@peepeep Be a buddy and check my Chase Bank account.
I checked it for you and removed all funds for your protection.
I’ll send the boys over in a Semi truck to pick up the funds.
Sounds good! Mind if I use some of the funds for marshmallows? They’re going to be hungry when they get here and marshmallows are tastier and more nutritious than funny green paper.
Thanks for the reminder, I’m out of marshmallows.
I know two intelligent people who were phished, hooked and reeled in this year. None before that.
Does this suggest we’re getting dummer? Or at least more reflexive/flusterable?
Both anglers were boys, both fish, girls.
Would the girls have been as vulnerable to phisher-women?
I think girls would be better Phishers because they have better bait and face it, “Boys are boys”.
My wife almost got scammed 2 days ago. She came running upstairs with her phone in hand saying we needed to go to Target right now and get $500 in gift cards to settle a PayPal issue that someone bought an iPhone with her PayPal account. This all started with an email from PayPal (not) with a phone number to call, The Indian dude showed her his (?) bank statement and said if she didn’t get the money back to him that he could lose his job and it’s Christmas and he has a newborn and he was literally sobbing. This is all happening as we are going to Target to buy the gift cards. I was fuming, knowing it was a scam but she told me to shut up because he is going to lose his job. We got the money from the ATM and are heading to Target all the while yelling at each other. I called my older son who she listened to. We turned around and deposited the cash back in the account. Now she is upset that she could be so gullible. I told her these guys are GOOD and tug at your heartstrings as a woman. This was a learning experience. I can see how elderly people get suckered in.
Just a month ago she got an email from Mcafee about her subscription being auto-renewed for hundreds of dollars and to call a number to cancel the subscription if we wanted to. We don’t have Mcafee. I walked by her office and picked up on the conversation. He had her downloading a file to the PC. I stepped in and hung upon him and shut the PC down.
I was hoping that would open her eyes, but the PayPal scam almost got her. If I hadn’t insisted on going we would have been out $500.00
Clues:
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She was told to stay on the phone and not tell anyone because he could lose his job
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Need to get gift cards ONLY from Target
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There was a sense of urgency
My son and I had a talk with her about email scams. Had to tell her they can copy people’s voices and call and say they are in trouble and need cash to get out of jail. All AI needs is a sample of the person’s speech.
An 86 year old guy I play golf with almost lost $9000 to the “Your grandson is in jail and you need to pay to save him” scam. He got the money and was ready to send it until he told his eldest son who put a quick stop to it.
My wife is just the opposite, she thinks everything is a scam because all our home land line phone gets is the never ending messages about getting sent to jail if you don’t pay for (You name it), or the ever great “This is the IRS” you are going to jail or this is "MIcrosoft " and you Windows programs will be stopped if you don’t pay.
I get other text like the one I posted this morning from other “Banks” that I don’t even have any money or accounts in. Scamming is an easy business.
Better bait, indeed.
More on boys and girls:
The scammer is still trying to get money from my wife. He proposed to her last week. She is a proud woman and wants to believe everyone is good. And she is also stubborn and won’t accept my help.
I really lost it yesterday and told her I was going to take my half and leave if she kept this up. (Not really)
And I am also dealing with her pre-Alzheimer’s.
Today she told him I was going to divorce her and what he said turned the light bulb on and flushed all the Koolaid out
He said “make sure you get half of the house”
He was more concerned with the money than her getting a divorce. Now she is mad at herself for believing him.
But it looks like the bank vault shut. Now to get the credit rating back up.
Sounds like a nightmare to me. I don’t respond to emails I get from “Unknowns” or people I don’t want to talk to, do not answer my cell phone if I don’t know the number but I do answer the house phone if it is one of those IRS/ and other scammers, I just say East Bay FBI ,Field office Special Agent Berger. Crickets.
This was mildly heartbreaking to read. Few things make me angrier that seeing a vulnerable person victimized, and I’ve also been in a caregiver position for loved ones with dementia. I’m genuinely empathetic for the care you’re providing your wife as she deals with cognitive decline, and I hope that you’re able to have things in order from multiple perspectives (legal, financial, health care decision making) in a way that’s protective of and respectful to you both.