Australian Politics Forum - scammers are very persistent-

Agnes. Gold Member Offline St Agness Posts: 1248	scammers are very persistent- Oct 7^th, 2023 at 10:58pm have you ever been the target of one of these people/s? how did it go for you- im still trying to figure out how to shake one off/ apparently i have $50.000 sitting in my account right now! but my email is unreachable and i dont know how to get into my account- such problems -unbelievable!
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Dnarever Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 61520 Here Gender:	Re: scammers are very persistent- Reply #1 - Oct 7^th, 2023 at 11:36pm Yes I suspect most of us get a few of these. I haven't had that one yet. My last one was a Telstra scam. They got upset with me in the end and started swearing at me for wasting their time. I told the operator that I was going to report him to Telstra over his bad language.
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Bobby.

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Re: scammers are very persistent-
Reply #2 - Oct 7^th, 2023 at 11:52pm

Agnes. wrote on Oct 7^th, 2023 at 10:58pm:

have you ever been the target of one of these people/s? how did it go for you- im still trying to figure out how to shake one off/ apparently i have $50.000 sitting in my account right now! but my email is unreachable and i dont know how to get into my account-

such problems -unbelievable!

If they phone you, block their number.
Never answer any email unless it's from a trusted source.
Never click on any links in emails or sms messages.

My Office Outlook puts all those suspicious emails in the junk mail folder.

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freediver

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Re: scammers are very persistent-
Reply #3 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 8:44am

I get the NBN phone calls occasionally. I keep them on the line for as long as possible before revealing that I do not have a computer or mobile phone. The last one asked me to do it on my work computer, which I agreed to and we hung up after that. It was the first time they didn't hang up mid sentence. They called back 30 seconds later asking for my work phone number, then hung up on me while I was trying to find it.

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People who can't distinguish between etymology and entomology bug me in ways I cannot put into words.

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MeisterEckhart

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Re: scammers are very persistent-
Reply #4 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 8:57am

What I have recently encountered is a scam that uses hijacked mobile numbers.

I'd receive a call from a mobile number with a generated voice telling me my bank account is about to be suspended and to 'press 1 now' to speak to the bank directly.

When I hung up and called the number back, I found that the person on the other end was not the scammer but they'd received hundreds of calls from targetted people calling them back.

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Jovial Monk Gold Member Offline Dogs not cats! Posts: 51474 Gender:	Re: scammers are very persistent- Reply #5 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 9:20am I have stopped ringing numbers with no ID, no text etc sent, but I did once and the number was spoofed and the guy whose number was spoofed had had that happen once before.
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Agnes.

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Re: scammers are very persistent-
Reply #6 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 9:52am

Bobby. wrote on Oct 7^th, 2023 at 11:52pm:

Agnes. wrote on Oct 7^th, 2023 at 10:58pm:

have you ever been the target of one of these people/s? how did it go for you- im still trying to figure out how to shake one off/ apparently i have $50.000 sitting in my account right now! but my email is unreachable and i dont know how to get into my account-

such problems -unbelievable!

If they phone you, block their number.
Never answer any email unless it's from a trusted source.
Never click on any links in emails or sms messages.

My Office Outlook puts all those suspicious emails in the junk mail folder.

simple but good advice Bobby- thank you

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Why Johnny Ringo, you look like someone just walked over your grave ~

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freediver Gold Member Offline www.ozpolitic.com Posts: 52867 At my desk.	Re: scammers are very persistent- Reply #7 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 9:54am Don't even open the email if it looks suss.
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Agnes.

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Re: scammers are very persistent-
Reply #8 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 9:55am

Dnarever wrote on Oct 7^th, 2023 at 11:36pm:

Yes I suspect most of us get a few of these. I haven't had that one yet.

My last one was a Telstra scam. They got upset with me in the end and started swearing at me for wasting their time. I told the operator that I was going to report him to Telstra over his bad language.

LOL I hope you did report him after all of that ! bad man swearing at you, the sheer hide of him- hang him I say

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Why Johnny Ringo, you look like someone just walked over your grave ~

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Agnes. Gold Member Offline St Agness Posts: 1248	Re: scammers are very persistent- Reply #9 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 9:57am freediver wrote on Oct 8^th, 2023 at 9:54am: Don't even open the email if it looks suss. I will try to remeber that FD.
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MeisterEckhart Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 16762 Gender:	Re: scammers are very persistent- Reply #10 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 10:54am My issue right now is preventing 'one-off' subscriptions from continuing past the one-month deadline.
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chimera Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 15426 Armidale Gender:	Re: scammers are very persistent- Reply #11 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 10:56am Dnarever wrote on Oct 7^th, 2023 at 11:36pm: They got upset with me in the end and started swearing at me for wasting their time. Way to go! I have a plastic whistle and wait until the caller is ready for my reply. Big breath..go...
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Jovial Monk Gold Member Offline Dogs not cats! Posts: 51474 Gender:	Re: scammers are very persistent- Reply #12 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 11:32am AHAHAHAHAHA!
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Carl D

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Re: scammers are very persistent-
Reply #13 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 12:43pm

chimera wrote on Oct 8^th, 2023 at 10:56am:

Dnarever wrote on Oct 7^th, 2023 at 11:36pm:

They got upset with me in the end and started swearing at me for wasting their time.

Way to go! I have a plastic whistle and wait until the caller is ready for my reply. Big breath..go...

Cool.

Unfortunately, that's just a waste of time and effort.

Quote:

I was just listening to a radio discussion about dealing with scam phone calls. A lady phoned in and said that she blows a loud whistle when she gets one and the presenter got her to demonstrate. What we heard was a loud(ish) hissing noise. She insisted that it was not a dog whistle but more like the ones used by referees.

The question is - does the scammer hear the same muffled squeak, or are their eardrums assaulted by a shrill noise? It should be easy to test if you have a friend with a suitable whistle.

Quote:

My understanding is that the audio quality of phone sounds is (still!) so degraded that the scammer won’t hear anything close to what the whistleblower will hear.

Quote:

Well, it’s “degraded” on purpose. Telephones were originally designed for voice transmission. The frequencies present in the human voice range from 30 Hz to 3400 Hz. In order to save bandwidth, and therefore pass more total phone calls on any given transmission medium, higher frequencies are filtered out. Plus, the volume is limited on the far end - so a 110 dB sound on the speaker side will probably get limited down to 70 dB on the listeners side. So yes, a whistle won’t be nearly as annoying to the listener as it is to the speaker.

Quote:

My Uncle worked for SW Bell, and I was surprised when he told me the bandwidth of a phone call. Something like 5kHz. I imagine a whistle or fog horn would just be mild noise.

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chimera Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 15426 Armidale Gender:	Re: scammers are very persistent- Reply #14 - Oct 8^th, 2023 at 1:16pm OK just tested on landline to mobile. Not loud. But it gets the message of 'whistle blower' to them. I didn't really want to cause pain.
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