I first went into the Fraud Section those were my first "computer crime" cases, courtesy of either Compuserve or America Online. At that time Internet access was pretty much limited to government, military, and universities. And world wide web was still in the future.

I was the only one in the office who owned a home computer and had any idea of how to investigate/prosecute them. The good part was that I was able to dump some real PITA cases (lots of repetitive drudgery) in exchange for taking on a computer-related fraud that no one else knew how to resolve.

One of those "dumped" cases was one in which an employee in HR had created a fictitious employee in the company's system, and the "ghost" had been paid some 1,100 times, with the embezzled funds ending up in the real employee's bank account. (Yeah, some of these schemes aren't very well thought through. "Follow the money" isn't a cliche for nothing.) What made it a PITA was was that in the Statement of Charges and the report each individual check, check number, payee name, amount, date, etc. had to be individually listed. Using a typewriter. Was I ever glad to be rid of that one!

Funny thing was, the "complicated computer crime" the original investigator shied away from was fairly simple and I didn't have to spend much time on it.

 

[Souschef]

Just got a good one> Manuel Franco, who won a Powerball jackpot wants to give me two million dollars. I am to contact him by e-mail.
Here is the fun part: The e-mail was from a Portugal domain, and the e-mail address had a domain in Gabon.

 

[aja8888]

Just got a good one> Manuel Franco, who won a Powerball jackpot wants to give me two million dollars. I am to contact him by e-mail.
Here is the fun part: The e-mail was from a Portugal domain, and the e-mail address had a domain in Gabon.

Take the 2 Mil in small bills so it's not trackable.

 

[Lstansbury]

Any ideas on how to stop this scam/theft that just happened from affecting my 73 year old friend? This is some kind of slick....

Just this month I went with him when he drove to another city and bought a used car for $20K. He and I were both at the dealership so I saw first hand what went down.

It was a typical low rent type dealership when all this in an industrial neighborhood by the airport. But lots of cars in the warehouse. Sketchy reviews on line, some good, some really bad. Hmmm....

Long story short, during the checkout process to leave with the car, the dealer said that the cashier's check my friend brought to buy the car wasn't made out to the right account. It was made out to the "temp" account they used just for small deposits (he had already sent in $500 to that account name) and that temp account wasn't even their company business name anymore. Something about how the deposit check hadn't even cleared because it was made out to the wrong account name.

And so my friend had to call his bank to get a wire transfer of the $16K to the correctly named account before he could leave with the car.

Wire transfer happened that day from my friend's bank to the dealership. My friend leaves with his physical paper cashier's check and the car with temp tags, drives home. No title yet, of course. We think all is fine.

Only problem is that his bank called the next day and said "the dealership not only got the wire transfer for $20K, they also deposited the $20K cashier's check."

WHAT The lady handling the transaction had taken a photo of the cashier's check made out to the "old wrong-named account" in her attempt to deposit at the beginning of the check out process. And funny enough, it cleared after all! The day AFTER the wire transfer. The day AFTER he left with the car.

My friend's bank has been in contact with the dealer who keeps telling them "oh, I am going to refund that money..." My friend has even talked to the dealer who has said the same thing. But somehow their refund wire transfer just isn't happening It's been a week now.

And now my friend has a car with no title (although he does have the sale paperwork), and is out $40K.

I'm thinking it's way past time to call the police.

 

[Car-Guy]

I get scam phone calls and emails just about "everyday" but "I know how" to handle and avoid those. It's the really big ones that are out of my control that bother me.

 

[HarryHawk]

My mother came within 15 minutes of being scammed out of $10,000. She got the classic call - Grandma, this is Jimmy, I've been arrested and need money to get out of jail. Don't tell my dad. Here is the phone number of my lawyer, Mr. Wilson.

My mother calls Mr. Wilson who tells her he needs $10,000 to get Jimmy out of jail.

My mother heads to the bank and withdraws the $10k. She comes home and is putting the money in an envelope and is addressing it when she gets a call from the bank.

My mother lives in a small town and fortunately her withdrawal request just didn't sound right. The teller went to talk to the manager who knew my mother. The manager got called my mother just in time.

So I finally find out about it. Now I have a supposed name - Mr Wilson, a phone number and a mailing address. Problem is, no authorities want to get involved, all I hear is - Can't do anything about it.

I do a search on the net; I find Mr. Wilson has been using the same phone number and address for at least seven years to scam people. He still may be using it.

 

[Aerides]

I'm thinking it's way past time to call the police.

It is. Do so asap

 

[scrabbler1]

My mother came within 15 minutes of being scammed out of $10,000. She got the classic call - Grandma, this is Jimmy, I've been arrested and need money to get out of jail. Don't tell my dad. Here is the phone number of my lawyer, Mr. Wilson.

My mother calls Mr. Wilson who tells her he needs $10,000 to get Jimmy out of jail.

My mother heads to the bank and withdraws the $10k. She comes home and is putting the money in an envelope and is addressing it when she gets a call from the bank.

My mother lives in a small town and fortunately her withdrawal request just didn't sound right. The teller went to talk to the manager who knew my mother. The manager got called my mother just in time.

So I finally find out about it. Now I have a supposed name - Mr Wilson, a phone number and a mailing address. Problem is, no authorities want to get involved, all I hear is - Can't do anything about it.

I do a search on the net; I find Mr. Wilson has been using the same phone number and address for at least seven years to scam people. He still may be using it.

Do the authorities include the police precinct closest to the mailing address your mother was about to mail the money to? At least they would have jurisdiction. If it is out of state, wouldn't the FBI be able to handle this case?

 

[HarryHawk]

Do the authorities include the police precinct closest to the mailing address your mother was about to mail the money to? At least they would have jurisdiction. If it is out of state, wouldn't the FBI be able to handle this case?

Talked to local police, police at mailing address, both state attorney generals, senators and reps, and the Post Office for mail fraud. No one had taken any action against this exact same scam by the exact same scammers for at least the seven years I was able to document.

This was a few years back, hopefully things have changed, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[MC Rider]

It is. Do so asap

Call the bank too. That stinks.





Circa 40 years ago on a Chicago city bus I learned about the shell game.
Three shells, or bottle caps and a bean. Boy it looked so easy to win the game. Goodbye monthly bus pass.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah, that's the give away - "don't tell anybody"

Of course, anybody would tell you it's a scam.

 

[ERD50]

Talked to local police, police at mailing address, both state attorney generals, senators and reps, and the Post Office for mail fraud. No one had taken any action against this exact same scam by the exact same scammers for at least the seven years I was able to document.

This was a few years back, hopefully things have changed, but I wouldn't count on it.

That really stinks. I mean, I can understand if the money transfer is to another country, or in the form of untraceable funds (like gift cards, etc) the local police would figure it's a wild goose chase to ever get it back. But you had a mailing address in the US. Sure seems like the locals in both areas should co-ordinate on that.

Frustrating and disappointing.

-ERD50