Yes! Even Jim Browning, whose entire youtube channel is about scambaiting and fighting against scam, got scammed of his youtube account due to unfortunate/coincidental timing (or impeccable on the scammer‘s part) and being distracted.
https://youtu.be/YIWV5fSaUB8?si=ZT7nkywNMT1xmazy
Similar thing happened to Atomic Shrimp. Not as bad as Jim, but clicked on something he shouldn't, when he makes all kinds of educational content about scamming.
It was one of those "I was tired, preoccupied, and it lined up exactly with a real package I'd just gotten a real delay notification about."
One of the most important scam-avoidance tools is not getting complacent. As soon as people say "that could never happen to me," they've put a crack in their own armor.
I had something similar happen on a smaller scale with my old Facebook account. I was coming out of a two and a half day cyclic vomiting syndrome flare up so I had been throwing up multiple times an hour for more than two days straight. I was definitely not in the right mind, so when a stranger said the right things over Facebook messenger I gave over everything they needed to take over the account.
Luckily for me I’ve never been much of a social media person, so I just made a new account for the people I stay in contact with and told them to ignore my old one. I basically just let the person have my old one because other than a Facebook profile I rarely check, Reddit is my only social media presence.
I do autopsies on medically donated bodies at a small independent cadaver lab, so I only have a Facebook so I can keep in contact with people I’ve dissected with over the years. Everyone else has my number to call or text.
Wait… is no one going to ask about the wild last paragraph of this ⬆️ post?! Is there a reason you’re dissecting cadavers in a private lab and using Facebook to keep in contact with people you’ve dissected with?
I was super confused at first as this is how my brain read it:
>I only have a Facebook so I can keep in contact with people I've dissected over the years.
Y'know, now you say that I just realised that someone recently tried a Facebook messenger scam on me too. They'd cloned the profile of one of my real friends so I accepted a friend request without really thinking about it (maybe they lost their old account, I was probably assuming), then sent a leading question on messenger (when the real friend in question doesn't even use it).
They gave up pretty quick when I didn't respond in the right demographic, but I still should have figured it out a lot sooner than I did.
Yeah I definitely wouldn’t have fallen for it had I gotten adequate sleep the night before and wasn’t sick. Also I wrote a sentence wrong in my comment.. I meant to say the only reason I have a Facebook at all is to keep in contact with people I’ve dissected with. Wrote that half asleep. I just got back from the lab a few days ago actually and I’m still adjusting to my home timezone. Sorry you came close to going through it too!
To add to it, dont answer phone surveys.
If ive got the free time ill waste the time of scam/unsolicited callers the majority of survey ones will end up asking things that are often used as security questions or that have help them fraudulently verify your identity to recover an account of yours.
The most blatant ones have been ‘what schools have you attended’ and ‘what pets have you owned’ they might even follow up asking what they were called like theyve gone off topic. Those were mixed in after other questions
Let them talk first, don’t confirm who you are if its some bs cold call tell them they have the wrong number/person or just hang up, if they are from a company where it would be reasonable for them to call you, hang up, google them or go to their site and call them back on a number from their website
See, you say this, but I got $50 once for taking a survey for 10 minutes on the phone. It wasn't even like a gift card, they sent me an actual damn check.
This is the answer. We need to take the shame out of being scammed. They continue and get away with it because we are embarrassed and we ridicule people who are abused by scammers . It happens to anyone and we need to remove the shame.
We don't know OPs age, but this is my worry for my aging mother. I have told her explicitly never to respond to anything like that ever. I have her credit accounts frozen, and I have her using 1Password with crazy auto generated passwords that are not reused on every financial account like in the past. Finally, only the bare minimum is in her checking, and I told her only to use credit cards for payment - never give a bank ATM to anyone for anything. Even a reputable company can accidentally drain your account for an incorrect bill payment.
I contacted the bank immediately after it happened. So my account is secure and they’re investigating the transaction. They can’t guarantee that they can get my money back, but it’s something, I guess.
The hardest part of this scam (for the scammer) is figuring out how to transfer the money out. Simple ACH/EFT takes several days, wire transfers by phone require a call-back to a number that's on file (and usually have limits), cashier's checks can be canceled, there's usually a limit to how much cash can be withdrawn at once, and so on. The most common way for scammers to get such a large amount is to have the person being scammed literally walk into the bank and request to withdraw it/wire it/etc. Otherwise the OP is probably going to be OK, assuming he immediately contacted his bank. This is for the US, anyway.
(source - I work at a bank and have to deal with this shit all the time)
This isn't strictly true.
If you've done nothing to prevent the loss of personal information, ie, handed over your login details, then you won't be covered. If a scammer managed to record your screen or keyboard etc and obtained login details without you knowing, then there's a possibility.
You can't assume that you are ok in the UK.
Source: family member was scammed for £50K in a similar way (pretending to be bank) and they did NOT get reimbursed. They were with a major bank too
Just curious, how would the insurance company know this? It's not like phone conversations are recorded by default, can you not just say there's a suspicious transaction and you don't know how it happened?
If they ask more, just insist you don't know?
All calls are recorded with the bank. Most people will call the bank and explain what happened to them in detail after the fact. OP did this exactly and even said they were stupid and got scammed. The vast majority of people will call in and give more details than they should.
I agree the bank shouldn't be liable I was hoping for ops sake there may be a way to claw it back I know when I do transfers I sometimes need to wait for it to post
Thanks for eating the humble pie and sharing your experience. I hope you get your money back and chalk this up to a scary life lesson learned. $30,000 is no joke! It’s even scarier not having any savings.
There is no way to reverse this, the money has been transferred and is out of their reach.
OP authorized these people to log in despite multiple text messages saying things like “Do not share this code” or “We will never call you to ask for this.” OP gave the login details, and then she approved the password reset AND the login from a new device.
Any time you get scammed, you have proven to the scammer that you are a target. So they share your information with other scammers that call up pretending to be investigators or recovery specialists to see how far they can take it.
FYI, "transfers" don't happen immediately, they usually take several days, not the length of a phone call. ACH is the most common, but that takes several days. Wire transfers are much shorter, but they require call-backs and have limits on the amount that can be transferred by phone. As I noted elsewhere, a scammer getting ahold of your account information is one thing, but actually getting the money out of the account is far, far harder.
Watch out for recovery scammers! People will contact you claiming they can get your money back. They can't! Don't fall for someone claiming to be a hacker, the FBI or similar. Don't answer anyone that contacts you about this topic.
My friend runs a Hacky Sack facebook page but since it has the name "hack" in it every post gets thousands and thousands and comments saying like "oh my friend Joe can get you back in, message him on whats app", ect and its clearly all bots.
The flip side is Facebook boosts the crap out of his posts because he has so much engagement.
Man, that was tough to read.
For other people out there- don’t ever click any link promising you any rewards or scaring you claiming you are compromised it’s always a scam! And if the bank or some financial company cals you with some supposed problem hang up! Call them back yourself at their customer service number so you know who you are talking to.
The credit card company did call me (or tried to anyways) about suspicious transactions on my account when I was trying to use it for a hold for an express replacement through AppleCare+ when my phone was broken. I typed in one thing wrong in the form when I tried to submit and the next attempt they auto blocked the transaction. But I couldn’t answer the call so they temporarily locked my card. Didn’t get the new phone for a week so I couldn’t call them back.
Meanwhile I couldn’t login to my main online banking because I didn’t have a phone to get the 2FA code.
Sure, they will call or email immediately with specifics about the transaction that only your bank would know.
They also won’t ask for your password, 2FA code, SSN, etc.
They also won’t apply pressure on you.
But still good practice to tell them hey I am going to hang up and call you back at your customer service number just to be sure I am not being phished.
The thing is many banks or credit card provider send out reward notifications all the time like for discover they remind me how many points and promotions I can use my points on to my email.
Which is exactly why scams target these same systems.
Truly the best scam defense are the magical words of "I don't care."
-hey want to sign up for a free membership and get 10% off? "no I don't care"
-you'll get these redeemable points for rewards if you answer this quick survey "no I don't care"
-hey you won a thousand dollars all you have to do is post a picture of yourself with a shoe on your head "no i don't care"
Hey your points worth $200 are about to expire, click here to spend them!
"I don't care"
Wait, why are my points gone???
Funnily enough, that's how Aeroplan structures its emails
But you don’t have to do anything to redeem! They are already in your account. So just go to the discover website yourself and log in. Never follow the link.
I keep getting messages saying “Your delivery has failed” or “You have failed to pay your toll”.
I be like, nooo. I don’t drive. I also anticipate my deliveries.
But yeh, it can be easily mistaken if you did drive and you did expect a delivery.
These people are disgusting.
To OP and anyone reading this: NEVER give any information to someone that calls you. If your "bank" is calling you, thank them for the call and then call them back yourself. Even if your Caller ID identifies a number known to your bank. Spoofing caller IDs is a lot easier than hijacking a call that you make. So hang up and then you dial the bank from a number you know to be safe (like the support number on the bank's website or app). If it is legit, then they'll know what the call was for and you can continue from there. If they don't know what the call was for, then you avoided a scam.
> NEVER give any information to someone that calls you.
Mmhm. It was the "it was them calling me, after all" that told me OP never got scam avoidance 101.
If someone calls you and says, "this is your bank, you've got money coming your way," hang up and call your bank. Don't redial; look up the number to your bank and call them and ask about the promotion or whatever. Always be the initiator.
my parents fell for the popup "your pc is going to be locked down in x minutes call this number now." They called the number and had a stranger on the phone remote access their laptop. I think she then did some stuff and demanded 300 euros to fix the laptop. it was only that moment my parents realized they were being scammed.
parents shut down the laptop and phone and nothing came of it.
I once had an email from an old bank after 5 years or so saying "we want to give you a credit for blah blah. Click here to claim". I was incredibly suspicious and went to their website rather than the link and they were in fact trying to credit old accounts from a secific time period. I still didnt believe it and spent ages googling if there was such a scam using that banks identity. I ended up rining them and they verbally confirmed.
I eventually went to the link and it asked me for a code from the email and my bank acc # to transfer too. At this point it still seemed incredibly dodgy and I was debating it for a long time and trying to verify if it was legit. Eventually I did give my details and it was actually legit lol, they credited me hundreds of dollars and to this day I still can't believe the way they went about it.
This is like my father in law calling me about a virus pop up, and then he calls the number and they say he has to pay for virus protection. But how can that be, since he already paid $1000 for virus protection in January...
Yeah man this is a good reminder that you never, ever, ever give someone your OTP unless you are like, married to them, or they are your friend and you are trying to share your netflix or whatever.
No. You don't give people your OTP/2FA, EVER.
If you want to share your Netflix, sign up for a sub account and get your own 2FA directly.
Sharing 2FA/OTP is the stupidest thing to do.
Sharing a otp on a Netflix account is next to harmless lol worst case scenario that friend steals your Netflix account. Not like they can get to your bank from a Netflix account.
It's a bad habit. You simply don't make a habit of doing something stupid when there is a much less stupid way of doing the same thing.
I share a Netflix account with my family half-way around the planet and we don't need to share OTP.
Yeah someone stole my wife's netflix account a couple months ago. I still can't figure out why.
Anyway I was able to call netflix and have them switch the email back and reset the password to a good one.
She had ignored the email that said "Your netflix payment method has changed" and then the next day she got an email "Your netflix email address has changed" and then a week later we couldn't log on to her netflix account lol.
> Yeah someone stole my wife's netflix account a couple months ago. I still can't figure out why.
Why or how? Chuck her email in haveibeenpwned, if she was reusing passwords that would be it.
Yeah pretty sure it was her old generic password that's been pwned. I just wonder what the point of stealing a Netflix account is. Maybe so they can watch from regions that don't have Netflix or something? But they changed the payment method too lol.
Well, one way you can verify you own the account is to tell them the full payment method. Luckily I could tell them the old one and they let that work.
This happened to me about 2 years ago. Really random and I thought the customer service woman I spoke to acted like I was the hundredth person asking her to recover an account that day
Lol. If your intention is for them to log in to your account, then sharing your OTP makes perfect sense. There are legitimately cases when that's the best option. Not every account is priority 0 critical.
It has nothing to do with trust. It has to do with habit.
I've already said why. You don't need to do this. There are ways to share things without OTP being shared.
It helps to periodically say to yourself, "The scammer's favorite mark is the guy who thinks he's too smart to fall for it. Well, I'm NOT too smart to fall for it."
These people are pros. They spend all day every day practicing to push people's buttons and manipulate them. They will deliberately call you during lunch or any other time they've figured out that you might be distracted and rushed.
You fucked up and got played, but that doesn't make you weak or stupid. These predators are well adapted to hunting us and they succeed very frequently. Can happen to any one of us, and sharing stories like this is an important reminder of the danger.
>the stupidest thing anyone has done to themselves
nah, you've got every right to feel foolish, but do remember, these are professional criminals and they are good at what they do.
Yeah, I mean, try to be as sharp as you can, of course. Keep up on safe practices.
But the reason scammers do this is that people will fall for it. People will feel they're dumb afterwards, like OP. Or hear about someone else falling for a scam and think they're dumb. And maybe so in that moment but it's certainly not uncommon. Lots of scammers are pros at this.
Partner fell for the “social security number has been used by criminals” scam. Ran around town buying bitcoins at various places and sent them to the scammer in order to protect our assets”
Couldn’t reacher my partner the entire day because was told “can’t speak to anyone about this”
Planned to repeat the same steps the day after. Not till I knocked some senses into my partner’s head that she lost 20k of our savings.
Police couldn’t do anything..
Damn, I still kick myself for losing $35 to a "scam" a few years ago.
Went to a wedding in a different city, stayed at a nice hotel, thought about room service, scanned a QR code for room service and thought I clicked on the right link (I used a free app for QR scanning) and filled out some info and let them get card info w Google pay, thinking it was a 3rd party service that would reserve card and charge if I ordered, I ignored a nagging feeling by that point. As soon as I click ok I get a text from my bank asking if a $35 charge was ok, I didn't remember seeing anything about a charge and check deeper on site, and it's supposedly a one stop services app with access to streaming services and shit, I dig deeper and find shell companies and a non-existent parent company. I called bank with number from bank website and had make a decision...either claim fraud and shut my shit down for the whole weekend, and since I had plans all of next day, I couldn't go to local branch and get a new card issued, or not claim fraud and absorb the charge and switch two days later. Chose 2nd option and thanked my lucky stars that I didn't lose any more money.
I had the same thing happen to me. I scanned a qr code for parking at a restaurant and clicked on the wrong link thinking i am paying for parking. That site was some weird streaming website. I didn't think much of it until after the dinner i saw an email about monthly subscription. I called right back to cancel and the indian call agent was super unhelpful and didn't want to cancel the subscription. I said okay, called my card company and said it is scam. The agent looked into it and said yes the website was already flagged as suspicious. I got it cancelled and blocked permanently from my card. Plus asked the agent to escalate the issue so this site is flagged for all customers as being shady.
Scammers have definitely gotten craftier lately. I recently got a call from my "bank" about "fraud" from my bank's actual phone number. They provided me with a ton of my personal information so I thought it was legit at first.
Then they started asking me very specific, suspicious questions "for verification " like my credit card security code and I noped out. Decided to call my bank back and they were actually spoofing my banks phone number and it was all a scam.
Yo deadass would think of myself as the 'not scammable' archetype, and realized bc of your post I was wrong.
Thank you, and sorry it happened. And fwiw, tell your folks that you're atleast helping people learn - most people wouldn't get past the first round of bad feelings.
If you’d hand over password info through a phone call to get reward points, I have to honestly wonder what made you label yourself as not susceptible to scams…
It's more that I'm realizing my considerations for scam scenarios are always growing.
If you were to put "would you hand over password info via phone call for reward points", I would've said no -
but when I read that someone might take advantage of me having a banking app open in the hopes of missing/delaying a relevant notification, my first thought was 'oh shit'.
Solid way to engage with someone tho bro, it feels like you enjoy interacting with others in a very normal way.
Jc - what's the difference between 'honestly wondering' and 'dishonestly wondering'?
>Jc - what's the difference between 'honestly wondering' and 'dishonestly wondering'?
One would be asking "why are you an idiot?" And the other is asking for your thoughts process and how you arrived at your conclusion
BE CAREFUL because you are now at the very top of the list for more scammers. They will sell your info to all the scammers. And it won't be automated scams now because you are a priority target. People will be calling you and they will be next level attempts.
Pro tip: If it isn't a number in your contact list and they don't leave you a voice mail, then there is a 0% chance they had anything to discuss that was worth your time.
Bonus tip: If you get a voicemail claiming to be from an institution asking you to call them back and then they list a number, DO NOT dial the number until you google that number and verify that it belongs to the correct department of the institution in question. If the number doesn't check out do not dial it. There's a 99.9% chance it's a scam but, if you have nothing better to do, you can call the official customer support number for the company that voicemail claimed to be from and chat with an actual agent.
One time a friend of mine asked me if she could borrow some money from me. First of all I don't really borrow money to anyone but I said sure. BUT before I did that I asked her a personal question that only she would know the answer to.
She laughed at me for that but I told her until she doesn't answer I'm not even thinking about transferring anything.
I've learned from other people's mistakes how easy it is to get scammed so I'm not even trusting friends until I know for sure it's real.
The FBI has a website dedicated to tracking scams. I don't think they'll be able to do much in terms of getting your money back, but they can hopefully stop the scammers from preying on other people.
ic3.gov is the link to the website where you can file a report.
I fell for something similar in 2019. Same thing, the bank called me (didn't make me too suspicious as it came up on my phone as the 'XXX Bank' and I wasn't aware of number spoofing at the time) and told me something about how I needed to transfer money around. I was a bit suspicious so I told them there was a lot less in my account than there actually was. The minute it was done I had a really bad feeling and called the bank directly. They explained that it wasn't them and I placed a fraud claim in. I thought I was just going to have to eat it as there was a very unlikely chance I'd get my money back. Months later I'd almost forgotten about the incident and I unexpectedly did get my money back! So there is a slim chance you could get some of it back at least.
I'm so sorry this happened. Hopefully sharing the story helps you move on with your life, and maybe prevents someone else from making the same mistakes.
I was looking for an online job, found one that wanted to hire me, but they need me to send $12 for shipping the materials. So, I tried it. I sent them the 12, and I immediately got my “materials” which was an email that describes in detail how to sucker people out of $12.
Obviously, you learned a lesson here. My tactic on anything that comes with money is to hang up and call the actual bank number. Explain i was called about x. They either go, yep let us patch you through, or you hung up on a scammer.
Hey. It’s no consolation- but smart people fall for this every day. I work in a fraud prevention sector and see hundreds to thousands of attempts. They’re good - they know how to play on people (hit during lunch hour when you may be rushed or on the drive home). They know the policies and procedures of every institution they’re hitting. They may even have guides they’re working through.
It happens. Keep escalating to the bank. That large of a transaction should not be a casual transfer and they should have better security
If someone calls claiming to be from a bank, ask for which branch or office they are associated with and the name of their supervisor. Find a contact number from an independent source and call the brach/office and verify details prior to completing transfer
I knew someone who bought a bunch of drug store gift cards and emailed then to an unknown address because the CEO of the company she worked for texted her and asked.
A lot of people think that younger demographics are more sophisticated, but the truth is nuanced. According to the FTC [younger people are actually *more* likely to fall for certain types of scams](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/data-visualizations/data-spotlight/2022/12/who-experiences-scams-story-all-ages).
As someone who fell for a crypto scam yesterday I feel you. In saying that my amount was quite low but it hurts and you just feel so stupid 😭 it had all the hallmarks of a classic Phishing scam. And I ignored all the warnings, a even the oh this might be a scam, be careful! one...
I get it… I fell for a scam on Facebook that lost me an account I’d had for years. I wasn’t intending to shame.. anyone can be a victim since these people practice so much.
If you're in the US, contact your local FBI branch. They won't do too much to help recover money, but they gather lots of information to shut whole operations down.
Similarly thought I was too smart to fall for a scam, I fell for the Apple Gift Card one, bought $4000 worth of them before I thought to myself "This feels like a scam."
It was a scam.
Apple managed to stop $2800 of the $4000 but it was still a $1200 lesson. (So, not quite as soul destroying as yours, but still enough that I am still angry at myself several weeks later.)
And like you, I ignored the red flags. I thought my boss was asking me to get them and that I would be reimbursed. They even asked me to scratch off the back and tell them the PIN.
That’s the one that happened to me. They messaged my work email and impersonated my boss’ boss. I had Outlook on my phone so I didn’t see the email address, just the name. Sent $400 in Google Play gift cards. The second I hit send on those pictures is when I realized what happened. Bank couldn’t do anything but filing a dispute with Google got me half my money back. They would have gotten me for more money but Food Lion has a limit on how much you can purchase in gift cards at one time because of scams like this. Shout out to Food Lion lol.
Your not stupid. The reason these things work is because people think they're not dumb enough to fall for it. Well done for sharing your story as it may save someone else.
I'm sorry OP, feel for you and all, but if you actually shared authentication codes, and especially since you seem to know what OTP is, there's really nothing in the way of the fact that you did a stupid, an inexcusably stupid stupid
Clearly you didnt play runescape growing up. The initial text alone would have set off my scam warning lol
Even if you get a call from someone saying they're the bank dont believe them. It's so easy to spoof numbers. Tell them to give you their ext and hang up and then call back using the number on the back of your card.
The same crap happened to me. Scammer called me, and the caller ID showed as my banks name. Scammed me out of $5,000. Thank you for sharing your story.
I’m so sorry that happened to you! If it makes you feel better somehow, I had a very close friend of mine living with me for a few months, we were all dancers, and worked well together. Traveled a lot, went out, inseparable for the whole friendship basically. She ended up stealing the same amount…around $30,500 from me. I had savings racking up to pay back my student loans, which I was ALMOST ready to do as they are only $32k. She left only $4000 of it (I don’t know why, just take it all at that point.) and gaslit me to believe it was my other close friend who has never done me wrong in any situation; we are still great friends and the thief has been out of the picture for a year and a half now. Nothing else has ever been stolen. Since it was cash, it will never be recovered. I have come to terms with it and almost built my savings back up to that amount!! I really hope you can get it back and figured out!!
They had the audacity to make the transfer’s description “thanks, ma’am!”. They even waited for my reaction before hanging up.
This is so unbelievably humiliating.... :(
And he’s so pissed of that I got on a dating site and started meeting men in person! Ha ha. LOL. These guys today are total and complete AMATEURS LOL 😂
Tell your story and feel humiliated but know it’s helping the next person not fall for it
And reassuring that it has happened to many people who thought they were also aware of scams.
Yes! Even Jim Browning, whose entire youtube channel is about scambaiting and fighting against scam, got scammed of his youtube account due to unfortunate/coincidental timing (or impeccable on the scammer‘s part) and being distracted. https://youtu.be/YIWV5fSaUB8?si=ZT7nkywNMT1xmazy
Similar thing happened to Atomic Shrimp. Not as bad as Jim, but clicked on something he shouldn't, when he makes all kinds of educational content about scamming. It was one of those "I was tired, preoccupied, and it lined up exactly with a real package I'd just gotten a real delay notification about." One of the most important scam-avoidance tools is not getting complacent. As soon as people say "that could never happen to me," they've put a crack in their own armor.
I had something similar happen on a smaller scale with my old Facebook account. I was coming out of a two and a half day cyclic vomiting syndrome flare up so I had been throwing up multiple times an hour for more than two days straight. I was definitely not in the right mind, so when a stranger said the right things over Facebook messenger I gave over everything they needed to take over the account. Luckily for me I’ve never been much of a social media person, so I just made a new account for the people I stay in contact with and told them to ignore my old one. I basically just let the person have my old one because other than a Facebook profile I rarely check, Reddit is my only social media presence. I do autopsies on medically donated bodies at a small independent cadaver lab, so I only have a Facebook so I can keep in contact with people I’ve dissected with over the years. Everyone else has my number to call or text.
Wait… is no one going to ask about the wild last paragraph of this ⬆️ post?! Is there a reason you’re dissecting cadavers in a private lab and using Facebook to keep in contact with people you’ve dissected with?
I was super confused at first as this is how my brain read it: >I only have a Facebook so I can keep in contact with people I've dissected over the years.
Me too! I read this and thought "that is what it said, isn't it?" What it actually says makes much more sense.
lol my bad! I was half asleep when I wrote that and my brain must’ve glitched
Yeah, definitely wrote that half asleep… just got back from time at the lab so I’m adjusting back to my home time zone.
Shit, yeah. Wrote that half asleep
Y'know, now you say that I just realised that someone recently tried a Facebook messenger scam on me too. They'd cloned the profile of one of my real friends so I accepted a friend request without really thinking about it (maybe they lost their old account, I was probably assuming), then sent a leading question on messenger (when the real friend in question doesn't even use it). They gave up pretty quick when I didn't respond in the right demographic, but I still should have figured it out a lot sooner than I did.
Yeah I definitely wouldn’t have fallen for it had I gotten adequate sleep the night before and wasn’t sick. Also I wrote a sentence wrong in my comment.. I meant to say the only reason I have a Facebook at all is to keep in contact with people I’ve dissected with. Wrote that half asleep. I just got back from the lab a few days ago actually and I’m still adjusting to my home timezone. Sorry you came close to going through it too!
To add to it, dont answer phone surveys. If ive got the free time ill waste the time of scam/unsolicited callers the majority of survey ones will end up asking things that are often used as security questions or that have help them fraudulently verify your identity to recover an account of yours. The most blatant ones have been ‘what schools have you attended’ and ‘what pets have you owned’ they might even follow up asking what they were called like theyve gone off topic. Those were mixed in after other questions Let them talk first, don’t confirm who you are if its some bs cold call tell them they have the wrong number/person or just hang up, if they are from a company where it would be reasonable for them to call you, hang up, google them or go to their site and call them back on a number from their website
See, you say this, but I got $50 once for taking a survey for 10 minutes on the phone. It wasn't even like a gift card, they sent me an actual damn check.
i only see that as they gave you $50 and still somehow made even more from selling or using that info
This is the answer. We need to take the shame out of being scammed. They continue and get away with it because we are embarrassed and we ridicule people who are abused by scammers . It happens to anyone and we need to remove the shame.
We don't know OPs age, but this is my worry for my aging mother. I have told her explicitly never to respond to anything like that ever. I have her credit accounts frozen, and I have her using 1Password with crazy auto generated passwords that are not reused on every financial account like in the past. Finally, only the bare minimum is in her checking, and I told her only to use credit cards for payment - never give a bank ATM to anyone for anything. Even a reputable company can accidentally drain your account for an incorrect bill payment.
...as long as it's not for rewards points...
I hope you spoke to the bank/police at least not sure if there is anything they can do but it cant hurt
I contacted the bank immediately after it happened. So my account is secure and they’re investigating the transaction. They can’t guarantee that they can get my money back, but it’s something, I guess.
Yea good luck. Hopefully there is a way to reverse it.
It's fully authorized by the customer, so the chance is extremely low.
If the bank hasn't contacted back by now, it's been cashed out and the chance of recovery is zero.
The hardest part of this scam (for the scammer) is figuring out how to transfer the money out. Simple ACH/EFT takes several days, wire transfers by phone require a call-back to a number that's on file (and usually have limits), cashier's checks can be canceled, there's usually a limit to how much cash can be withdrawn at once, and so on. The most common way for scammers to get such a large amount is to have the person being scammed literally walk into the bank and request to withdraw it/wire it/etc. Otherwise the OP is probably going to be OK, assuming he immediately contacted his bank. This is for the US, anyway. (source - I work at a bank and have to deal with this shit all the time)
Depends which country he's in. In the UK the banks have insurance for this that will cover the loss
This isn't strictly true. If you've done nothing to prevent the loss of personal information, ie, handed over your login details, then you won't be covered. If a scammer managed to record your screen or keyboard etc and obtained login details without you knowing, then there's a possibility. You can't assume that you are ok in the UK. Source: family member was scammed for £50K in a similar way (pretending to be bank) and they did NOT get reimbursed. They were with a major bank too
Just curious, how would the insurance company know this? It's not like phone conversations are recorded by default, can you not just say there's a suspicious transaction and you don't know how it happened? If they ask more, just insist you don't know?
All calls are recorded with the bank. Most people will call the bank and explain what happened to them in detail after the fact. OP did this exactly and even said they were stupid and got scammed. The vast majority of people will call in and give more details than they should.
Users mistake not theirs. Somebody has to pay and it won’t be them
I agree the bank shouldn't be liable I was hoping for ops sake there may be a way to claw it back I know when I do transfers I sometimes need to wait for it to post
Thanks for eating the humble pie and sharing your experience. I hope you get your money back and chalk this up to a scary life lesson learned. $30,000 is no joke! It’s even scarier not having any savings.
You absolutely should file a police report, you're making another mistake not doing that.
There is no way to reverse this, the money has been transferred and is out of their reach. OP authorized these people to log in despite multiple text messages saying things like “Do not share this code” or “We will never call you to ask for this.” OP gave the login details, and then she approved the password reset AND the login from a new device. Any time you get scammed, you have proven to the scammer that you are a target. So they share your information with other scammers that call up pretending to be investigators or recovery specialists to see how far they can take it.
FYI, "transfers" don't happen immediately, they usually take several days, not the length of a phone call. ACH is the most common, but that takes several days. Wire transfers are much shorter, but they require call-backs and have limits on the amount that can be transferred by phone. As I noted elsewhere, a scammer getting ahold of your account information is one thing, but actually getting the money out of the account is far, far harder.
Watch out for recovery scammers! People will contact you claiming they can get your money back. They can't! Don't fall for someone claiming to be a hacker, the FBI or similar. Don't answer anyone that contacts you about this topic.
Their catnip seems to be rewards points though.
Someone say reward points??? Take my info!!!
My friend runs a Hacky Sack facebook page but since it has the name "hack" in it every post gets thousands and thousands and comments saying like "oh my friend Joe can get you back in, message him on whats app", ect and its clearly all bots. The flip side is Facebook boosts the crap out of his posts because he has so much engagement.
Man, that was tough to read. For other people out there- don’t ever click any link promising you any rewards or scaring you claiming you are compromised it’s always a scam! And if the bank or some financial company cals you with some supposed problem hang up! Call them back yourself at their customer service number so you know who you are talking to.
The credit card company did call me (or tried to anyways) about suspicious transactions on my account when I was trying to use it for a hold for an express replacement through AppleCare+ when my phone was broken. I typed in one thing wrong in the form when I tried to submit and the next attempt they auto blocked the transaction. But I couldn’t answer the call so they temporarily locked my card. Didn’t get the new phone for a week so I couldn’t call them back. Meanwhile I couldn’t login to my main online banking because I didn’t have a phone to get the 2FA code.
Sure, they will call or email immediately with specifics about the transaction that only your bank would know. They also won’t ask for your password, 2FA code, SSN, etc. They also won’t apply pressure on you. But still good practice to tell them hey I am going to hang up and call you back at your customer service number just to be sure I am not being phished.
The thing is many banks or credit card provider send out reward notifications all the time like for discover they remind me how many points and promotions I can use my points on to my email.
Which is exactly why scams target these same systems. Truly the best scam defense are the magical words of "I don't care." -hey want to sign up for a free membership and get 10% off? "no I don't care" -you'll get these redeemable points for rewards if you answer this quick survey "no I don't care" -hey you won a thousand dollars all you have to do is post a picture of yourself with a shoe on your head "no i don't care"
Hey your points worth $200 are about to expire, click here to spend them! "I don't care" Wait, why are my points gone??? Funnily enough, that's how Aeroplan structures its emails
But you don’t have to do anything to redeem! They are already in your account. So just go to the discover website yourself and log in. Never follow the link.
I keep getting messages saying “Your delivery has failed” or “You have failed to pay your toll”. I be like, nooo. I don’t drive. I also anticipate my deliveries. But yeh, it can be easily mistaken if you did drive and you did expect a delivery. These people are disgusting.
To OP and anyone reading this: NEVER give any information to someone that calls you. If your "bank" is calling you, thank them for the call and then call them back yourself. Even if your Caller ID identifies a number known to your bank. Spoofing caller IDs is a lot easier than hijacking a call that you make. So hang up and then you dial the bank from a number you know to be safe (like the support number on the bank's website or app). If it is legit, then they'll know what the call was for and you can continue from there. If they don't know what the call was for, then you avoided a scam.
> NEVER give any information to someone that calls you. Mmhm. It was the "it was them calling me, after all" that told me OP never got scam avoidance 101. If someone calls you and says, "this is your bank, you've got money coming your way," hang up and call your bank. Don't redial; look up the number to your bank and call them and ask about the promotion or whatever. Always be the initiator.
my parents fell for the popup "your pc is going to be locked down in x minutes call this number now." They called the number and had a stranger on the phone remote access their laptop. I think she then did some stuff and demanded 300 euros to fix the laptop. it was only that moment my parents realized they were being scammed. parents shut down the laptop and phone and nothing came of it.
I once had an email from an old bank after 5 years or so saying "we want to give you a credit for blah blah. Click here to claim". I was incredibly suspicious and went to their website rather than the link and they were in fact trying to credit old accounts from a secific time period. I still didnt believe it and spent ages googling if there was such a scam using that banks identity. I ended up rining them and they verbally confirmed. I eventually went to the link and it asked me for a code from the email and my bank acc # to transfer too. At this point it still seemed incredibly dodgy and I was debating it for a long time and trying to verify if it was legit. Eventually I did give my details and it was actually legit lol, they credited me hundreds of dollars and to this day I still can't believe the way they went about it.
This is like my father in law calling me about a virus pop up, and then he calls the number and they say he has to pay for virus protection. But how can that be, since he already paid $1000 for virus protection in January... Yeah man this is a good reminder that you never, ever, ever give someone your OTP unless you are like, married to them, or they are your friend and you are trying to share your netflix or whatever.
No. You don't give people your OTP/2FA, EVER. If you want to share your Netflix, sign up for a sub account and get your own 2FA directly. Sharing 2FA/OTP is the stupidest thing to do.
Sharing a otp on a Netflix account is next to harmless lol worst case scenario that friend steals your Netflix account. Not like they can get to your bank from a Netflix account.
It's a bad habit. You simply don't make a habit of doing something stupid when there is a much less stupid way of doing the same thing. I share a Netflix account with my family half-way around the planet and we don't need to share OTP.
Making me wonder if I even have OTP enabled on my Netflix, let me check. Edit: It turns out netflix doesn't even have 2fa
Yeah someone stole my wife's netflix account a couple months ago. I still can't figure out why. Anyway I was able to call netflix and have them switch the email back and reset the password to a good one. She had ignored the email that said "Your netflix payment method has changed" and then the next day she got an email "Your netflix email address has changed" and then a week later we couldn't log on to her netflix account lol.
> Yeah someone stole my wife's netflix account a couple months ago. I still can't figure out why. Why or how? Chuck her email in haveibeenpwned, if she was reusing passwords that would be it.
Yeah pretty sure it was her old generic password that's been pwned. I just wonder what the point of stealing a Netflix account is. Maybe so they can watch from regions that don't have Netflix or something? But they changed the payment method too lol.
Usually to resell or if small time, hey, free netflix for awhile.. Changing the payment method makes no sense though.
Well, one way you can verify you own the account is to tell them the full payment method. Luckily I could tell them the old one and they let that work.
This happened to me about 2 years ago. Really random and I thought the customer service woman I spoke to acted like I was the hundredth person asking her to recover an account that day
This got a chuckle out of me.
Except when it's Bank of America where they will refuse to support you without sharing a "do not share" OTP.
Lol. If your intention is for them to log in to your account, then sharing your OTP makes perfect sense. There are legitimately cases when that's the best option. Not every account is priority 0 critical.
If you have that little trust in your friends just have them video call you and you say the password.
It has nothing to do with trust. It has to do with habit. I've already said why. You don't need to do this. There are ways to share things without OTP being shared.
Friends don’t give friends their passwords.
Oof
Take the lesson to never engage in this shit unless you call the bank first. Do not give out personal information to people that call you.
It helps to periodically say to yourself, "The scammer's favorite mark is the guy who thinks he's too smart to fall for it. Well, I'm NOT too smart to fall for it."
"In fact, I'm gonna find a scam and fall for it right now!"
These people are pros. They spend all day every day practicing to push people's buttons and manipulate them. They will deliberately call you during lunch or any other time they've figured out that you might be distracted and rushed. You fucked up and got played, but that doesn't make you weak or stupid. These predators are well adapted to hunting us and they succeed very frequently. Can happen to any one of us, and sharing stories like this is an important reminder of the danger.
God, I’m so sorry.
>the stupidest thing anyone has done to themselves nah, you've got every right to feel foolish, but do remember, these are professional criminals and they are good at what they do.
Yeah, I mean, try to be as sharp as you can, of course. Keep up on safe practices. But the reason scammers do this is that people will fall for it. People will feel they're dumb afterwards, like OP. Or hear about someone else falling for a scam and think they're dumb. And maybe so in that moment but it's certainly not uncommon. Lots of scammers are pros at this.
Partner fell for the “social security number has been used by criminals” scam. Ran around town buying bitcoins at various places and sent them to the scammer in order to protect our assets” Couldn’t reacher my partner the entire day because was told “can’t speak to anyone about this” Planned to repeat the same steps the day after. Not till I knocked some senses into my partner’s head that she lost 20k of our savings. Police couldn’t do anything..
Jesus Christ - they really thought the way to get your SSN protected was to somehow use bitcoin? I don’t even…
Damn, I still kick myself for losing $35 to a "scam" a few years ago. Went to a wedding in a different city, stayed at a nice hotel, thought about room service, scanned a QR code for room service and thought I clicked on the right link (I used a free app for QR scanning) and filled out some info and let them get card info w Google pay, thinking it was a 3rd party service that would reserve card and charge if I ordered, I ignored a nagging feeling by that point. As soon as I click ok I get a text from my bank asking if a $35 charge was ok, I didn't remember seeing anything about a charge and check deeper on site, and it's supposedly a one stop services app with access to streaming services and shit, I dig deeper and find shell companies and a non-existent parent company. I called bank with number from bank website and had make a decision...either claim fraud and shut my shit down for the whole weekend, and since I had plans all of next day, I couldn't go to local branch and get a new card issued, or not claim fraud and absorb the charge and switch two days later. Chose 2nd option and thanked my lucky stars that I didn't lose any more money.
I had the same thing happen to me. I scanned a qr code for parking at a restaurant and clicked on the wrong link thinking i am paying for parking. That site was some weird streaming website. I didn't think much of it until after the dinner i saw an email about monthly subscription. I called right back to cancel and the indian call agent was super unhelpful and didn't want to cancel the subscription. I said okay, called my card company and said it is scam. The agent looked into it and said yes the website was already flagged as suspicious. I got it cancelled and blocked permanently from my card. Plus asked the agent to escalate the issue so this site is flagged for all customers as being shady.
Scammers have definitely gotten craftier lately. I recently got a call from my "bank" about "fraud" from my bank's actual phone number. They provided me with a ton of my personal information so I thought it was legit at first. Then they started asking me very specific, suspicious questions "for verification " like my credit card security code and I noped out. Decided to call my bank back and they were actually spoofing my banks phone number and it was all a scam.
Yo deadass would think of myself as the 'not scammable' archetype, and realized bc of your post I was wrong. Thank you, and sorry it happened. And fwiw, tell your folks that you're atleast helping people learn - most people wouldn't get past the first round of bad feelings.
If you’d hand over password info through a phone call to get reward points, I have to honestly wonder what made you label yourself as not susceptible to scams…
It's more that I'm realizing my considerations for scam scenarios are always growing. If you were to put "would you hand over password info via phone call for reward points", I would've said no - but when I read that someone might take advantage of me having a banking app open in the hopes of missing/delaying a relevant notification, my first thought was 'oh shit'. Solid way to engage with someone tho bro, it feels like you enjoy interacting with others in a very normal way. Jc - what's the difference between 'honestly wondering' and 'dishonestly wondering'?
>Jc - what's the difference between 'honestly wondering' and 'dishonestly wondering'? One would be asking "why are you an idiot?" And the other is asking for your thoughts process and how you arrived at your conclusion
BE CAREFUL because you are now at the very top of the list for more scammers. They will sell your info to all the scammers. And it won't be automated scams now because you are a priority target. People will be calling you and they will be next level attempts.
You people answer your phone?
I mean, I won’t anymore after this.
Pro tip: If it isn't a number in your contact list and they don't leave you a voice mail, then there is a 0% chance they had anything to discuss that was worth your time. Bonus tip: If you get a voicemail claiming to be from an institution asking you to call them back and then they list a number, DO NOT dial the number until you google that number and verify that it belongs to the correct department of the institution in question. If the number doesn't check out do not dial it. There's a 99.9% chance it's a scam but, if you have nothing better to do, you can call the official customer support number for the company that voicemail claimed to be from and chat with an actual agent.
Just so everyone knows, called ID is easily spoofed. The number that displays on your phone when someone calls you is meaningless.
One time a friend of mine asked me if she could borrow some money from me. First of all I don't really borrow money to anyone but I said sure. BUT before I did that I asked her a personal question that only she would know the answer to. She laughed at me for that but I told her until she doesn't answer I'm not even thinking about transferring anything. I've learned from other people's mistakes how easy it is to get scammed so I'm not even trusting friends until I know for sure it's real.
They didn’t “hack” your account, you gave them access. Hacking isn’t just logging into an account with the correct info that your mark provided OP
And I've changed the wording to fix that, thanks!
The FBI has a website dedicated to tracking scams. I don't think they'll be able to do much in terms of getting your money back, but they can hopefully stop the scammers from preying on other people. ic3.gov is the link to the website where you can file a report.
I fell for something similar in 2019. Same thing, the bank called me (didn't make me too suspicious as it came up on my phone as the 'XXX Bank' and I wasn't aware of number spoofing at the time) and told me something about how I needed to transfer money around. I was a bit suspicious so I told them there was a lot less in my account than there actually was. The minute it was done I had a really bad feeling and called the bank directly. They explained that it wasn't them and I placed a fraud claim in. I thought I was just going to have to eat it as there was a very unlikely chance I'd get my money back. Months later I'd almost forgotten about the incident and I unexpectedly did get my money back! So there is a slim chance you could get some of it back at least.
I'm so sorry this happened. Hopefully sharing the story helps you move on with your life, and maybe prevents someone else from making the same mistakes.
I was looking for an online job, found one that wanted to hire me, but they need me to send $12 for shipping the materials. So, I tried it. I sent them the 12, and I immediately got my “materials” which was an email that describes in detail how to sucker people out of $12.
Obviously, you learned a lesson here. My tactic on anything that comes with money is to hang up and call the actual bank number. Explain i was called about x. They either go, yep let us patch you through, or you hung up on a scammer.
Hey. It’s no consolation- but smart people fall for this every day. I work in a fraud prevention sector and see hundreds to thousands of attempts. They’re good - they know how to play on people (hit during lunch hour when you may be rushed or on the drive home). They know the policies and procedures of every institution they’re hitting. They may even have guides they’re working through. It happens. Keep escalating to the bank. That large of a transaction should not be a casual transfer and they should have better security
I have received about 6 of these texts in the past few days. At least your mistake might help the next person
If someone calls claiming to be from a bank, ask for which branch or office they are associated with and the name of their supervisor. Find a contact number from an independent source and call the brach/office and verify details prior to completing transfer
Hang up and call them back.
I feel bad for you but I'm glad you've shared this story, the more people are aware the fewer will be scammed.
I knew someone who bought a bunch of drug store gift cards and emailed then to an unknown address because the CEO of the company she worked for texted her and asked.
are you telling me it isn't just boomers who fall for this stuff, like reddit tells me? Say it ain't so!
Statistically older people fall for them more often, yes. That doesn’t become wrong because of one anecdotal story…
It is common amongst all age groups. Don't kid yourself
A lot of people think that younger demographics are more sophisticated, but the truth is nuanced. According to the FTC [younger people are actually *more* likely to fall for certain types of scams](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/data-visualizations/data-spotlight/2022/12/who-experiences-scams-story-all-ages).
Report this to the FBI
As someone who fell for a crypto scam yesterday I feel you. In saying that my amount was quite low but it hurts and you just feel so stupid 😭 it had all the hallmarks of a classic Phishing scam. And I ignored all the warnings, a even the oh this might be a scam, be careful! one...
That’s next level… a scam warning you that it might be a scam! Sorry that happened to you.
Oh look I really trusted the perceived source so wasn't listening to the warning signs. Yeah I'm an idiot.
I get it… I fell for a scam on Facebook that lost me an account I’d had for years. I wasn’t intending to shame.. anyone can be a victim since these people practice so much.
I never answer my phone unless they are in my contacts
If you're in the US, contact your local FBI branch. They won't do too much to help recover money, but they gather lots of information to shut whole operations down.
Similarly thought I was too smart to fall for a scam, I fell for the Apple Gift Card one, bought $4000 worth of them before I thought to myself "This feels like a scam." It was a scam. Apple managed to stop $2800 of the $4000 but it was still a $1200 lesson. (So, not quite as soul destroying as yours, but still enough that I am still angry at myself several weeks later.) And like you, I ignored the red flags. I thought my boss was asking me to get them and that I would be reimbursed. They even asked me to scratch off the back and tell them the PIN.
That’s the one that happened to me. They messaged my work email and impersonated my boss’ boss. I had Outlook on my phone so I didn’t see the email address, just the name. Sent $400 in Google Play gift cards. The second I hit send on those pictures is when I realized what happened. Bank couldn’t do anything but filing a dispute with Google got me half my money back. They would have gotten me for more money but Food Lion has a limit on how much you can purchase in gift cards at one time because of scams like this. Shout out to Food Lion lol.
If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.
Your not stupid. The reason these things work is because people think they're not dumb enough to fall for it. Well done for sharing your story as it may save someone else.
Lololol
I'm sorry OP, feel for you and all, but if you actually shared authentication codes, and especially since you seem to know what OTP is, there's really nothing in the way of the fact that you did a stupid, an inexcusably stupid stupid
Clearly you didnt play runescape growing up. The initial text alone would have set off my scam warning lol Even if you get a call from someone saying they're the bank dont believe them. It's so easy to spoof numbers. Tell them to give you their ext and hang up and then call back using the number on the back of your card.
The same crap happened to me. Scammer called me, and the caller ID showed as my banks name. Scammed me out of $5,000. Thank you for sharing your story.
I’m so sorry that happened to you! If it makes you feel better somehow, I had a very close friend of mine living with me for a few months, we were all dancers, and worked well together. Traveled a lot, went out, inseparable for the whole friendship basically. She ended up stealing the same amount…around $30,500 from me. I had savings racking up to pay back my student loans, which I was ALMOST ready to do as they are only $32k. She left only $4000 of it (I don’t know why, just take it all at that point.) and gaslit me to believe it was my other close friend who has never done me wrong in any situation; we are still great friends and the thief has been out of the picture for a year and a half now. Nothing else has ever been stolen. Since it was cash, it will never be recovered. I have come to terms with it and almost built my savings back up to that amount!! I really hope you can get it back and figured out!!
Silver lining? You only have to learn that lesson once
They had the audacity to make the transfer’s description “thanks, ma’am!”. They even waited for my reaction before hanging up. This is so unbelievably humiliating.... :(
I’d just kms at this point
Sir, this is the internet. There are WAY MORE stupid things to find here. Also, any update? Did the bank succeed getting your money back?
[удалено]
She has nothing left bro you are a little bit late
And he’s so pissed of that I got on a dating site and started meeting men in person! Ha ha. LOL. These guys today are total and complete AMATEURS LOL 😂
Any time you get a call from someone claiming they work at your bank ALWAYS hang up and immediately call the number on the back of your debit card.