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New scam?

Audiotfoot

Audiotfoot

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
A friend and I read and discuss books. Shortly he will moving a state away so we decided to continue online. This morning I received a text message from my buddy asking me to join a chat and discuss the book we had been reading. The correct title was listed, the chat we had chosen was correct. It was a little surprising as last Sunday he still had a couple hundred pages to go and figured we'd have to wait a week. Fortunately my sleepy hands, assisted by tremors, closed the invitation before I could accept it. I sent a text to my buddy who responded with "I still have 167 pages to go. What invitation?

What would someone get if I had accepted the invitation? And how did someone get the information about the two of us reading that specific book as well as plans to discuss online.. I may sound like someone who wears a tinfoil hat, but could our phones been hacked? I know that anytime I discuss an item I'd like to buy it only takes a day or so before adds for that item start appearing on my phone, iPad and computer.

Anyway, it if was a scam the bullet was dodged.
 
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Could be anything from a virus to remote access to everything on your computer if you click “accept” in any scam email/text.

I generally don’t click anything on a text message anymore. Nor will I in an email. If I look at the address and don’t recognize it, I delete it as a matter of course. Too many phishing for suckers out there these days to risk it.

If its something that might be “real” I either call or go directly to the business’s website and go from there.
 
The frequency of receiving texts or emails that I just delete without opening is increasing. The one described in the original post looked so authentic it was accidentally deleted. Sometimes it seems the old phone on the wall should come back and the one in my pocket should go away.
 
The text ones sometime baffles me. I'll get a "fedex", "purolator" or some other courier with a "could not deliver, text Y/N to deliver" type of message.

That in itself is not what baffles me though as they are usually just phishing for a response. Which is typical behavior for these types of scummy criminals.

What does seem odd is that the text usually arrives the day I'm expecting something to be delivered for real. It's usually the wrong courier in the text, which is 100% a scam give away. But it's just a little too coincidental that the scam text arrives the same day that something is actually supposed to be delivered.

For example: yesterday I was expecting a UPS delivery and before it arrived, I got a (fake) Purolator "cannot deliver without signature, please accept or decline with Y/N" text message. Obviously, I reported it and then deleted it.

Somehow, someone, somewhere is scraping data that indicates a date and contact info, which really p!sses me off. That probably means the courier companies are not protecting their data very well, which means they are not protecting the information they have about me very well either.....
 
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tourmax said:
Could be anything from a virus to remote access to everything on your computer if you click “accept” in any scam email/text.

I generally don’t click anything on a text message anymore. Nor will I in an email. If I look at the address and don’t recognize it, I delete it as a matter of course. Too many phishing for suckers out there these days to risk it.

If its something that might be “real” I either call or go directly to the business’s website and go from there.
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Yes. This could be a ploy to get you to click on an unrelated "buy it now" bait site. :(
 
I'm guessing the link would have resulted in a "we need to verify it is you..." sort of response that would have asked for more personal information.

How they knew the book is just crazy, aside from possibly spyware on the phone.

As the databases of information on us get larger and deeper, they become a hackers dream of how to infiltrate our lives. I'm sure there are scammers running versions of AI on the information they have to try to piece together more from it.
 
SuperjazzyJa said:
The technology we use today seems to have opened a super highway for scammers to operate. I don't know what the scammer who sent you the invite could have gotten, but it's a good thing you declined. Everyone needs to be extremely careful.
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I just realized whoever did it went though my phone as the information used isn't on my computer. I'm kicking myself for not thinking to put antivirus on it.
 
tourmax said:
Could be anything from a virus to remote access to everything on your computer if you click “accept” in any scam email/text.

I generally don’t click anything on a text message anymore. Nor will I in an email. If I look at the address and don’t recognize it, I delete it as a matter of course. Too many phishing for suckers out there these days to risk it.

If its something that might be “real” I either call or go directly to the business’s website and go from there.
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I do the same. Just delete or call the actual place referenced.
 
Lord Patrick said:
To gain your trust, then play the long game.
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There are just so many varieties of the scams now. They talk about the ones where the person texts you with "how's it going" "are you still living in Ohio" to start finding out more about you.
The old standard ones of 'click this link to fix the problem... now we just need you to give us information to prove it is you'

If the scammers send out thousands or even millions of texts and emails, a few will hit people at exactly the right moment where they aren't thinking completely clearly or they have something going on in their life that matches up with the subject.

I was looking at my Outlook email account and about 40-100 times a day there are attempted logins from around the world. Just imagine how frequently all your accounts are getting hit with attempts. Outlook is good enough that that they reject nearly all of them without even sending me a request for the authenticator app code for login. And now they will try to get your cellphone company to switch your account to 'a new phone' so they can access 2-factor login texts for your accounts.

There's even the ones where they call you just to get enough of your voice to use AI to recreate it. A guy I work with had tens of thousands transferred out of his bank account and it took months to get it back because the bank insisted it was his voice that told them to transfer it.
I've got a collection of 'conversations' with AI generated voices on my computer to respond to spam callers.

I saw an actually very good tip that said you have to answer and tell them to put you on their do not call list or your number will stay in their rotation to be called forever. It actually worked with one that was calling every day on our landline. I had been unplugging the phone so it would ring forever or answering and putting the phone in front of a speaker with music playing or having the fax machine answer, but none of that was stopping the calls. I had hoped that some of that would get it marked as not a valid number but it didn't work. It was funny to me when the AI voice told them "put me on your do not call list' and they responded with 'I know you want to be put on the do not call list, but while I have you on the line...' and I had the AI voice sigh and repeat it. They stopped calling.
 
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And from what I've read and from friends talked to, try to avoid responding with any sort of affirmative reply like, "yes" as this in itself is a positive reaction to a verbal reach-out online.

I find myself going more to encrypted sites in order to communicate . But, again, not certain of the degree of privacy of using these sites.

Comments?

Q
 
Audiotfoot said:
I hope that's all it was.
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You will soon find out. I know that if I answer anything, before letting it go to voicemail, the possibility of getting a bazillion scam calls and texts the next few weeks is close to infinity.

Before caller ID, my wife used to call me, let it go to voicemail, then call me again. That way, I knew it was her. Now, there are scam software bots that do that.

I've even had caller ID spoofs, using my own phone number.
 
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