Richard Lathrop
Active member
The unpaid tolls text scam has been making the rounds Delaware and Virginia DMV put out alerts that it is a scam.
Spammers & Scammers
- Thread starter Eric Patterson
- Start date
I've been getting the unpaid toll scam about once a week for the last month. My approach to most of this is to simply not open and ignore most of what hits my inbox. If the sender isn't in my contacts or an entity that I regularly do business with I ignore it. I work in an industry where we receive annual training that reinforces behavior to stay on the lookout for people looking to exploit. Having that mindset is part of the culture of this industry and I think makes me distrustful in a beneficial way, but certainly not error-proof. I have sympathy for folks that get scammed and loath the scammers. Like I've mentioned many times in the past I think our government hasn't done near enough to stop the scammers, especially at the federal level. There are few consequences, so the scams are more sophisticated and common that ever. A lot of innocent folks have suffered for it and miscreants benefitted. It's not supposed to be this way, especially for this long and frequent.
Richard Lathrop
Active member
Eric,
I use the same approach. I am concerned about the use of AI to create targeted emails.
Rick Lathrop
Rick
For certain, that is coming. I think at some point the damage will be so great the Feds will have to take real action. My hunch is this issue will become a real topic in a future election and the extent to which the feds have dropped the ball will have light spread all over it and action finally taken.
For certain, that is coming. I think at some point the damage will be so great the Feds will have to take real action. My hunch is this issue will become a real topic in a future election and the extent to which the feds have dropped the ball will have light spread all over it and action finally taken.
There is an article in the Alabama news about a woman getting scammed out of $400K in cash and gold (???) due to a group of scammer, one of whom has been arrested:
" According to the press release, the victim stated that an individual texted her On May 19 claiming to be a U.S. Marshall and told her that she was part of an international wire fraud. The victim was also allegedly given instructions by the accused to pay the money back without being arrested and to meet with an undercover U.S. Marshall. “Over the course of several days, the victim met with these subjects multiple times to deliver over $400,000 in currency and gold bars,” the release said."
Two things make me wonder:
1. Who has $400K in cash and gold bars, or can easily access gold bars?
2. If someone presenting themselves as a US Marshall accuses you of money laundering, wouldn't your first instinct be to call a lawyer??
Not underplaying that these scammer are scumbags that belong under the prison, especially when they prey on the elderly, but really, how gullible have we become???
" According to the press release, the victim stated that an individual texted her On May 19 claiming to be a U.S. Marshall and told her that she was part of an international wire fraud. The victim was also allegedly given instructions by the accused to pay the money back without being arrested and to meet with an undercover U.S. Marshall. “Over the course of several days, the victim met with these subjects multiple times to deliver over $400,000 in currency and gold bars,” the release said."
Two things make me wonder:
1. Who has $400K in cash and gold bars, or can easily access gold bars?
2. If someone presenting themselves as a US Marshall accuses you of money laundering, wouldn't your first instinct be to call a lawyer??
Not underplaying that these scammer are scumbags that belong under the prison, especially when they prey on the elderly, but really, how gullible have we become???
Very. Technology has left Boomers in the dust (no offense meant, it just has). The next generation of tech will leave the Gen-Xers and Millennials in the dust as well. My in-laws fall into this category. They click on any link that is sent to them via text, no matter how many times I warn them against it. My father-in-law handed my wife her mom's cell phone Sunday and said "take all the viruses off of this phone", like that was something easily done.
I can't explain how happy I was the day my father's computer had issues, and he refused to have it fixed. I could have fixed it, but I didn't tell him that. At 80+ and with worsening dementia, he was a prime target for scammers. If you have never dealt with someone that had dementia, they tend to not trust friends and family but will trust a complete stranger. I would bet that was the situation with the lady Carl mentioned. I fought with him for a decade to get full control of his finances so I could protect him. We were very lucky that he was never targeted.
In addition to being gullible to wire fraud I think that perhaps the elderly are a little bored and maybe a bit lonely and are therefore more susceptible. Not trying to offend anyone but we as a country have really isolated them from society. My wife and I don't have children, making us a perfect target. Perhaps power of attorney or some sort of parental monitoring app is what is needed. RM
Some of the worst fraud perpetuated on the elderly is seemingly legitimate. I remember when my grandmother accepted some of the so called services that were supposedly free. One such program was Meals on Wheels or something similar. My grandmother never ate a single one because she loved her sweets and coffee but because they were "free", she fed them to her dog. Guess who had first dibs on her estate. RM
Carl
Like others have stated much of what is going on is the strong preying on the elderly and weak. A good conman can fool a lot of folks, even the bright, and the way this is done it is usually a single person being conned in such a way there is nobody there to question nor stop it.
Like others have stated much of what is going on is the strong preying on the elderly and weak. A good conman can fool a lot of folks, even the bright, and the way this is done it is usually a single person being conned in such a way there is nobody there to question nor stop it.
Rick Pierce
Well-known member
Maybe 20 years ago now, I got a call from my maternal grandfather out of the blue.
"Are you in jail?"
"No...wait, what?"
He started laughing and explained that a scammer had called, pretending to be me, claiming that I had been arrested and needed money for bail. He said, "I knew that you wouldn't knowingly put yourself in a position to go to jail, but even if you did and you were arrested, that I would be THE LAST person you would call and want to know you were in jail..." Very stoic, upright Swede...principal of my grade school when I was a kid...and he was not wrong. I would rather have a layer of skin removed than for him to know I'd been to jail.
But you are correct that there are some scummy people out there who spend their time trying to steal from the elderly, and I think that's what bothers me most. If they worked half as hard at doing legitimate work as they do stealing, the world would be in much better shape.
"Are you in jail?"
"No...wait, what?"
He started laughing and explained that a scammer had called, pretending to be me, claiming that I had been arrested and needed money for bail. He said, "I knew that you wouldn't knowingly put yourself in a position to go to jail, but even if you did and you were arrested, that I would be THE LAST person you would call and want to know you were in jail..." Very stoic, upright Swede...principal of my grade school when I was a kid...and he was not wrong. I would rather have a layer of skin removed than for him to know I'd been to jail.
But you are correct that there are some scummy people out there who spend their time trying to steal from the elderly, and I think that's what bothers me most. If they worked half as hard at doing legitimate work as they do stealing, the world would be in much better shape.
It hit us in NC a couple months ago. The first time I got the toll text it triggered a memory that I'd neglected to pay a recent toll bill (no toll roads in my immediate area, but I'd driven one about a month prior and gotten a bill in the mail). I immediately followed the link to pay it, which brought up a site thay looked exactly like the EZPass site I'd paid on before. I paid the $12 or so and went on with my day. About 15 minutes later, it started nagging at me, so I went to look for the bill I'd received and tucked away - and quickly found it was for a different amount (I actually had a credit from overpaying a previous bill by accident, but hadn't noticed the credit when I got it in the mail). I immediately realized it was a scam to get my cc info, so called my bank to have the charge held and card canceled. Close call.