Apple Scam?

[Anne_in_VA]

I’m receiving calls from Apple Support telling me that one of my Apple devices has been breached.  When I connect with them they can’t tell me which device has been breached or be who other than it’s Russia or China.  Heavy accented English speaker.  I think this is a scam, but wanted to check with you all to see what you think.

[Tennesseer]

Scam.  

try to remember some of the words originally spoken in the call and then search the internet for those words.  Chances are the calls are scripted and someone else has said it's a hoax.  

I also cannot imagine Apple Support making calls.  I can see Apple Support sending an email to everyone who has an Apple product and telling them what to look for to determine if their computers have been breached by bad people.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Scam.  I might try doing some of the things I used to do when I would get these calls from Microsoft.  

I think I drove at least a couple of those callers nuts with m6 comments to them.  

If you get the call again, ask how this is so because you have no Apple products.  I used to say that with MS and it would stop them short.

I have both, so I lied.  

[Tennesseer]

From Apple Support:


If you get a suspicious phone call or voicemail

Scammers may spoof legitimate company phone numbers and use flattery and threats to pressure you into giving them information, money, and even iTunes gift cards. If you get an unsolicited or suspicious phone call from someone claiming to be from Apple, just hang up.

You can report fraudulent tech support calls to the Federal Trade Commission (U.S. only) at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or to your local law enforcement agency.


Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams

Also check 800Notes on the internet and see if the phone number that called you is listed as suspicious.

[kadee79]

Scam...they have done this to several folks I know too.


One told the guy it was his Ipad that was messing up the internet.  Only he played along for awhile cause he doesn't have an Ipad!

[Anne_in_VA]

I thought it was a scam and when they couldn’t tell me which device I hung up.  They’ve called more than 10 times today alone.

[pulmonarymd]

I would tell the MS scammers I had apple products, Then I would ask where Rhey were calling from, and when the said anything but WA, I would call them idiots. I would also ask what device they were calling about. Got one of them to curse at me. Since it was a human, I hope I prevented someone else from getting that call.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jul 18, 2020 14:12:07 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

I would tell the MS scammers I had apple products, Then I would ask where Rhey were calling from, and when the said anything but WA, I would call them idiots. I would also ask what device they were calling about. Got one of them to curse at me. Since it was a human, I hope I prevented someone else from getting that call.

This was just one of the conversations I had with MS.

ymam.proboards.com/thread/44454/mother-thief-aka-fun-ms

[pulmonarymd]

Jul 18, 2020 14:24:25 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Jul 18, 2020 14:12:07 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

I would tell the MS scammers I had apple products, Then I would ask where Rhey were calling from, and when the said anything but WA, I would call them idiots. I would also ask what device they were calling about. Got one of them to curse at me. Since it was a human, I hope I prevented someone else from getting that call.

This was just one of the conversations I had with MS.

ymam.proboards.com/thread/44454/mother-thief-aka-fun-ms

Very nice

[lynnerself]

I hate the ones where they tell you that your computer support subscription is about to renew for something like $500 and to call if you don't want it to automatically renew.

I've also gotten the one about my SS being hacked or something.

[ners]

I get calls from apple support. I own no apple products.

[saveinla]

Today I got a text supposedly from Chase. They are asking me to click on a link .  if I check the first part of the link - its a bitcoin scamming site.

People are crazy nowadays - please verify the numbers by googling it - there are a lot of websites that tell you what the number is.

[dannylion]

I haven't had an MS support call for ages.  Maybe they gave up because I almost never answered, and when I did answer, I tended to speak to them in Russian or Chinese if I was feeling energetic, or would just hang up on them otherwise.  The callers invariably spoke with a South Asian accent, so I was reasonably certain they wouldn't understand me.  

I got several pseudo IRS calls threatening to "take allegations" against me.  I didn't answer and only know about them because of the voicemails they left.  I got one "your SS number has been suspended" voicemail but nothing after that.  

I do miss the emails I used to get from Prince Holliness B. Bundu, a member of the Nigerian royal family, who was in a difficult spot and was really counting on my help so he could move his 10 million USD fortune out of the country into a US bank.  He was quite entertaining, though his spelling was a little dodgy, and his grasp of English syntax tended to desert him periodically and make it difficult to understand just what it was he thought he was saying.  

[sesfw]

The last call I received about my computer being hacked, I told them I didn't have a computer.

He just kept talking, and I had to tell him that about 3 times before he finally hung up.

[lynnerself]

We got an email one from WellsFarg0, yes spelled just like that with a zero for the o. Didn't even bothering to check if it was legit.

[Tennesseer]

My SIL just posted this on Facebook. It's about a free giveaway of a mobile home allegedly worth $129,000. Do you see anything wrong in the description below?:

To celebrate Anniversary, We decided to give this gorgeous Mobile House worth $129,000 Mobile House to someone who shares and comments "ME" by 9pm, Sunday!
Like Our Page For Updates, Best of luck to you all!

[dannylion]

Jul 18, 2020 16:50:37 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

My SIL just posted this on Facebook. It's about a free giveaway of a mobile home allegedly worth $129,000. Do you see anything wrong in the description below?:

To celebrate Anniversary, We decided to give this gorgeous Mobile House worth $129,000 Mobile House to someone who shares and comments "ME" by 9pm, Sunday!
Like Our Page For Updates, Best of luck to you all!

As if the faulty grammar weren't a dead giveaway, not to mention calling a mobile home a "Mobile House" (and repeating it for no apparent reason after giving the value), and the unnecessary random capital letters, if this is happening in Tennessee, their ruse is exposed by the "you all" at the end.  Everyone knows that should be "y'all," and since they are presumably addressing a large audience, shouldn't it actually be "all y'all?"  

[Tennesseer]

Jul 18, 2020 16:58:50 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Jul 18, 2020 16:50:37 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

My SIL just posted this on Facebook. It's about a free giveaway of a mobile home allegedly worth $129,000. Do you see anything wrong in the description below?:

As if the faulty grammar weren't a dead giveaway, not to mention calling a mobile home a "Mobile House" (and repeating it for no apparent reason after giving the value), and the unnecessary random capital letters, if this is happening in Tennessee, their ruse is exposed by the "you all" at the end.  Everyone knows that should be "y'all," and since they are presumably addressing a large audience, shouldn't it actually be "all y'all?"  

Nah. Facebook posts like that go nationwide. Plus the SIL lives in South Carolina.

I see offerings like this every know and then on Facebook. Over 22,000 Facebook users have commented to get a chance to win the mobile 'house'.

[dannylion]

Jul 18, 2020 17:10:24 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Jul 18, 2020 16:58:50 GMT -5 dannylion said:

As if the faulty grammar weren't a dead giveaway, not to mention calling a mobile home a "Mobile House" (and repeating it for no apparent reason after giving the value), and the unnecessary random capital letters, if this is happening in Tennessee, their ruse is exposed by the "you all" at the end.  Everyone knows that should be "y'all," and since they are presumably addressing a large audience, shouldn't it actually be "all y'all?"  

Nah. Facebook posts like that go nationwide. Plus the SIL lives in South Carolina.

I see offerings like this every know and then on Facebook. Over 22,000 Facebook users have commented to get a chance to win the mobile 'house'.

People are stupid.  

[Tennesseer]

Jul 18, 2020 17:13:49 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Jul 18, 2020 17:10:24 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Nah. Facebook posts like that go nationwide. Plus the SIL lives in South Carolina.

I see offerings like this every know and then on Facebook. Over 22,000 Facebook users have commented to get a chance to win the mobile 'house'.

People are stupid.  

Yup. And the scammers just got 22,000 bits of information about those people.

[Deleted]

I get so many emails beginning "Dear friend, I am Sister Eugenia from Nigeria and pray you will help me help others by supporting my endeavor to open business to employ many......."

But a lot of folks do fall for these scams. 

I heard last week that a former friend was again hacked for over $100,000.  I'm sort of wondering how lax her security can possibly be for someone to steal that much from her account at a major national brokerage a second time.  Dang, I can barely get money out of our ML account without jumping through 50 hoops and waiting 4 weeks.  
 

[mollyanna58]

Jul 18, 2020 17:15:51 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Jul 18, 2020 17:13:49 GMT -5 dannylion said:

People are stupid.  

Yup. And the scammers just got 22,000 bits of information about those people.

I have a friend from high school, and about the only time I see her post on Facebook, it is one of these "comment and share to win" posts; frequently they include a comment that the prior winner was from Canada and ineligible, so they are starting over..  I have given up pointing out that if the FB page was created yesterday, it's highly unlikely to be true.

[Tennesseer]

Jul 18, 2020 21:05:59 GMT -5 mollyanna58 said:

Jul 18, 2020 17:15:51 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Yup. And the scammers just got 22,000 bits of information about those people.

I have a friend from high school, and about the only time I see her post on Facebook, it is one of these "comment and share to win" posts; frequently they include a comment that the prior winner was from Canada and ineligible, so they are starting over..  I have given up pointing out that if the FB page was created yesterday, it's highly unlikely to be true.

I have seen the highlighted several times too. Scammers all.

[garion2003]

Jim Browning posts great videos on YouTube where he goes after scammers.  He goes over their routines and explains how they try to scare people. In some cases he tracks down their info and can find out a lot about them! Sometimes he can get people their money back.


My elderly mother has gotten the "medicare back brace" and "Microsoft tech support" calls in the past week. 

[lynnerself]

I just got  a "final notice from cardmember services". I hung up before I listened any more.

[Tennesseer]

Jul 23, 2020 17:37:57 GMT -5 lynnerself said:

I just got  a "final notice from cardmember services". I hung up before I listened any more.

I used to keep track on an Excel spreadsheet of all the scam calls I received. "final notice from cardmember services" was one of them. Over a three year period I received over 120 calls from them. They always called from a different area code and the first three digits of the number were always different.

But the last four digits were always thexsame: 8992. So I knew when a call coming in with the last digits being 8992 not to bother answering.

They did finally stop calling around the end of 2018.

[Tennesseer]

Verizon, my cell phone service provider, is now flagging some of the calls coming into me as possibly suspicious. Verizon is usually right when they suspect the call is a scam or some other nuisance.

[TheOtherMe]

Jul 23, 2020 18:00:02 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Verizon, my cell phone service provider, is now flagging some of the calls coming into me as possibly suspicious. Verizon is usually right when they suspect the call is a scam or some other nuisance.

I usually google the numbers Verizon has flagged as potential spam.  I'd say I can actually find 95% of them on the scam call sites.  The are very good at it.  

I do not answer any of the calls flagged as potential spam.

[dannylion]

Jul 23, 2020 18:00:02 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Verizon, my cell phone service provider, is now flagging some of the calls coming into me as possibly suspicious. Verizon is usually right when they suspect the call is a scam or some other nuisance.

Verizon has been doing that on landlines in Maryland for a couple of years.  I've noticed that I'll get a scam/spam call (identified through googling the number--I don't answer) from a particular number a couple of times, and then it will be labeled as "spam" on my CID, and after that I don't see that number again.  It's definitely a good start.  Now they just need to stop the calls before they get to our phones.  

[Anne_in_VA]

AT&T, my provider flags spam or telemarking calls too.  I just ignore them.