Paul, we are truly sorry for your loss.

By Soeren Klein (Ogdrklein) on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 03:11 am: Edit

Reading about the various schemes I got curious.

Alongside the traditional friendly employee calling from Microsoft Security or the call to promote sustainable energy installations there are these predominant schemes in Germany:

a) The Police Scheme: Police officer calling that they have arrested a felon and found a little book with your address in his possession. Another break in is expected at your address but the police would readily send a contact person to your address to take any valuable items in secure custody.

b) The shock call: a phone call with a desperatly yet not understandable crying voice. Seconds later a police officer or a doctor takes over and calmly explains that he is sitting next to young relative (typically grandchildren) who is either involved a deadly car accident or is seriously injured/sick and requires a quick batch of money to avoid prison or death. A courier can be at your address shortly.

c) WhatsApp Scheme: "Hi, mom/dad! I got a new phone. This is my new number. Write me on whatsapp." Typically followed by a sad story that online banking isn't available on the new phone yet while a important payment (rent/buying a car) is coming up, but if you would be so kind to pay the bill for me you got the money back by next week.

Despite exhausting coverage in the medias and most families there are regular occurances where especially older peoble fell for these schemes.

Any of these also happening in the US or are they more a european thing?

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Soeren Klein

By Steve Stewart (Stevestewart) on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 07:26 am: Edit

I've had the "new phone" one here in the UK, plus a variation of the new phone scam which goes "I smashed my phone but my friend is happy to let me use hers".

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 07:33 am: Edit

My dad almost got caught in the Western Union Scam.

But I suggested he CALL his pal before sending any money...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 09:24 am: Edit

My Aunt almost got caught in the Western Union scam (supposedly I was begging her to bail me out of a Mexican jail) but her boyfriend called me (we're actually old friends from Army Reserve days) and laughed his ass off when I answered from two miles away.

We get a lot of calls saying "someone used your Amazon account to order a $2000 computer sent to New York City" asking for information on our Amazon Account and bank account.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 09:47 am: Edit

When we cleaned out my parents house we found a stack of scratched off iTunes gift cards in a drawer. Probably about $2k worth. They did not use iTunes and I doubt they were capable of figuring out how to get it setup. We hypothesize they fell victim to the "grandchild calls in an emergency situation and needs money (via iTunes gift cards??) fast" scheme.

My understanding from reading about these kinds of schemes targeting seniors is that many are not reported to law enforcement or family due to the shame of having been duped. So the victims are often cleaned out in silence. So sad.

--Mike

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 11:53 am: Edit

I get a lot of email, texts, and occassional calls about my Amazon account.

I do not now, and never have had an Amazon account.

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 09:33 pm: Edit

Last week I received an "email confirmation" of my $1,500 Bitcoin purchase. It provided an 800 number for me to call if I had not intended to buy Bitcoin. I was tempted to call to mess with them, but decided nothing good would come of it.

By Alan Trevor (Thyrm) on Saturday, October 28, 2023 - 01:28 pm: Edit

Not the internet... but just this afternoon I received a phone call informing me I was a second place winner in a Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes and they had a check for me, for $2,500,000.

HOORAY!!!

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Sunday, October 29, 2023 - 10:49 am: Edit

Alan, we've gotten that call here as well.

Thing is, we never entered the sweepstakes...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 01, 2023 - 01:44 am: Edit

It looks like the SBF (Alameda/FTX) case will go to the jury tomorrow. Anybody want to bet how many many years Sam gets? I am thinking 104.

I don't know that he set out to run a Ponzi scheme, but it quickly went that way. I think he enjoyed spending money (and was pressured by his parents to spend even more) and just figured that he was such a genius that he'd make back the money he stole from FTX customers before he got caught.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 01, 2023 - 11:34 pm: Edit

Okay, SBF didn't go to the jury today as the prosecution wants to have a rebuttal closure against the defense closure. So maybe they get it tomorrow.

From the looks of things, FTX was simple a crypto exchange, and customer money was never supposed to be touched other than by customers. Alameda was a hedge fund. Hedge funds are like stock funds but they invest in specific deals they work hard to find that make lots of money quickly. At least if the people running them are really on top of the finance game.

The children running Alameda were not on top of the game. They lost money on deals all the time with no big wins to cover the losses. Alameda and FTX also spent a lot of money marketing and paying celebrities to hang around with Sam Bankman Freid. Alameda made a bunch of screwy loans to FTX big shots. Alameda donated lots of money to causes and politicians. Alameda spent a lot of money bailing out questionable companies without a plan to turn them around. Alameda did all of this with borrowed money and when the lenders wanted to be paid back, Alameda did so by borrowing money from FTX, but it was borrowing billions at a time from a company that profited by about a billion a year. Which means they were borrowing customer money without customer permission and hoping to make a big score and pay it back before they got caught.

And they got caught.

Or so I think, and I'm not a market analyst, so maybe you want to watch YouTube and not listen to me.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, November 02, 2023 - 10:28 pm: Edit

It took the jury a few hours to convict SBF on all seven counts. That adds up to a max of 115 years in prison. I'm guessing he'll get 60 or 70.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, November 03, 2023 - 08:11 am: Edit

yeah, juries don't have much sympathy for smug grifter scammers.

Martin Shkreli the pharma bro
SBF the crypto guy
Boesky the inside trader
Madoff the ponzi guy

And the most recent case would get Jean mad, so I'll let you guess who I'd refer to.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, November 03, 2023 - 10:33 pm: Edit

SBF now faces a second trial on five more charges, including campaign finance law violations and bribing Chinese government officials. That will come in March.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Saturday, November 04, 2023 - 10:19 am: Edit

Don't forget Martha Stewart. I figured when she was sentenced that even if should would have gotten hard time she would have likely preemptively baked a cake with a file in it and sent it to herself

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Sunday, November 05, 2023 - 12:52 pm: Edit

Martha pled guilty and did little whining.

She even created a nativity scene.

By the way, Martha is in my list on "why did the iraqi chicken cross the road."

https://www.wired.com/2008/03/why-did-the-ira/

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 06, 2023 - 01:04 am: Edit

SBF's parents were partly to blame. They demanded that he give them a $10 million gift, give money to any charity or politician mom wanted him to, give Dad a $1 million/year job, give them an $8 million house. Dad certainly could and should have known that the profits of FTX were not paying for that stuff, and that Alameda borrowed a dozen times the profit FTX had to lend.

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Tuesday, February 13, 2024 - 10:39 am: Edit

Here's a new one. I am amused that this notification (the attached PDF) is so sensitive that it must be viewed in a private setting.

"Illicit activities have been perpetrated by both Texas and New Mexico by means of your Social Security number.

The Federal Trade Commission has identified numerous international wire transfers that result in blocked account numbers.

The trafficker's personal identity and Social Security number are associated with the illicit trade of narcotics.

Funds from money laundering have been transferred to your bank account. The Texas Court has issued an Order for the Suspension of your Social Security Number in light of the evidence presented.

An Official Notice from Social Security is appended hereto, per the direction of the Attorney General of Texas.

The notification contains sensitive information that requires examination in a private setting."

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, February 14, 2024 - 12:47 am: Edit

General warning: If anyone claiming to be from any company tells you to download software or read the code you just got in email, YOU ARE BEING SCAMMED and need to hang up.

I don't worry about rudeness any more and hang up on spam calls without bothering to be polite. Steve Petrick answers calls from unknown numbers in German and it drives them insane.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, February 14, 2024 - 06:36 pm: Edit

I answer and say how glad I am that they called, because we've been trying to reach them about their car's warranty. They hang up pretty quick at that point.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Wednesday, February 14, 2024 - 06:41 pm: Edit

>> because we've been trying to reach them about their car's warranty

OK, I'm doing that next time I get a call!

--Mike

By Burt Quaid (Burt) on Thursday, February 15, 2024 - 10:15 am: Edit

I got one with “Thanks for calling! You’re on the air”.

Only sound I got was click.

Burt

By Mike Dowd (Mike_Dowd) on Thursday, February 15, 2024 - 06:06 pm: Edit

I answer with "RCMP Fraud Investigations Unit."

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, February 16, 2024 - 08:20 am: Edit

The only way to fix this is require PHONE companies to pay customers 5 cents PER fraudulent call. Have a *69 type thing to report them.

If the scammer is spoofing the phone company, then the phone company will have to suck it up and pay.

I refuse to believe that the phone companies can't find a way to end number spoofing if it is worth their while.