Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with scammers

Look Out Honey, 'Cause I'm Usin' Technology

fandango_matt — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:04:38 -0800

I posted some items for sale on Craigslist, and shortly thereafter I got email from a typical scammer who wanted to send me and have me cash a check from "his client," and I'd refund him the balance--you know, the textbook overpayment with a fake check scam. Now, I'd like to have some fun with this. So I opened a Hotmail account and began playing along, giving him the address of the local FBI field office as my "home address" to which he could send the check.

How now to proceed? I'd like to have some P-P-Powerbook-style fun with this and hopefully bust the guy--is that possible? Is it legal? Ideas, suggestions, and advice are all welcome.

Def Con Art Garfunkel

Mach3avelli — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 02:34:57 -0800

I would like to hear personal anecdotes related to scams, scammers, or scamming. I'm always fascinated by the subject of cons, from both the point of view of victim or victimizer. Especially stories where the target gets the better of the scammer (like that infamous ebay iBook story).

I haven't read anything too interesting all week and I need a little pick-me-up, so please indulge everyone with your personal exploits.

Drowning in fraudulent IP Relay Calls. Help!

IndigoSkye — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 12:32:59 -0800

IP Relay Scammers are plaguing our PBX operator. Is there anything we can do besides refusing to answer any IP Relay call? I work at a large Non-Profit and as such we're the occasional target of fraud attempts. Recently we've been targeted by a ring of criminals attempting to us the free Internet Relay Call service (discussed on MEFI here) provided by phone companies for the use of deaf and hard of hearing individuals, but abused by scammers.

Is there anything more we can do besides refusing to answer these calls once an operator connects them to us? It's really beginning to tax our resources, which are already pretty constrained since we're a non-profit.

The IP Relay companies claim they can't help us because of privacy and common carrier laws. Those same laws make it impossible to track the fraudsters without setting up a sting, which as a non-profit, our BOT would not let us do.

No Phishing

Saucy Intruder — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 22:47:29 -0800

I get a phishing e-mail on a daily basis. It probably accounts for 10% of my spam. The FTC and private industry groups are up in arms, but the problem keeps getting worse. Given the little old ladies who are losing their pensions by clicking on these links, why can't anyone catch these guys? What's the technological barrier?

How do scammers know which bank I use?

shinnin — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 07:50:06 -0800

How do scammers who send email claiming to be from my bank and needing my account info know which banks I use? [More Inside] You know the email: “We are upgrading our system. Please follow this link [to facsimile of actual bank’s site] and confirm your account information to avoid having your account deleted.” I used to just get them from "Citibank" and assumed scammers were playing the odds on that one. But today I got one seeming to be from my fairly small local bank. I got the email at an old college address that the bank does not have on file--and my college is in a state where my bank does not operate. The only connection I can think of between the bank and the college is my student loan payments. The to: field has a slight variant of my address in it (usernames are initials and random numbers), so it looks like this was in fact sent to a computer generated list of possible addresses at the college (like 80% of my spam).

I followed the link this time out of curiosity and was actually redirected to my bank’s real site, which did not solicit my info and actually had a warning about spam scams. I presume my bank had already been tipped off and shut this one down. There was a phone number there to report such scams. I picked up the phone, then got confused and paranoid, then went to the bank’s site in another browser window and confirmed the number, then decided to Ask Metafilter….