Internet Fraud Schemes

[Marauder06]

If you're in the military, watch out for schemes like this that involve official-sounding messages and sneaky phishing techniques that directly target currently-serving members of the armed forces. I had a very sketchy email come my way last week. The ".mll" ending was so close to ".mil" that I thought for an instant that it might be legit.

Link to story.

What's the best (as in, worst) Internet fraud scheme that came your way?

 

[SaintKP]

I'm not military, but aside from the Nigerian princes and Canadian performance enhancement pills .

The worst I've seen is when I was trying to sell some furniture on craigslist when I was moving and a potential "buyer" that was all the way in Vermont was interested in my pre 05' Sanyo flatscreen television in all of its CRT and RCA glory. They wanted it so badly that they were going to send a money order but it was for to large of an amount and they wanted me to give the remainder to their "friend" who was coming to pick it up.

 

[Marauder06]

I'm not military, but aside from the Nigerian princes and Canadian performance enhancement pills .

The worst I've seen is when I was trying to sell some furniture on craigslist when I was moving and a potential "buyer" that was all the way in Vermont was interested in my pre 05' Sanyo flatscreen television in all of its CRT and RCA glory. They wanted it so badly that they were going to send a money order but it was for to large of an amount and they wanted me to give the remainder to their "friend" who was coming to pick it up.

That's a good one. They steal a good TV *and* your money.

 

[digrar]

Mum got done by a scammer who cloned a family member's facebook account. It was under a thousand dollars. She's normally pretty good and won't internet without advice, but she didn't run this one past me, so I didn't get a chance to tell her to back away.

The fraud itself was a "government grant" scheme, which is just ridiculous.

 

[racing_kitty]

I'm not military, but aside from the Nigerian princes and Canadian performance enhancement pills .

The worst I've seen is when I was trying to sell some furniture on craigslist when I was moving and a potential "buyer" that was all the way in Vermont was interested in my pre 05' Sanyo flatscreen television in all of its CRT and RCA glory. They wanted it so badly that they were going to send a money order but it was for to large of an amount and they wanted me to give the remainder to their "friend" who was coming to pick it up.

Just last week a guy tried to pull the same thing on my sister. She put my old aquarium (complete with reptile goodies) up for sale on FB, and this cat sent us a cashier’s check for $800 over the amount. She didn’t fall for it, and actually had a lot of fun fucking with the scammer in return.

 

[BlackSmokeRisinG]

^How do those things work? Just a bad check that you're supposed to go for? Or is it some strange money laundering sceme?

 

[Isiah6:8]

^How do those things work? Just a bad check that you're supposed to go for? Or is it some strange money laundering sceme?

You deposit the check into your account. You take the balance over COGS out in cash and give that amount to part of the scam. Your bank in 2-5 days determines that the check is fraudulent and removes the funds from your account.

The whole transaction becomes you giving your goods away and paying the buyer cash.

Another big scam is people charging back funds through Paypal.

 

[Marauder06]

Latest scam: student loan forgiveness.

Posting this in case others are getting similar messages. This one is slightly more sophisticated than the usual ones I get, because it contained accurate data and a lot of official-sounding numbers.

I received the below email a few minutes ago. It contained my correct name and an old address of mine. It included an attractive selling point--student load forgiveness! Who doesn't want that? And student loan forgiveness is a real thing.

but...

I never had any student loans. At all. Ever. For any of my degrees. Thanks Mom & Dad, Army ROTC, and the American people.

Also, the clearly-fake email address is another indicator (hotmail?? lol).

Kaitlynn Zerring <zzc0s0t5n@hotmail.com>

<my real name>, Hello this is Kaitlynn Zerring on behalf of the Student Loan Debt Department. We tried to contact you at your home <my old address> and did not hear back. Your Student Loans have been marked as possibly eligible for forgiveness under the new 2024 guidelines. Your case number is #69273, and your file will remain open in my system for only one more day. Please give your dedicated eligibility line a call on Tuesday (7/23/2024) at: (‎8‎33)‎‑361‎‎‑1‎68‎‎2. Our office hours are 11am-8pm (EST) Monday-Friday. Thank you so much and we hope to hear from you soon, Kaitlynn Zerring

 

[AWP]

I had the same earlier this week, some version of it at least.

 

[Devildoc]

Yep, me too

 

[BlackSmokeRisinG]

Not sure how, but when I ordered something a couple weeks ago, like a water filter from Home Depot, I got a text to click on a link for updated shipping.

They almost got me too. I was receiving emails that the shipment was going to be late a few days, except this was saying I needed to update my address because it was difficult to find or some bullshit. I live on a basic residential street in a metro area...