Identity Theft - Lakes Region

[TheProfessor]

Originally Posted by TiltonBB

I would be OK if the laws were changed to allow the death penalty for the principals of companies with robo dialers and ignore the "Do Not Call" list.

Most of the calls appear to originate from outside the US. Although these calls are illegal, I doubt the US authorities will extradite anyone from a foreign country over phone calls.

Neighbor who was an exectutive that worked for the telephone company stated that these calls could easily be stopped.
BUT
The lobbyists in Washington - work on BOTH sides of the spectrum.
The phone companies make money the more calls that are made.
My phone machine states the incoming callers telephone number. And some are 603.
These numbers are purchased then sold to the Asian/Pacific telemarketers.
The lobbyists know this but lobby US Congress to leave all alone.

All could be stopped. But those on BOTH sides of the aisle - take the lobby money to help them get elected or re-elected.

Is my phone company neighbor right or wrong on this?

[NH.Solar]

Unfortunately, I was almost sucked into one of these scams about two years ago and it proved costly even though I caught it just in time. It started with an absolutely perfect invoice from BestBuy for an annual protection service for a laptop I had bought there four years before. The phony invoice for $199 per year even had the original purchase date and serial numbers on it. I had never asked for this service plan. When I called the number on the invoice to get the charge reversed I was speaking with a gent with a foreign voice but a very professional manner. He was well aware of every step needed to correct the unauthorized charge and genuinely helpful, but said he needed to transfer me over to the credit department to get the invoice credited. At that point something just felt wrong and I hung up and called Meredith Village Savings and was immediately connected top an outstanding fellow that does nothing but handle these types of theivery. He immediately locked down my account and as it turned out did so just before the scam attempt to get into the account arrived. I can't say enough good about MVSB and the skill of the gent who jumped right in and saved me from losing some serious cash. He did say that these types of service invoices were commonly used but it was the first time he had heard of one from BestBuy. I hand delivered a copy of the Geek Squad invoice to the bank for him so he could follow up, but I'm guessing that the scam originated from offshore and there was nothing that he could do.
The followup efforts required on his suggestion was that I open a new bank account with MVSB, re-new all of my credit cards, and have my computer completely purged and the Windows operating system re-loaded. It cost me a couple of hundred bucks and alot of wasted time, but still I feel very fortunate to have escaped so cheaply. When I was dropping my laptop off to Lakes Region Computer the woman that was writing the service order told me that they had a client in the former week that wasn't so lucky and the scammers cleaned out his savings.
If you have purchased anything from BestBuy in the last few years I would suggest contacting them and having any account records you may have with them deleted, for it would seem that their records have at some point been hacked into.
What a shame that these obviously very intelligent and skilled hackers aren't using their talents for something good.

[TheProfessor]

Here is a very interesting long video interview done by Lex Fridman.

Those who do not know of Lex Fridman. He does some fascinating interviews with all sorts of famous people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC1LFC0KFSw

Best to view on your smart TV free Google. Or tablet.

The interview is with Brett Johnson. The/one of the most wanted cybercriminals. It is a long interview.

Some items mentioned are scams that I have never heard of. Yet happen every day.

[marinewife]

The woman who owns the copy UPS shop next to Harvest in Wolfeboro must've prevented at least a dozen elderly people in the past year who were bringing $5-10K in cash to mail out to scam artists.

All of them were embarrassed but grateful to her, and she told me it typically is geared to people over 70 years old who get caught up in it.

Being vigilant may be more difficult for single older people living alone who don't get many phone calls and the caller 'seems' honest.

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by TheProfessor

Neighbor who was an exectutive that worked for the telephone company stated that these calls could easily be stopped.
BUT
The lobbyists in Washington - work on BOTH sides of the spectrum.
The phone companies make money the more calls that are made.
My phone machine states the incoming callers telephone number. And some are 603.
These numbers are purchased then sold to the Asian/Pacific telemarketers.
The lobbyists know this but lobby US Congress to leave all alone.

All could be stopped. But those on BOTH sides of the aisle - take the lobby money to help them get elected or re-elected.

Is my phone company neighbor right or wrong on this?

It's possible. But I think more of it has to do with the lack of their understanding about what is going on behind the scenes.

I compare this to two customers I had when I first started in doors and windows. A gentleman came in on the weekend seeking a kitchen cabinet knob. We short staff kitchen designers on the weekend, unless an appointment has been made. He went to the designer not seeing a customer sitting in the chair and started to present his desire to purchase the knob. He didn't realize the designer was working on someone else's kitchen in the computer system and simply couldn't just ''break away'' without risking problems for the customer whose kitchen was being worked on. He didn't understand the behind the scenes.

I was able to order him the knob, because I wasn't busy. But, I made it clear, I am not a kitchen associate at best I could guess based on the sample he had. And once ordered, it could not be returned. We ordered, and I believe that it worked out.

Back then, I worked doors, windows, roofing, siding, and decking... I had that much time and not a lot of sales, so I was able to learn all those options well enough to be confident that I was laying out the options, pricing, and other particulars with the detail needed for the customer to make an informed decision. I attended hours of training and site visits on each category.

The kitchen designer had done so, but with kitchens and baths... lots of hardware and options with those.

I just got lucky with his order.

But the behind the scenes is the thing that takes so much time to absorb, and I presume that most congressional members cannot absorb enough information on every issue before them due to complexity and workload. At best they hope the staff can ''wing it''.

[TheProfessor]

One of my neighbors.
Nice well educated well traveled senior lady.
Was working in yard. August.
She came up to me with an email printout.

She had won a lottery. $100,000.
She stated that all she had to do was to send $100.00 for "processing".

She asked me what I thought.

I wanted to laugh at her but kept a straight polite face.

The one hundred dollars was to be sent to Nigeria. The country of Nigeria.

She was about to send the $100.00.

I advised her politely not to send any money to Nigeria and that it might possibly be a scam.

[Slickcraft]

This recently from Bank of New Hampshire:

Customer Service
1/13/2023 - 1:17 PM
We have received reports of a fraudulent text message that instructs recipients to click on a link to unlink their debit card from a Point of Sales (POS) system. Although the verbiage and phone number might vary, these text messages should be deleted and reported. This is a scam and is not associated in any way with Bank of New Hampshire. If you received one of these messages and clicked on the link, please contact Bank of New Hampshire immediately at 1.800.832.0912.

To keep accounts and personal information safe, remember these simple tips:

1. BNH fraud alert text messages will always come from the short code 37-268.

2. Always keep an eye out for spelling mistakes such as “bank.nh.com.”

3. Never click any links or call phone numbers listed in unsolicited text messages.

4. Only call phone numbers listed on a trusted source, such as BankNH.com. When in doubt, call the phone number on the back of your debit card.

Alan

[LakeTimes]

Advice - Unless you know the number that is calling, NEVER pick it up. There is something more sophisticated hackers are doing called "Voice Hacking."

Short of the long - Many of those calls you get where you say hello and no one is there end up being hackers recording your speech. Now, it's becoming more frequent where they call to solicit you into having a conversation with them getting you say as many words as possible while they record your voice (often use excuses around donations, political support or feedback, etc.). Most people just politely decline and think nothing of it, where they actually are just trying to record your voice. Once they have enough data, their goal is to then use software & algorithms and digitally create a soundboard of your voice which they can then use to impersonate you and call your bank or other companies...

Think of the damage one could cause if they could mimic your exact voice... Sure there are checks and balances that good companies put in place to minimize this from happening, but plenty don't as they can't afford it... There are still several large institutions that are trying to offer 'convenience' to their customers with voice recognition software where you just call and don't need to talk to someone, you can do it all through their automated system.

Intent isn't to scare anyone, just to educate as to some of the latest methods of hacking that's around us. The world is and will continue to change quickly and we need to educate and evolve with it as well before we find ourselves being caught victim. Would hate to see anyone fall victim to it on here.