A coworker just shared a couple of scary stories about how targeted scams have become.
In one scam attempt, he received a phone call in his daughter's voice asking for help paying for a tow truck. He thought that didn't sound right, so he hung up and called her and she answered her phone nonchalantly with no idea about what was going on. But someone had found her voice somewhere, knew her relationship with him, and targeted the scam with precise details.
In another scam attempt, he was contacted by someone in the soccer league he coaches for asking for help getting gift cards for some legitimate-sounding purpose. In that case, it took a few rounds of communication before he realized that something wasn't right. But again, someone had the data on him and his role/relationship to the soccer league, and customized that scam to a degree that he didn't think anything of it at first.
It's scary out there. I think we're all at risk, but I worry most about my older relatives living on their own.
sadly my voice is readily found online so my own parents might be a target of this
A lady I worked with got scammed by someone pretending to be the FBI claiming to have found her vehicle in Mexico with a bunch of drugs and porno. She told me they had tons of identifying information and were demanding payment, and she complied.
I was just aghast, cause if anybody called claiming to be the FBI or some other law-enforcement agency my first instinct would be - speak to my lawyer (don’t have one).
A lady I worked with got scammed by someone pretending to be the FBI claiming to have found her vehicle in Mexico with a bunch of drugs and porno. She told me they had tons of identifying information and were demanding payment, and she complied.
I was just aghast, cause if anybody called claiming to be the FBI or some other law-enforcement agency my first instinct would be - speak to my lawyer (don’t have one).