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Scam Attempt
Apr. 25th, 2021 08:07 pmI had previously found occasional messages left on my answering machine, purportedly about my Amazon account, and had not replied. Recently, I received several calls of that kind, alleging a $729 charge from someone in Dayton, Ohio, and telling me to press one to speak with someone. The recorded voice on the calls gave her name as Molly, and sounded American.
On Wednesday, thinking that I might waste a scammer’s time, and that the message might possibly be for real, I pressed one, and was connected to someone with an Indian accent. I told him at the outset that I suspected a scam, and he assured me that I could Google on his name, and find that he was ethical, and he been doing his job for six years. He had not given me his name, and also, I pointed out to him, multiple people in the world could have the same name.
I assured him that I had not placed an order to be sent to Dayton, and had not given anyone else access to my account. He pressured me to click on a link he sent me (he had my email address and cellphone number, as well as the landline number his firm had called, which is a little worrisome). I refused to click on the link, purportedly from Amazon.com, but did write it down and enter it into my browser, which led to a message saying that that was not a link to an actual page at Amazon.com. I figured that the link was made to appear to be from Amazon, but really led to something else, and it was a good thing I hadn’t clicked on it.
We continued fencing verbally, and he said that I needed to go to the App Store, and download an app; how this would prevent a crook in Dayton, using a different computer, from placing orders to Amazon pretending to be from me was not made clear. I point-blank refused. The scammer reiterated that he was trying to help me, asked whether I had ever known anyone with cancer, and whether they had known they had cancer, or it had been discovered by testing, and insisted that he was trying to cure the cancer on my computer. He finally ran down, and after hearing nothing from him for a while, I hung up.
I did a little Googling, and found an article at “the daily scam” about this kind of racket. Someone had downloaded an app at the behest of a crook pretending to be from Amazon, and found stuff streaming past to fast to read, but was then able to go back and see that it was an authorization to charge his bank account a large sum if he clicked on it.
I received several more calls from “Molly” in the next few minutes, and hung up each time. Then, in response to yet another call, I pressed one, and spoke with a different person, a woman, also with an Indian accent, and requested that I be taken off their list. I’ll give them credit; I did not receive any more calls after that.
So beware of scammers, and especially of stealth links, or of downloading malware from the App Store.
On Wednesday, thinking that I might waste a scammer’s time, and that the message might possibly be for real, I pressed one, and was connected to someone with an Indian accent. I told him at the outset that I suspected a scam, and he assured me that I could Google on his name, and find that he was ethical, and he been doing his job for six years. He had not given me his name, and also, I pointed out to him, multiple people in the world could have the same name.
I assured him that I had not placed an order to be sent to Dayton, and had not given anyone else access to my account. He pressured me to click on a link he sent me (he had my email address and cellphone number, as well as the landline number his firm had called, which is a little worrisome). I refused to click on the link, purportedly from Amazon.com, but did write it down and enter it into my browser, which led to a message saying that that was not a link to an actual page at Amazon.com. I figured that the link was made to appear to be from Amazon, but really led to something else, and it was a good thing I hadn’t clicked on it.
We continued fencing verbally, and he said that I needed to go to the App Store, and download an app; how this would prevent a crook in Dayton, using a different computer, from placing orders to Amazon pretending to be from me was not made clear. I point-blank refused. The scammer reiterated that he was trying to help me, asked whether I had ever known anyone with cancer, and whether they had known they had cancer, or it had been discovered by testing, and insisted that he was trying to cure the cancer on my computer. He finally ran down, and after hearing nothing from him for a while, I hung up.
I did a little Googling, and found an article at “the daily scam” about this kind of racket. Someone had downloaded an app at the behest of a crook pretending to be from Amazon, and found stuff streaming past to fast to read, but was then able to go back and see that it was an authorization to charge his bank account a large sum if he clicked on it.
I received several more calls from “Molly” in the next few minutes, and hung up each time. Then, in response to yet another call, I pressed one, and spoke with a different person, a woman, also with an Indian accent, and requested that I be taken off their list. I’ll give them credit; I did not receive any more calls after that.
So beware of scammers, and especially of stealth links, or of downloading malware from the App Store.
