Internet scams

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My gmail account got hacked from an Apple iPad...older model. It's sending email to my contacts. I can't figure out how it happened. I heard it would be someone with a Microsoft account known to me who had my password. I have few contacts & none would do that.
I did notice on this iPad, it kept prompting me to sign in twice.
 
ninjafaery said:
My gmail account got hacked from an Apple iPad...older model. It's sending email to my contacts. I can't figure out how it happened. I heard it would be someone with a Microsoft account known to me who had my password. I have few contacts & none would do that.
I did notice on this iPad, it kept prompting me to sign in twice.
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grrr to hackers :mad::mad::mad: Sorry that happened ninjafaery.

My poor dad recently fell prey to a hack & a scam - but caught on eventually & says he didn't send 'much' money ... sigh. He's reasonably computer savy & was totally thrown off by what happened. He did call the local police, got good advice from them, had to take his machine to a shop to be cleaned; reset all his passwords ... pain in the ass more than anything. I guess this stuff 'works' often enough that it keeps perpetuating.

Now & then I get weird e-mails from people that are obviously not from them - and recently was getting a lot from 'amazon' - sure. Sent them all to the spam file.
 
This hit one of my IT newsletters today. It may not seem to apply to individuals at first, but with more and more money being sent around by EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer), these scams will likely be targetting consumers, too. Basically, if you're sending someone money and get a request to change the email you're sending it to or something, confirm with the intended target, preferably by phone, text, or other means than email (since they may have been hacked) before you send anything to the new address.

Ontario city stung for $503,000 in switched bank account fraud

Incidentally, I have my email address registered with Interac for automatic deposit to my bank account. That way, even if someone intercepted the message, they can't redirect the money since the email is just a notification that the deposit has been sent. The money just goes straight to the intended account and that can't be changed unless they actually hack my bank account setup.
 
My father just got caught by the Windows scam. Sounds like he got a pop up window and responded. Fortunately, no money lost for him. He now doesn't want to turn on his computer or answer his phone. I tried calling for a few days and after no answer, we got the office of the building where he lives in London to check on him. He was fine and entertaining two lady friends. I had a good chat with him today. He's going to get friends of ours to check his computer for him and see if there is a security measure he can take.
 
Good story on how Walmart is trying to help stop gift card scams in cooperation with various US authorities. Technological crimes require technological fixes in many cases, and a big company like Walmart who know the technology used to manage gift cards is best placed to provide those fixes.


And, to be clear, no reputable, legitimate corporation or government agency is ever going to want to be paid in gift cards. They want money.

And no reputable government agency or corporation is going to call you up out of the blue and demand payment in this way. If you get such a call, it is 99% likely to be a scam (hell, 99.9%). Hang up and if you are worried, find the government agency or company's legitimate customer service number and call them directly to confirm.

Last, I have been hearing buzz about the infamous "I am calling from Microsoft and need to get access to your computer to fix Windows" scam again (admittedly, from online contacts in Europe, but I would not be surprised to find it is active here, too).

MS DOES NOT DO THIS!!! HANG UP!!! If you get such a call, it is a scam and if you let them on your computer, they will load up malware to steal your information and likely to turn it into a server that they can use to attack other people.

Pass the word around. The more people are aware, the less of a "market" there is for the scammers.
 
Well this is a timely ressurrection of this thread. Just last night my dad was telling me a long story how he's 'spent a few days' on the phone in discussion & receiving instructions from (apparent to me) scammers (Amazon refund) and eventually took a trip to his bank to make transactions. I think the bank intercepted his attempt to collapse some accounts and wire money to Italy by telling him they could not do this as the banks in Toronto were past closing time & it would need to be dealt with next week. I hope that was the end of it. He said "oh they were playing me, but I was playing THEM - I didn't sign anything so it's all fine." He did have his "computer people" come check his computer - because he had given control of the computer to the caller of course and they removed any external access & hopefully gave him a bit of a lecture - for now. Then he told me how CBC Marketplace did a big show on it on Friday - which I just watched - so slick and damaging. He also had a problem a few months ago with his bank account being breached but that got recitified by the bank. In 2018 he had ransomware on his computer & paid out in gift cards before eventually calling the police :-( He is SO vulnerable due to cognitive impairment & thinking he's smarter than they - and no doubt will be targetted again as he went this far this time. I have a call in to the person who is his POA.

In the Marketplace episode, it was revealed that the RCMP in Ontario have closed down their unit targeting online & phone fraud - really?
 
Carolla said:
In the Marketplace episode, it was revealed that the RCMP in Ontario have closed down their unit targeting online & phone fraud - really?
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I heard of that but haven't looked into why. The OPP are doing it so avoiding duplication, maybe, hopefully? I know enforcement of this stuff is a serious pain due to how hard it can be to prove anything. A good hacker generally cleans up their traces well so all you have is the damage done, nothing to link it to someone who can actually be pursued legally. With phone fraud, often all you have is the number the caller used and they usually spoof those. Half the crap calls I get have my own area code and exchange (for both my wireline and my wireless).
 
I received a text stating there was an interac money transfer for me from someone I didn't know. It looked like an honest mistake from all the info, but I took a screen shot of the text and passed it along it to the Interac phishing reporting email just in case.
Apparently there are "money mules" who do this to launder money using your bank account.
 
Good instincts Ninj. "Money mules" were featured in part of the Marketplace episode. They also interview a private detective specializing in this issue, and a guy in the UK named Jim Browning who hacks the hackers.
 
Mendalla said:
Good story on how Walmart is trying to help stop gift card scams in cooperation with various US authorities. Technological crimes require technological fixes in many cases, and a big company like Walmart who know the technology used to manage gift cards is best placed to provide those fixes.


And, to be clear, no reputable, legitimate corporation or government agency is ever going to want to be paid in gift cards. They want money.

And no reputable government agency or corporation is going to call you up out of the blue and demand payment in this way. If you get such a call, it is 99% likely to be a scam (hell, 99.9%). Hang up and if you are worried, find the government agency or company's legitimate customer service number and call them directly to confirm.

Last, I have been hearing buzz about the infamous "I am calling from Microsoft and need to get access to your computer to fix Windows" scam again (admittedly, from online contacts in Europe, but I would not be surprised to find it is active here, too).

MS DOES NOT DO THIS!!! HANG UP!!! If you get such a call, it is a scam and if you let them on your computer, they will load up malware to steal your information and likely to turn it into a server that they can use to attack other people.

Pass the word around. The more people are aware, the less of a "market" there is for the scammers.
Click to expand...
I'm a bit surprised that the gift card scam has stuck around for so long, just as it seems rather obvious. I can understand those with cognitive impairment getting scammed by it. I'm surprised with hearing, fairly regularly, the number of others who do.
 
ChemGal said:
I'm surprised with hearing, fairly regularly, the number of others who do.
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I wish I could say this, but I've seen people with no obvious cognitive disability fall for some seriously screwed-up stuff in my years in IT. Gullibility may well be need to become a diagnosis in its own right.:rolleyes:
 
I get the CRA and border calls a fair bit. Nothing for a while and then will get 4 in a day. Wish those would stop it's not atypical to be woken up by them.

Years ago my grandpa had someone try the grandparents scam on him, a relative was there at the time so it was stopped immediately. I found it a bit interesting that it happened to my parents this year. Guess they are 'old' now. I saw when it came out the scammers picked up the name from the person they were trying to scam - not true in these cases though. In my grandpa's case my cousin's name was used by the scammers, he didn't provide it. In my parents (I think they both got calls) it was my sister's.
I am not sure how they make the connections between those relationships and phone numbers. I can understand a scammer getting my name and number together from something, but how would they get my name, relative's number and relationship? Sounds like a cellphone hack, not sure how that happens.
 
ChemGal said:
Sounds like a cellphone hack, not sure how that happens.
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On Google, bad apps are still a problem. Looks legit but has a trojan on board. Google is getting better about scanning and removing apps and banning app developers who post crap. Apple has always been fairly strict about their store as is Amazon (which makes Android devices but ties them to its own store rather than using Google Play) so less likely to find crap there.
 
Mendalla said:
On Google, bad apps are still a problem. Looks legit but has a trojan on board. Google is getting better about scanning and removing apps and banning app developers who post crap. Apple has always been fairly strict about their store as is Amazon (which makes Android devices but ties them to its own store rather than using Google Play) so less likely to find crap there.
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I hear about bad apps, I guess I didn't really understand what they do though. So they can send all that info without access permission?
 
ChemGal said:
I hear about bad apps, I guess I didn't really understand what they do though. So they can send all that info without access permission?
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Potentially. You should still get prompted by Android for permission but I know some people just grant that automatically without really realizing what they are doing. I guess they're like, "Damn it, I just want my app to work, stop bugging me."
 
Mendalla said:
Potentially. You should still get prompted by Android for permission but I know some people just grant that automatically without really realizing what they are doing. I guess they're like, "Damn it, I just want my app to work, stop bugging me."
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Ah makes sense. I always just decline unless there's a reason it would be needed. Apparently my sister doesn't?
 
ChemGal said:
Ah makes sense. I always just decline unless there's a reason it would be needed. Apparently my sister doesn't?
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Could be. I always consider what the app is supposed to do and what I am doing with it before I decide what to allow.
 
ChemGal said:
how would they get my name, relative's number and relationship
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Names of relatives can be sometimes be easily found in some genealogy sites. Ancestry generally does include info re living relatives - just a blank space, but I imagine not all are conscientous. Also on fb, sometimes people list relationship to people in the friends list etc.

My friend's computer (high end Apple, and i-phone user) was hacked recently. Message went out all her contacts - very simple - "hey could you do me a quick favour" kind of thing, signed by her, and looking like it came from her in the address. Most recognized it as a scam, but one friend (older but no cognitive issues, and pretty good on computer issues etc) did reply directly to the message & ended up spending $200 on gift cards. Happens more than we might imagine. Time consuming to clean up.
 
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