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user-inactivated  ·  1771 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Scam stories

In the early days, before people were more vigilant, I knew a few people who fell for the E-Bay/PayPal fishing emails, the overseas lottery scam, and the overseas "pretty girl wants to date you but needs money for a passport scam." I also once had to talk a friend out of giving a "car auction" company his SSN. Sorry bro. The WS6 Trans Am was too good to be true.

Both my parents and my inlaws still have landlines. The number of IRS, Hospital/Pharmacy, and Bill Collector scams they get are insane.

I once was gonna apply for a job online, only to discover that the company's office was right in a neighborhood I was gonna be in the next day, so I decided to stop in and say "hello" first and drop off my resume in person. The address was real, and so was the office building, but the company was in an office that didn't exist and the person working the front desk said they never heard of them. To this day, I don't know what that was all about, but I'm calling shenanigans.

We constantly have scammers in this are pretending to work for utility companies to try and get in your house, mess with your billing accounts, or switch you over to a different company. The rule of thumb is, if they aren't driving an official vehicle and wearing an official uniform, don't talk to them, don't show them your utility bills, and don't let them into your house. On the occasions that utility companies will have to send over a third party contractor, they notify you well in advance with a written letter telling you who they're sending over, why they're being sent over, the exact day they're coming, and the timeframe you can expect them.

I get robocalls all the time. I don't know if they're scams or not because I never pick up, but I hate them.