I can't wrap my head around how people can ignore all those red flags. 2-3 days ago I just got a text from a random number about some parking fine. Not just that, but it said that that day was the last day I could get a 50% DISCOUNT on the fine. A fucking DISCOUNT! What's next? I can use my Nectar card? Do I get a loyalty card with a stamp on it? But it's not even the fact that I wasn't contacted by mail, or there was no other contact given; I don't even have a fucking car. Or a driving license in this country.
66I got a fine for not getting my bus ticket stamped in Florence, Italy. Apparently if you paid it the same day it was one price and that price doubled after a week, month, etc.
Didn't matter the machine failed when I stamped it because it was out of ink. I even tried to stamp it in front of the officer. He said I could appeal it in person in court. They know tourists aren't going to appear in court to appeal. I felt scammed but after calming myself down and paying the fine the officer apologized and told me in a few words he hated his job.
16I was about to comment, that here in Italy, many fines have a price if you pay in few days and give up your right to fight back, and another price if you pay before the fine is due and keep your right to seek help from a judge.
Anyway, nobody told you, that if you want to see a judge that was at least 40$ ten years ago. Just to see him once, no warranty given. And even if you can get your fine cancelled, that 40$ were gone. So at the end you pay and also pay soon so to pay less. I also hate it.
5They also can't force a tourist to pay a fine. And it's not a criminal matter, so they'll never be able to deny you visa on these grounds.
When the same happened to me I laughed into their faces, they wrote down my passport data and address and kept sending me snail mail with threats for years till I moved. I'm still waiting for the day they'll force me to pay the 30€ or whatever that was.
3Well, that's rather reassuring.
1
I can’t wrap my head around how people can ignore all those red flags
They use threats and urgency to pressure people into paying faster that they realise it's a scam.
11I literally, unknowingly, watched this unfold with my dad recently. He got a text along the lines of "final notice of unpaid toll from [local toll road entity], pay by end of day to avoid late payment fees" with a link.
He (on the side, while we were all doing something else) went in, entered his drivers license info, date of birth, and credit card number to "pay" the toll.
About 30 second after setting his phone down he just goes "shit, that was a scam, wasn't it" and describes the text to us.
A little bit too much trust, and a false deadline can go a long way.
7One actually had a civil conversation with me for an hour or so to lull me into a false sense of security, it worked so well that I actually was at the kiosk to send him money when an employee rushed over and informed me this was a scam... I was embarassed a simple dialogue and faux-friendship got him far.
Second I brought up that possibility, the other person on the phone began threatening me using information he learned during the conversation.
He was almost a genius, though the more I pressed the more he fell apart.. eventually he actually caleld me back and told another guy in the room "Okay, we may be able to fool her this time...." not realizing I'd already answered and was like "Bruh, you just admitted the scam."
For the record, I'm the kind of person who typically just pranks scammers to get them to waste their time, so this guy was just stay good....
7It's an old trick but if it's the last moment you learn about a fine first, then chances are someone isn't playing fair, regardless.
2
Yeah that's normal in Britain for council and government fines (as opposed to often unenforceable private parking charges). The shitty part is that if you try to dispute it they don't put the timer on hold so you essentially play double or nothing on how strong you think your case is. Lose and you have to pay the full thing. Not bitter at all.
7Discounts on speeding tickets are a thing in my country. Maybe they were from elsewhere and assumed it was a thing there too? 😂
5Parking tickets too here. Though they don't call it a discount, it's basically the price and if you wait too long the price goes up.
3I wouldn't be surprised, considering the accent of scammers calling me with phone plans and stuff.
3
Ha ha, my random text was really vague about what council had issued the bogus parking ticket. By contrast when I strayed into a bus lane one time I got a letter from my council, complete with a very clear photo of me driving my car in said bus lane. And yes, I got a discount for paying right away.
4
I got a call from "my bank" saying there was a problem with my account and if I give them my account number and details now we can resolve it. I was like "you're the bank and you called me so you have my account number and info. What's your name and employee number? And dude just cussed and hung up on me lol
48Favorite type of scammer! Just calling out of the blue and unable to provide details beyond "Give us money!"
6“Oh no, that’s terrible. Tell you what, I’ll hang up and call you back using the number on your website and we can continue this conversation.”
4
I know a scam when I see one sir, good day. But first tell me more about this reverse mortgage.
25We don't get got. We go get.
7He tried to sell us a two week timeshare, and we took that idiot for FOUR weeks haha
5
Its really simple, after some brief paperwork, the loan company starts paying YOU for the privilege of servicing your mortgage.
Call 1-800-74257655 now!
3
For me it was always Microsoft support service. With a very bad accent some guy told me I have a virus and just have to look how many entries are in my event log for proof.
As I didn't immediately ended conversation to see where it goes, I was handed to another support guy who told me I have to download their expensive anti-virus tool and need to pay by credit card.
Somehow I was kicked out of the line without warning as I was probably considered too stupid to follow their orders.
At least I kept two of them busy for about 20 minutes so they couldn't scam other people at the same time.20I got one of those calls when I got in the car to go home from work. Since I'd be bored I kept him on the line, pretending I was a really old guy who had to walk to get to the computer and boot it up slowly. Strung him along for about fifteen minutes before traffic eased up and I had to focus more on driving.
When I told him I was bullshitting him he swore at me and hung up.
7"The last time my windows crashed was when the asshole neighbour's kids were playing baseball. It ended up being this whole thing where those kids and my kids got shrunk and I accidentally threw them out before I realized what had happened and everyone got pretty upset before everything was resolved and we became good friends. So you're saying that that happened because of a virus? If you get rid of the virus, will you also undo the whole shrinking thing?"
Or act like you have a real virus. Like it keeps opening ads every two seconds and bitch at them for adding so many ads to Windows. Like try to act like an amazing mark for them but make them work for your money--not because you aren't willing to give it to them but because you're so dumb you've left things in a state where work needs to be done before that can happen.
It Bitcoin gets mentioned, ask why anyone would want you to cut up a coin and send them the bits to an address your smart friend thinks is on Uranus or something.
I've seen videos of people that install the remote access software on a VM, I wonder if there's any where they've set it up to pop up new ads every 2 seconds. Even better if they make them wait while they look at each ad to decide if they are interested and insist some just get moved to the side instead of closed because they want to pursue them after the call. Cherry on the cake would be for the ads to be about things like penis reduction or softening pills or hiring a service to fend off all the local singles so you can get on with your day.
2
For education and hilarity on this topic, see youtuber Kitboga.
18WHYYYY DID YOU REDEEEEM?
10classic XD
1
cybersecurity education for school-aged children isn’t doing a great job of talking about online safety
This sentence pretty much sums it up. School's give them a computer, lock it down and put them in a bubble of safe websites and only tell them "there's a virus boogyman who will get you if youre not careful"
38I was shocked when my sister fell for a phishing scam that got her Steam account snatched. I thought for sure that her school taught her about those....
Valve will NEVER message you over Discord for any reason, ever.
3I teach IT to seniors and in the last ~3 years the types of digital trouble my students find themselves in has shifted.
We used to spend a lot of lessons talking about phishing scams, link safety, URL verification, etc. Our pop up sessions would involve lots of calling banks to get cards cancelled after mistakes were made.
But now my lessons are on "oh, that one is a real Toll text, you should have paid that, I know they used to send them in the mail and this text looks like a scam, but that's how they do it now, and you really do owe that money to the police, that's why you're getting phone calls from the police, it's not a spoofing scam, you missed a real toll notice, I'm so sorry, it was buried in your spam folder"
Older people got the memo about scams and they got block happy, now they ignore real notices.
I've done the same thing, I was getting texts for parking fines and permit renewals and I don't have a lisence because I'm visually impaired so obviously a scam.
Only I forgot that when I was 16 grandma gave me her old car, I was like "the fuck do I do with this" so I gave the keys to my little brother and moved out.
15 years later, turns out the car has been in my name the whole time, which makes sense, I don't remember signing anything about the car ever. My brother had no idea his permit was even expired because they were sending the text to the owner contactvia the car rego, not the drivers contact details my brother provided, and because I'd been ignoring the texts it took a while to iron out with the council, especially because my brother and "my" car are not just in another state, but another territory.
1
My grandma did a semester of IT and 1 for cybersecurity for extra credit while she was in nursing school (She went to nursing school in her 50s). Even though it was the early 2000s, she taught me a lot about cybersecurity because the class had to write papers on the potentials of cybersecurity and the creation of scam tactics
13This isn't even cyber security IMO. It's just social engineering and doesn't require any kind of technical knowledge to understand or avoid.
Unless you're dealing with mafia loansharks or something, there isn't often immediate urgency on any kind of payments. And even if it is a loanshark, you'll likely have an idea of the debt before being approached about it.
And government services take payments in the form of legal currency through direct means. Cash, cheques sent to a specific address (inside the country), bank transfers. Not gift card codes sent over the phone or chat.
If it's legit, they'll also know your name and other information. Though just because they do know information doesn't mean it's legit because they might have gotten your phone number with a name and other information attached. So use this as a way to rule out those who don't know (in my experience they tend to just give up if they ask your name and you point out they should already have that information if there's a warrant or whatever bullshit they are trying to tell you).
5
Needs more kindly
8I wish I could say my own father didn’t fall for this.
2hey 3 squares a day and never a dull moment. jail it is.
1
