Not sure if this counts, but a few times I have gotten a pop up saying that “my Mac is irreparably damaged unless I download XYZ antivirus via ABC link”.
I don’t even have a Mac!

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Monday, January 23, 2023 - 11:01 am: Edit

I've been getting a bunch of these type of messages on my phone lately.

"Your [service company, Amazon, Bank account, Credit card, etc al] account has been limited due to suspicious activity, and will be permanently locked in 24/48 hours. Please click this [not suspicious looking link that is designed to look legit, but goes to a top-level domain that is typically either a free-web-site host or some random collection of letters and numbers] link to verify your account and keep it from being closed."

These phishing messages are trying to look like the sorts of fraud alerts some banks will send out when their systems detect unusual purchases.

Barnum was right, about a great many things.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, January 27, 2023 - 12:12 pm: Edit

Attached is the new employee manual. Download it, read it, and sign the form included and send it to HR. If you do this, your next paycheck won't be delayed.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, January 27, 2023 - 02:24 pm: Edit

I don't know, Steve. If you don't sign the new employee manual at ADB, your paycheck might be delayed....

Heh.

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Friday, January 27, 2023 - 02:52 pm: Edit

Ted, remember, they have The Booth, they don't need to go phishing for suckers, I mean volunteers there.

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Friday, January 27, 2023 - 03:18 pm: Edit

Hmmmm ... I haven't had time to write that ... yet. I must remember to include the monthly tribute in chocolate raisins that must be paid before paychecks are written ...

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Friday, January 27, 2023 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Jean, does the employee manual really need to include anything more than the instruction to provide at least 16 ounces of dark chocolate covered raisins per month to the loyal and efficient webmistress?

You should be able to knock that out pretty quickly.

By Conan Brodowski (Der_Kaiser) on Sunday, January 29, 2023 - 05:40 pm: Edit

Chocolate covered raisins are worth their weight in dilithium.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, January 31, 2023 - 02:12 pm: Edit

SCAM ALERT
Yesterday, my elderly aunt came within seconds of falling for a classic scam.
Someone called her and said "I am your oldest grandson." She doesn't have any grandsons, but (confused) asked if the caller was Stephen, her eldest nephew. The caller said that was right, then said he was in jail and needed $25,000 bail. He gave her a phone number for "his lawyer".
The "lawyer" said that Stephen had been driving too fast while texting and rear-ended a car containing a pregnant woman, who was in the hospital with a miscarriage. Stephen was being charged with murder and needed $25,000 cash to get bailed out. He told her to send the money by Western Union. My aunt already had enough clues to figure this was a scam but (confused) went to send the money anyway. Western Union warned her that this was all but certainly a scam. Just after that her boyfriend called and said "stop, it's a scam" and she got the money back. Then he called me (which my aunt should have done to start with). My aunt was visibly upset. The scammers kept calling all day and their story got wilder and wilder.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Wednesday, February 01, 2023 - 05:17 pm: Edit

SVC, we got a call from those same scammers this morning, the "I am your oldest grandson," folks.

When I picked up, it was silent for a moment, then I heard a distinct computer bleep that told me they were using an autodialer, but it did connect me to a human scammer.

Also, when the scammer started off, I heard distinct office type noises in the background. These two elements suggest these scammers have a pretty good sized office somewhere where they're running this operation.

By Dennis Bergendorf (Wildcard) on Wednesday, February 01, 2023 - 06:35 pm: Edit

Thank the powers for Caller ID. We don't even pick up any calls from unfamiliar numbers.

If it's important, they'll either leave a message (how 20th Century!), or text. One way or another, our call screening system is pretty robust.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Wednesday, February 01, 2023 - 06:43 pm: Edit

Same. If you want to talk to me you're going to have to make an effort.

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Wednesday, February 01, 2023 - 08:49 pm: Edit

I don't know if it's a scam or just shoddy record keeping, but I regularly get phones calls related to my timeshare. Which is particularly interesting because I don't own a timeshare. The first few times it happened sent me scrambling to get a copy of my credit report to see if someone had bought one using my identity, but now I'm more inclined to think it's just a function of having a very common name.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, February 01, 2023 - 09:51 pm: Edit

The scale of these scamming operations can be tremendous. Go to YouTube and search out "Mark Rober Glitterbomb."

I think it's bomb 4 where he takes on an entire organized crime ring in India. In bomb 5 he gives the conclusion to that story.

It's astonishing what they can get away with because they operate in foreign countries where enforcement is non-existent or for sale.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Wednesday, February 01, 2023 - 10:56 pm: Edit

One trick that I use is to never say, "Hello" when I pick up the phone; I always say, "This is Jason." I've been told that at least some autodialer systems are programmed to listen for "Hello" before passing the call off to a real human scammer, since most people don't start a voicemail greeting with "Hello." I have at least a little evidence that it works, in that I am frequently able to do a slow 5-count without anyone on the other end picking up before I hang up.

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Wednesday, February 01, 2023 - 10:59 pm: Edit

My trick is to just not say anything. If there's actually a person on the line, they will eventually say "hello" or the like. If it's just an autodialer, it's waiting for me to say something and so doesn't connect.

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Thursday, February 02, 2023 - 02:32 am: Edit

Not a scam pre-se but I get a lot of calls asking after my long dead father, because they want to buy the family home to flip.

I have a highball figure o throw at them. “I know what I have, you called me, I won’t take a dime less than (20x market value) as is, and you pay all expenses.”

Then there are the calls wanting me to change insurance or debt relief, or some other thing, and they usually have enough personal data to bother me. For them I use this mantra: “Due to the risks of identity theft, I do not discuss matters of this nature over the phone. Send all inquiries by United States Postal Service First Class registered mail.” Then I go broken record until they hang up.

Because of my work I can’t always screen calls…. It’ll be happy for the day I can again.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, February 02, 2023 - 10:05 am: Edit

I don't bother playing games with them. I used to. I thought it was amusing to mess with them.

Now I simply hang up. No banter, no nothing. Click.

Simply not worth my time. I always have something better to do.

By Conan Brodowski (Der_Kaiser) on Friday, February 03, 2023 - 02:44 pm: Edit

Playing games with scammers sounds like fun for someone with my sadistic nature .

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Friday, February 03, 2023 - 03:29 pm: Edit

If you want some ideas for messing with scammers, look up some of Janes Veitch's talks on Youtube. I don't know if he actually did the things in his stories, but that doesn't make them any less funny.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Friday, February 03, 2023 - 07:14 pm: Edit

Had one years ago, call about a Lottery I (sic) won....
Gave them the address to my bank and told them to call me back when they arrived...
That call ended about 2 secs later...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, February 08, 2023 - 06:39 am: Edit

Advance Payment - AP969 Advice of Dispatch Form VOY-01096 & Packing List
Sign in with your email and password to download files

By Conan Brodowski (Der_Kaiser) on Wednesday, February 08, 2023 - 07:40 pm: Edit

Ooh, files for me? How very thoughtful.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, February 23, 2023 - 01:39 pm: Edit

starfleetgames.com has prevented the delivery of 6 new emails to your inbox with subjects Re:Balance Payment as of 2/23/2023 1:27:18 a.m. Message was identified as Spam. You can review these here (link removed) and choose what happens to Your EMAILS. You can also get more information about quarantined messages by clicking on the bottom VIEW EMAILS and Compliance Center. You'll need to Login with your details to be able to access this Emails.

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Thursday, February 23, 2023 - 03:39 pm: Edit

That's a good one, I may have to suggest it to our security people for their internal "see if people spot the phishing attempt" training.

They send fake phishing attempts, if you click on the link, you get to take anti-phishing training. If you send it to be checked for spam/phishing (there's a button on our outlook to do so) then you are instantly told that you were correct.