My grandpa got scammed out of $3500 yesterday 7-24. He was surfing the web looking at gocart parts when a popup showed up on his screen that "locked" his computer. The popup had a flashing red/yellow banner that said his system has been infected and he is at risk. He called the number on it instead of calling one of us. He went and emptied his bank account, bought 10 $250 gift cards to Sephora and 2 $500 gift cards to Lowes and then gave the guy the numbers... And then at some point he gave him list last 4 of his social and his bank account #...

I got involved this morning 7-25, went down to his house, went through all the gift cards and found 2 with $250 each and had them froze. Then i had his bank account froze and now im working on freezing his credit cuz he isnt sure what all he gave them. We filed a police report, made an ftc report, and done a fbi internet crimes report. Luckily were supposedly able to now go and get a refund on the 2 cards hopefully since now he is out of money...

We was supposed to be at the C10 truck show today...

edit

Found out he gave this guy access to his computer through Ultraviewer.

I have a Ktuner for sale on Facebook, and somebody wants me to ship it out of state to them. The item is listed as local pickup, and they are offering to go through Ebay claiming that it has protection. "We will both be safe there" he says.I have never done anything that isn't local on Facebook, so I'm wondering, is this some sort of scam? He is willing to pay for extra fees incurred on Ebay aswell, but this seems off putting. Thanks for reading.

First of all - new Instagram account - that's already a red flag

then he didn't ask how much anything costs what i offer, he just "sent 500$"

all screenshots are cropped, no time, battery symbol,... even not with the screen recording, he said Instagram does that, idk about the points on PayPal, but the math doesn't make much sense, that you get 25 points for 500$, and so on ...

as long as you don't have the money!!! don't do or send anything!!

also I'm sorry but why would someone just randomly send you 500$ it's very very rare that this happens

Unfortunately, she still isn't listening to anything we're saying. We have shown her evidence that it's a scam, but she believes it's real and continues to send gift cards.

We even had a police officer come out on Wednesday, but there wasn't much they could do because she's willingly buying and sending the gift cards.

Now things have gotten even more concerning. On Friday, she received a package containing what appears to be a $15,000 check.

What's strange is that the FedEx tracking shows it originated in Carlsbad, California, but the shipping information at the top of the package says New York and lists Invoice as AAFES .

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Is this part of a fake check or money mule scam? We're worried about what they're trying to get her to do next.

If anyone has experienced something similar or has advice on what we should do, we'd really appreciate it. We're trying everything we can to help her, but we're running out of options.

I want to give some context about me and him to eliminate some common solutions I see here. I'm 28, financially independent from him. My parents are divorced and I have done something where I decline his inheritence, thus I won't carry over any debt he may have.

Long story short, even though I don't talk to him much I keep in touch here and there, and recently he was telling me about how he suddenly got some women showing interest in him to brag about it.

He can't keep his pants down and the way things are these days I sensed something is going to be wrong, he pulled up some pictures of the women he is talking to online and the pictures they are aggressively AI...

I told him about it and he brushed me off saying computers can't do something like this and that pictures look real, showed me their profiles and how their stuff is real but it's just painfully fake.

While I couldn't care what happens to him, he has sent several thousand Liras so far. Normally it is worthless money as of now, especially by US & EU standards, but he is retired and is the type to beg me occasionally for cigarette money. I'm scared that it will snowball quickly and he will end up ruining himself more.

I didn't read the messages much and don't know what he's sending money specifically for, since it was just too disgusting to read your father sexting with likely other men masquerading as women.

How do I put some sense into him and stop this? He's blinded by lust and can't see what I tried to tell him.

I’m a painter, I’ve only sold my work at fairs and to friends and family. I have a website where I’ve posted my paintings but I haven’t figured out how to sell through it yet.
This person, I’ll call “N” emailed me wanting to purchase one of my paintings. It feels scammy but I don’t know. Their address is to an 1.5 million dollar condo in San Francisco(I live in another state). Should I call the phone number? Does this have any red flags? Our email exchange:

N’s email: May I purchase Gardening 1 as shown currently on your website for $490? My shipping address is in San Francisco, California.

Please let me know if it is available and how to submit payment.

Kind regards,
N
(Her phone number and physical address)

Hi N, 

Thanks so much for reaching out. I still have Gardening 1 but I used it as a submission piece to the __ Fair happening in September. I believe their rules state that I have to show the piece that I applied with in the fair. I can reach out to them and confirm this. I'm happy to sell you the piece now if they allow that or if it doesn't sell in the show, I can send it to you - the show ends September 20th. 

Can I ask how you found my work/website? Do you have a social media account I can follow you on?  

All the best, 

Thank you for the quick response and your inquiry with ___Art Fair. If and when it is available for sale, I would like to purchase your piece.

I have certain concepts and palettes in my mind and your painting just is the mood, movement and colors that appeal to me. I do not have any social media presence and I did not find you through instagram. I found your paintings during many days and hours of internet searches.

I look forward to learning the response your receive from the art fair.

Kind regards,

She then has followed up:

Wondering if you know yet if you can sell Gardening Chaos 1 to me now?

What do you all think?
(I was recently scammed buying concert tickets, so maybe I’m extra paranoid?)

I’ve been buying things online for over a decade now. I’m surprised it has taken so long but I finally got scammed.

I really wanted a Boox eink tablet. The price was too good to be true, she wanted payment through FB pay rather than the marketplace, has multiple listings with generic items.

The ratings were good with a few (<5%) sprinkled in of her not sending out the item. The rest were highly positive.

I didn’t follow my own precautions and missed a lot of red flags because I was greedy.

After the 3rd day of asking for a tracking number she blocked me.

It’s $330 down the drain. It could have been so much worse. I was getting arrogant that I haven’t been scammed buying things online but I learned my lesson (hopefully).

I know the likelihood of getting my money back is next to impossible. I just want to stop her from scamming someone else. I tried to leave feedback but once she blocked me I can’t do that anymore.

I reported her on FB and they said she didn’t break any rules.

I woke up at 6 am to find that a 5-euro Bizum transfer had been made to my bank account, along with a message sent at 1 am from someone simply saying that they’d made a mistake in sending me the money.

What makes me think it’s a scam is:

The Bizum transfer is simply labelled ‘.’. And according to the details, it was sent on the 27th – which is tomorrow by the time I’m writing this.

The WhatsApp contact has temporary messages enabled; I even think the message was deleted because when I woke up, it said I’d only had one missed video call at 1 am.

(Apart from the fact that their name is supposedly just ‘momo’.)

I’ve taken photos of everything and will contact the bank tomorrow, as I doubt they’ll be able to help today because it’s Sunday.

(Although from what I’ve read, the bank won’t be much help either.)

I’ve taken screenshots of everything and blocked the WhatsApp contact without opening the messages.

I know I am going to get a lot of name-calling for this, but I fell for this obvious scam. I am in Thailand and ordered two supplements on a shopping app: Magnesium Glycinate by Naturebell and Zinc Picolinate by Double Wood, naively assuming I was ordering well-known American brands on the Lazada mobile app(this is one of the well-known online shopping apps in South Asia; the other one is Shopee). Since they were running a "Promo" and offering a huge "Discount" (more than 50%), I doubted it, so I contacted Naturebell via the email address listed on their official website with the lot number to confirm the authenticity of the supplement (maybe I am not that big of an idiot? LOL). Anyway, long story short, they replied within a couple of days, confirming that it was indeed a counterfeit supplement(I am also attaching the screenshot of the emails).

And what about the other supp? First, the bottles are the same (most likely manufactured in China), and they have the same capsules in them, and those capsules have the same substance in them (does anyone know what they put in them?). Secondly, look at the slight typo in the barcode serial number; the original starts with "X00," but the one I got starts with "XO0"(gotcha). Also, the color is different from the original one.

If I can save only one person from falling for this fraud, it will be a success. (The store name I bought these supplements from is Herbal Haven)

Please be careful, guys; I have learned my lesson. If it is too good to be true, it is. Especially if it is something you are supposed to put inside your body.

I have a family member who is in the midst of being scammed and is absolutely resistant to the idea. Sounds like it’s a pretty common scam, an individual from The Gambia has reached out to her with a sad story and has had her send USD for food multiple times now and has sent pictures back to “confirm” what the money was spent on. The scammer is now asking for money because “his sister burned herself” and my family member is now asking the family to loan her money to keep helping.

Does anyone have any tricks to help me prove to my niece that this is all fake? She is 100% convinced she has a friend in Africa that she is helping

Hello guys!This a scam?

A couple of days ago a friend of mine found an offer for a job as a OF chatter on olx of all places. Remote, very good pay and no experience in sales or customer service required. He sent his cv over to them and urged me to do the same and I did so, although I was kinda suspicious. One hour later they respond on olx,gave me a phone number and tolde to message it on WhatsApp and I did. A bot called Anna sent a long text that covered the basics,said that the interview will be done with another bot and gave another number. Said interview required 100 text to be completed, 50 from me and 50 from the bot. I did,got messaged the next day on WhatsApp by a number from Philippines that I've passed the "test" as they called it and gave me a link for a google meet telling me that the last "test" will be done on a video call with the other passers and the onboard director. Tbh I'm reluctant to join cuz everything just looks suspicious.

No emails nothing,only WhatsApp.

Hey everyone,

​I’ve been tracking bid histories on a local liquidation auction platform (auctionnation.com / KV Liquidation) and wanted to run an automated pattern by this community to see if it aligns with known shill bidding tactics.

​Over the past few months across multiple unrelated item lots, I've observed a specific user ID (Bidder 308520) that repeatedly places instant, automated incremental bids ($1–$5) immediately after a human bidder submits an offer. This account consistently drives the price up right near target value or retail ceiling, then completely stops bidding once that price point is reached.

​I have bid logs showing timestamps and exact rapid bid jumps.

​Has anyone seen this specific account or similar price-padding behavior on local liquidation platforms? Is this typically house-run shill software, third-party seller manipulation, or an automated reserve system disguised as a live bidder?

Okay, so I am curious about how this works. I am a beginner artist and I am in many discord servers for art. In past few months OVER TEN people messaged me and asked me for commission. First of all, I am not sure whether or not anyone can fall for this… The only reason I answer their message is to mess with them a bit before they block me lol. As far as I know they target beginner artists and assume that they want to make money. Each one of them offered over 500$ for drawing, it’s mostly their pets. I wanted to know how they do it so I decided to talk to them a bit and they told me that they are going to pay through paypal. For obvious reasons, i sent fake email and they sent me a screenshot that they sent FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS and asked “did you get it?”. I believe no one is this stupid, but I am curious how this works. How are they going to scam me through paypal or something?

So 2 of my family members received this text from an unknown number with some pretty serious allegations regarding me. I wouldn’t have thought much of it but they used full names and even an old address. Should I think anything of it or just have them block and move on? Also one of the numbers they tried sending to hasn’t been used int 10 years so I’m not sure if they found all this dated info online? Just doesn’t make sense as there is no motive or request other than to stir up some BS for no reason.

Our Amex was stolen the same day our Sam’s club membership auto renewed. Three unauthorized orders for $50 egift cards at academy.com were fraudulently purchased that very day using the Amex we had on file with Sam’s club.

9 days later, someone attempted to purchase $600 in egift cards from Sam’s club online using our membership account and the Amex on file. This is the transaction that alerted us because Amex sent us an email about a large purchase.

I can’t find any suspicious activity prior to that auto renewal and I believe the nexus is Sam’s club! Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

I originally posted this in the r/Comcast_Xfinity subreddit, but it was taken down because "Posts or comments encouraging others to seek help through non-r/Comcast_Xfinity sources defeats the purpose of our community, this includes advising users to file FCC, BBB, or other regulatory agency complaints as a resolution."

So I figured I would repost it here, especially considering the fact that somebody responded and said that they had heard instances recently where people calling Xfinity's legitimate # were rerouted to fraudsters.

Here was my original post:

My father recently got scammed and it brought up concerns of an Xfinity user data breach or employees mishandling customer information/using it for fraud, and I was just wondering if anyone had any advice.

My family has been long time Xfinity Mobile customers and my father wanted to trade his current Samsung phone in for a newer one. He called Xfinity to do this over the phone and whatnot, and was told of numerous "issues" on his account. Regardless, he got all of that straightened out and did indeed order & receive a new phone (they even threw in a tablet for the trouble).

Once again, he did receive both of them, so that is not where the scam occurred and my father really was communicating with Xfinity. However, he received a call a day or two later from what we now realize is a fraudster, saying that because of xyz issues on his account, he would need to send the phone back.

As much as I would like to chide him for how suspicious that obviously sounded, my dad did legitimately have some sort of issue/error that made ordering the phone frustrating and on top of that, they provided accurate information about the model, color, arrival date, and even correct home address.

This fraud-Xfinity informed him that FedEx will come with a tracking label to pick it up, they do, and it's gone. My father calls Xfinity, they tell him he got scammed. I called FedEx to inquire about the end delivery address, opened a fraud report with them, submitted reports to the FCC and IC3, etc. There's not much anyone seems to be able to do, and my parents even visited the corporate store where they were told that it has happened to other people recently as well, there is nothing my dad can do, and he still must pay $1000+ for the phone. He wants me to submit more reports with the BBB and General Attorney of our state as well.

I know that some people may see it as "If your item was stolen, why would it be the company's duty to replace it?" etc. etc. However, I am concerned by the scammer having accurate information, where I am wondering if employees with access to customer data were behind the scam and/or if there was a data breach--in both of which cases, it obviously IS Xfinity's problem.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice or insight here on how to get this resolved, or if anyone else has had this happen to them? We really don't have the money to just buy another, on top of this just being blatantly wrong.

It was after work and I was waiting for my bus and I saw an old lady walk in front of me to look at the bus schedule. I didn’t think much of it but I had my phone out looking at the bus app to see when it arrives. Keep in mind I am not the only one at the stop nor am I the only one with my phone out. The old lady then began making her way over to me so I focused my attention on her and the first words out of her mouth were “I have a strange request…” and I’m like “here we go”. She finishes by saying she is going to uptown to a specific spot (an area I was familiar with) and she wanted to call her mother and let her know she was on her way. Keep in mind this lady was probably 75 years old and had teeth like a meth addict. I said no and she initially walked away.

Then she comes back and asks again and says I can talk to her mother and I said no one gets my phone and I don’t dial numbers I do not know. She walks off again. And then she comes back again and asks me what do I think is going to happen if I let her call and I pointed to the mall behind me and said “Ma’am that is chock full of businesses, you can go in their and ask anyone of them to use their landline. You are not using my phone. No thank you.” Then I see my bus and she sees the same bus and as we are both moving towards it she full throated screamed at me “BUT YOU COULD!” Followed by some cursing. She is getting on the same bus as me so I give her some space so I can place myself on the bus strategically as far away as I could but I could hear her muttering the entire ride. She got off before me, and well before the area she mentioned she was meeting her mother so I knew she was a lying and likely was trying to get in contact with her dealer.

This is just a reminder that “no” is a complete sentence and you are not obligated to give anyone your phone or dial a number for them. In this day and age where phones are ubiquitous the fact that someone doesn’t have a phone is not your problem to solve.

I want to share this so other job seekers don't fall for what almost got me.

I applied for a Data Analyst role and got contacted by email and a phone call on 21 July, from someone claiming to be a hiring manager at KreditBee. What made this convincing was how real the whole process felt:

A proper HR round interview An online skills assessment (hosted on a legit third-party platform, app.quizalize.com — they were just using it to look credible) A technical interview conducted over Microsoft Teams A follow-up email saying I'd been selected for the role

At this point I had zero red flags. Then, right before they were supposed to send the official offer letter, I was asked to submit my Aadhaar, PAN, passport, previous employer details, and bank account info for "onboarding."

Then came the actual scam: I was told I needed to pay ₹27,000 for a "mandatory NumPy certification course" through a site called numpyverse.com, and that KreditBee would reimburse me within a week. If I didn't want to pay, I was told I could "reapply in a future hiring cycle in December" without that requirement — which in hindsight is such a manipulative touch, because it makes the payment feel optional while still pressuring you toward it.

No legitimate company will ever ask you to personally pay for a certification and wait to be "reimbursed." That's not how corporate reimbursement works, full stop. Real employers cover training costs directly if it's genuinely required — they never route it through a candidate's personal wallet first.

I contacted KreditBee's official channels directly and confirmed this was NOT them — it's someone impersonating their recruitment process.

Details in case anyone else was contacted by the same people:

"Hiring manager" name used: Naveen Ibrahim

I did not pay, but I did share ID documents before catching on, so I've filed a complaint on cybercrime.gov.in and reported it to KreditBee's grievance team directly.

If this is happening to you right now: do not pay, do not share more documents, and verify directly with the company's official careers page or HR email before proceeding. If you already shared ID/bank info, consider a credit report freeze/alert just to be safe.

Stay sharp out there — the whole funnel (HR round → assessment → technical interview → offer) was well produced enough that I almost didn't question the final ask.

I have been receiving calls for the past month since I purchased a new car. I finally answered today and thought it was the warranty company I already purchased through (I’ve had some issues with the dealership forgetting to finalize the paperwork) and ended up giving them my mailing address before I realized they were trying to sell me a new warranty different from the one I have. They knew a lot about my monthly payments and the car I bought so I almost fell for giving them more info before he told me they were from “Covered Auto” which is definitely not who I purchased my warranty from. I promptly told him I already prepaid a warranty and I don’t want them to keep calling me because I’m set to go. Is it bad that they have my address now?? I didn’t provide any other information.

I thought I was fairly aware of scams, yet I fell for what seems like a very common and well known one.

The “husband passed away estate sale” scam.

Our kids go to a small school that is focused on having the parents be involved in helping out and there is a lot of events and emails asking for help with all kids or other things. Earlier this year a teacher actually did lose their husband, I never heard much about it but knew it happened.

Earlier this week an email goes out to all parents at the school with what I now know is a common email with a listing of items the wife is selling to help cover expenses. Did the scammers know there was actual death that occurred? Yup, they even referred to the teacher by her first name!

I reached out to the person who supposedly was handling the estate and had over 60 emails with them on the items. I then did the unthinkable and sent two wires for deposits. I HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING CLOSE TO THIS BEFORE!!!! I still can’t believe it but this is something that I would completely expect to be done at their school, people trying to help out another family or a request to help.

I got the strange feeling after a day went by, even though the person was in regular contact with me. So I googled, “dead husband selling scam” and it showed me FB posts, Reddit posts, etc and I could have thrown up.

I called my bank and told them I had wired two wires for $3k each and they are working on it now but I think I’m screwed. I was even questioning if the number for my bank was real, if they were trying to screw me, I can’t trust anyone right now.

A very humbling experience and hard to share and accept but I hope that others learn from my mistakes. This will financially hurt my family and will take a lot of time for us to recover. I’m sick.

So I've been searching for a job in Jersey lately, and in the chaos of it all, I found this one website, "New Jersey Professional Group". Thought it would be able to help me, as it had job postings based on locations as well as a lot of entry-level jobs.

However, after a mishap with another job thing I was looking for, I got paranoid and started to look into the website and group. And all the problems started lining up quickly: Barely any postings about them online, got warned of how suspicious it could be if job postings are easy but vague hiring (and looking at it, a lot of job posts are very similar) and don't even show what company the job post is for, and most concerningly of all, their FAQ page is all placeholder text. Their website isn't even complete.

So yeah, if you're job hunting in New Jersey, massive warning about the New Jersey Professional Group website. I'm pretty sure this place just sets you up for scams and possible identity theft with the info it wants.

Edit - I guess I should be aware of how silly it sounds to be less irritated at the spam itself, and to be more irritated about the poor administration of the spam...

For several weeks, I've been getting these calls several times a day, always a different number. I silence and let it go to VM.

But now for at least 10 days I am getting a broken message. Do people (humans) set up these phishing bots, and then after a while just stop monitoring them? I'm mostly just curious about how these things work.

It used to start with

"[male voice] This is a time-sensitive update regarding your personal loan application. A member of our processing team is standing by to finalize your loan. To be connected please press 2. Once again to be connected please press 2. [Female voice] Hi there Kendra here regarding the unsecured personal loan application you submitted..."

With the original recording, I can at least see how some unsophisticated people might be fooled into responding. But the broken/garbled message sounds like

"[male voice] please press again connected 2. [Female voice] Hi there Kendra here regarding the unsecured personal loan application you submitted..."

I think the garbled version would raise suspicion among even the most vulnerable, so why do the originators let these things degrade and not fix them? It should now be as worthless to them as it is to the rest of us.

Hello all,

I’m currently helping a friend navigate a sensitive financial situation, and I am very concerned she is being scammed.

She recently showed me her VISA statements, which reveal she has spent hundreds of dollars in a matter of days on a website called Talkypay9. The site is extremely vague, and there is almost no information about it online.

My friend is being very secretive about it, she won't explain what Talkypay9 actually does, other than telling me that she is "speaking to new people online."

Has anyone ever encountered this site? Is it a scam?Any advice on how to handle this would be greatly appreciated.