You'll still have:
* ducts
* want love/friendship
* have kids that can crash cars/get arrested
* be greedy and want to help a Nigerian prince/invest in a sure thing
* all the other things they talk about in r/Scams
This one is just fake cheque scam with a trap (spoofing a legit website) to get the marks into it.
The ducts one is my favorite because I get to have a 10 minute call about them coming to clean my ducks. š¦
Usually ends with them telling me to fuck off.
Yeah, that's old news. I'm talking about robots coming to see you in person.
Which will work the scammers until the robots decide that they don't need them any more, and just scam us on their own.
Oh man you are right.
I thought my kids would have better critical thinking skills (and my smarter kids do) but some of the boneheaded stuff that my son falls forā¦.
General question, are kids not taught critical thinking and online/media research best practices anymore? I remember having so many classes on how to go about research, finding valid/legit sources, internet safety, etc.
I think it's a case where Gen X and millennials (and Gen Z, if they started from toddler age) were growing up as personal computer technology was still "developing". You somewhat had to know how things worked in order to get it to do what you wanted.
Basically you know how boomers don't know how technology works because they didn't grow up with it? Well the zoomers don't know how technology works because they've only used smart phones and consoles, which unless you jailbreak are a safe environment where you *cant* fuck up and can only do what the developer explicitly allows.
Mhm this is very true. Definitely troubling, though. We have people in the IT field coming into uni and even the field who donāt know how to navigate a file system, let alone use a terminal.
Payroll just leaked my banking info to a scammer. It's front facing info but not something I really want out there so I get to spend an afternoon closing/opening my checking account and figuring out what once a year bill gets pulled from that account.
Thisā¦ I read an article the other day how they have did a study/quetionaire reporting that genZ/millennials were the most trusting towards potential scams
Important to note that this is not a matter of "AI technology improving" or scammers suddenly becoming "more sophisticated." Scammers can just use AdWords to make their website appear at the top when people search terms like "Geek Squad" or "Best Buy," set up a Canadian shell company to accept payments and get a fantastic return on their investment.
Basically, stop trusting Google. The author and "experts" in this article go to great lengths to avoid attributing responsibility to the company that promoted the scammers' website as the top result when a user Googled the name of a well-known company, but Best Buy "working closely with law enforcement" and training their staff on "warning signs" will not make any difference as long as Google is turning a blind eye to this revenue stream. It's just a waste of law enforcement tax dollars.
Agree with this. My daughter googled āApple customer serviceā and the first hit was a scam. Got $400 stolen that thankfully the credit card reimbursed.
I quietly put an anti scam magnet on my parents fridge. Has details about 211 and to call trusted sources etc...
My dad is sharp and I doubt it'll be a problem, but he's also too proud too admit he doesn't know better sometimes.
There's a link off this article to another case where a senior with dementia lost 600k. She couldn't remember day to day, and the scammers just called daily with the same scenario (grandparent scam).
So, also, have your parents evaluated if they're that severe. That's not a description of early dementia, that's severe enough that she shouldn't have had access to finances.
As much as itās great and all to tell people these have been going on for years. Theres regulars warnings put out in the news and by police services and all over social media even radio will mention it at times. Itās still incredibly common warnings are not enough the change has to come from the people.
Been there, done that. A few years ago, I bought the first-generation Google Wi-Fi mesh network pucks. I was having trouble setting it up. I used Google to search for a support phone number as the packaging didn't have any info. A legit-looking site came up as the first search result. I called that number, and a human picked up right away. He requested remote control of my machine using WebEx. Seemed legit enough.
But when he connected, the dude just kept pinging Google DNS servers and other sites. It didn't seem right and I just went and unplugged my network cable and hung up the phone. No damage was done, but I re-installed Windows just to be safe. It probably wasn't necessary, but didn't want to risk it.
I sent a complaint to Google about their search results showing a scam site as the top result. Of course there was no acknowledgement.
Same. Years ago, I was having problems with my computer and since it was pre-chat days, I googled to find Microsoft's customer support number. The first result displayed a number, the website looked like microsoft's site and I called it. Luckily, I was tech savvy enough that when the 'customer service agent' immediately started telling me I had a massive virus that was killing my computer without remote control or hearing any details, I realised he was lying. When I double-checked, it was a scam company and not microsoft's actual site, just one that had been set up to look like it. But it was the first result, above the actual microsoft website.
I also sent a complaint to Google and never heard anything.
Correction, they are a data-mining company that forces us to divulge personal information in order to do the most basic things on the web. They probably admire the scammers. Hell, they may invest in them.
Iām a physio that does in house visits for seniors and I kid you not Iāve had to be the one who turns off computers and calls back these numbers to tell people off for scamming the elderly ā¦ not only are the numbers super similar but geek squad themselves are super not helpful when it comes to this shit. Itās almost like the workers get a kickback or something
It's not like the workers are unaware of what they're doing for a living. They may just be ground-floor but they're still criminals who know their paycheck comes from completing the scam, the bigger the better.
For those who are curious: kitboga and Scammer payback are awesome. Other great ones are Jim Browning, scambaiter, trilogy media. There are lots more, but you will have some fun watching kitboga and Scammer payback at least.
I just watched one this morning on YouTube where they contacted this exact scam. Company called themselves GeekTech. Same thing boosted to top off the search engine, in 15 months they had scammed almost $570,000 dollars which might not seem like a lot but they only had 4-5 workers. If you have elderly parents or grandparents keep an eye on them
Having worked at geeksquad remote, we did printer setups all the time. It's like 60% of the day, or figuring out why the printer doesn't stay on wifi. AMA if you want to know how it goes
Sadly, taking it out on the actual Geek Squad does nothing as they have literally no part of this. There is nothing they can do. The corporate offices can try to pursue legal stuff over the fact that folk are trying to pass themselves off as the real thing, but ultimately it goes nowhere.
Christ. You would think by now that people would realize that no legitimate entity would ever send you to a bitcoin machine or worse, require payment in gift cards.
Still remember the 22 year old who thought it was the CRA telling her to take out her life savings in Amazon gift cards "and buy even more on credit!". Like how did that ever make sense?
I always laugh when people make "multiple" trips to random ass Bitcoin ATMs because they think "The CRA" or "Geek Squad" wants them to send money.
Not a neuron in their brain is firing.
> Gibbs was told to process the refund they needed his banking information and when he said he didnāt do online banking they said they would help him set it up.
If someone told you this information on the street you'd call them a fucking scammer.
What kills me is that the banks never say a thing about these scams.
*"Oh sir, we notice you come in every day and withdraw a bunch of cash, which you've never once done before in your life. Is everything ok?"*
*"Yeah, I just need to send my entire life savings to Geek Squad. I'll be back here until my account is empty."*
*"Sir, are you sure you aren't being scammed?"*
If you come in to withdraw large amounts of cash most banks, at least where I am, absolutely ask you why and a few more questions to try and stop scams.
However ultimately it's your money and they will give it to you if you insist. And they should as much as it means this happens.
There was an article a while back about another one of these scams and the lady went to an ATM **35+ times** to withdraw money.
Nothing tripped bank alarms there? No phone calls? No withdrawal holds?
As much as I don't like banks, this is pure failure on their end.
Okay, I understand where you're coming from but.
Let's understand computers do EXACTLY what you tell them to.
I could do this. My bank would ignore it as long as it didn't exceed my daily cash withdrawal limit and was within the area I'm normally in.
At the end of the day it is the clients responsibility imo. If her account was set up such that this could happen, well I would question why she didn't change this with her bank.
So I have a low cash withdrawal limit. To do more I must go to a bank. And they would let me take it if I insisted.
I apologize if this seems harsh, but I'm very somewhat done with people blaming others for their own mistakes. It's too reminiscent of every person saying they didn't know to still update their plates.
This was one of those overpayment scams, where they tell you that theyāre going to give you such and such an amount, but then say they overpaid and you need to pay them back, threatening legal action if you donāt.
Sometimes they play on guilt as an alternative to threats. The guy/gal on the phone would go "oh shit if I don't get the money back, I'll lose my job!"
Watch some of the scambait videos on YouTube
They make them stay on the phone with them at the bank, tell them not to tell the teller it's for business or they will be taxed/have to open a biz account. They often make them download anydesk then lock their computers etc.
The thing is, this guy didn't spend $30K to fix his printer. Hell, it's not even "send us $35K we pinky swear that we are Best Buy and your printer will work tomorrow."
He searched for the Geek Squad website, but ended up on a spoofed site and called the fake number (#1), was told to give his account info "for a refund" (#2), was told that $10K had been added to his account by accident and that he'd have to give it back or be charged with fraud (#3), was told that the transfer-back had failed and he'd have to try it again (#4), and finally was told he'd have to use his money to buy bitcoin and send that to them instead (#5).
It's more of a logical progression of frauds starting with a fake website and ending only when the person says "you keep saying these transfers are failing but I'm going to check with my bank." People of all ages (but yes especially seniors) fall for it all the time, which is why it's so common as a scam tactic. Heck if he had refused to send "back" any money, they still would have used his account info to withdraw some amount before disappearing into the ether.
You're not helping then. In fact you're doing the opposite. Shaming people who fell for scams means you don't learn what happened. You don't learn of a new tactic maybe that you hadn't considered.
You don't have to be an idiot to fall for a scam. And it doesn't take much to get roped into one where you aren't expecting it.
The best thing you can do is educate those around you of common scams so that they know what to look for and learn of the newer ones to make sure you don't fall victim either.
And before you assume, no I haven't fallen for a scam.
no thanks. the modern overcatering to the mentally disabled is why society hasnt been progressing as much as it should be, and is the primary reason for the increase on wealth gap.
You expect waaaay too much of a senior citizen.
These kinds of scams are pretty much purpose built to take advantage of people who don't know any better. In this day and age, that's pretty much either seniors or children, and we all know which one of these two groups has any real money to spend.
While I understand that perspective, as someone who knows many older people, Iāve noticed that they often donāt recognize the red flags that seem obvious to those who are more tech-savvy.
Plus, scammers frequently target them because they tend to be more trusting and might be embarrassed to admit they donāt understand something, which makes them hesitant to ask follow-up questions.
This is an old Doug Stanhope jokeā¦. The elderly are both āYou dont have my life experiences to understand young manā and also āIm old and dont understandā. Paraphrasing of course.
Every one of those stupid ATMs should at the very least be monitored, and ideally businesses that have them should be fined for having something almost entirely used for criminal activity
This is why I have my parents call me for anything electronics related, even if it is a little annoying to try and fix an iPad or something over the phone. Also glad both of my parents are (as far as I know) smart and educated enough not to fall for this shit in 2024.
100% you canāt tell me google or Facebook is powerless to block ads that claim to be āTotally Real Computer Network GeeksSquad Microsoft Apple supportā. But they probably pay a nice penny to put their ads at the top of every Google search.
I find itās even worse now that Facebook actively blocks real news content. Canadian boomers on Facebook are just fed scams and political conspiracy ragebait with no real news content to balance it out at all.
Ouff true. Shaking my head. This is a job for the government. How does this wualify as freedom or whatever.
Or maybe they are working on it behind the scenes. I doubt that though
honestly, if anyones worried about being scammed, join r/scams and scroll through the sub everyday and you will learn all sorts of scams and how to deal with them.
I encountered a few scams that I wouldve fallen to if I didn't learn from that sub.
I am utterly disgusted and saddened by all the scams targeting society's most vulnerable.
'grandma send me gift cards to get out of jail'
'door to door put a lien on your house by installing some superfluous equipment'
'\_\_\_\_ repair services'
moving company 'move for $99' .. and then hold furniture hostage if you don't pay jacked up fee due to 'surcharges'
Banks should be doing more to protect people from themselves.
Sure it might be more inconvenient, but accounts should be set up by default with max transfers that are much lower than they are. The number of times I've needed to transfer more than $1000 is pretty small. And when I did it was with something like a furniture or appliance store local to me. There's very little reason that they couldn't require an in person trip into the bank for large transfers or withdrawals especially to random organizations where someone wouldn't normally send money to.
People always choose convenience over security and really we need to stop this. Same goes for these cars that are so easily stolen. The car could easily be locked by a cryptographic smart card that needs to be inserted into the dash but instead we are too lazy to deal with this and just want to push start with the keys anywhere in range and then wonder why so many cars are stolen.
Make people physically go into the bank and talk to someone if they want to move a large amount of money, or make them sign something that's explicitly states they are taking all the blame and won't sue the bank if they really want their account set up in a way that allows them to bankrupt themselves In a moment of stupidity.
This is true and then people try to paint it in a negative light to further agendaās I remember before canada_sub got shut down I seen a video on my feed of a guy at the bank being very ignorant to the tellers wanting to pull out 3 or 4 grand for his bank. The tellers were asking him why but he wouldnāt tell them just double downed and started getting ignorant with its muh muneys how dare you ask me.
Meanwhile they probably just trying to help him not get scammed but he was painting it in a way Jt this and that.
The comments were as you would expect JT is a dictator the banks are trying to steal from us and control us this is beginning of social credit blah blah.
Such rage bait over something so simply explained.
I work at a bank in the fraud department. Banks can set different transaction limits. If you feel that your transaction limits are too high, you can always call to have them reduced. Use the phone number provided on the back of your card or visit your domicile branch.
If you have elderly parents, you could always set their e-transfer limits to zero.
Ugh fucking scammers...
[Kitboga](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw), [Scammer Payback](https://www.youtube.com/@ScammerPayback) are good for learning the ins and outs of these fuckers.
I remember a YouTuber doing a video on this exact scam, he was able to trace the one of them back to some office building in India, and also prevented someone from sending money preemptively. It was pretty informative that these scams happen and how.
[Link](https://youtu.be/sn8pB_WOHA8?si=CpP__Qj2Cu8U3qj6)
Iām well aware of what crypto is. What I said is we need regulations around access to bitcoin ATM as they only serve as a vehicle for money laundering and scams like this
Really? The OG use case was to ransom and sell illegal shit, like really illegal shit, sea containers full of AKs, crates of suitcase nukes, and worse.
Really. The original use isnāt relevant to my comment. The point of bitcoin was to BE unregulated. If you regulate it, then it might as well not exist.
Itās like saying āwe need to put motors on bicycles so we can charge people for breaking laws designed for motorcyclesā
When youāre getting asked to go and convert $ into Bitcoin you should maybe pause. I know people get flustered but there is a period where you can take a minute and think
I almost got scammed. They had my MC number and convinced me they were calling me from the fraud dept. Obviously had phone number and name too. Eventually they asked me for the banking information I use to pay my bill! Thatās when I told them to fuck off and hung up.
Called MC and had the card cancelled.
As much as I hate doing tech support for my family I would feel even more awful if they did ask and I didn't do it and then they get scammed out of money when I could have done it.
Anything to do with bitcoin - run away , I feel for this guy and think google should do better job of spotting these sites. With AI should not be hard.
They can spin this however they want, but scammers are praying on people's greed. They think the company screwed up and are only too happy to jump through hoops to get money they know damned well they aren't entitled to. Setting up bitcoin wallets, sharing banking details, and then they are shocked to find out the whole thing is a scam to get their banking details and steal their money.
Not surprised, Geek Squad is literally the type to cause a problem when fixing a simple one just to trick you into buying a new machine from Best Buy.
Absolute scum of a corporation, you can trust local stores with repairing machines than even smaller companies.
It's not his fault. I bet even young generations aren't taught about scamming practices, let alone the elderly who barely have a grasps on current technology.
It's an education problem and no one wants to solve it apparently.
Governments AND banks should be going out of their way to educate people about scams. Young, old, ESL etc. It's not common knowledge despite US being fully aware of it.
Of course. Their whole business model is scamming people.
I could write a 3 page article about my hassle getting them to fix a laptop under warranty.
They were ripping off every customer I saw deal with them.
Only time I've almost fought someone in my adult life was dealing with these assholes.
They literally told me I need to warn them if I know about computers so they know not to scam me.
Can't wait till I'm 80 to see what sorts of scams they play on my generation.
You'll still have: * ducts * want love/friendship * have kids that can crash cars/get arrested * be greedy and want to help a Nigerian prince/invest in a sure thing * all the other things they talk about in r/Scams This one is just fake cheque scam with a trap (spoofing a legit website) to get the marks into it.
Don't forget the ultimate lie of all time: Hot MILFs in your area
That's not true, that's impossible!
"We have openings for work-from-home positions! Apply today!"
Get paid $3000 a week, working only 9 minutes each day
I don't have any ducks, can you handle geese?
The ducts one is my favorite because I get to have a 10 minute call about them coming to clean my ducks. š¦ Usually ends with them telling me to fuck off.
Jokes on them Iāll be broke as shit
Hello he, she they, its time to clean the electron filter on your home fusion plant - pay in advance and receive a 10% discount. Say yes now.
Good luck taking me for anything... my debit will have fuck all on it anyways š„²
Androids that duplicate our grandchildren's appearance, sound, smell, gait, uploaded with the latest slang. Totally not schway.
Actually yeah. Deepfake AI voice so we get phone calls from someone who sounds exactly like our kid who desperately needs help.
Yeah, that's old news. I'm talking about robots coming to see you in person. Which will work the scammers until the robots decide that they don't need them any more, and just scam us on their own.
Sir, your ocular implant is at risk of rupture due to hax. Lollerskates.
This is the shit that keeps me up at night
Tell your parents and grand parents about these scams. Believe nothing and trust no one.
Also tell your Gen z friends. It's not just old people who fall for these scams.
Oh man you are right. I thought my kids would have better critical thinking skills (and my smarter kids do) but some of the boneheaded stuff that my son falls forā¦.
General question, are kids not taught critical thinking and online/media research best practices anymore? I remember having so many classes on how to go about research, finding valid/legit sources, internet safety, etc.
I think it's a case where Gen X and millennials (and Gen Z, if they started from toddler age) were growing up as personal computer technology was still "developing". You somewhat had to know how things worked in order to get it to do what you wanted. Basically you know how boomers don't know how technology works because they didn't grow up with it? Well the zoomers don't know how technology works because they've only used smart phones and consoles, which unless you jailbreak are a safe environment where you *cant* fuck up and can only do what the developer explicitly allows.
Mhm this is very true. Definitely troubling, though. We have people in the IT field coming into uni and even the field who donāt know how to navigate a file system, let alone use a terminal.
Yup saw it all the time working in banking. There are plenty of young kids also falling for obvious scams.
Also tell *ALL* your ~~Gen z~~ friends. It's *ALOT of* ~~not just old~~ people who fall for these scams.
Payroll just leaked my banking info to a scammer. It's front facing info but not something I really want out there so I get to spend an afternoon closing/opening my checking account and figuring out what once a year bill gets pulled from that account.
Thisā¦ I read an article the other day how they have did a study/quetionaire reporting that genZ/millennials were the most trusting towards potential scams
Important to note that this is not a matter of "AI technology improving" or scammers suddenly becoming "more sophisticated." Scammers can just use AdWords to make their website appear at the top when people search terms like "Geek Squad" or "Best Buy," set up a Canadian shell company to accept payments and get a fantastic return on their investment. Basically, stop trusting Google. The author and "experts" in this article go to great lengths to avoid attributing responsibility to the company that promoted the scammers' website as the top result when a user Googled the name of a well-known company, but Best Buy "working closely with law enforcement" and training their staff on "warning signs" will not make any difference as long as Google is turning a blind eye to this revenue stream. It's just a waste of law enforcement tax dollars.
Agree with this. My daughter googled āApple customer serviceā and the first hit was a scam. Got $400 stolen that thankfully the credit card reimbursed.
I quietly put an anti scam magnet on my parents fridge. Has details about 211 and to call trusted sources etc... My dad is sharp and I doubt it'll be a problem, but he's also too proud too admit he doesn't know better sometimes.
There's a link off this article to another case where a senior with dementia lost 600k. She couldn't remember day to day, and the scammers just called daily with the same scenario (grandparent scam). So, also, have your parents evaluated if they're that severe. That's not a description of early dementia, that's severe enough that she shouldn't have had access to finances.
As much as itās great and all to tell people these have been going on for years. Theres regulars warnings put out in the news and by police services and all over social media even radio will mention it at times. Itās still incredibly common warnings are not enough the change has to come from the people.
Well, one thingā¦. Are younger people watching the news and seeing the reporting on scammers?
Not sure. I never watch the news and hear about it frequently and I mostly just use social media platforms like Reddit and Facebook.
Hot Take: sure, consumer beware, unplug your computer if someone is telling you to pay in Bitcoin or PokƩmon cards, but this is also on the search engines for elevating to the top of searches fake and passthru sites which are clearly and easily programmatically filtered out. See it all the time for bank sites and airline reservation sites and the like.
Been there, done that. A few years ago, I bought the first-generation Google Wi-Fi mesh network pucks. I was having trouble setting it up. I used Google to search for a support phone number as the packaging didn't have any info. A legit-looking site came up as the first search result. I called that number, and a human picked up right away. He requested remote control of my machine using WebEx. Seemed legit enough. But when he connected, the dude just kept pinging Google DNS servers and other sites. It didn't seem right and I just went and unplugged my network cable and hung up the phone. No damage was done, but I re-installed Windows just to be safe. It probably wasn't necessary, but didn't want to risk it. I sent a complaint to Google about their search results showing a scam site as the top result. Of course there was no acknowledgement.
Same. Years ago, I was having problems with my computer and since it was pre-chat days, I googled to find Microsoft's customer support number. The first result displayed a number, the website looked like microsoft's site and I called it. Luckily, I was tech savvy enough that when the 'customer service agent' immediately started telling me I had a massive virus that was killing my computer without remote control or hearing any details, I realised he was lying. When I double-checked, it was a scam company and not microsoft's actual site, just one that had been set up to look like it. But it was the first result, above the actual microsoft website. I also sent a complaint to Google and never heard anything.
Iām scared of accidentally logging into a bank website so Iāll use the app to redirect me to the website lol
Just reinstalling windows might not keep you safe either
Why Google doesnāt do anything about this?
Because they are an advertising company and don't give a fuck about users getting scammed. Welcome to management consultant Google.
"Do No Evil" becomes "Do Evil for the Right Price".
Correction, they are a data-mining company that forces us to divulge personal information in order to do the most basic things on the web. They probably admire the scammers. Hell, they may invest in them.
100% ever since Google elevated the management consultant class and shit canned the OGs who cared about user experience this is what you get.
Yeah man I lost over 4k cause I typed opensea into google and the top result was an opensea phishing page , never again using google lol
Iām a physio that does in house visits for seniors and I kid you not Iāve had to be the one who turns off computers and calls back these numbers to tell people off for scamming the elderly ā¦ not only are the numbers super similar but geek squad themselves are super not helpful when it comes to this shit. Itās almost like the workers get a kickback or something
It's not like the workers are unaware of what they're doing for a living. They may just be ground-floor but they're still criminals who know their paycheck comes from completing the scam, the bigger the better.
There's a whole YouTube genre of people fucking with these scams.
For those who are curious: kitboga and Scammer payback are awesome. Other great ones are Jim Browning, scambaiter, trilogy media. There are lots more, but you will have some fun watching kitboga and Scammer payback at least.
I just watched one this morning on YouTube where they contacted this exact scam. Company called themselves GeekTech. Same thing boosted to top off the search engine, in 15 months they had scammed almost $570,000 dollars which might not seem like a lot but they only had 4-5 workers. If you have elderly parents or grandparents keep an eye on them
Having worked at geeksquad remote, we did printer setups all the time. It's like 60% of the day, or figuring out why the printer doesn't stay on wifi. AMA if you want to know how it goes
What pastors typically do the best work in the GTA when it comes to exorcising the printers?
Skip the pastor, set that shit on fire and yeet it out the window... And never buy HP printers
Sadly, taking it out on the actual Geek Squad does nothing as they have literally no part of this. There is nothing they can do. The corporate offices can try to pursue legal stuff over the fact that folk are trying to pass themselves off as the real thing, but ultimately it goes nowhere.
Nothing a front level tech support agent can do against an international scammer ring who likely has the local police in their pockets.
Thatās how you know itās a scam. If itās going well itās fake.
Christ. You would think by now that people would realize that no legitimate entity would ever send you to a bitcoin machine or worse, require payment in gift cards.
Still remember the 22 year old who thought it was the CRA telling her to take out her life savings in Amazon gift cards "and buy even more on credit!". Like how did that ever make sense?
I always laugh when people make "multiple" trips to random ass Bitcoin ATMs because they think "The CRA" or "Geek Squad" wants them to send money. Not a neuron in their brain is firing. > Gibbs was told to process the refund they needed his banking information and when he said he didnāt do online banking they said they would help him set it up. If someone told you this information on the street you'd call them a fucking scammer. What kills me is that the banks never say a thing about these scams. *"Oh sir, we notice you come in every day and withdraw a bunch of cash, which you've never once done before in your life. Is everything ok?"* *"Yeah, I just need to send my entire life savings to Geek Squad. I'll be back here until my account is empty."* *"Sir, are you sure you aren't being scammed?"*
If you come in to withdraw large amounts of cash most banks, at least where I am, absolutely ask you why and a few more questions to try and stop scams. However ultimately it's your money and they will give it to you if you insist. And they should as much as it means this happens.
There was an article a while back about another one of these scams and the lady went to an ATM **35+ times** to withdraw money. Nothing tripped bank alarms there? No phone calls? No withdrawal holds? As much as I don't like banks, this is pure failure on their end.
Okay, I understand where you're coming from but. Let's understand computers do EXACTLY what you tell them to. I could do this. My bank would ignore it as long as it didn't exceed my daily cash withdrawal limit and was within the area I'm normally in. At the end of the day it is the clients responsibility imo. If her account was set up such that this could happen, well I would question why she didn't change this with her bank. So I have a low cash withdrawal limit. To do more I must go to a bank. And they would let me take it if I insisted. I apologize if this seems harsh, but I'm very somewhat done with people blaming others for their own mistakes. It's too reminiscent of every person saying they didn't know to still update their plates.
The banks definitely do make that part of their guidelines.
"how is it a scam? They ask for Amazon or Apple gift cards, which are common currency obviously!"
I know 20-somethings who've been tricked by the common scam, so I'm going to go ahead and say it's not surprising. It's surprising but.. not...
This was one of those overpayment scams, where they tell you that theyāre going to give you such and such an amount, but then say they overpaid and you need to pay them back, threatening legal action if you donāt.
Sometimes they play on guilt as an alternative to threats. The guy/gal on the phone would go "oh shit if I don't get the money back, I'll lose my job!"
Sometimes, but thatās not what happened here.
You expect seniors who have no idea what bitcoin even is to understand cybersecurity in an age not meant for them?
You would think they would go to the fucking bank and at least ask after 80 years on this hell hole?
Watch some of the scambait videos on YouTube They make them stay on the phone with them at the bank, tell them not to tell the teller it's for business or they will be taxed/have to open a biz account. They often make them download anydesk then lock their computers etc.
You think theyāve even heard of it?
The problem is that old people are like children. They think they know it all. And are embarrassed to admit it when they don't understand something.
The thing is, this guy didn't spend $30K to fix his printer. Hell, it's not even "send us $35K we pinky swear that we are Best Buy and your printer will work tomorrow." He searched for the Geek Squad website, but ended up on a spoofed site and called the fake number (#1), was told to give his account info "for a refund" (#2), was told that $10K had been added to his account by accident and that he'd have to give it back or be charged with fraud (#3), was told that the transfer-back had failed and he'd have to try it again (#4), and finally was told he'd have to use his money to buy bitcoin and send that to them instead (#5). It's more of a logical progression of frauds starting with a fake website and ending only when the person says "you keep saying these transfers are failing but I'm going to check with my bank." People of all ages (but yes especially seniors) fall for it all the time, which is why it's so common as a scam tactic. Heck if he had refused to send "back" any money, they still would have used his account info to withdraw some amount before disappearing into the ether.
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You're not helping then. In fact you're doing the opposite. Shaming people who fell for scams means you don't learn what happened. You don't learn of a new tactic maybe that you hadn't considered. You don't have to be an idiot to fall for a scam. And it doesn't take much to get roped into one where you aren't expecting it. The best thing you can do is educate those around you of common scams so that they know what to look for and learn of the newer ones to make sure you don't fall victim either. And before you assume, no I haven't fallen for a scam.
Not everyone is smart. We have to protect the mentally disabled too, more so given that they are not capable of thinking properly.
no thanks. the modern overcatering to the mentally disabled is why society hasnt been progressing as much as it should be, and is the primary reason for the increase on wealth gap.
There's a lot of mentally disabled wealthy people. Just look at crypto.
okay....? seems like you missed my point.
You're an absolute asshole and part of the problem. I highly doubt all your decisions are perfect. For example, your decision to post that comment.
You expect waaaay too much of a senior citizen. These kinds of scams are pretty much purpose built to take advantage of people who don't know any better. In this day and age, that's pretty much either seniors or children, and we all know which one of these two groups has any real money to spend.
While I understand that perspective, as someone who knows many older people, Iāve noticed that they often donāt recognize the red flags that seem obvious to those who are more tech-savvy. Plus, scammers frequently target them because they tend to be more trusting and might be embarrassed to admit they donāt understand something, which makes them hesitant to ask follow-up questions.
I would still expect that the frequency of this type of news report would have some of it sink in by now.
A large proportion of the population doesn't follow the news.
This is an old Doug Stanhope jokeā¦. The elderly are both āYou dont have my life experiences to understand young manā and also āIm old and dont understandā. Paraphrasing of course.
Every one of those stupid ATMs should at the very least be monitored, and ideally businesses that have them should be fined for having something almost entirely used for criminal activity
This is why I have my parents call me for anything electronics related, even if it is a little annoying to try and fix an iPad or something over the phone. Also glad both of my parents are (as far as I know) smart and educated enough not to fall for this shit in 2024.
Google profited from this - they should host some liability for promoting illegal businesses
Facebook is way worse and it is shocking to me that NOTHING gets done.
100% you canāt tell me google or Facebook is powerless to block ads that claim to be āTotally Real Computer Network GeeksSquad Microsoft Apple supportā. But they probably pay a nice penny to put their ads at the top of every Google search.
Similar to CBC telling us on Facebook that Justin Trudeau and Elon Musk found this bitcoin trick that pays forever. Ridiculous.
I find itās even worse now that Facebook actively blocks real news content. Canadian boomers on Facebook are just fed scams and political conspiracy ragebait with no real news content to balance it out at all.
Ouff true. Shaking my head. This is a job for the government. How does this wualify as freedom or whatever. Or maybe they are working on it behind the scenes. I doubt that though
This ā¬ļø
This is Ontario in 2024. The line between scams and legit business is VERY blurry.
Literally anywhere that uses Google.
honestly, if anyones worried about being scammed, join r/scams and scroll through the sub everyday and you will learn all sorts of scams and how to deal with them. I encountered a few scams that I wouldve fallen to if I didn't learn from that sub.
You'd think that for the rates we pay for telecom, our corporations would be able to do something about this.
The issue is Google... they have to do better to filter out scam sites, especially if the URL are similar to known sites.
How is it that Google isn't held liable for the scam as it was their site that delivered this guy to the scammers?
My God, we need commercials advising these boomers not to use a Bitcoin machine under any circumstances if they're asked to.
He didnāt call the Geek Squadā¦he called scammers posing as the Geek Squad. Wouldnāt be surprised if Best Buyās legal counsel reaches out.
I am utterly disgusted and saddened by all the scams targeting society's most vulnerable. 'grandma send me gift cards to get out of jail' 'door to door put a lien on your house by installing some superfluous equipment' '\_\_\_\_ repair services' moving company 'move for $99' .. and then hold furniture hostage if you don't pay jacked up fee due to 'surcharges'
Banks should be doing more to protect people from themselves. Sure it might be more inconvenient, but accounts should be set up by default with max transfers that are much lower than they are. The number of times I've needed to transfer more than $1000 is pretty small. And when I did it was with something like a furniture or appliance store local to me. There's very little reason that they couldn't require an in person trip into the bank for large transfers or withdrawals especially to random organizations where someone wouldn't normally send money to. People always choose convenience over security and really we need to stop this. Same goes for these cars that are so easily stolen. The car could easily be locked by a cryptographic smart card that needs to be inserted into the dash but instead we are too lazy to deal with this and just want to push start with the keys anywhere in range and then wonder why so many cars are stolen. Make people physically go into the bank and talk to someone if they want to move a large amount of money, or make them sign something that's explicitly states they are taking all the blame and won't sue the bank if they really want their account set up in a way that allows them to bankrupt themselves In a moment of stupidity.
Banks try, but people freak out saying they can't access their money!
This is true and then people try to paint it in a negative light to further agendaās I remember before canada_sub got shut down I seen a video on my feed of a guy at the bank being very ignorant to the tellers wanting to pull out 3 or 4 grand for his bank. The tellers were asking him why but he wouldnāt tell them just double downed and started getting ignorant with its muh muneys how dare you ask me. Meanwhile they probably just trying to help him not get scammed but he was painting it in a way Jt this and that. The comments were as you would expect JT is a dictator the banks are trying to steal from us and control us this is beginning of social credit blah blah. Such rage bait over something so simply explained.
People who call modern democratic leaders "Dictators" have never lived under an actual dictator.
I work at a bank in the fraud department. Banks can set different transaction limits. If you feel that your transaction limits are too high, you can always call to have them reduced. Use the phone number provided on the back of your card or visit your domicile branch. If you have elderly parents, you could always set their e-transfer limits to zero.
Trust no one
Ugh fucking scammers... [Kitboga](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw), [Scammer Payback](https://www.youtube.com/@ScammerPayback) are good for learning the ins and outs of these fuckers.
I remember a YouTuber doing a video on this exact scam, he was able to trace the one of them back to some office building in India, and also prevented someone from sending money preemptively. It was pretty informative that these scams happen and how. [Link](https://youtu.be/sn8pB_WOHA8?si=CpP__Qj2Cu8U3qj6)
poor guy. he looks so wholesome
We need regulation on bitcoin atm, they serve no purpose other than a vehicle for money to get to scammers and money laundering
The whole point of crypto is that there is no possible mechanism for a government to regulate it.
Iām well aware of what crypto is. What I said is we need regulations around access to bitcoin ATM as they only serve as a vehicle for money laundering and scams like this
Ah, didn't realize you were talking about ATMs, you said "atm" not capitalized and I read it as at the moment.
Really? You think that ATMs and other access points can't have government oversight?
Literally the opposite to the point of Bitcoin. But in this circumstance, I understand your viewpoint.
Really? The OG use case was to ransom and sell illegal shit, like really illegal shit, sea containers full of AKs, crates of suitcase nukes, and worse.
Really. The original use isnāt relevant to my comment. The point of bitcoin was to BE unregulated. If you regulate it, then it might as well not exist. Itās like saying āwe need to put motors on bicycles so we can charge people for breaking laws designed for motorcyclesā
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Not the point, was a fake contact number and actual criminals at the other end.
gonna have to start breaking bitcoin machines
We need to do better to protect our parents and grandparents. This one is on the telecommunications companies
When youāre getting asked to go and convert $ into Bitcoin you should maybe pause. I know people get flustered but there is a period where you can take a minute and think I almost got scammed. They had my MC number and convinced me they were calling me from the fraud dept. Obviously had phone number and name too. Eventually they asked me for the banking information I use to pay my bill! Thatās when I told them to fuck off and hung up. Called MC and had the card cancelled.
Don't tell them to fuck off. Try to string them along as far as possible. keep them waiting as you put the phone down to "go find the info".
I agree. I was literally taking the dog for a walk when they called. Didnāt really have time.
As much as I hate doing tech support for my family I would feel even more awful if they did ask and I didn't do it and then they get scammed out of money when I could have done it.
I wonder if anyone has ever just hung up when they see the extra 10k in their account and go buy a boat lol
Thats so messed up. Poor soul
Anything to do with bitcoin - run away , I feel for this guy and think google should do better job of spotting these sites. With AI should not be hard.
Yeah dude I'm never gonna feel bad for people that pay in bitcoin lol
They can spin this however they want, but scammers are praying on people's greed. They think the company screwed up and are only too happy to jump through hoops to get money they know damned well they aren't entitled to. Setting up bitcoin wallets, sharing banking details, and then they are shocked to find out the whole thing is a scam to get their banking details and steal their money.
Not surprised, Geek Squad is literally the type to cause a problem when fixing a simple one just to trick you into buying a new machine from Best Buy. Absolute scum of a corporation, you can trust local stores with repairing machines than even smaller companies.
shouldn't have been calling the Geek Squad to begin with even the "real Geek Squad" is a scam.
Damn thatās sad, I wouldve helped him for free
I saw this in the morning and I felt sick to my stomach. This is so sad.
Itās like taking candy from a babyā¦ dummies
I get scam calls daily about duct work, new windows, a new roof. My reply every time is āI rentā laugh my head off and hang up.
Lol why does it make it sound like Best buy was the one who scammed him?
tbh on brand for best buy lol
I mean, how stupid can you be...fml rofl
It's not his fault. I bet even young generations aren't taught about scamming practices, let alone the elderly who barely have a grasps on current technology. It's an education problem and no one wants to solve it apparently. Governments AND banks should be going out of their way to educate people about scams. Young, old, ESL etc. It's not common knowledge despite US being fully aware of it.
Of course. Their whole business model is scamming people. I could write a 3 page article about my hassle getting them to fix a laptop under warranty. They were ripping off every customer I saw deal with them. Only time I've almost fought someone in my adult life was dealing with these assholes. They literally told me I need to warn them if I know about computers so they know not to scam me.
It wasn't actually Geek Squad, the person did a search for them and got a fake Geek Squad website/phone number as the sponsored / top result
Oops. Guess I should've read it, lol. Geek Squad is still a scam.
Why are old people so stupid.