Avoiding scams, fraud, stolen identity, theft, etc.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Please share and educate the members here how to avoid getting scammed. Here is one about Zelle to avoid getting scammed.

Chase customer loses total of $7,000 in Zelle scam: Here's what you need to know - YouTube

[disneysteve]

That is slick, but also makes no sense. Why would you need to send money to yourself? And how would that fix money that was sent out fraudulently. The bank should be able to stop a fraudulent payment on their own.

People would stop getting scammed if they would just take a second to think before acting on a random text or phone call.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Another one I just learned about and want to share with everyone here.

Scanning Scams: QR Codes That Clear Out Your Bank Account! - YouTube

[disneysteve]

Another one I just learned about and want to share with everyone here.

Scanning Scams: QR Codes That Clear Out Your Bank Account! - YouTube

I've seen a couple of stories recently about this. This one is really slick and could easily suck people in. You just don't think about something as seemingly benign as scanning a QR code being potentially harmful. Especially since COVID hit, QR codes are used much more commonly to replace physical menus and other documents so that they don't pass from person to person. We've all gotten used to going places and scanning codes to do things.

[ua_guy]

Low hanging fruit to avoid getting breached....you need to make all your passwords unique. Passwords are hard to remember, so a lot of people re-use the same credentials for every site or make the most easily guessed PINs. Do you really think using the last 4 of your phone number is a good debit card PIN? And then reusing that same PIN at some other site that requires a pin? How about using the same email/password for a forum as you do for your banking? Not good!

https://adminit.ucdavis.edu/tech-tips/what-password-reuse-and-why-it-security-problem

[myrdale]

Clark Howard did a short bit on the radio about a month ago about problems with people being scammed on Zelle. I didn't really understand from his segment about how the fraud was being committed, only that it was happening a lot and the banks are not doing much of anything to stop it.

[disneysteve]

Clark Howard did a short bit on the radio about a month ago about problems with people being scammed on Zelle. I didn't really understand from his segment about how the fraud was being committed, only that it was happening a lot and the banks are not doing much of anything to stop it.

That's concerning since Zelle is a service provided by your bank. If that's not secure, that's a serious problem.

[myrdale]

That's concerning since Zelle is a service provided by your bank. If that's not secure, that's a serious problem.

From what I gather, Zelle isn't a service provided by the bank. Rather it is a company like PayPal for sending money, that is linked to your bank account.

Through some method of scamming, people are approving the transfer of funds from their own account to the scammers' account. Since the customer confirms the transfer, the bank simply shrugs their shoulder and says too bad.

It really sucks for people to loose thousands of dollars, but at the same time, there has to be some personal responsibility on their end. That a bank would have you send money to yourself to solve some problem is just absurd. But people fall for it every day.

Some of the reports are of people loosing $7,000 or more where they send multiple debts to the scammers. This is another reason I strongly believe in maintaining a separate checking and savings account. Pay check is deposited to savings, then I transfer funds to checking once or twice as needed to maintain $1,000 to $3,000 for my normal living expenses. All checks, debts, and subscriptions come out of the checking.

[Petunia 100]

From what I gather, Zelle isn't a service provided by the bank. Rather it is a company like PayPal for sending money, that is linked to your bank account.

Through some method of scamming, people are approving the transfer of funds from their own account to the scammers' account. Since the customer confirms the transfer, the bank simply shrugs their shoulder and says too bad.

It really sucks for people to loose thousands of dollars, but at the same time, there has to be some personal responsibility on their end. That a bank would have you send money to yourself to solve some problem is just absurd. But people fall for it every day.

Some of the reports are of people loosing $7,000 or more where they send multiple debts to the scammers. This is another reason I strongly believe in maintaining a separate checking and savings account. Pay check is deposited to savings, then I transfer funds to checking once or twice as needed to maintain $1,000 to $3,000 for my normal living expenses. All checks, debts, and subscriptions come out of the checking.

While it is true that Zelle is a separate company, it operates much more closely with your bank than does PayPal. When I log on to my bank's website and view my accounts, one of the options at the top of the screen is to "Send Money". If I click on that, it says "Send Money with Zelle". There is no other company offered (Venmo, Paypay, what have you). I use Zelle frequently, and always by logging on to my bank's website. If I want to send money via Paypal, I have to log on to Paypal.

[ua_guy]

Another low-hanging piece of fruit to avoid theft/scamming:

Wire transfers are generally secure, but bad actors have been known to intercept email or spoof emails from your escrow company and make you believe wiring instructions have changed at the last minute, i.e. when you are getting ready to send a huge amount of money to an escrow account, like when you are buying a home.

A good practice is to verify the wire details with someone live, at the escrow office. Then, to be double-sure, send the money in two or more transactions. For example, if you are sending $20,000 to escrow via wire, do a test transaction of $200 before wiring the rest. Wire the initial amount, call to verify it was received. Then send the other $19,800 using the confirmed/working wire details as the first transaction.

Wire transactions are extremely hard, if not impossible, to claw back, so it's important to test the waters with a small amount of money first.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Microsoft Bing scam or real? I did purchase Cricket Wireless on that date. I clicked on get paid which prompted me to enter phone number (which I'm okay with), then it asked me to sign into Microsoft which I'm a little hesitant about. Any advise? It says it'll payout to my Paypal account which I'm okay with. I didn't know I had this $10 cashback, tempting me to get it but I don't want to be the cat that was killed by curiosity.

[james.hendrickson]

Microsoft Bing scam or real? I did purchase Cricket Wireless on that date. I clicked on get paid which prompted me to enter phone number (which I'm okay with), then it asked me to sign into Microsoft which I'm a little hesitant about. Any advise? It says it'll payout to my Paypal account which I'm okay with. I didn't know I had this $10 cashback, tempting me to get it but I don't want to be the cat that was killed by curiosity.

I believe Microsoft Bing is legit, but you just need to check the URLs...and you can always contact their customer service NOT using any information set to you. Just like google them and contact the emails that come up.

[jenn_jenn]

Oh wow, I had missed this post earlier this year but the same thing happened to me this week.

The scary part was that I had just a few minutes before done a Zelle transaction that was a few thousand dollars. It may have just been a coincidence.

Something seemed odd about the text message so I just blocked the number and didn’t click on anything or respond.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Can a stamped 18K gold ring be fake? In Los Angeles at a strip mall parking lot an Arabian couple mid-30's in a newer model Mercedes SUV stopped along side me as I was walking to my car and the woman passenger in a hijab asked me how long is the drive to Sacramento? I said 12 hour about 700 miles. She then takes off the 18K gold ring which was stamped on the inside w/an emerald and said they needed money for gas and asked if I wanted to buy it. It felt heavy. Both the man & woman were dressed nicely. I politely declined but the woman was pushy saying they'd take any amount and would not take the ring back. I had to put the ring on her door ledge and kept saying no thanks. Can a stamped 18K gold ring be forged like that?

[myrdale]

Can a stamped 18K gold ring be forged like that?

Absolutely.

Send me $20 and I will stamp anything you like:

https://www.amazon.com/Ring-Stamping-Stamps-Gold-Silver/dp/B0BSTQBDWJ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=38HF4HIO9G8C1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.P_81cPkHpoVPhMhZt8WEAILl1UMgMF8fYe-8u6q_SxnnmP-sYphZTqmVhi3inePYTl1Wv94Gf7RaRJAgb26kGrte_69WzkWStYofMSsYwY1mT18FZj9DnCooCT-KsioK9iXBvfjGTkgvJekzVnUJwmw8_-gVNc7Z7suXmCHrxXYrMCayhrgmii_8-ZjzNBBAeMGXqSD5WC6wrVSEZZAq9-YWrly2XDr6wbw-mO8CFCZLBn9waRrVAZ0snk9D8UQIrbZ3CNWPkwY6wSw3QWoRE8pSwWFa_4n-bIl8w3relWE.HvDDpNm5wcdCo-YAPrbJJ6ewTH38cMLzKn72WMBbLwA&dib_tag=se&keywords=18k+gold+stamp&qid=1714137926&sprefix=18k+gold+stamp%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-3

No one, and I mean no one is going to sell gold jewelry in a parking lot to a stranger. I'm guessing the ring they handed you was cast from lead, then gold plated. (I'm not a jeweler or a metallurgist, that's just my layman's opinion).