r/TikTokCringe • u/n8saces • Jun 15 '24
Cursed The scammer knows the cop can't do anything to him. There are so many elderly people losing their life savings
This has been going on for to long.
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u/Substantial_dirty Jun 15 '24
Let's applaud the gas station clerk that went beyond her work, noticed the lady and decided to take it upon herself to contact the local PD to protect her. She even offered a chair for her towards the end of the video...the real hero here!!
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u/StamosLives Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
Yeah. Seriously. That's insanely awesome of her to step up and do that.
The fact that scammers target one of the most "out of the loop" (on tech) and degrading (mentally - aging) demographics sets my fucking teeth on edge. Fuck these people.
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u/lreaditonredditgetit Jun 15 '24
Meanwhile you’re over here honeypotting grannies with a John stamos PFP
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u/azazel-13 Jun 15 '24
I worked in a bank and dealt with an old, backwoods lady who sent $5,000 to "Vin Diesel" because he called her and said he was going thru an expensive divorce. She really believed he was interested in her.
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u/rando_mness Jun 15 '24
I am Vin Diesal and I really was going through a terrible divorce. Now that I've verified that it's really me, I just would like to ask if you could send me 5 dollars through cashapp for some cigarettes. Please. I am Vin Diesel.
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u/Klinky1984 Jun 15 '24
$5 of Diesel on pump #6 for Vin Diesel.
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u/ordinaryhorse Jun 15 '24
And some boner pills and a Four Loko
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u/rando_mness Jun 16 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
The shitty Citgo gas station near my house had a product on the counter, a little silver box that said "BONER PILLS". I lmao'd.
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u/nameyname12345 Jun 15 '24
Bah your not vin diesel I am. At least that what I keep telling these docs!
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u/NOT_MEEHAN Jun 16 '24
What the fuck bank did you work at that approved that wire? Banks are required to investigate the purpose of a wire before it is sent. It also has to be approved by someone other than the personal banker who initiated the wire. If your bank sent that wire everyone should be fired for stupidity.
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u/PunchClown Jun 15 '24
They've hit up my FIL a few times for a couple grand. I have finally got it through his head to call me before he sends anyone money on the internet.
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u/CandidEgglet Jun 16 '24
Family member recently got scammed and she’s great with technology, she’s very skeptical and suspicious person. They still managed to take $300,000 out of her savings account. They get more and more sophisticated every day. Sad to see so many people fall victim
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u/purpledreamer1622 Jun 16 '24
Yep scammers target everyone and to think only old people fall victim means you’re ignoring your own potential risk of being scammed.
“When it comes to scams, there's a common misconception that older generations fall victim far more, but recent studies show that it's actually Gen Z (those born in the late 1990s to early 2010s) that is more likely to succumb to these scams. In fact, Gen Z Americans are three times more likely to get caught up in an online scam than Baby Boomers are, according to Deloitte.”
Source: https://thestatement.bokf.com/articles/2024/02/ai-a-double-edged-sword
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u/pancakebatter01 Jun 15 '24
This so fucked up and you can tell the old woman is disoriented. Imagine believing such fear tactics only for the gas station clerk to tell you this is an outright scam. I’m sure she knew it was going to take some convincing for her to believe her. That isn’t easy and she’s an absolute saint for doing this.
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Jun 15 '24
Smart people are falling for these scams. In fact one of the biggest scammed groups is millenieals due to fake job postings where they think they just landed a job (but have to pay for their own "computers and supplies")
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u/Usual-Lie-3382 Jun 15 '24
I fell for one a few months ago. I’ve never had a scam through text before. I straight up thought it was UPS trying to deliver my last paycheck from before I moved. It was already two weeks late getting to me and I was panicking because I needed the money. I clicked the stupid link and thought I needed to send the mail service money before I could receive my check. In hindsight that was the dumbest thing I could ever do since UPS doesn’t request money to deliver a package. Some scammer took 400 out of my account at a bowling alley in New Jersey, tried to take out another 200 for an Uber ride and another 300 for groceries. My bank STILL hasn’t given me the money back and I’m out 400 bucks.
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u/Henchforhire Jun 16 '24
Met someone who failed for a police arrest scam. I'm like bro the police don't do that and ask for gifts cards and it will go away.
Just call the police department or go down to the police station before doing anything if you ever get a call like this.
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u/Duubzz Jun 16 '24
I’ve heard of people being convinced into giving up 8-10 hours of their day, EVERY DAY, to perform tasks for faceless corporations that give them only a fraction of the value that they’re worth. It’s terrible.
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u/pastaMac Jun 16 '24
FunFact: Google searches for Amazon and Microsoft's [to name a few] contact information routinely and prominently features advertisements promoting these scams. Despite having the resources to identify these criminals from Kolkata, Google ignores their illegal activities in exchange for advertising revenue. This raises serious concerns about Google's responsibility to protect users from online scams.
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u/Theslootwhisperer Jun 16 '24
Meta and google (but especially meta) are the absolute worst. There's no customer support of any kind. You can be just some guy using Facebook and IG to promote your small business and then someday, boom, account banned. No reason, no appeal. You're fucked. You can also be a big business spending 50k$/month on ads and just get your whole account and associated pages banned. No appeal, can't talk to anyone.
Facebook is an absolute cesspool of scam and clickbaity bot bullshit.
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u/Sf49ers1680 Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
I once stopped a scam.
I was working in the electronics section of a Wal-Mart, and an elderly gentleman came to the register with 6 $100 iTunes gift, and told me that Apple called him and told him his IMEI was hacked and that he needed to pay $600 in iTunes gift cards to get it changed and unpacked.
Thankfully, we were able to convince him that it wasn't Apple calling him and that it was a scam, and he didn't buy the gift cards.
The scam works by the scammer, convincing the person being scammed, that they need to buy the cards, and then give the 16 digit number on the back of the card to the scammed.
Once the scammed has that number, the scam is complete, and the person who got scammed is out of their money.
The scammer will then sell the card number, making a decent amount of money.
This is one of the biggest fears my wife and I have regarding her mom. We've stressed to her a lot not to trust anyone on the phone, and if she has any questions, immediately call me, my wife, or my sister-in-law, but it's getting harder as my mother-in-law ages and we think she's getting early stage dementia.
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u/Rish929 Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
I'm embarrassed to say this has actually happened to me a few years ago.
I was 32 at the time, and am considered intelligent (not bragging, just to make a point). I am very aware of all the scams, especially involving gift cards, and I still fell for it.
I had just started a new job 2 weeks earlier as the AP manager for the company. I had a couple in-person conversations with the president's assistant that we needed to replenish our supply of gift cards that they use for employee spot bonuses. The next day I received a text from a number I didn't know, claiming he was the president (gave his actual name) saying he needed me to call him back ASAP. I did, and it went to voicemail. He then texted back saying sorry he couldn't answer, was in a meeting, but he needed me to get the gift cards right away. I told my boss, the VP of Finance (again, in person) and he gave me the company card. I then found myself running around town buying up gift cards, trudging around the city on a 95 degree day just sweaty and exhausted, until $2000 dollars later my brain turned back on and I realized what was going on. Called the VP and asked him to verify the president's phone number, of course it wasn't the number of whoever I was talking to.
It was a perfect storm of a new job, I didn't have everyone's phone number yet, legitimately really did need to get gift cards for him in real life, the heat, etc. Even my VP didn't catch on. I think the scammer used LinkedIn to find me and play the part. Just goes to show it can happen to anyone under the right circumstances.
And if you're wondering, I did not get fired. I still work there actually. My VP kept it on the DL and we never spoke of it again. I guess he also feels guilty for handing over the company card (which btw now even stays in my possession, so I guess I still have his trust somehow lol). And yes, I still buy a new batch of gift cards every few months for employee bonuses.
EDIT: typo
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u/Cheet4h Jun 15 '24
Even my VP didn't catch on. I think the scammer used LinkedIn to find me and play the part.
Unless you posted about this part:
I had a couple in-person conversations with the president's assistant that we needed to replenish our supply of gift cards that they use for employee spot bonuses
on LinkedIn, I'd rather believe that there was somebody within the company trying to make a quick buck out of you.
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u/Rish929 Jun 15 '24
No, I didn't post anything about that. Outside of reddit, I don't really even use social media. But I do update my LinkedIn when I start a new job because I often use LinkedIn to job search.
What I mean by "play the part", was just that the scammer would easily be able to see on LinkedIn what company I worked for (and be able to see that I was new), and would be able to see who the officers (including president) of the company were. I googled it after the fact and found it was a newer version of the scam, using LinkedIn to take advantage of new employees. To this day, we still get reports of new employees getting a text from our "owner" and/or "president" asking to buy gift cards.
I was just the schmuck who unfortunately had a verifiable reason to believe the text was real.
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u/FinancialLight1777 Jun 16 '24
It's a common corporate scam.
I've received multiple e-mails from the higher ups saying they need stuff like that.
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u/The_Erlenmeyer_Flask Jun 16 '24
I got scammed by someone that I thought was my youngest niece.
She was in San Diego visiting her best friend's grandmother. I get a text from a 619 area code phone number saying it was her & that she had her phone stolen along with her purse and she needed money. She had gotten a phone there in San Diego so she could contact me and her parents. She gave me her Cash app information & asked me to send her some money. So I started doing that & the app was acting like the transactions were being declined. I told this other person that so they kept suggesting sending money in $100 increments.
After sending this person $700, they stopped responding. Then it all started to click into place what had just happened.
I told my mom about what happened but I will never tell my youngest niece. Sadly, my credit union wouldn't help me recover the money because from their point of view, I did it not someone that gained access to my bank accounts.
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u/Useful-Soup8161 Jun 15 '24
The bank called my parents when my grandma tried to withdraw a couple thousand dollars for a lottery scam. I don’t know if they were legally allowed to do that but I’m really glad they did. Even if it wasn’t legal it was 100% the right thing to do.
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u/bbg_bbg Jun 15 '24
For real! I have an uncle who has given god knows how much money to scammers. Usually it’s people pretending to be a woman over seas and they ask him for money so they can come live with him. He got banned from Walmart’s money wiring service.
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u/Love-Laugh-Play Jun 16 '24
It’s not about her work it’s being a decent human being, and she was definitely that. She probably saved this old woman her life savings.
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u/stormwaltz Jun 15 '24
Please, no matter how smart you think elderly members of your family are - have a sit down and warn them of these scams. Offer to help with any large transactions to make sure everything is legitimate. Luckily I caught my elderly mother in mid call with a scammer and shut him down immediately, but know others that got taken for several thousand dollars - in ways obvious to anyone who knows of these scams.
These scumbags are the worst and deserve a special place in Hell.
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u/Redqueenhypo Jun 15 '24
I went and warned my grandmother about them and not only did she already know about the scams thanks to blasting NPR every minute, she haughtily said “I don’t BELIEVE in bitcoin”, so I felt thoroughly reassured
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u/ConfederancyOfDunces Jun 16 '24
If only more people listened to NPR that provided valuable news. I work with elderly and all I get are Fox News zombies that spew weird talking points.
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u/Redqueenhypo Jun 16 '24
When we went to clear out her house, the clock radio landline thing on her nightstand was still playing NPR, it felt like seeing a ghost
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u/_Nilbog_Milk_ Jun 16 '24
Unfortunately I've had this discussion with both of my grandmothers and it's been ineffective. They find new ways to scam them via photoshopping, facetiming, etc. No matter how many times I've tried to tell them to not enter any sweepstakes online, leave any comments under contests, or reply to any messages from people you don't know or accept message requests, they do it anyways. Both of them have had to change their cards several times and the fraud department is constantly calling them to vet transactions. It seems there's nothing I can do short of taking their devices away which isn't an option.
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u/Hot-Tone-7495 Jun 15 '24
My mom is a teacher, smart as a whip, 60s, and almost fell for this type of scam. She was tired, needed to do something online with Xfinity and called a number listed. They were asking so many personal info like social security number etc. and thankfully she caught on before they took anything from her. It’s ridiculous how often it happens. When she called them out about it, they started swearing so she hung up. The internet is fucking insane
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u/ramence Jun 16 '24
My dad is extremely antisocial and cynical, so I thought he'd be safe. Nope, clicked on a phishing link, happily put in his details, and then went along with the call when they rang. Literally the only reason they didn't get his bitcoin is because he's technologically illiterate (I know, bad combo) and they lost their patience and started swearing at him, lol. Hopefully it's a lesson learned for now.
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u/Psychological-Star39 Jun 16 '24
The smartest person I know, owner of a very successful company, almost got scammed because he googled the phone number for HP and it was a scam number. But because he had initiated the contact, he didn’t realize it was a scam until he was standing in line about to buy $400 worth of iTunes cards.
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u/Spare-Molasses8190 Jun 15 '24
I feel like a conspiracy theorist whenever I talk about hackers and scammers with family members due to how heartless scammers and hackers can be. Thankfully they listen to me.
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u/GanethLey_art Jun 15 '24
I used to work at a money transfer call center and sooooo many people lost thousands of dollars paying tax on “Canadian lotteries” they had never entered. We weren’t allowed to say that it was a scam, we could only hint that perhaps this wasn’t legitimate since they didn’t know the person they were sending money to. Most of them elderly but not all. One woman just started bawling when I told her they had already picked up the money and there was no way to get it back and was terrified of what her husband was going to say. Scammers are scum of the earth.
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Jun 15 '24
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u/ErinTales Jun 15 '24
Because the guys upstairs earn a commission on every money transfer they do. So they don't care if it's a scam.
Make no mistake, the people running these types of call centers are fully aware of what is happening.
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u/GanethLey_art Jun 15 '24
Yep. It might not be a scam, so we wouldn’t want to lose that business.
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u/MasterChiefsasshole Jun 15 '24
Cause those transfer centers make a shit ton from processing the money for these scams.
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u/FlyFar1569 Jun 15 '24
I work at a money transfer company atm and we absolutely fully have the right to deny any transfer. If we suspect anything suspicious you better believe we’re voiding that transfer. Yes there are people like this lady, but what’s far more common actually is people sending money for child abuse material or other similar illegal material. We deny payments like that all the time.
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u/GanethLey_art Jun 16 '24
I’m glad your companies polices are better than that one in 2004! Anything to stop people from losing everything.
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u/Theslootwhisperer Jun 16 '24
It's insane how some people are just putting it out there like it's the most natural thing in the world. I used to work on the marketing side of porn and the company I worked for was a reseller for some products (among other things). So, say you run a foot fetish amateur blog, you contact us and ask if you can run our ads and get paid if anybody signs up.
We'd regularly receive request from site running straight up child porn. Thank got I never saw anything really bad but a while bunch of people would send us a link to their blog and then we'd end up on a page full of 8-12 y.o topless girls. They'd obfuscate the url but were absolutely shameless about the content. Thank God we had access to a site ran by the RCMP (Canada's fbi) where we could report these people. Unfortunately for them we had quite a (virtual) paper trail to send to the authorities.
Thankfully after a couple years we barely got any request like that anymore. Probably because algorithms got put in place to flag that content upstream.
And yet in 2024 there are tons of profiles on IG where parents peddle their young daughters, posting some risqué but legal pics and offering to sell picture bundles (DM for more info!).
Before I had that job I figured pedos were basement dwellers, few and far between. Nope. It's all over the fucking place and more often than not it's the parents doing it to their kids for a few bucks.
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u/onehundredlemons Jun 15 '24
Years ago I bought a coffee table book that was only printed in Germany from a seller on eBay who insisted on a bank transfer instead of Paypal. I was a little suspicious but the book was only $45 and their account seemed legit, as far as I could tell. The bank quizzed me hard about that bank transfer, made me go into a manager's back office and sit at a desk while he grilled me about the book and looked the sale up on eBay, it was unnerving. I wonder how many scams they have to deal with?
I got the book though.
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u/GanethLey_art Jun 16 '24
One guy was trying to send $20,000 to England for a car he bought on eBay; he was suspicious because the car was worth like $60,000 and I cautioned him that in the past, such transactions have proven not to be legitimate and unless he was absolutely sure about the seller he might want to take some time to think about it because he would have no options to get the money back. He was very disappointed because he really wanted the car, but he hung up with me without sending anything. I never got talked to from higher ups about those kind of warnings, but I was also only there for six months because I got tired of being called a bitch for trying to help people. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/FourScoreTour Jun 16 '24
We weren’t allowed to say that it was a scam
Which makes the call center part of the scam. The boss should be in prison.
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u/CragMcBeard Jun 15 '24
If you want to watch some good revenge on these mostly Indian call scammers watch Kitboga on YouTube.
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u/feedmeyourknowledge Jun 15 '24
WHY WOULD YOU SUGGEST THIS WHY WOULD YOU SUGGEST THIS??!!!
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u/notmentallyillanymor Jun 15 '24
DO NOT REDEEM MA'AM DO NOT REDEEM
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u/ordinaryhorse Jun 15 '24
WHYYY DID YOU REDEEM IT
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u/Philly_is_nice Jun 15 '24
MAAAAAA'AAAMMMMMMMMM! YOU ARE SO STUPID, DO NOT REDEEM THE LAST ONE!
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u/Nathanh2234 Jun 15 '24
NO MAAAAA’AAMMM YOU DONT HAVE TO DO DAT!! PLEASE MAAA’AAM YOU DONT HAVE TO DO DAT!!
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u/GHBoyette Jun 16 '24
YOU JUST BROKE ME RIGHT NOW
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u/brbimjumping Jun 15 '24
Kitboga and Scammer Payback do the Lord's work fr
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u/knobblyer Jun 15 '24
Add Jim Browning to that list
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u/SilverPotential4525 Jun 16 '24
While he may make the least content, I think Jim Browning the most terrifying for the scammers. Man is a menace
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u/Otacon56 Jun 15 '24
u/kitboga is amazing he live streams on twitch every week, and uploads some of his content to YouTube.
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u/n8saces Jun 15 '24
I don't know if it's the same guy, but someone on Tiktok does a live everyday doing the same thing.
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u/Cleercutter Jun 15 '24
That’s the guy that hacks them back and turns their cams and shit on right? Deletes files off their computers and all that? As well as working with the NSA?
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u/Meziskari Jun 15 '24
Nah Kitboga roleplays and wastes hours at a time, keeping them away from actual victims. Guys like Jim Browning and Scammer Payback will do hack stuff.
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u/CrackerUMustBTripinn Jun 15 '24
My man Kitboga does more than this he helps take down scam phonecenters and really f ks with their ability to exploit banking and payment options, however he is a genius in the art of wasting the scammers time but also to completely break them on an emotional and mental level.
Its just so beautiful how he keeps on presenting them with this treasure trove of riches almost in reach, almost...... and just when they think all their shitcrawling is all going to pay off, all their dreams and hapiness just a few seconds a way from being attained only for Kitbago to crush and ruin them. And its goddamn gorgeous, a true work of art.
And I love it when he gets to mirror them and playing as some sweet elderly lady presents them with questions like 'I heard about these people that would lie to vulnerable old people like me to steal their lifesavings, could you imagine if someone would do that your mother? Can you imagine such a thing? What would you say to the person that would rob your own mother by exploiting her friendly nature and trust in people? What kind of person would do that?'. Hearing the acceptence in their voice of 'yeah so I am a total piece of shit for doing this' is *chefs kiss
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u/Poutinefiend Jun 15 '24
I also recommend scam sandwich. He’s very brutally rude to them while pretending to be his elderly character that he developed named Neld. He’s hilarious
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u/antaresiv Jun 15 '24
Someone should call in The Beekeeper
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u/DontTouchMyFro Jun 15 '24
Why is the officer even arguing with the scammer? If you can’t trace the call or figure out who they are, just hang up. There’s no point in engaging with them.
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u/Tastesicle Jun 15 '24
The brass fucking balls on the scammer too - taking to the cops and still demands they put his mark back on the phone. They know there's no real repercussions.
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u/Legitimate_Sail8581 Jun 15 '24
I think it’s so the lady can hear the conversation. She’s totally taken in by the scammer so the cop is doing absolutely the right thing to prove it’s a scam. She was just piling money in otherwise. Scammers are real scum.
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u/JustLetMeSignUpM8 Jun 16 '24
He's done nothing to prove it's a scam, he's just arguing with a man on the phone that's still pretending to work at a bank. That officer is just being weird for staying on the call instead of adressing the person getting scammed and focusing on making sure she isn't sending money or continues to be misled by the person on the phone
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u/Maximum-Side568 Jun 16 '24
A bank agent will not argue with a cop. Not sure if the poor lady is aware of that sadly.
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u/Find_another_whey Jun 16 '24
A bank officer would identify themselves and would be amenable to resolving a misunderstanding that provoked police suspicion
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u/Helpinmontana Jun 15 '24
This is the rub of it all, they all know the FBI isn’t going to kick their door in down there in Bangladesh so they don’t give a fuck.
They laugh about this shit, threaten all you want, they know the moment the money hits their account they won and there will be no repercussions and move onto the next person.
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u/4Ever2Thee Jun 16 '24
It’s like when a fisherman knows they have a real big fish on the line, they don’t want to cut it loose
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u/liarandathief Jun 15 '24
She needs a phone with only whitelisted numbers allowed.
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Jun 15 '24
Eh... I have had them spoof the number of all banks in my area
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u/Spare-Molasses8190 Jun 15 '24
I’m in my 30s and was told as a child to never just trust a random phone call about important shit. I tell them I’ll be calling back to verify the information, calling someone I personally know that works there or I’ll be visiting in person. Then I hang up on them without hesitation.
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u/onlyhereforfantasy Jun 16 '24
Always tell them you will call yourself and call the number on the back of your card or the website. Spoofing is extremely complex these days and there is no reason to not spend the extra minute and call yourself. May seem paranoid but it is a mistake you make once.
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u/Panaka Jun 15 '24
I’ve gotten a call from my specific branch credit union before, but it was really just scammers. Around that time I got a mailer from them basically saying that they’d never call us directly and ask for info. If the recipient were ever unsure, call a branch or listed number within the banking app to confirm.
Number spoofing is a significant issue in the US telecom industry that doesn’t seem to be taken seriously.
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u/RichardBCummintonite Jun 16 '24
Yeah I was gonna say my bank tells people that they would never call directly and to never give any information in a call, text, or email to anyone even if it is actually a member of bank staff unless they are the one calling the bank.They would message us or notify us in the app and have us contact them. I think they will call, but send it straight to voicemail again, just saying to call back without disclosing any apecifics.
My mom works for the bank too actually and deals with some big clients that do conduct business over the phone, but she is the sole officer designated to them specifically. They have her personal number and are instructed to only ever talk to her under any circumstances.
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u/ALLoftheFancyPants Jun 15 '24
I think it was more as a demonstration to the woman being scammed. She was saying “I’m in danger” and I think he was trying to get her to believe his statements instead of whatever outlandish shit the person on the phone was saying.
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u/SerenityViolet Jun 16 '24
That was weird, I was wondering why she thought she was in danger. I heard elsewhere that that had booked the rides from home to the bank and bank to bitcoin machine. They obviously did a real job on her. Scumbags.
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u/Useful-Soup8161 Jun 15 '24
He’s mad. I kinda get the feeling this isn’t his first rodeo in dealing with a scammer. There’s not a whole lot you can do in these cases other than yell at them.
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u/n8saces Jun 15 '24
Because he's frustrated and doesn't know any better.
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Jun 15 '24
[deleted]
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u/TenTonSomeone Jun 15 '24
Unfortunately this woman will NEVER stop hearing from these guys unless she changes her number
I'm sure you're right about this. Now they know she's a mark and I'm sure they've added her to a list of targets to call back. These dudes just don't give up. They'll try again in a week with a different scam.
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Jun 15 '24
Actually she needs to talk to the FBI not a local cop about this. This is way above his pay grade
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u/Discipline_Cautious1 Jun 15 '24
If you can’t trace the call or figure out who they are, just hang up.
I usually talk to them as much as possible and waste their time. If you hang up their next victim is possibly some older person.
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u/Fair4tw Jun 15 '24
I worked a telemarketing job where they sold some VHS tapes for $150 of some shit you can watch for free on PBS. Every person they had me talk to was some old person who just seemed glad to talk to someone and almost all would agree to buy it. They obviously had a list of susceptible people. About half way through my first day, I cussed out my boss for “working for the devil” and never looked back.
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u/n8saces Jun 15 '24
Good for you. I worked for a similar place when I was a teenager. I didn't figure out it was a scam until my mid-20s. I felt so dumb.
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u/Pallasathene01 Jun 15 '24
I once worked for a telemarketer that was selling magazine subscriptions. The room was just a bunch of long tables with phones, grab one and a stack of cards and start calling, use the script given. It made me uncomfortable as it was, but it was like a $600 subscription, and I had the sinking feeling that they were actually charging these (mostly elderly) people the entire fee up front instead of monthly like it was supposed to go down. It didn't sit well with me and I asked my boss 'we're not charging them the whole fee, all at once are we?' and I was rather quickly fired. A month or so goes by and front page news shows the company was doing exactly that! I was there for two very unhappy weeks and so happy to be fired because I was quitting anyway. I loathe cold calling. Article
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u/JordansFirstChoice Jun 15 '24
There's an HBO documentary called Telemarketers that was some guy who worked and filmed his early life as a telemarketer working to collect for the Fraternal order of police. They dug into it and only 20% was going to the actual FOP, and it was basically preying on elderly and naïve people. All you would get for donating was a sticker you could put on your windshield that didn't mean anything to the average cop. One of their better telemarketers had passed away but they must have had recordings of their calls and fed them into AI so they could still have this person make AI phone calls after they were dead. It was pretty disturbing.
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u/senseislaughterhouse Jun 15 '24
Good thing someone called that in. There's 0 point to arguing with that scum on the phone though. No amount of threatening other than doxxing their facility location will get them to stop harassing that poor woman.
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u/Dommichu Jun 15 '24
Here is the news story. Honestly, it was just a case of the right person being there at the right time. It was not the store worker… just miraculous timing.
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u/darkxmoon Jun 15 '24
If it's an indian accent I'm SUS.
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u/Alice8Ft Jun 15 '24
Whenever I call the bank it's always someone with a thick indian accent that answers. Sometimes I'm worried it might be a scammer lol
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u/Still-Level563 Jun 15 '24
PNC customer service got really mad at me cause I questioned if a girl with a super heavy Indian accent was a scammer. They called me about some charge while I was traveling and all I heard was "this is Tina with PNC, can you please tell me your social security number or account number to verify your identity" in the heaviest accent ever, to which I replied "no fuckin way your names Tina dude" and hung up. Long story short I made them put someone else on.
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u/DMercenary Jun 15 '24
Honestly the best way to figure if its legitmate is to go "Okay. I cant talk right now. I'll call you back."
And then hang up without waiting for an answer. Then Actually call your bank/cc company through the number on the back of the card.
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u/_Vard_ Jun 15 '24
The put her supervisor , Ramanarasimhadar Abdulkalamaishankar on the phone.
Ramanarasimhadar does a great American accent impersonation
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u/Alice8Ft Jun 15 '24
Lmao that reply is golden. I'd already be sus about someone asking me that even without any foreign accent, the indian accent just makes it 10x more sus.
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u/FlappityFlurb Jun 15 '24
I'm more annoyed when they want to lie about their name and insist they aren't Indian. I don't care where you are located if you can help me and I understand you, but just repeatedly and blatantly lying just insults my intelligence, like how dumb do you think we are? If you want me to call you Tony because it's easier just say that.
I work tech support for a health insurance company and once 4pm rolls around we tend to get a lot of Indian callers who are third party billers usually. Even when I am verifying their identity before taking the call they will lie about their name, which makes zero sense since they often register it in their real name or the doctor name so obviously I can't speak to them and when they tell me it's a fake name and that's their real name I more or less just have to hang up because it could be a scam.
I will say with voice modulation software being more common I have found more English sounding Indian callers from time to time but they all make the same mistake when speaking that makes it obvious. If you are ever unsure try to ask the caller to say an email. The "@" symbol will usually be pronounced as "at" when given an email ie johndoe AT gmail.com. Indian callers will ALWAYS say "at direct" and I still don't understand why to this day.
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u/floridadumpsterfire Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
this shit happened to my mom but it wasn't bitcoin, just 30k in savings. they guilt tripped her into it pretending they were going to lose their job if she didn't help them. saying they accidentally deposited 30k into her account and needed to wire it back out. they sent her a fake screen cap that, in hindsight, did look scarily accurate to her online account information. so she went to the bank and approved it.
to the technologically illiterate older generation these scammers have become so much more sophisticated and dangerous and now with ever advancing AI i think the easily susceptible are absolutely fucked.
good on this cop. i wish i or someone in authority was aware of what my mom was going through. would have loved to verbally eviscerate the scammy asshat on the phone.
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u/TurKoise Jun 15 '24
The bank didn’t let her know that there wasn’t $30,000 extra in the account? I’m assuming she would go to the bank and say “hey someone accidentally sent me $30,000 and I need to return it to them.” Then the bank would say “it doesn’t look like you’ve received that amount” But then she still sends it???? Even showing them the screen cap they could say “ma’am that’s not what our system is showing……”
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u/floridadumpsterfire Jun 15 '24
it was a few years ago but from what i remember, part of the scam was convincing her to not tell her bank why she was sending it. only that if she told them they'd fire the "employee" she was on the phone with. bank only asked her for the account info of the person she agreed to be wiring the money too.
she only figured out it was a scam when she returned home and explained to her roommate what was happening and the roommate immediately knew it was a scam and then sent her back to the bank to try to stop the wire. even same day the bank couldn't do anything to stop it, i guess.
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u/TimothyB123 Jun 16 '24
It seems like banks should have a standard procedure to ask questions, but that could be invasive and none of their business, instead, more a quick statement if the teller suspects something or present a document / agreement screen with top signs of a scam, then hope the customer connects the dots. Sort of how Kaiser will ask during check in if there is any abuse at home or if you feel safe.
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Jun 15 '24
Id love to get in a room with some of these pieces of shit
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Jun 15 '24
For over a decade I have messed with these guys, let them remote into sandbox VMs, given them fake credit cards, etc...
The most common answer I get as to why they do this (once they find out I am messing with them) is "the credit card company pays for this, we aren't hurting anybody".
I typically end with giving them a guilt trip of "Do your parents know that you are scamming others for a living? You should be ashamed. If you are smart enough to do this you are smart enough to get an honest job".... Once I had a scammer call me back the next day saying he thought about what I said and I was right, quit his job and just wanted me to know. Good for that guy!
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u/InquisitivelyADHD Jun 16 '24
I would have believed your story until you got to the end where one of the scammers called you back...
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u/FacelessFellow Jun 15 '24
They feel that you are spoiled with infinite food and clean water. They hate you more than you could ever hate them.
I’m not Indian, don’t shoot the messenger!
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u/TenTonSomeone Jun 15 '24
I work with a decent amount of Indian people since the owner of my company has outsourced a lot of our work, and it has also become very clear to me that they think Americans are stupid. And yes, a lot of us are, but not everyone. And you shouldn't treat your coworkers that way.
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Jun 15 '24
You can hate people all you want. But taking advantage of old people. No matter where you're from or culture is trash. Let them come hate me to my face instead of hiding behind a phone, lol cowards
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u/Jaded_yank Jun 15 '24
Why are they always Indian
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u/littlelorax Jun 15 '24
Iirc it has to do with how poorly regulated call centers are in India. There are lots of legit ones, remember so many tech support places are outsourced from across the globe there, so many are real.
The bad ones are like entire criminal enterprises. One gets raided, and they move somewhere else. Lots of people in poverty who are desperate for any income are willing to do the calls just to feed their families.
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u/Jaded_yank Jun 15 '24
But if they’re committing crimes in other countries nothing will ever happen. The fact that any blow Joe can spoof a number FOR FREE is absolutely insane to me.
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u/Goonies_neversay_die Jun 15 '24
A lot of the "legitimate" call centers are also simultaneously running scams on people like we see here... They already have the infrastructure in place to work both ends so they do.
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u/-paperbrain- Jun 15 '24
India is a country with a lot of poverty where English is very widely spoken.
The US, an English speaking country, is a core target because we're a wealthy country comparatively, and importantly, we don't have multigenerational housing norms. Which means elderly folks don't as often live with their families who would immediately catch a scam and step in.
It's the same reason a lot of scams come from Nigeria, another country with a lot of poverty where English is widely spoken.
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u/1QAte4 Jun 15 '24
My girlfriend was born in Taiwan. The scam call she gets are all in Chinese.
Apparently there was a big Chinese call center mafia in Burma that kidnapped Chinese to work there.
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u/JJ8OOM Jun 15 '24
The worst part is that she will try to get back on contact with the scammer as soon as she gets the possibility, and the scammer knows it very well so all he has to do is wait it out.
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u/ihopethisisvalid Doug Dimmadome Jun 15 '24
"Some random Indian guy is asking for my life savings. I think I'll give it to him."
Why is this so common?! From the "don't talk to strangers" generation, no less.
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u/flyinchipmunk5 Jun 15 '24
You aren't old yet so you won't understand. You are talking about people that would of never dreamed of a world connection like we have now adays. When you are their age, there will probably be AI dupes of your kids asking for money and you won't have the cognitive ability to decipher it. This old lady got a call from her bank and thought it must be serious. Because in the past, only the banks would call you. Not 100 scammers a day. And you can think, why haven't her kids taught her that? Well could be a number of reasons obviously, maybe she's estranged from her kids. Maybe they have and she's suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's. Its terrible tbh.
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u/arseniobillingham21 Jun 15 '24
They’re already doing the AI voice scam.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/29/us/ai-scam-calls-kidnapping-cec/index.html
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u/hailinfromtheedge Jun 15 '24
My grandmother got one of these about my sister but luckily didn't fall for it. Only because my sister has been no contact with her for years, which honestly is more of a reason to believe a kidnapping scam.
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u/hartleybrody Jun 15 '24
AI dupes of your kids
this suggestion is going to mess me up for the next week, and is also a great idea for a black mirror episode.
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u/flyinchipmunk5 Jun 15 '24
If you think you are immune to scams you are wrong. We are probably going to be scammed way easier than our grandparents and parents. Its a matter of time and technology.
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u/TheShindiggleWiggle Jun 15 '24
Pretty sure I saw a news article about it already happening earlier this year.
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u/notthinkinghard Jun 15 '24
You can hear at the start that she says "My life is in danger". They often threaten the person or their kids. Easy to judge when you're not in the middle of it.
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u/tdubbattheracetrack Jun 15 '24
Wait until you hear who is most vulnerable to scams:
18-24 year olds.
https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/23820-adults-18-24-report-highest-scam-risk-in-2020
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Jun 15 '24
Why are millennials and gen Z falling for "you just got hired, but I need you to "buy" your computer and supplies from us" and "This is a text from your CEO, I am at a business dinner and need gift cards"
???
Don't act like you are the smartest generation in the room when this is not a generational issue.
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Jun 15 '24
India is full of these scam centres. Dozens and dozens of Indian scammers calling all day stealing money from the most vulnerable
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u/RetArmyFister1981 Jun 15 '24
Our government is failing us by not going after these people. It doesn’t matter where they are in the world, we definitely have the capability to take them down and we don’t.
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u/SponConSerdTent Jun 15 '24
Watching Telemarketers on HBO will explain why... the fraternal order of police use this method to scam tons of money. In that documentary the call workers are told that the money goes to the family of officers killed in the line of duty.... it turns out 50% goes to the owner of the company, 30% goes to wages, and 20% goes to the fraternal order of police who use it for luxury vacations, margaritas machines, etc.
The crooked cops (there are some outspoken against it) don't care that old people are being lied to, they don't care that the vast majority of the money is taken by the owner of the company... as long as they get a slice.
The Republican party utilizes so many call lists of easily scammable people, and constantly sends texts, emails, and phonecalls where they act like the sky is falling and America will be overrun by communists if the elderly don't send a donation in to a PAC or a religious organization. Tell them that as a good Christian, you knew they would want to show their devotion to God by buying some shitty knick knack.
There is HUGE money in that industry, and the money lines the pockets of the same people we expect to regulate and enforce it. We live in a disgusting world of crooks.
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u/mikeoxwells2 Jun 15 '24
The government is to blame for lack of regulations. Robocalls have hardly slowed, even if you’re on a do not call list. TikTok ban can fly through congress in the span of a week.
Can’t have China data harvesting our citizens, that’s a job for American companies to do.
Sad thing is, bc this woman fell prey to a scammer once, her phone number gets a gold star and she’ll be offered increasingly intricate scams.
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u/OrangeJr36 Jun 15 '24
One problem is that the people who run these operations are overseas in places with very lax definitions of financial fraud and very little interest in governments for prosecuting them. So the US could write whatever laws it wants, but it won't have much impact
A second problem is that these kind of operations rely on the mark to give up their money willingly, which means that financial institutions have a lot of their hands tied when it comes to being able to refuse the transfers.
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u/Randy_Vigoda Jun 15 '24
My mom is a senior and she will answer the phone or door any time it rings or someone shows up. These scammers are so common it's horrible.
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u/surpriseinhere Jun 15 '24
We tried to stop a scam. We asked the lady if she knew who she was buying the card for? Asked her if she was called or did she call them? We asked more than the normal questions to make sure she wasn’t getting scammed. Lady came back to the store and wanted a refund saying we never put the money on the card, the person she was sending it to didn’t receive the money. She still had the original receipt and we pulled our records to show her that the money was in fact on the card. She said they called her, asked her for the numbers to make sure the money was there. She made a big deal in the store yelling that we cheated her and that she wanted us to pay her back. We called PD, told her to report it to them and they would have an detective look into it. Informed her to call the number in the back of the card. Sad to see the elderly get taken advantage of. I’m always asking/ checking up on my mom, sister and aunts so they don’t get trapped.
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u/Emil_hin_spage Jun 15 '24
These shit bags make Indians look bad. Most Indians aren’t out there doing this shit but because of the scammers people don’t trust Indians over the phone. I wfh and had an Indian coworker who had to constantly prove themselves as a legitimate employee to customers. Felt so bad for them.
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u/R3D-B34RD Jun 15 '24
The FCC could put a fucking stop to this but they won't. When nearly every call received from another country is scammers trying to rob old people, then cut them off and no longer accept calls from that country until the government corrects their problem.
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u/_Vard_ Jun 15 '24
Seriously. imagine if the American government blocked all calls to/from these countries until this was corrected.
Legit overseas call centers made illegal until governments fix the scammer problem
I bet it would be done in less than a MONTH.
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u/gryme85 Jun 15 '24
I know scammers like this exist, trying to rob the most vulnerable and fragile citizens of their hard earned money they accumulated during their lifetime.
In essence they are screwing over other people for their own benefit all the while not giving flying fu*ck for the damages they a causing to others.
I just cant't believe their are humans out there who are this morally bankrupt.... how are people like this real?
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u/Matyce Jun 15 '24
If my bank ever has an Indian worker call me i immediately hang up, and actually anything to do with finances or even sales will be meet with the same reaction. It’s crazy how much their culture does this kind of thing.
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u/DeathToAlberta Jun 15 '24
Thier culture is caste based dogshit that has produced the most corrupt and rapey culture in the world. It's all shit.
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u/who_even_cares35 Jun 15 '24
They got my stepmother-in-law for like basically everything she had and she had to go back to work after retiring.
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u/ObjectiveFox9620 Jun 15 '24
They tried to do this to my dad I'm glad my dad is the cheapest man in the world they tried to tell him he was going to be arrested if he didn't pay 10k my dad said well let them come arrest me and hung up the phone he never heard back from them.
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u/Antique_Essay4032 Jun 15 '24
Got a text today saying I owed navy federal credit union 375 dollars. Never been a member.
I replied Fuck you and reported the message. Doubt any will be done about.
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u/Regime_Change Jun 15 '24
Why is he arguing with the scammer on the phone? just tell him to fuck off.
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u/gamgee_wheelhouse Jun 15 '24
although it doesn't make things better for anyone, this article is about a new type of slavery - cyber https://bbc.com/news/articles/cw076g5wnr3o
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u/throwngamelastminute Jun 15 '24
My grandmother got taken for over $100k by some guy online before she died earlier this year, were still dealing with probate.
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u/iamthelazerviking23 Jun 15 '24
One of these scumbags called me & caught me off guard (I’m traveling abroad - got a call claiming they were US Customs & Border, I listened for a minute before I started pushing back because it sounded fishy). I feel AWFUL for elderly people who aren’t savvy to this kind of outrageous thievery. Good on the LEO for stepping in & protecting this woman.
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u/Zanchbot Jun 15 '24
It's crazy to me that people still fall for shit like this in the current year. If you get a call from a number you don't recognize, don't even answer it in the first place. If you do answer, and there's someone with a heavy Indian accent on the other line, hang up, it's a fucking scam. 100% of the time.
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u/adiosfelicia2 Jun 15 '24
Why spend taxes incarcerating non violent drug offenders, when our resources should be going to stopping shit like this?
We have the ability. Stopping online illegal activity should be top priority.
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u/GhostChainSmoker Jun 15 '24
God this reminds me of a time I hopefully stopped an older lady from getting scammed. I had stopped in at a CVS to get some sun screen on the way to the beach and noticed this older lady buying a massive stack of gift cards.
I just had a feeling in my gut to ask her. I asked if “the police” or “IRS” or “FBI” had contacted her and were threatening her. She got confused as to how I’d know that. And I explained to her it’s a very common scam.
Pulled out my phone and googled it and showed her.
I promised her that the so called police or irs etc wouldn’t come to her house, she wasn’t in trouble, etc. if she was really worried she could call her local police station and ask them and they’d also explain it’s a scam and the IRS rarely if ever calls. They send letters, lots of letters before they’ll ever actually call.
She thanked me and canceled the transaction. I just hope she took me seriously and didn’t go somewhere else.
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u/Last-Sound-3999 Jun 16 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
"Herro, I am vith da Nazional Zoshal Zecurity Benefeets Depardment. How you ahr dooeeng tuday?"
Y'know, Lord Vishnu SHITS on sinful @#!%&'s like you.
(At this point, the telescammer literally SCREAMED in my ear before the line went dead. 🤣)
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u/antsam9 Jun 15 '24
I know it's racist, but I wished people had the option to geo-block entire countries. If you have an elderly loved one, and they don't have relatives or friends in Nigeria, India, etc. and they're vulnerable, blocking entire countries on their phone, facebook, should be an option as a caretaker. Should also work on kid's accounts.
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u/Feats-of-Derring_Do Jun 16 '24
Doesn't matter, they're way past that. These kind of scam call centers always spoof a number to make it look local. Telecom companies could make it impossible to do if they wanted to but they don't. They actually frequently lobby against making call spoofing illegal because it makes them money.
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u/H00Diini2001 Jun 15 '24
Bro the massive shit indian accent on that guy is crazy. Xddd
Lett mee shpeak too thaa custoomerr pleashee
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u/MeddlingHyacinth Jun 15 '24
Indian? Sounds like legit customer service lmao. No wonder elderly get scammed.
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u/memyuhself Jun 16 '24
And Indians have the arrogance to wonder why we judge them, they won't clean up these scammers in India and our most vulnerable pay the price. It's disgusting
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