I think the problem comes in with cell phone numbers.
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Yes…I only started receiving this scammy junk on my cell phone very recently.
And now an article on new scams. Boo!
Little a business can do - if anything, it would be a law enforcement issue. But if you go to the police, they don’t have the resources to pursue individual low-impact cases.
As far as phone numbers, often they can be “burner phones” where there is no trace to any individual. Or, with VOIP, it’s often easy to “fake” a caller ID (after all, it’s just metadata that’s generated at the source of the call - meaning: by the perp).
I’m not a lawyer, but I’d be checking with one before paying Company B. I wonder if any sort of lawsuit would apply, though I suppose they could have had her sign something before they loaded and if she didn’t read it that would be a problem.
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I have not ordered anything that FedEx should have delivered…at all. They can stop sending me emails about my delivery.
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From my local Patch:
A Stamford homebuyer nearly lost $426,000 after wiring the money as part of an email scam, the Stamford Police Department said.
On March 10, police received a call from a Stamford resident and a local realtor who reported they fell victim to a wire fraud, police said in a news release.
The resident was looking to purchase a home in Fairfield County, but someone infiltrated their email chain and tricked the resident into wiring $426,000 to a fraudulent account on March 8, police said.
SPD Investigator Michael Stempien, who is also a task force officer with the FBI Cyber Task Force out of New Haven, found that the victim filed a complaint with the Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3) with the FBI, and that they were working to freeze the account.
The FBI’s IC3 team recovered all but $1,000 of the money, and returned the funds to the victim within days so he could move forward with purchasing a home.
Jeez.
I think any time I’m asked to wire money, I will be suspicious! Or buy a gift card.
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For my most recent RE closing, the advice was given to call the office after receiving the wiring instructions and have them read the routing information for verification prior to wiring. This kind of interception fraud is what they were trying to avoid.
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Just had a reverse-scam: credit card company credited my account with a a $4100 payment that I did NOT make—it took repeated contacts to make them understand what had happened and to get the credit off my account!! All the while, they had lost my modest $300 payment----I could not get them to understand why I would have made a $4100 payment on a $300 balance.
I imagine there was somebody somewhere who did make that payment and was apoplectic trying to get the CC company to acknowledge their payment!!
I posted last year that this happened to my sister. Thankfully the bank was able to get the money back. But apparently even savvy people, lawyers, real estate folk, etc., have been taken in. It’s scary that they are able to get into the email chain and spoof entirely accurately. Glad these folks got their money restored.
A guy got into my husband’s email chain and pretended to be a building code official. When he asked to be paid for his services, it became obvious he was a scammer. We called the town and they said someone had hacked into their system. Just unbelievable.
Well , the’ legal issue ‘phone call from the local sheriffs office indeed was a scam and it was reported in online local news that people were getting scam calls exactly as I did. It was a very real sounding voice message. I did not call back. It sounded wrong in the way it was stated.
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There is a similar one from the “IRS” that says if you do not call a certain number, “the cops” will come to your house—as if the real IRS would use the phrase “the cops”!!
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I started a separate thread on this…
Received unsolicited, never ordered by us, COVID antigen tests in the mail. They were billed to Medicare account. I’ve opened a fraud claim with Medicare.
After some research it seems that several ‘providers’ are running this scam. If you’re on Medicare - check your portal/account to see if you have been billed for COVID tests which you did not order or authorized. You may have actually received the product, or you may not have received anything.
It might be time to change the Medicare ID number.
Will they do that on request?
How do you do that??
Not sure of the exact process for changing the Medicare ID. Going to get on that tomorrow…will report back. Might not be easy…or possible.
‘A beneficiary’s Medicare Number stays the same even if Medicare entitlement, benefits, or Medicare Advantage or Part D enrollment changes. However, CMS will permit Medicare Number changes upon request. If a beneficiary suspects their MBI is compromised, the beneficiary can request to change their Medicare Number by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). TTY users can call 1-877-486-2048. CMS can initiate a change to a beneficiary’s Medicare Number in limited situations, such as court order or other legal actions.’
OK, thanks for looking into it!
Interesting. If this is a wide spread scam…they could be changing a LOT of numbers!
Thanks for the info.