Attempted Scams

[finnf-3]

I have had a number of mobile calls today from various phone numbers from Adelaide to Queensland regarding a purchase I have suppose to have made on E Bay for $500.00. I have not made such purchase. 

I called one of the numbers back without verifying any payment and the female person who my call said she was from Ebay Security and I must pay for the purchase. When I told her it was a scam and I will not be paying she said that the internet to Ebay would be cut off. I have not been cut off and I have changed my log in details.

I am posting this for Ebay Community hoping you will not get caught in this scam.

Best Wishes, Frank

[papermoon.lady]

It is actually an old scam that has been going around for quite some time. Better not to answer an unknown number at all, or to hang up immediately.

Genuine eBay calls are also confirmed in a message they send.

[sandypebbles]

Since you have called them back, expect to get a lot more calls than you already have

None of them will be real

These scams are as common as the day is long and have been posted about numerous times

Sadly some people still choose to ignore all the warnings 

The same woman that phoned you likely told the next person they called they were from a bank/ Telstra/somewhere else other than eBay

[countessalmirena]

Scammer call centres have employees trained to follow any one of numerous scripts purchased by the “boss”.

They will claim to be eBay, Amazon, Norton, PayPal, Telstra, the ATO, solar rebate, etc., etc.

NEVER call back.

DON’T ENGAGE.

Without realising it, you’ve already given the scammers a lot of information, and they will either use that information in a subsequent scam attempt, or they will on-sell that information to other scammer call centres in a bulk list.

TELL SCAMMERS NOTHING. Don’t confirm or deny that you have an eBay account. The more you argue with or engage with scammers, the more they know about you… and knowledge is money to them.

[jellybirddesigns]

I won't answer any call from a number that is not in my contacts. Period.

If it a genuine issue, they will leave a message. 

I get several calls a week from all sorts of numbers and funnily enough they never leave a message, but I'm sure if I answered them they would tell me they're from Ebay, ATO etc.

Please never, ever call back to talk to them - they're scammers! Why engage them at all???

My mother learned this the hard way, unfortunately and fell for a scam call from her "bank". Lost tens of thousands of $$$. 

[*sons_and_daughters*]

I was getting hammered with scam calls from ebay and Amazon for quite a few months. They seemed to have back off a bit now. For now. What I am getting hammered with now is scam text messages supposedly from Westpac. Of course, they want you to click on a link. 

The other day I got a message, which was obviously a scam due to the atrocious spelling. Not 5 minutes later, I got that exact same message from the legitimate Westpac number. For the unknowing, when it comes up as a legitimate number, it would be tempting to click on the link (the message was saying my account had been blocked). The links themselves looked extremely dodgy, but for an older person, they could be quite concerned.

As for calls, I don't answer numbers I don't know. If it's important, they'll leave a message and I will call them back. I have had quite a few ebay and Amazon robocalls leave messages on my message bank. Bit hard to hit 1 in a voice message! They are very much robotic and automated.

Interestingly, a few months back now, Telstra said they had implemented bots to try to significantly cut down on scam calls and messages. Since that was introduced, my scams have gone through the roof! When the scammers are spoofing real numbers to use, the bots wouldn't know to block it because it's a real number.

[jellybirddesigns]

This is what happened to my 76y/o mother - the scammers spoofed the bank number, which was actually in her phone as a genuine contact. They called her on a Friday afternoon and kept her on the phone for over 3 hours! She finally twigged that something was wrong and managed to get to a branch before they closed, but by then it was too late. She lost 60K and as a token of "goodwill" the bank gave her back just $15k about 4 months later.

The scammers tried calling her on and off for a few weeks afterwards with the same story, but by then she had learned her lesson.

On a side note, my father lost $250k in an email scam where the scammers cloned a similar address to his own email and then asked the accountant at his office to make a bank transfer, which she did without question as he is the owner. She didn't realise the emails were different.

[countessalmirena]

The ruthlessness and remorselessness of scammers can't be overestimated.

They deliberately target the most vulnerable, and they won't feel sympathy or empathy if they know the person is on a low fixed income, has no other savings or resources, is disabled, is elderly, is mentally susceptible to being scammed; rather, those are check marks for an easy mark.

One of the more worrying things about scams now, though, is that some are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and are designed to fool the tech-savvy and the "careful". It's worth adding an extra dose of "careful" to one's morning coffee, and to regard even an apparently genuine email with a note of caution. It doesn't hurt to phone the person who is the purported emailer, just to double-check about any new or altered arrangements involving money or personal information - always using the phone number one already has.

[davewil1964]

I've had several over the last few weeks claiming to be about an Amazon purchase. I don't have an Amazon account. Maybe the scammers know something about how Amazon works. The only criterion I fit of those you listed is elderly, though.

I don't get emails (except for 'bank' ones that I only see if I check my spam folder), although I do get SMSs. Those have reduced since Telstra blocked the 'delivery' ones. So it seems they have decided phone calls are the way to go.

[domino-710]

I actually thought it very simple.

Don't connect over the phone - unless you personally have asked for a call - regarding any issue - know the issue being discussed.

It's a bit - don't call me - I'll call you.

How easy is it to just - hang up.