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wizzardstaff posted:Never before have I wanted to receive a scam email so much. I'll be really insulted if someone put a hit on me for less than, like, $75,000
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Oct 29, 2021 16:59
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 03:40 |
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r/relationships: I [31M] am dating my assassin [?ninja] and am worried she may complete the contract if we break up.
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Oct 29, 2021 17:06
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So it's a scam in that they won't even attempt to kill you, right?
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Oct 29, 2021 18:29
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419-eater style reverse scam where you contact the assassin from a separate account and outbid yourself to keep the hit up
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Oct 29, 2021 18:34
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About once or twice a year I used to get a mailer from a local used car dealer with one of those faux-lottery/slots/gambling cards, with a list of prizes you win if you match the symbols or whatever. With the value of used cars inflated I've been getting them monthly now, and it made me realize I don't really know how they work. The mailers themselves always "win", with five print saying the symbols don't matter and the actual prize can only be checked if you bring the mailer in. I assume, then, that it's mostly about getting people in the door to apply high pressure sales and get them to trade in their car for under value and buy a car at inflated price/interest, but is there more to it?
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Oct 30, 2021 06:10
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No, that's pretty much all there is to it. Same thing as those "free gift for everyone who participates in this quiz/prize draw with the easiest questions in the world". Get people in the store, apply sales tactics.
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Oct 30, 2021 09:47
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A few years ago, I was getting a lot of those but the difference was you'd have to check your prize by ringing up. No surprise, almost every scratch-off won and the phone number was a premium line on which you'd take at least 10 minutes to get to your prize.
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Oct 30, 2021 12:25
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Nighthand posted:About once or twice a year I used to get a mailer from a local used car dealer with one of those faux-lottery/slots/gambling cards, with a list of prizes you win if you match the symbols or whatever. With the value of used cars inflated I've been getting them monthly now, and it made me realize I don't really know how they work.
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Oct 30, 2021 22:51
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The prizes that they might actually give away could also be bullshit garbage. Like "a 50" flatscreen tv" is going to be some no name brand that will break almost immediately, because it cost them $70, and they were betting that most people won't actually stick around long enough for a hard sale to try to claim it. And, they're happy to throw it in if someone they got in the door ends up buying.
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Oct 30, 2021 23:40
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I checked the one I got most recently and the fine print talks about the odds of getting a prize are hilariously low, but the prizes themselves seemed real enough. One was just straight-up a PS5, in any case. I'm sure they count on never giving out the prizes because 90% of people just toss the mailer so the chances of anyone even claiming a winner are non-existent.
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Oct 31, 2021 03:22
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I don't know if this is a scam or not. Last night I got a text supposedly from Verizon (my cell carrier) telling me: "For the security of your account, Verizon will never contact you for this code. Your authorization code for Sign In request is [number]" My Verizon account does not require a sign in code. There were no links in the message. I logged in to my account and everything looked normal. Just to be safe, I changed all of the security stuff for my account.
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Nov 3, 2021 12:40
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I’m getting some odd phone upgrade offers from “Verizon” via text. The offer is a discount on a new iPhone 13 (seems legit because they know I have a ~3 year old iPhone 8). The link points to m.vzw.com/blah which is a valid Verizon website; not used as much any more because we have real keyboards on our phones now but whatever. Every single time I’ve clicked on the link, it 404s. If it is a scam, I’m not sure what the payoff is. Also I want a discount on a new phone dammit. E: Also the text starts with “Hi, <wife’s name>”, and the account is in her name. Maybe just bad communication between marketing and the web dudes? IDGI goatsestretchgoals fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Nov 3, 2021 |
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Nov 3, 2021 16:57
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Mister Kingdom posted:I don't know if this is a scam or not. It's possible someone put your phone number in by mistake for their number. I'm not sure whether calling their support line would or should clear it up. goatsestretchgoals posted:I’m getting some odd phone upgrade offers from “Verizon” via text. The offer is a discount on a new iPhone 13 (seems legit because they know I have a ~3 year old iPhone 8). The link points to m.vzw.com/blah which is a valid Verizon website; not used as much any more because we have real keyboards on our phones now but whatever. Every single time I’ve clicked on the link, it 404s. If it is a scam, I’m not sure what the payoff is. It's probably legit and marketers are just loving idiots. Probably best to not click links though.
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Nov 3, 2021 17:25
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Today I got a text that looked scammy as gently caress - hidden number, badly spelled and laid out, and inviting me to click a very dodgy looking link for a free over-40s health check. I sent a message to the doctors though their admin portal and they replied via text from their normal number saying yeah it’s us, click the link and book to come in and see us next week, you get this now you’re on the slippery slope towards death. This text was also atrociously spelled and bizarrely formatted. I can see why some people, particular older folk, fall for what look like obvious scams.
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Nov 3, 2021 23:01
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My own work IT sends lots of phising emails out to staff. Other parts of work, especially risk and hr loving love to send out emails about very important things that not only come from external domains but look worse than phishing emails. I know it's legit only by how low effort it is.
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Nov 3, 2021 23:42
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I did a privacy and policy blah blah blah training. I was informed of this with an email, to a weird url. At the bottom of the email, it said (paraphrasing) "Want to be sure that external link(Ed: yes, it said external link) is safe? This e learning is given by (actual LMS name here). Please use the given link and your corporate account to log in." Naturally, the phishing question describes certain aspects of this very email.
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Nov 4, 2021 01:49
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Oh hurrah, someone tried the "we have your password and compromising video"scam on Mom. What pisses me off is how they got the password. Long ago we had dial up and email through ISP#1, a lot of our important accounts used that as the recovery email. ISP #2 bought out #1. They sucked (Megapath) and did a terrible job supporting the legacy email infrastructure. We were on email-only by then. At one point on a call I was asked to authenticate myself by giving the password for the account. Which ISP #1 stored in plain text and #2 didn't see fit to change. The tech I was talking to verified it by... reading off my password. In the fullness of time, ISP #3 bought #2. When I finally got around to cancelling was just days ago, so the scam email came in within 72 hours of activity on an email account with the password saved in plaintext. No, that's not fishy at all.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:34
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I was just notified that someone was able to successfully change the email linked with my Sony account. I haven't used that account since I bought a PS3 and hardly anything is on it. But I'm loving impressed their security is so bad that the email can be changed without any kind of 2FA. I assume the password has long been leaked in the past 8 years since I last used the account.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:37
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Follow up to the doctors story - when I did follow their dodgy link to book an appointment I still couldn’t do it because logging in requires a date of birth check, and their calendar only had ten months to choose from. Extreme effort to look like a scam. I’ve had eleven emails in the past 48 hours saying they have my passwords and a video of me wanking! I normally only get one or two a week. These are all asking to be paid in Etherium whereas it’s always been bitcoin previously.They let themselves down when they say something like “nice video you chose, you have very interesting tastes.” No I don’t mate, I’m vanilla as gently caress. You could film me 24/7 and the best you’d get is a clip of me raising my eyebrows slightly at an unexpected picture of a lady with her top off.
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Nov 4, 2021 12:44
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The Amway of Sweatpants, holy poo poo can’t wait to watch that gem
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Nov 4, 2021 13:41
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hellotoothpaste posted:The Amway of Sweatpants, holy poo poo can’t wait to watch that gem You mean the Lu La Roe documentary series? It's great, they get all the folks at the top of the pyramid on camera for extensive interviews where they deny everything interspersed with event footage and interviews with various staff, sellers, and other hangers on. Super revealing when their main publicity guy starts saying "we need to pivot away from looking like a pyramid scheme. We're not one, but we might look like one to outsiders, so we need to make some changes to our business model" Just lol
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Nov 4, 2021 13:47
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I get maybe 1-2 scam texts a year on my android phone, and it's been about that pace for years. A month or so back I had a company iphone thrust on me, and holy poo poo I get like 1-2 scam texts a day on the thing. Constant phishing, group chats with a million randos trying to get me to click links, the works. I had to completely turn off the iMessage feature on the phone and just tell people at work to call, not text if they need something. Did I just get a dodgy number or is this actually what iphone users put up with on the regular?
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Nov 4, 2021 21:17
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Probably a dodgy number. Aside from those maybe-Verizon-maybe-not texts I get every couple months, I don’t get any weird texts. I’ve also had this phone number since just after Oregon added a new area code so I’m probably the only person to ever have it.
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Nov 4, 2021 21:21
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Sydin posted:I get maybe 1-2 scam texts a year on my android phone, and it's been about that pace for years. A month or so back I had a company iphone thrust on me, and holy poo poo I get like 1-2 scam texts a day on the thing. Constant phishing, group chats with a million randos trying to get me to click links, the works. I had to completely turn off the iMessage feature on the phone and just tell people at work to call, not text if they need something. Yeah just ask the carrier to give you a renumber. They'll usually waive the fee if you tell them you're getting harassing phone calls.
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Nov 4, 2021 21:25
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Sydin posted:I get maybe 1-2 scam texts a year on my android phone, and it's been about that pace for years. A month or so back I had a company iphone thrust on me, and holy poo poo I get like 1-2 scam texts a day on the thing. Constant phishing, group chats with a million randos trying to get me to click links, the works. I had to completely turn off the iMessage feature on the phone and just tell people at work to call, not text if they need something. I get virtually no scam texts on my iphone but plenty of calls about my auto warranty, student loans, cancelled social security number, etc.
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Nov 4, 2021 21:29
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Work phones you tend to have to answer all calls that come in, and it'll get noted that you're picking up on scam calls and spread. Hopefully most people these days are being more selective about picking up unknown calls, using blocklists etc so less likely to end up on 'this dude will always pick up' list. I'm not sure why you thought it came down to what brand of handset you have?
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Nov 4, 2021 21:44
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iMessage can be used by people from desktop computers.
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Nov 5, 2021 00:50
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I don’t think I’ve ever received a single piece of spam via iMessage. That’s just a terrible way to go about it.
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Nov 5, 2021 02:01
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I think it's just a matter of time before scam texts become as ubiquitous as email spam.
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Nov 5, 2021 02:28
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The sad thing is it doesn’t have to be, blame the carriers for that.
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Nov 5, 2021 02:40
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I still have trouble comprehending what's in it for the carriers and phone manufacturers to so ardently resist serious anti-spam measures. Like I know a fuckton of money is being made by scammers and spammers, but as far as I know there is no Scammers Guild (unless you count the Russian and Chinese governments) that centrally collects all that money and can pay off Apple, Verizon, etc. to keep the spam flowing.
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Nov 5, 2021 04:17
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Eric the Mauve posted:I still have trouble comprehending what's in it for the carriers and phone manufacturers to so ardently resist serious anti-spam measures. Like I know a fuckton of money is being made by scammers and spammers, but as far as I know there is no Scammers Guild (unless you count the Russian and Chinese governments) that centrally collects all that money and can pay off Apple, Verizon, etc. to keep the spam flowing. If it gets bad enough someone will pay them to make it stop. Until then, it's not their problem.
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Nov 5, 2021 04:29
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Eric the Mauve posted:I still have trouble comprehending what's in it for the carriers and phone manufacturers to so ardently resist serious anti-spam measures. Not giving a poo poo costs exactly $zero, because there's no option a consumer has to switch to a carrier that gives a poo poo. Giving a poo poo costs $morethanzero.
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Nov 5, 2021 23:35
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Sydin posted:I get maybe 1-2 scam texts a year on my android phone, and it's been about that pace for years. A month or so back I had a company iphone thrust on me, and holy poo poo I get like 1-2 scam texts a day on the thing. Constant phishing, group chats with a million randos trying to get me to click links, the works. I had to completely turn off the iMessage feature on the phone and just tell people at work to call, not text if they need something. Definitely a dodgy number. I've been using an iphone since forever and I've never had that problem. I get scam texts maybe once a year. I do get a few scam calls around tax time, though.
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Nov 6, 2021 00:48
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I’ve had my cell number since my Nokia 5165. Might just be a coincidence, but I only just started receiving scam/spam sms messages a few months after my wife and I switched from AT&T to Cricket. I figured it was just another pain point that AT&T uses to differentiate the services, but I might have made it on a list somewhere.
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Nov 6, 2021 15:47
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duodenum posted:I’ve had my cell number since my Nokia 5165. Might just be a coincidence, but I only just started receiving scam/spam sms messages a few months after my wife and I switched from AT&T to Cricket. I figured it was just another pain point that AT&T uses to differentiate the services, but I might have made it on a list somewhere. Possible! Also possible, cricket is just worse. I was curious about this, so I tried to research this, then broke down and asked friends who might know. The messages are likely getting sent via an SS7 hookup or paying an intermediary, and it's very possible that AT&T has better spam filtering at their end for any texts that DO come through. Volmarias fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Nov 6, 2021 |
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Nov 6, 2021 19:18
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I’ve had the same number for 20 years and get at least 2 calls a day flagged as spam. Also a lot of texts that are sent to the 20 closest sequential numbers about every 2 days. They used to just be a link, but they’ve recently evolved into actual texts such as “you loving freaks don’t ever text me again 🖕” maybe they’re fishing for valid numbers or suckers that reply to group texts idk. I switched from android to apple about a year ago and the spam calls have def increased since then, but that could be a coincidence.
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Nov 7, 2021 06:32
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Sanford posted:Today I got a text that looked scammy as gently caress - hidden number, badly spelled and laid out, and inviting me to click a very dodgy looking link for a free over-40s health check. I sent a message to the doctors though their admin portal and they replied via text from their normal number saying yeah it’s us, click the link and book to come in and see us next week, you get this now you’re on the slippery slope towards death. This text was also atrociously spelled and bizarrely formatted. I can see why some people, particular older folk, fall for what look like obvious scams. I hate it when companies do things like this, that look just like scams. I once got a call from my bank when I was on vacation overseas calling about a suspicious transaction (just because I had used the card in another country) but the conversation went something like this: Bank: Hi, this is [bank] we've seen a suspicious transaction we'd like to verify with you. Me: Ok. Bank: Can we verify your identity first, can we get your account number, date of birth etc? Me: Can you verify *your* identity? How do I know this is a legit call? Bank: .... In the end I told them I'd hang up, called the general number on the bank of the card (which I know is legit) and then the had a note on my account so the person I talked to knew what we were doing. It's so dumb they so often say "DONT GIVE OUT INFO TO ANYONE WE WONT EVER ASK FOR THIS STUFF" and then call me saying "Hey give us your info. It's totally legit this time, promise."
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Nov 9, 2021 00:22
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One of my first jobs was ringing people to try and hand out lost money. In my country if a company has money they don't own and can't find an owner for andit just sits there it amasses a punitive rate of interest to encourage them to find its owner quickly. It usually occurs because someone died with some forgotten account and no one ever claimed it and whoops it's 30 years later and costing a fortune. While a really fun job, ring folks up and give them money, it was very hard to get to a point I could do that. Cause it sure as hell sounds like a scam when I rang and asked them to give me information.
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Nov 9, 2021 19:10
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 03:40 |
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I do surveys on behalf of federal and local governments, mostly public health, and most have a texting or CATI component so telephone scams interest me. One project in particular that has had terrible response rates is this CDC study we are doing. It's an RDD sample of 15 states selected to participate in a push-to-web experiment and at best we could only match like 25% of phone numbers to addresses, so we can't mail a survey invite with a web link because it's not cost effective. At first the design was to call people and get permission to text them a survey link (not my idea, I wasn't on the proposal). I think the RR for that ended up being like less than 5%. Most people just don't answer. We found we had to rotate the outbound number 3 times a day because it would only take a few hours to get flagged as spam. The cost per completed survey was ridiculous because CATI is so expensive. So then the CDC was like gently caress it, just text people without their permission and out of a sample size of about 14,000 we only got like 200 completed surveys and that was after months of testing to make the texts as legit as possible and avoid getting them blocked by carriers. The good thing though is it only costs a few cents per message vs. spending thousands for all the CATI dialing to get one complete. I remember throughout testing we were all like, "yeah i still wouldn't click this link." Oh and the incentive was a $5 e-card. Survey is like 20 minutes. Worst project I have ever been on.
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Nov 15, 2021 17:35
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