Tired Of Email

Laughing out Loud

 

Yes Laura the scammers favourite prey are the elderly as they are soft targets..........my mum got caught a couple of weeks ago. She has just been compulsorily connected to the NBN (National Broadband Network) when it arrived in her area in November 2017 but like many people connecting to the NBN, she has had several major service issues including no phone or internet for over a week on two separate occasions while they fixed things in her area that had failed. The scam call came purporting to be a government department checking that she was satisfied with her new NBN connection through Optus (her ISP) and they were also testing every new customer's broadband speed because if her connection speed was slower than the plan then she was entitled to a large refund and possible free subscription for a year by Optus (her ISP) and also NBN Co has to pay a huge fine for not delivering the speed for which she had paid. The scammer informed my mum that on the basic test it indicated her speed was less than half what she was paying for so she was entitled to an immediate $500.00 refund and a free years subscription worth another $900.00 but they now need to do a fully documented test and would she cooperate. They then asked mum to type some stuff on the command line in a console window and in the middle mum realised they were overiding Teamviewer and putting a different version on her system as well as installing some other stuff she didn't recognise. They were in her computer for about 5 minutes and finished the call saying they would transfer her refund into her nominated bank account sometime tomorrow after NBN Co and Optus had checked and approved the log file they just recorded and then gave her a bogus reference number. Luckily mum called me straight after this call and I said to pull the plug on her computer immediately and headed over to her place. When I got to mum's I disconnected the new NBN modem and started checking her computer with stuff I brought on a memory stick.
The scammers had installed a new version of Teamviewer (I own a three channel licence and had a fully legit install on mum's pc) and they had changed all the master passwords. They had also installed a key logger and a hidden encrypted directory where they had copied a document that mum had all her logins and passwords. I couldn't see the document in their directory but found the path it had been copied to because when mum first started the document I had insisted she put it on a memory stick (not connected to her pc) and had enabled full security tracking so I could see if mum had edited or changed things (she sometimes forgets) or if she copied it somewhere else. Mum got sick of remembering where she had hidden the memory stick so she copied the file onto her desktop grrrrrrr.... and they found it but lucky it still had its security tracking. After I removed all the bad stuff on her pc and then checked there were no little gems hidden in registry keys, I then changed all her passwords and changed most of her online accounts including email passwords. When I went to her bank login I discovered we had been locked out and the account was locked due to fraudulent activity being detected. I got mum to contact the bank immediately and the scammers had tried to access her main bank account that has a huge term deposit that she uses to live off the interest for her pension. They had tried to transfer $10,000.00 but failed because they didn't know I had insisted her accounts have two level authentication and the scammers didn't have her mobile phone to return the random SMS code that was sent. They then went to her day to day bank account with a different bank a tried to clean out the $5,000.00 that was there but once again they were stopped by the two level authentication for transactions over $1,000.00 lol.
I insisted mum go to both banks the next day and get a new login name and new passwords on her accounts and also change all 5 authentication questions as well limit any transfer over $1,000.00 to take two days to clear so the crooks can't get any money quickly. It was a close call and if mum hadn't called me.......who knows what would have happened as they would have surely used her details to add a different mobile phone number to the accounts by spinning some story she had changed mobile providers and got a new number

@LauraR it is pretty easy to get caught and older people seem to be much more trusting when someone calls saying they are from some government agency so they fall for the story. Hmmmm...... If your mum transferred the money from her bank to the money transfer at the Pharmacy then the bank should be able to reverse the transaction as the banks have insurance for fraud and criminal activity (she might need a police report and a witnessed statutory declaration to make the claim) .......but if she paid cash then sad to say it is gone
Bummer

 

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Got a cell phone call yesterday that I did not answer because I didn't know the number. So they leave a voicemail. It says I am the lucky winner of free round trip airfare and free, absolutely no cost to me, all inclusive luxury cruise for two to my pick of exotic locations. All I need to do is call and give my credit card number to secure it. Looks like I am going on a fabulous free vacation. Anybody else want to go? I can get you this deal also if you want to give me your credit card info. LOL.
It is sad people fall for these scams.

 

I have gotten that too.I tell you this day and age.People are getting dumb and dumberererer.Peoples minds have be come so numb that is boggles my mind.This education system is so far gone USA i mean.I think other countries have a better system than the US does.I mean kids in the us now a days want every thing handed to them.You are better of living in another foreign country probably better off.