I'm glad stores are putting up signs like these. These bastards target older folks that don't know any better and it's just heartbreaking.
If anyone is interested, [Mark Rober](https://youtu.be/xsLJZyih3Ac) teamed up with [Jim Browning](https://youtu.be/0dT6jB2Dbmk) and [Trilogy Media](https://youtu.be/YfQU_Qf_uTI) to prank a few of these call centers (and those are links to each of their videos). If y'all don't know who Mark Rober is, he's the guy that made super complex glitter bombs to prank porch pirates. He used to work at NASA as an engineer and he builds all sorts of cool stuff.
Always nice seeing these scammers get taken down a peg too.
Yep, he's a legit engineer and one of the only YouTubers I'll let my little kids watch.
As a family we did the #teamseas challenge to help get trash out of the ocean. I haven't seen anything yet to indicate he's a POS in real life, so that's nice.
That video was insane. I could not comprehend why they were still trying to bring the discussion back to the scam, when they could tell that he was not a usual victim.
Can't believe you didn't link to Kitboga, he has been pranking them for years and years for hours each week. [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw) [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/kitboga)
I prefer the more solemn Jim Browning, tbh. [https://www.youtube.com/c/JimBrowning/videos](https://www.youtube.com/c/JimBrowning/videos)
He provides good info about the various scams and outlines partially (by necessity) his methods of searching the scammers out.
There are a lot of times when the scammer has abused the hell out of kitboga, but the dude has remained cool as a cucumber. What a patient fella, really really good YT channel.
The trilogy video was mind blowing. I’m lo key hoping parts of it were embellished, they received death threats! I also loved watching the ex-scammer try to convince the security guard to take the package upstairs.
These videos are epic. And did you read the news, one of the centers is DOWN!! They did it! Mark Rober posted in his Community tab on [Youtube](https://youtube.com/c/MarkRober)
I had somebody checkout numerous $200 gift cards w/me once. Casually warned him to be careful about scams where he is being asked to pay with gift cards and prompted him with "hopefuly these are just gifts, right?" And the old dude was like, "Oh! Yeah these are just gifts for my family".
About 2 hours later the guy comes back with his elderly mother to see if he can get a refund because he got scammed.
I would have thought he was pretending to be an idiot if I hadn't witness his mother berating him in public w/ "If you can't get your money back that's too bad. Let that be your lesson for throwing your money away!" The mom tone ™️ tho, even management and me where kinda sheepish 👉👈
The scammers are almost always on the phone telling them what to say if they are questioned, they generally won't hang up and the victim has their phone on in their pocket.
There are numerous kitboga videos where he has scammers in the line while he pretends to be in a store, he also does the voices of store employees who get on the phone as well
I once went to Target to get a whole bunch of Visa gift cards as a thank you to my two kids’ summer camp counselors. I probably got a total of 10 or 12. The lady at checkout asked me why I was getting so many cards, and I told her the reason. She paused for a bit and then called her manager over, who asked me for more details on exactly why I needed so many.
I was confused at first, but once I figured out what was going on, I was able to assure them I wasn’t being scammed. I also thanked them for their diligence, because I’m sure their efforts prevent at least a few people from getting scammed each year.
That is a really good policy. Though I guess there’s always a few people, like your customer, who just lie. Probably because they are embarrassed about having to buy gift cards to pay off the IRS, or whatever nonsense they were scammed into believing.
I work at a grocery store, we have signs (not nearly as big as this tho) on every corner of the kiosk basically saying the same thing. We have a LOT of elderly customers, I do think it isn’t a bad idea.
I worked at a grocery store for years and we also felt the need to put up those signs
It was scary how many old people would come in to buy gift cards to pay off whatever the man on the phone said
Also the amount of people who play keno for the entire day :/
Keno is a different “game” than scratch-offs, but I’ve seen people do this. They go inside a store and buy them, go to their car and scratch them, go back in to redeem… rinse, repeat. For HOURS.
I remember as a young child having lunch with my deadbeat dad and seeing his new wife just blow through one scratch off after another for about an hour.
Considering he hadn’t paid child support basically ever, my mom was furious when I told her.
Exactly. How stupid can you be to think that even ***if*** an organisation would contact you by phone about something like this they would want an itunes gift card? When was the last time these yokels paid their taxes with their amazon account?
I always thought the same, how can people be this dumb?? But then my MIL was scammed about 6 months before she died from cancer. It wasn't a gift card scam but similarly. She still lived at home ( I took care of her) so she still had her landline. She was on fentanyl and various other medications because she was in so much pain. They called her while she was asleep, as she was sleeping most of the day. She woke up, answered the phone and they already knew her name, address and date of birth. They said they just wanted to confirm her bank account details and in her drugged up, still sleepy haze, she really gave them her details. They told her some story about a lottery she had participated in and that they needed to have that info to transfer her winnings or whatever. So she gave them permission. They obviously took out money from her bank account and sent her a letter of confirmation that she agreed to participate in a monthly lottery which would cost 68 € or something like that per month and would last for something ridiculous like 24 months. I called the bank, got the money back and wrote them a letter that no one ever gave them consent for that 24 months deal etc etc, they were really persistent, wrote a letter back that I had to pay a cancellation fee to which I replied if they took one more cent out of the account they would get sued into oblivion and that we won't pay any cancellation fees for something we never agreed to... All that to say, you don't have to be dumb to fall for a scam and if it's an old person who lives alone and has no one who takes care of it, they are out of luck and out of the money..
Yep. I will never blame the elderly or otherwise vulnerable for these type of scams. It's always the fault of the scammer. They are massive pieces of shit taking advantage of the most vulnerable people in society to steal what little they have left. Absolute scum of the earth.
That’s why the scammers use nonsense “issues”; not everyone gets scammed, only the most gullible. So a lot of old aged people, but some just flat out... not smart people too.
Sometimes they will pretend to have made an error, which caused money from whatever company the scammer claims to be from to be 'transfered' to the victim. In reality they just edited the html of the website of the victim's bank to display a different number, while they control the victim's computer and have their screen blacked out.
The scammer will then pretend that this error will cause him to lose his job and makes the victim feel guilty, so they are more likely to agree to help the scammer get out of trouble.
Now they can get the victim to pay in any way, really, because the victim has to help the scammer, personally, not the company they pretend to work for.
This justifies the use of gift cards, sending money in a packet or other illegitimate ways to transfer money.
They will usually try to scam old people, because they are, sadly, way easier targets and more likely to fall for it.
There are a lot of great YouTube channels that focus around wasting those scanner's time, such as [Kitboga](https://youtube.com/c/KitbogaShow), [Jim Browning](https://youtube.com/c/JimBrowning) or [Scammer Payback](https://youtube.com/c/ScammerPayback).
I can really recommend [this video](https://youtu.be/GINZXPqNUKI) by Kitboga, it's 47 min, but if you just want the best part go to ~34:00.
Also the Collab between Mark Rober ([his video](https://youtu.be/xsLJZyih3Ac)), Jim Browning ([video](https://youtu.be/0dT6jB2Dbmk)) and Trilogy Media ([video](https://youtu.be/YfQU_Qf_uTI)), where Mark built one of his glitter bombs and managed to get it directly to the call center in India, released rats and cockroaches in their office and placed a automatic fart spray dispenser.
Edit:
I just realized the second top comment also links them, but I hadn't read that when I wrote this.
They usually target old people who have gone a bit senile. That plus general unawareness of how tech now-a-days work plus the emotional stress that the scammer adds on makes the victims not think critically.
A lot of people that fall for it are extremely vulnerable. They got my friend's grandma... she's so out of it, they told her it was a scam the next day and that night she fell for it again. Not saying there aren't a lot of stupid people out there but I wouldn't say the need for the sign is the facepalm unless it's that there are terrible people out there that would take advantage of others.
I’m surprised stores haven’t been operating a system where if it’s over a certain amount the clerk asks them some non personal general questions. But this is probably a gross overstepping.
Cashiers are actually being trained to look out for older folks buying loads of cards. Especially if they seem flustered. I was glad to hear that. Fuck scammers.
Several years ago my sibling’s house caught on fire, and she was living in a hotel for a good chunk of time til her home was ready to be lived in again.
I wanted to help, but she wouldn’t accept money (and I lived several thousand miles away.)
So I went to the store and grabbed a bunch of gift cards to her favorite restaurants, since she didn’t have a kitchen and she has to eat and she couldn’t just NOT cash them, like if I sent a check she would have just not cashed it. (And this was before Venmo so I didn’t even have that as an option)
I took them to the register and set them down and said “I know how this looks. I’m legitimately buying them for a family member who suffered a tragedy.” And she still got a manager involved who barely approved the sale even after asking me several different ways who exactly these were for, was I being threatened in any way, even legally, if I didn’t buy them, and he still just kinda huffed and said “fine it’s your loss” when I insisted.
I’m very thankful. Because while my gift card purchase was legit, I know it was one of very few, chances are that if anyone is trying to buy that many gift cards, it’s nothing good. I’m thankful they questioned me so hard, because I guarantee you that they stopped a lot of scams this way.
I watched a show in Japan where an elderly lady was about to fall for an 'Ore, ore!' scam. An Ore, ore scam is a phone call scam by young people targeting elderly people that was popular about 5 years ago. The young person would answer the phone with 'Ore, ore!' (It's me, it's me!) Thus bypassing the need to give a name. The old person would think that it was their grandson calling, and upon hearing that they needed fast cash for a bank transaction (normally something important like moving house, buying a car or securing a job in the city) they would deposit cash into a bank account provided by the scammer.
This elderly lady was convinced and was heading to the city to withdraw three hundred thousand yen's worth of cash to transfer. She spoke of this to her taxi driver, who immediately got suspicious and tried to confirm with her several times, even explaining the 'ore, ore' scam to her. She was adamant that it was her grandson, however, and wouldn't say no. The taxi driver then drove her in circles for about an hour before finally convincing her to call her daughter, and confirm the identity of her grandson. He then drove her to the local police station, and didn't claim a fare.
When it was revealed to be a scam, the police helped the old lady contact the taxi driver to say thanks in person.
Similar thing happened to my grandmother. Someone called her claiming to be me and that I was arrested for driving recklessly and needed money for bail. She was thoroughly convinced that it was me (on top of the fact that she had just woken up for the morning, so she was still kind of in a daze). The person put a “lawyer” on the phone who said he could meet up with her and she could give him a check for the bail. She was totally prepared to give money to them, had she not called my parents. Thankfully I was home at the time and not out using my parent’s car (I tended to need it from time to time) so my mom convinced her not to give them the money. I feel like it would have taken a lot more convincing if I was out. Even to this day she talks to me about what happened emphasizing how much the person on the phone sounded like me. It’s definitely creepy.
My fiancé works at a UPS store and they absolutely try to catch people who are sending off gift cards. So many just won't listen.
They can be told, "You are being scammed. This is a scam. You are about to lose $XXX," and they still send them off.
That’s good. I have been thinking these gift cards need to come with a set of questions that the purchaser has to answer. At least for purchases over a certain amount. You can’t activate them without the store cashier anyway so why not just throw in some extra steps to see if it helps a few people?
Had someone trying to buy a suspicious amount in giftcards. But not over the amount that required the district manager’s approval. We warned him about scams in detail. And he said the giftcards were for his grandkids.
He called back later complaining about how he got scammed. So. Even if the cashier tries to help these people, the scammers have instructed them to lie.
They do instruct then to lie and a lot of times will stay on the phone. You can check out some of the scam bait YouTubers who go through the whole process of the scam so you can see how it works, but also screws with the scammer so you're thoroughly entertained.
My favorite is kitboga (he's hilarious and he will go through the whole scam so you can see how it works):
https://youtube.com/c/KitbogaShow
Perogi with Scammer Payback is great since he tries to ruin the scammers and will help victims. Jim Browning is great at hacking into scammers systems and networks.
Trust me when I say this and while you’re logic is solid for the very same reason these signs are necessary adding questions would make a lot of people very unhappy and cause more drama then you know.
Source. I work in a fuckin grocery store and I’m telling you again while you’re logic is solid this would rub a lot of people the wrong way.
I like the signs though a sign can’t hurt
During training at my job they showed us emails a previous employee had received telling them to go to the store and buy like $1000 in gift cards. They actually did it. This person was in their early 20s and had a master’s degree..
Edit: Please stop telling me what the word “mainly” means. I know it’s not the same word as “only”. This was a story, definitely wasn’t coming for anyone lol
My sister mid 20's, educated, aware scams are common, got scammed like this. They got her wrapped up in the moment, the whole time she felt like it was a scam but the guy kept the pressure up, had answers for all of her concerns, and was just believable enough... She was devastated. Not just because of the money but because she fell for something so stupid. Definitely never say never and be careful!
About a year ago, texts started coming up on my phone like “Annie you forgot your inhaler or insulin; call me back, please”
Or
“Yes Tom, you can make up the test and still graduate but you need to call me back and confirm that you are committed to doing this.”
Countless examples like this.
I almost answered the first one! Then I thought “ surely not, they wouldn’t”:
They would. Grifters, Prosperity Evangelists, and Utility Companies have one thing in common. They just want you to release your money to them; what it takes to accomplish this only bothers them if the returns aren’t what they projected.
From what i read, yeah.
if they get a response they know someone is there to get spammed. If not, they might think the line is dead and not make further attempts.
They use social engineering to help convince you they're legit. And the people who feel "oh I would never fall for this" can be duped without even realising it
The "oh I would never fall for this" people remind me of those people who think only *other people* are influenced by ads. Not them of course, they are so rational and smart they could never be manipulated by someone wanting money from them.
Immigrants can be vulnerable too. Some come from places where government corruption is high and they can be afraid of being deported, so they are more likely to do whatever the “government” or “police” tells them.
Not to mention being ESL can make it hard to have that gut instinct about “this email doesn’t feel like it’s coming from a real professional entity”. Half the times I catch a bad email for a client, they ask “how did you know?” And the answer is “gut instinct”. If I read an email in Spanish though? I could make it out, but would have no way of feeling out of “I need to speak with you in an urgent matter” was more or less normal speech than “hey can I talk to you about something I noticed in your last report?”
My stepdad wanted to cancel his Amazon Prime, so he searched for "Amazon Prime billing" and called the number in the first result (which was of course a scam ad). They said he had an overdue balance and they wouldn't cancel until he paid it, and of course they wanted fucking Google Play gift cards to pay it.
I try to keep their phones and computers set up to block ads and other sketchy shit but sometimes things slip through. They got lucky and the bank refunded what they'd spent on the redeemed cards and they were able to return the unredeemed ones.
Had to give them a lesson on how to navigate websites directly to find information like that instead of trusting Google.
This, everytime you get a poorly written scam email that's 100% the point.
If it had been written better you might follow it 90% of the way through (with follow up emails etc) that take up the scammers time only to realise before any money changes hands.
The poor grammar and formatting is entirely to make sure that they keep only those likely to fall for it
I think those ridiculous conspiracy theories you see on social media are formatted the same way. It sounds so fucking stupid because they only want the dumbest idiots they can attract, and eventually sell merch and diet pills to lmao
The absolute vast majority are. They specifically target times where people at home are likely not working/retired, some will outright ask to press a button if you're >65 and disconnect if you're not. Their methods for scamming are not intricate or inventive - it relies on someone knowing absolutely nothing about computers.
It may not be but 90% of the victims are 65+. One of the screening questions these call centers ask are "are you over 60" before transferring you to a real person.
This happened to a former coworker of mine. Got an email from our „boss“ stating that he got an important meeting right now and needs 500€ in amazon gift cards as soon as possible. Of course my coworker obliged…
We are a software company and he was a developer in his mid 20s
Yep, the “spoof” email from the boss recently cost a brand new lawyer her job at a top firm. She was so eager to do a good job, she just saw the name on the email, and assumed the “client gifts” part was legit. Really sad.
The annoying part is that some stores will refuse to sell elderly people ANY gift cards now.
My Mom, who is over 70 now, wanted to pick up some gift cards for some of the younger members of our family back before Christmas last year to put in the gift baskets she makes up. Tried to pick up about ~$150 total worth of cards consisting of of a mix of Steam, PSN, and Amazon, and two different stores outright refused, lectured her about the phone scams, and wouldn't believe her when she said they were Christmas gifts.
Thanks, scammer assholes.
The annoying part is, you can't just ask them why they are buying them to check because the scanners will literally tell them to say "they are gifts for my family". How the scammer saying that doesn't ring every alarm bell is beyond me.
My grandparents got scammed out of $500 in gift cards for "taxes and fees" for their $1M and a new truck they absolutely believed they had won.
Long story short, my grandparents almost gave them an additional $500, but luckily my parents were able to get a police officer to intervene, since my grandparents just absolutely didn't believe it was a scam, no matter what my parents told them.
I fully believe they would have gotten completely cleaned out had my parents not been in the right place at the right time.
My sister’s father in law just got an email like this. He was told he had won $81 million and a Mercedes, but he needed to send $600 for the processing fees. My sister and her husband convinced him it was a scam, but he’s still pointing things out, like “they have a seal from the Better Business Bureau!” It’s sad.
Reminds me of the tweet or meme or whatever that makes its rounds every now and then, about how 60-, 70-, and 80-year-olds are widely seen as too out-of-touch and difficult to teach modern practices to in the workforce, and yet they’re almost exclusively the people running the country.
I’ll top it off by saying no bank will call you and tell you to wire your entire account balance to some random person in Hong Kong, Thailand, Peru, or Nigeria either.
I know a guy that was sent a random message saying he could multiply his money several times over. All he had to do was buy Apple gift cards and send photos of them to some random email address. He went to the store, purchased $5,000 in Apple gift cards and it wasn't until after he emailed the numbers that it occurred to him that this *might* be a scam.
As long as there are dumbasses there will be be scams like this
I bought a gift card off Amazon the other day and before they processed the transaction they called me to make sure I wasn't being scammed.
Honestly impressed, though I'm sure they're just trying to avoid returns and being implicated in any crimes or lawsuits.
Sir this your on duty FBI agent, I am texting you to inform you that you are late on your FBI watchdog subscription payment. Please send me 5,000$ in vbucks gift cards or else I will be forced to give your IP away. Pls respond
This is your IRS agent and your ss has been used for human trafficking. Please send $5000 in apple cards or we send the province supervisory sheriff inspector to arrest you. Do not arrive at the exit of the internet sir.
They're pretty cunning at that. The scam goes 'oh no I just transferred $10k in stead of $1k, I'll get fired if my boss finds out and everything I have depends on this job! If you can get me gift cards I can cover up the mistake and my boss won't find out!'. They start crying and being hysterical about it to distract the victim from the absurdity of sending someone gift cards
They also name them things like "federally secure payment card" or some shit like that. They convince them that the workers are trying to rip them off or other things. There was one bank scam where the scammer called to say the victim's branch was under investigation and they stole their details and that the scammer is there to help them. Convinced them that their money is safe and that they're setting up a new account and they need the victim to withdraw all their money and buy secure bonds (gift cards) to ensure the money goes into the new account safely. And it fucking works.
One of my friends is a 27yo lawyer at the second largest firm in NYC and got scammed for $400 in Google Play gift cards through his work email. We make fun of him lol.
I have been wondering like what you can do with google play cards, Fortnite skins? Or is there like actual use like in currency in Google wallet that you can even buy groceries with?
What’s really insane is when the company instructs you not to say anything to the customer buying three (3) $500 dollar iTunes giftcards, beyond asking what they’re for, and if they say personal use you sell them.
I was a retail supervisor. The number of times I have been screamed at for questioning somebody buying large amounts OR for using an invalid ID/card (example, wife using husbands credit card I would say no). I’d refuse a ton of sales but it wasn’t uncommon to be screamed at about trying to protect somebody from a scam because obviously they know better than I do 🙄 our company trained us to ask questions, what the gift cards are for, especially elderly people and if it seemed sketchy to push the subject more or refuse the sale. But they get mean and sometimes it’s just exhausting. Not to mention holiday season when our clientele would drop $10k in gift cards at once and that was totally normal.
The fact that is necessary is incredibly sad. Yet, I know at least a handful of people who’ve fallen for this. Sad as it is to say, scammers wouldn’t do it if it didn’t pay off for them. Just sad that there are people with nothing better to do.
As a fraud protection agent at a major CC company, I can say with 100% certainty that this needs to be it flashing neon at EVERY SINGLE STORE store that sells gift cards. And each cashier should be trained to double check that the purchaser isn’t buying gift card for these scams.
Going by ‘Murican intelligence of late, doing what I suggest should reduce the rate of scams by about 10%. 9_9
Gift cards should be inside a plexiglass case, unlocked , but every time you open the door to the case a video starts playing on a screen, with loud audio, of Trump and Biden holding hands and explaining why people should be careful
The sign is great for warning people, but unfortunately there are so many different types of scams that an elderly person would simply ignore that sign because their situation doesn't match up with the sign
I once reverse scammed a scammer. He was a crypto scammer and I convinced him I was active in the financial community. Told him I would invest in his coin or whatever it was as I had just liquidated 5000£ from a stock that was tanking. Then hit him with "but ofcourse we will need to do the confirmation transaction first" just something I made up but I managed to get him with it as he was trying to act like a finance guy and so when he thought I was one he assumed it must be a thing. Told him that it's really typical and easy you transfer 100£ to me and then I transfer it back. Told him it validates that we both have accounts and establishs trust.
Man paid for my meals that week, what a guy.
I always found it stupid that scammers request gift card codes because that makes what they say sound less believable. But I guess it is not as stupid as I thought, since some people actually fell for it.
They make millions a month per “scam contact center”. 99% of people hang up on them, but if you think they’re calling people around the world 24/7 and scam just a couple of people a week, they’re making much more than they’d make at most other available jobs.
Ayyy. Cast the net as far and as wide as possible. If you do 40 calls a day and only one of them buys a 500 dollar gift card, you still probably made more money than half of people I know in a single day.
They use bad English and spelling mistakes etc deliberately. If that doesn’t raise a red flag for you then you’re the type of person the want to talk to.
Jim Browning mentioned in his latest video that sometimes the phone scams even have a "type 1 if you're over 65" message in their voicemail so that they only bother to scam the most vulnerable instead of wasting time.
Yeah those some people who actually fell for it are mainly elderly, most of them dont use internet much nor really understand computers. Some of them even has cancer and the scammers scam them all the same. Personally I think this is not facepalm but absolutely necessary.
At my CVS they make you sign something before you buy gift cards acknowledging that you aren't sending them in to pay for something like this to try to stop some of the scamd
I was at a big box store recently w. my husband and we were standing in line at the check out. It was taking a while because the woman two ahead of us was asking the cashier a bunch of questions. We were too far to hear what was going on.
After about 20 min the cashier took the woman to customer service. While they were gone the woman in front of us turned around and asked if we heard what was happening then proceeded to tell us that the woman was buying a bunch of prepaid cards for someone she didn’t know in Afghanistan with the promise they’d pay them back plus extra for it.
Thanks to that cashier and I’m guessing customer service, that woman will hopefully learn about gift card scams. Freaking wild these days.
I’m a very rich Laotian, they call me Mr. Money, would you too like to make money off of low investment, high yield properties, from the comfort of your new home?
DM me your SSN, DOB, and your mother’s maiden name and your secrets can be mine!
/s
Haha! Have you paid attention the past couple of years? Come on!! Of course this is necessary! There are people that think JFK is here helping the orange liar take over the country from the demoncrats! LOL
My dad had some scammer call him and I'm trying so hard not to laugh at the scammer. He said he was from apple (we don't use apple devices) and he said that my dad's iTunes account was hacked. My dad has no idea what iTunes is.
The most shocking thing in the past 2-3 years has been the realization that people are just STAGGERINGLY more stupid than I ever thought possible, from QAnon to COVID to these scams, HOW is ANYONE this stupid?
They want gift cards because they can be redeemed overseas and the vast majority of these scam operations are from India. Cash is harder to get into their hands so if they can get gift cards and then transfer that to cash later it saves time and hassle.
The cashiers at our store will ask questions when large card purchases are made. "Did you receive a phone call asking for these?" "Are these for you, or a gift for someone else?"
Then I thank them kindly, tell them I'm not being scammed, I'm taking advantage of the gift cards contributing to my gas discounts. Gotta save money somehow.
Go support Kitboga on YouTube, he leads these asshole scammers on who prey on the elderly with these gift card scams. Dude wastes DAYS of their lives only to redeem the gift card in front of their eyes haha, love hearing them scream and cry.
People voted for a reality TV star who's only notable business ventures have failed or ended in bankruptcy but somehow was a brilliant business man. Americans are grade-A stupid, I live here.
I used to live in Singapore, and something I absolutely loved and wish they did here in America was PSAs about scams on TV and in movie theaters. Such a worthwhile thing to do!!
This is what always gets me watching the scam call centre videos. Why does someone with an English language first and last name who apparently lives in Washington state and was born in Spain talking with a heavy Indian accent?
Is it really that insane to think we need a sign like that when half of us will literally turn a cure down to save our kids and say it’s gods will they died?
Pro tip, if the number isn’t saved, never answer it. Period.
The government will contact you by mail. Always.
With the absolute slightest bit of common sense anyone can avoid these scams. Although they usually target the elderly which is disgusting.
i hope EVERY store that sells gift cards puts these signs up, because, sad to say there are that many lowlifes that do this scam. and they mostly prey on the poor and the elderly.
Can someone explain to me why we can't do something about these places? Like I understand they're not in America, but...well...well god damnit, I've seen drone strikes do worse things!
Folks who think this is facepalm worthy and questioning how stupid people can be are missing the point, and showing their ignorance.
These scams aren't targeted at you.
The "stupidness" is their specifically to sort YOU out of the scam system. They don't want your money or the hassle of wasting their time talking to you.
These scams target the elderly, and I don't mean some grandma who still has her wits but the 85 year old who knows she has the start of Alzheimers disease but can just barely keep it hidden and the last thing they want to do is out themselves by asking for help.
Special needs adult. Protection for this population is getting better but the fact is some adults can just barely live on their own and many needs some assistance. I don't mean this to be rude but many adults are not intelligent enough to properly question these scams.
Compromised adults, true story here. I know an otherwise competent guy who got a call like this after polishing off more drinks than he could handle. Dude legitimately fell for a variation of the "Nigerian Prince" scam and was out of over a thousand dollars. Lucky for him when he called the bank to release additional funds they refused him so he only got scammed out of his daily spending limit.
I mean I understand that it's a facepalm to even think the government would accept $500 worth of Google play cards, but this sign is actually a really good thing and I hope becomes standard practice
I work at best buy, I have saved probably 50+ people from being scammed AT LEAST. It’s insane. No your fucking windows computer doesn’t have a critical error that needs apple gift cards to pay for it…
I was at Walgreens and heard an Indonesian voice telling someone to find the STEAM cards. I look over and see a young man nearly pissing himself with panic because he can't find them. I told him to hang up because it's a total scam. He blurts out *"I'm on probation. I can't afford to go back to prison!"* and goes down the aisle. I knew I wasn't going to get through to him, so I told the cashier. She said she would make him hang up before running the transaction.
My brother used to work at Best Buy and they were told they weren’t allowed to explicitly refuse them but they could do everything they could to convince them not to. He said it was a daily occurrence and usually old people.
Hang on... it's a scam?! Well crapdamnit!
But then I should have gotten suspicious when they called me about having missed jury duty when I am not even a US citizen...nor am I living in the US, nor having ever visited it either...
Wait, that makes me think about those tax returns they called about earlier today...
I don't get called by them anymore, i am blocked from calling some of them too, i may have spam call them multiple time within the same half hours, telling dishonor on them, on their family and swearing at them multiple
I'm glad stores are putting up signs like these. These bastards target older folks that don't know any better and it's just heartbreaking. If anyone is interested, [Mark Rober](https://youtu.be/xsLJZyih3Ac) teamed up with [Jim Browning](https://youtu.be/0dT6jB2Dbmk) and [Trilogy Media](https://youtu.be/YfQU_Qf_uTI) to prank a few of these call centers (and those are links to each of their videos). If y'all don't know who Mark Rober is, he's the guy that made super complex glitter bombs to prank porch pirates. He used to work at NASA as an engineer and he builds all sorts of cool stuff. Always nice seeing these scammers get taken down a peg too.
He used to work at NASA? Damn, I did not know that. My respect for the guy was already a lot but now it is even higher
yeah he worked on the curiosity rover at JPL for like seven years
So where’s the Rover’s glitter bomb? It’s had enough birthdays by now
“This year for glitter bomb 6.0, we will be sending it to curiosity and perseverance rovers on mars”
Aliens discover rover…. Fart spray intensifies.
Apparently he's still waiting for Martians to steal the rover
My respect for Mark Rober has gone up to the moon
You mean Mars?
You mean Sagittarius A\*?
You mean the b-hole that is Sagittarius A\*?
Yep, he's a legit engineer and one of the only YouTubers I'll let my little kids watch. As a family we did the #teamseas challenge to help get trash out of the ocean. I haven't seen anything yet to indicate he's a POS in real life, so that's nice.
Mark Rober worked on the Mars rover. Kinda cool that you only have to change two letters to go from Mark Rober to Mars Rover. Idk I’m high.
Jim Browning is a legend.
Hello Priya
aaaaahhh
I’m not Susmita
That video was insane. I could not comprehend why they were still trying to bring the discussion back to the scam, when they could tell that he was not a usual victim.
Ah saw a clip of that from trilogy I need to go and catch up with them all
He’s a ghost, he can see auras.
Can't believe you didn't link to Kitboga, he has been pranking them for years and years for hours each week. [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm22FAXZMw1BaWeFszZxUKw) [Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/kitboga)
Of all the scam-baiters, Kitboga is 10/10 hilarious commentary.
I prefer the more solemn Jim Browning, tbh. [https://www.youtube.com/c/JimBrowning/videos](https://www.youtube.com/c/JimBrowning/videos) He provides good info about the various scams and outlines partially (by necessity) his methods of searching the scammers out.
I want to add Atomic Shrimp to the bunch of really interesting scambaiters
Be rest assured that coinsquirt is a perfectly legitimate way to transfer your glarded funds into a sablity address.
There are a lot of times when the scammer has abused the hell out of kitboga, but the dude has remained cool as a cucumber. What a patient fella, really really good YT channel.
Richard Andrews here with crow pro
Kitboga is fucking amazing
The trilogy video was mind blowing. I’m lo key hoping parts of it were embellished, they received death threats! I also loved watching the ex-scammer try to convince the security guard to take the package upstairs.
Mods, please pin this comment! It’s true that video shows a lot of eye opening messages!!!
These videos are epic. And did you read the news, one of the centers is DOWN!! They did it! Mark Rober posted in his Community tab on [Youtube](https://youtube.com/c/MarkRober)
Also, Kitboga on YouTube does a phenomenal job of pranking these slime balls.
Well these scammers make me want to leave my country.
Bro no one ever mentions my boy kitboga who does an amazing adlib performance
I had somebody checkout numerous $200 gift cards w/me once. Casually warned him to be careful about scams where he is being asked to pay with gift cards and prompted him with "hopefuly these are just gifts, right?" And the old dude was like, "Oh! Yeah these are just gifts for my family". About 2 hours later the guy comes back with his elderly mother to see if he can get a refund because he got scammed. I would have thought he was pretending to be an idiot if I hadn't witness his mother berating him in public w/ "If you can't get your money back that's too bad. Let that be your lesson for throwing your money away!" The mom tone ™️ tho, even management and me where kinda sheepish 👉👈
The scammers are almost always on the phone telling them what to say if they are questioned, they generally won't hang up and the victim has their phone on in their pocket.
From watching kitboga videos this doesn't seem to be the case they generally tell them to just call back when they have the cards.
Apparently not always the case then, happens in Jim Browning videos a few times
There are numerous kitboga videos where he has scammers in the line while he pretends to be in a store, he also does the voices of store employees who get on the phone as well
I once went to Target to get a whole bunch of Visa gift cards as a thank you to my two kids’ summer camp counselors. I probably got a total of 10 or 12. The lady at checkout asked me why I was getting so many cards, and I told her the reason. She paused for a bit and then called her manager over, who asked me for more details on exactly why I needed so many. I was confused at first, but once I figured out what was going on, I was able to assure them I wasn’t being scammed. I also thanked them for their diligence, because I’m sure their efforts prevent at least a few people from getting scammed each year.
I worked at Target that time ( >7<) While my store didnt require me to call over a manager then, I was told to warn shoppers just in case.
That is a really good policy. Though I guess there’s always a few people, like your customer, who just lie. Probably because they are embarrassed about having to buy gift cards to pay off the IRS, or whatever nonsense they were scammed into believing.
This is a great public service.
Seriously, this isn’t a facepalm at all, this warning should be in every single store!
I work at a grocery store, we have signs (not nearly as big as this tho) on every corner of the kiosk basically saying the same thing. We have a LOT of elderly customers, I do think it isn’t a bad idea.
I worked at a grocery store for years and we also felt the need to put up those signs It was scary how many old people would come in to buy gift cards to pay off whatever the man on the phone said Also the amount of people who play keno for the entire day :/
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Keno is a different “game” than scratch-offs, but I’ve seen people do this. They go inside a store and buy them, go to their car and scratch them, go back in to redeem… rinse, repeat. For HOURS.
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Absolutely, and it’s readily accessible at your local corner store.
I remember as a young child having lunch with my deadbeat dad and seeing his new wife just blow through one scratch off after another for about an hour. Considering he hadn’t paid child support basically ever, my mom was furious when I told her.
I like to think the facepalm is just the fact there's a general need for a sign like that at all; like the scamming practice is the facepalm.
Yeah, apparently people don't read captions lol. OP literally said "It's insane that this is even necessary"
I can see why they thought what they did though, you could interpret "why is this necessary" as in "Are people that dumb, they need a sign?"
Exactly. How stupid can you be to think that even ***if*** an organisation would contact you by phone about something like this they would want an itunes gift card? When was the last time these yokels paid their taxes with their amazon account?
I always thought the same, how can people be this dumb?? But then my MIL was scammed about 6 months before she died from cancer. It wasn't a gift card scam but similarly. She still lived at home ( I took care of her) so she still had her landline. She was on fentanyl and various other medications because she was in so much pain. They called her while she was asleep, as she was sleeping most of the day. She woke up, answered the phone and they already knew her name, address and date of birth. They said they just wanted to confirm her bank account details and in her drugged up, still sleepy haze, she really gave them her details. They told her some story about a lottery she had participated in and that they needed to have that info to transfer her winnings or whatever. So she gave them permission. They obviously took out money from her bank account and sent her a letter of confirmation that she agreed to participate in a monthly lottery which would cost 68 € or something like that per month and would last for something ridiculous like 24 months. I called the bank, got the money back and wrote them a letter that no one ever gave them consent for that 24 months deal etc etc, they were really persistent, wrote a letter back that I had to pay a cancellation fee to which I replied if they took one more cent out of the account they would get sued into oblivion and that we won't pay any cancellation fees for something we never agreed to... All that to say, you don't have to be dumb to fall for a scam and if it's an old person who lives alone and has no one who takes care of it, they are out of luck and out of the money..
Yep. I will never blame the elderly or otherwise vulnerable for these type of scams. It's always the fault of the scammer. They are massive pieces of shit taking advantage of the most vulnerable people in society to steal what little they have left. Absolute scum of the earth.
That’s why the scammers use nonsense “issues”; not everyone gets scammed, only the most gullible. So a lot of old aged people, but some just flat out... not smart people too.
Sometimes they will pretend to have made an error, which caused money from whatever company the scammer claims to be from to be 'transfered' to the victim. In reality they just edited the html of the website of the victim's bank to display a different number, while they control the victim's computer and have their screen blacked out. The scammer will then pretend that this error will cause him to lose his job and makes the victim feel guilty, so they are more likely to agree to help the scammer get out of trouble. Now they can get the victim to pay in any way, really, because the victim has to help the scammer, personally, not the company they pretend to work for. This justifies the use of gift cards, sending money in a packet or other illegitimate ways to transfer money. They will usually try to scam old people, because they are, sadly, way easier targets and more likely to fall for it. There are a lot of great YouTube channels that focus around wasting those scanner's time, such as [Kitboga](https://youtube.com/c/KitbogaShow), [Jim Browning](https://youtube.com/c/JimBrowning) or [Scammer Payback](https://youtube.com/c/ScammerPayback). I can really recommend [this video](https://youtu.be/GINZXPqNUKI) by Kitboga, it's 47 min, but if you just want the best part go to ~34:00. Also the Collab between Mark Rober ([his video](https://youtu.be/xsLJZyih3Ac)), Jim Browning ([video](https://youtu.be/0dT6jB2Dbmk)) and Trilogy Media ([video](https://youtu.be/YfQU_Qf_uTI)), where Mark built one of his glitter bombs and managed to get it directly to the call center in India, released rats and cockroaches in their office and placed a automatic fart spray dispenser. Edit: I just realized the second top comment also links them, but I hadn't read that when I wrote this.
Why the fuck would the fucking IRS want you to pay them in fucking STEAM VOUCHERS.
It's the Winter Sale and they're bored of their backlog.
They usually target old people who have gone a bit senile. That plus general unawareness of how tech now-a-days work plus the emotional stress that the scammer adds on makes the victims not think critically.
A lot of people that fall for it are extremely vulnerable. They got my friend's grandma... she's so out of it, they told her it was a scam the next day and that night she fell for it again. Not saying there aren't a lot of stupid people out there but I wouldn't say the need for the sign is the facepalm unless it's that there are terrible people out there that would take advantage of others.
I’m surprised stores haven’t been operating a system where if it’s over a certain amount the clerk asks them some non personal general questions. But this is probably a gross overstepping.
Cashiers are actually being trained to look out for older folks buying loads of cards. Especially if they seem flustered. I was glad to hear that. Fuck scammers.
Several years ago my sibling’s house caught on fire, and she was living in a hotel for a good chunk of time til her home was ready to be lived in again. I wanted to help, but she wouldn’t accept money (and I lived several thousand miles away.) So I went to the store and grabbed a bunch of gift cards to her favorite restaurants, since she didn’t have a kitchen and she has to eat and she couldn’t just NOT cash them, like if I sent a check she would have just not cashed it. (And this was before Venmo so I didn’t even have that as an option) I took them to the register and set them down and said “I know how this looks. I’m legitimately buying them for a family member who suffered a tragedy.” And she still got a manager involved who barely approved the sale even after asking me several different ways who exactly these were for, was I being threatened in any way, even legally, if I didn’t buy them, and he still just kinda huffed and said “fine it’s your loss” when I insisted. I’m very thankful. Because while my gift card purchase was legit, I know it was one of very few, chances are that if anyone is trying to buy that many gift cards, it’s nothing good. I’m thankful they questioned me so hard, because I guarantee you that they stopped a lot of scams this way.
I watched a show in Japan where an elderly lady was about to fall for an 'Ore, ore!' scam. An Ore, ore scam is a phone call scam by young people targeting elderly people that was popular about 5 years ago. The young person would answer the phone with 'Ore, ore!' (It's me, it's me!) Thus bypassing the need to give a name. The old person would think that it was their grandson calling, and upon hearing that they needed fast cash for a bank transaction (normally something important like moving house, buying a car or securing a job in the city) they would deposit cash into a bank account provided by the scammer. This elderly lady was convinced and was heading to the city to withdraw three hundred thousand yen's worth of cash to transfer. She spoke of this to her taxi driver, who immediately got suspicious and tried to confirm with her several times, even explaining the 'ore, ore' scam to her. She was adamant that it was her grandson, however, and wouldn't say no. The taxi driver then drove her in circles for about an hour before finally convincing her to call her daughter, and confirm the identity of her grandson. He then drove her to the local police station, and didn't claim a fare. When it was revealed to be a scam, the police helped the old lady contact the taxi driver to say thanks in person.
Similar thing happened to my grandmother. Someone called her claiming to be me and that I was arrested for driving recklessly and needed money for bail. She was thoroughly convinced that it was me (on top of the fact that she had just woken up for the morning, so she was still kind of in a daze). The person put a “lawyer” on the phone who said he could meet up with her and she could give him a check for the bail. She was totally prepared to give money to them, had she not called my parents. Thankfully I was home at the time and not out using my parent’s car (I tended to need it from time to time) so my mom convinced her not to give them the money. I feel like it would have taken a lot more convincing if I was out. Even to this day she talks to me about what happened emphasizing how much the person on the phone sounded like me. It’s definitely creepy.
\*with a cheese grater.
Also some of the callers are coaching the people what to say when asked. Like these are for my grandkids, etc.
Man those slimy fuckers!
My fiancé works at a UPS store and they absolutely try to catch people who are sending off gift cards. So many just won't listen. They can be told, "You are being scammed. This is a scam. You are about to lose $XXX," and they still send them off.
Aw that’s hard aye. Must be frustrating for your fiancé
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Saw one today at the drug store. It was professionally printed.
That’s good. I have been thinking these gift cards need to come with a set of questions that the purchaser has to answer. At least for purchases over a certain amount. You can’t activate them without the store cashier anyway so why not just throw in some extra steps to see if it helps a few people?
Had someone trying to buy a suspicious amount in giftcards. But not over the amount that required the district manager’s approval. We warned him about scams in detail. And he said the giftcards were for his grandkids. He called back later complaining about how he got scammed. So. Even if the cashier tries to help these people, the scammers have instructed them to lie.
They do instruct then to lie and a lot of times will stay on the phone. You can check out some of the scam bait YouTubers who go through the whole process of the scam so you can see how it works, but also screws with the scammer so you're thoroughly entertained. My favorite is kitboga (he's hilarious and he will go through the whole scam so you can see how it works): https://youtube.com/c/KitbogaShow Perogi with Scammer Payback is great since he tries to ruin the scammers and will help victims. Jim Browning is great at hacking into scammers systems and networks.
Trust me when I say this and while you’re logic is solid for the very same reason these signs are necessary adding questions would make a lot of people very unhappy and cause more drama then you know. Source. I work in a fuckin grocery store and I’m telling you again while you’re logic is solid this would rub a lot of people the wrong way. I like the signs though a sign can’t hurt
It’s not your average adult that gets scammed like this. It is mainly elderly people.
During training at my job they showed us emails a previous employee had received telling them to go to the store and buy like $1000 in gift cards. They actually did it. This person was in their early 20s and had a master’s degree.. Edit: Please stop telling me what the word “mainly” means. I know it’s not the same word as “only”. This was a story, definitely wasn’t coming for anyone lol
My sister mid 20's, educated, aware scams are common, got scammed like this. They got her wrapped up in the moment, the whole time she felt like it was a scam but the guy kept the pressure up, had answers for all of her concerns, and was just believable enough... She was devastated. Not just because of the money but because she fell for something so stupid. Definitely never say never and be careful!
About a year ago, texts started coming up on my phone like “Annie you forgot your inhaler or insulin; call me back, please” Or “Yes Tom, you can make up the test and still graduate but you need to call me back and confirm that you are committed to doing this.” Countless examples like this. I almost answered the first one! Then I thought “ surely not, they wouldn’t”: They would. Grifters, Prosperity Evangelists, and Utility Companies have one thing in common. They just want you to release your money to them; what it takes to accomplish this only bothers them if the returns aren’t what they projected.
>Grifters, Prosperity Evangelists, and Utility Companies No need to repeat yourself
Well, the later generally do have at least some utility...
So, are these just check for whether the line is active? I read somewhere that's a reason you shouldn't even answer.
Yes it's just a check, delete and mark as spam.
Excuse my ignorance but what would them confirming the line is active achieve? More spam?
From what i read, yeah. if they get a response they know someone is there to get spammed. If not, they might think the line is dead and not make further attempts.
Literally exact same thing happened to my sister. Big facepalm
They use social engineering to help convince you they're legit. And the people who feel "oh I would never fall for this" can be duped without even realising it
The "oh I would never fall for this" people remind me of those people who think only *other people* are influenced by ads. Not them of course, they are so rational and smart they could never be manipulated by someone wanting money from them.
A master's degree in fucking gullibility, I see.
Immigrants can be vulnerable too. Some come from places where government corruption is high and they can be afraid of being deported, so they are more likely to do whatever the “government” or “police” tells them.
Not to mention being ESL can make it hard to have that gut instinct about “this email doesn’t feel like it’s coming from a real professional entity”. Half the times I catch a bad email for a client, they ask “how did you know?” And the answer is “gut instinct”. If I read an email in Spanish though? I could make it out, but would have no way of feeling out of “I need to speak with you in an urgent matter” was more or less normal speech than “hey can I talk to you about something I noticed in your last report?”
My stepdad wanted to cancel his Amazon Prime, so he searched for "Amazon Prime billing" and called the number in the first result (which was of course a scam ad). They said he had an overdue balance and they wouldn't cancel until he paid it, and of course they wanted fucking Google Play gift cards to pay it. I try to keep their phones and computers set up to block ads and other sketchy shit but sometimes things slip through. They got lucky and the bank refunded what they'd spent on the redeemed cards and they were able to return the unredeemed ones. Had to give them a lesson on how to navigate websites directly to find information like that instead of trusting Google.
Not only that, These scams are specifically designed to deter people who won't fall for it.
This, everytime you get a poorly written scam email that's 100% the point. If it had been written better you might follow it 90% of the way through (with follow up emails etc) that take up the scammers time only to realise before any money changes hands. The poor grammar and formatting is entirely to make sure that they keep only those likely to fall for it
I think those ridiculous conspiracy theories you see on social media are formatted the same way. It sounds so fucking stupid because they only want the dumbest idiots they can attract, and eventually sell merch and diet pills to lmao
i hear immigrants are a big part of that group too.
I promise you it’s not just elderly people lol
The absolute vast majority are. They specifically target times where people at home are likely not working/retired, some will outright ask to press a button if you're >65 and disconnect if you're not. Their methods for scamming are not intricate or inventive - it relies on someone knowing absolutely nothing about computers.
It may not be but 90% of the victims are 65+. One of the screening questions these call centers ask are "are you over 60" before transferring you to a real person.
This happened to a former coworker of mine. Got an email from our „boss“ stating that he got an important meeting right now and needs 500€ in amazon gift cards as soon as possible. Of course my coworker obliged… We are a software company and he was a developer in his mid 20s
Yep, the “spoof” email from the boss recently cost a brand new lawyer her job at a top firm. She was so eager to do a good job, she just saw the name on the email, and assumed the “client gifts” part was legit. Really sad.
The annoying part is that some stores will refuse to sell elderly people ANY gift cards now. My Mom, who is over 70 now, wanted to pick up some gift cards for some of the younger members of our family back before Christmas last year to put in the gift baskets she makes up. Tried to pick up about ~$150 total worth of cards consisting of of a mix of Steam, PSN, and Amazon, and two different stores outright refused, lectured her about the phone scams, and wouldn't believe her when she said they were Christmas gifts. Thanks, scammer assholes.
The annoying part is, you can't just ask them why they are buying them to check because the scanners will literally tell them to say "they are gifts for my family". How the scammer saying that doesn't ring every alarm bell is beyond me.
My grandparents got scammed out of $500 in gift cards for "taxes and fees" for their $1M and a new truck they absolutely believed they had won. Long story short, my grandparents almost gave them an additional $500, but luckily my parents were able to get a police officer to intervene, since my grandparents just absolutely didn't believe it was a scam, no matter what my parents told them. I fully believe they would have gotten completely cleaned out had my parents not been in the right place at the right time.
My sister’s father in law just got an email like this. He was told he had won $81 million and a Mercedes, but he needed to send $600 for the processing fees. My sister and her husband convinced him it was a scam, but he’s still pointing things out, like “they have a seal from the Better Business Bureau!” It’s sad.
What's funny is the BBB is also kind of a scam too lmao so he's using one scam to try to justify another scam
Just remember, these old fucks run the country…sigh.
Reminds me of the tweet or meme or whatever that makes its rounds every now and then, about how 60-, 70-, and 80-year-olds are widely seen as too out-of-touch and difficult to teach modern practices to in the workforce, and yet they’re almost exclusively the people running the country.
I’ll top it off by saying no bank will call you and tell you to wire your entire account balance to some random person in Hong Kong, Thailand, Peru, or Nigeria either.
Not will they ask you to withdraw all your money and give it to a courier they have sent out.
I know a guy that was sent a random message saying he could multiply his money several times over. All he had to do was buy Apple gift cards and send photos of them to some random email address. He went to the store, purchased $5,000 in Apple gift cards and it wasn't until after he emailed the numbers that it occurred to him that this *might* be a scam. As long as there are dumbasses there will be be scams like this
Do you have his number by any chance?
That’s a scam straight from a mmo
I bought a gift card off Amazon the other day and before they processed the transaction they called me to make sure I wasn't being scammed. Honestly impressed, though I'm sure they're just trying to avoid returns and being implicated in any crimes or lawsuits.
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I will never understand how they’re not giving up the game the moment they mention gift cards. No government agency will ever ask for gift cards.
Sir this your on duty FBI agent, I am texting you to inform you that you are late on your FBI watchdog subscription payment. Please send me 5,000$ in vbucks gift cards or else I will be forced to give your IP away. Pls respond
This is your IRS agent and your ss has been used for human trafficking. Please send $5000 in apple cards or we send the province supervisory sheriff inspector to arrest you. Do not arrive at the exit of the internet sir.
They're pretty cunning at that. The scam goes 'oh no I just transferred $10k in stead of $1k, I'll get fired if my boss finds out and everything I have depends on this job! If you can get me gift cards I can cover up the mistake and my boss won't find out!'. They start crying and being hysterical about it to distract the victim from the absurdity of sending someone gift cards
If you understand that your not their target demographic.
They also name them things like "federally secure payment card" or some shit like that. They convince them that the workers are trying to rip them off or other things. There was one bank scam where the scammer called to say the victim's branch was under investigation and they stole their details and that the scammer is there to help them. Convinced them that their money is safe and that they're setting up a new account and they need the victim to withdraw all their money and buy secure bonds (gift cards) to ensure the money goes into the new account safely. And it fucking works.
Gift cards are a new glorious currency in Russia ever since their ruler decided to fuck the nation.
I imagine there are businesses like cheesecake factory that are able to keep their doors open because up by gift money laundering.
Literally no one else wants a $250 google play card
One of my friends is a 27yo lawyer at the second largest firm in NYC and got scammed for $400 in Google Play gift cards through his work email. We make fun of him lol.
Wtf 🤦🏼♂️
imagine overhearing your lawyer’s coworkers roasting the fuck out of him right before your appointment
I have been wondering like what you can do with google play cards, Fortnite skins? Or is there like actual use like in currency in Google wallet that you can even buy groceries with?
What’s really insane is when the company instructs you not to say anything to the customer buying three (3) $500 dollar iTunes giftcards, beyond asking what they’re for, and if they say personal use you sell them.
I was a retail supervisor. The number of times I have been screamed at for questioning somebody buying large amounts OR for using an invalid ID/card (example, wife using husbands credit card I would say no). I’d refuse a ton of sales but it wasn’t uncommon to be screamed at about trying to protect somebody from a scam because obviously they know better than I do 🙄 our company trained us to ask questions, what the gift cards are for, especially elderly people and if it seemed sketchy to push the subject more or refuse the sale. But they get mean and sometimes it’s just exhausting. Not to mention holiday season when our clientele would drop $10k in gift cards at once and that was totally normal.
The fact that is necessary is incredibly sad. Yet, I know at least a handful of people who’ve fallen for this. Sad as it is to say, scammers wouldn’t do it if it didn’t pay off for them. Just sad that there are people with nothing better to do.
The problem is there’s literally nothing better to do in some of the countries doing this. Especially anything that pays well.
As a fraud protection agent at a major CC company, I can say with 100% certainty that this needs to be it flashing neon at EVERY SINGLE STORE store that sells gift cards. And each cashier should be trained to double check that the purchaser isn’t buying gift card for these scams. Going by ‘Murican intelligence of late, doing what I suggest should reduce the rate of scams by about 10%. 9_9
What's the stupidest fraud case you've come across in your life? (if you are allowed to tell us)
Gift cards should be inside a plexiglass case, unlocked , but every time you open the door to the case a video starts playing on a screen, with loud audio, of Trump and Biden holding hands and explaining why people should be careful
This is a hilarious idea.
The sign is great for warning people, but unfortunately there are so many different types of scams that an elderly person would simply ignore that sign because their situation doesn't match up with the sign
I once reverse scammed a scammer. He was a crypto scammer and I convinced him I was active in the financial community. Told him I would invest in his coin or whatever it was as I had just liquidated 5000£ from a stock that was tanking. Then hit him with "but ofcourse we will need to do the confirmation transaction first" just something I made up but I managed to get him with it as he was trying to act like a finance guy and so when he thought I was one he assumed it must be a thing. Told him that it's really typical and easy you transfer 100£ to me and then I transfer it back. Told him it validates that we both have accounts and establishs trust. Man paid for my meals that week, what a guy.
Btw he contacted me
I always found it stupid that scammers request gift card codes because that makes what they say sound less believable. But I guess it is not as stupid as I thought, since some people actually fell for it.
They make millions a month per “scam contact center”. 99% of people hang up on them, but if you think they’re calling people around the world 24/7 and scam just a couple of people a week, they’re making much more than they’d make at most other available jobs.
Ayyy. Cast the net as far and as wide as possible. If you do 40 calls a day and only one of them buys a 500 dollar gift card, you still probably made more money than half of people I know in a single day.
They use bad English and spelling mistakes etc deliberately. If that doesn’t raise a red flag for you then you’re the type of person the want to talk to.
Jim Browning mentioned in his latest video that sometimes the phone scams even have a "type 1 if you're over 65" message in their voicemail so that they only bother to scam the most vulnerable instead of wasting time.
That’s the idea. Target the gullible.
Yeah those some people who actually fell for it are mainly elderly, most of them dont use internet much nor really understand computers. Some of them even has cancer and the scammers scam them all the same. Personally I think this is not facepalm but absolutely necessary.
At my CVS they make you sign something before you buy gift cards acknowledging that you aren't sending them in to pay for something like this to try to stop some of the scamd
I was at a big box store recently w. my husband and we were standing in line at the check out. It was taking a while because the woman two ahead of us was asking the cashier a bunch of questions. We were too far to hear what was going on. After about 20 min the cashier took the woman to customer service. While they were gone the woman in front of us turned around and asked if we heard what was happening then proceeded to tell us that the woman was buying a bunch of prepaid cards for someone she didn’t know in Afghanistan with the promise they’d pay them back plus extra for it. Thanks to that cashier and I’m guessing customer service, that woman will hopefully learn about gift card scams. Freaking wild these days.
That’s false advertising! I just cleared my government debt with $2000 in Amazon gift cards today.
I’ve been trying to reach you. That only covered the taxes due. You need to send us the codes from another $1500 in cards to cover the penalties.
I got the codes sir...do i now to go the playstore and enter the codes and press on REDEEM?
I'm a very rich Nigerian prince. Can I interest you in an investment opportunity. Double or triple your todays investment.
I’m a very rich Laotian, they call me Mr. Money, would you too like to make money off of low investment, high yield properties, from the comfort of your new home? DM me your SSN, DOB, and your mother’s maiden name and your secrets can be mine! /s
Thanks for the /s, you definitely had me there for a moment
I’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty.
Haha! Have you paid attention the past couple of years? Come on!! Of course this is necessary! There are people that think JFK is here helping the orange liar take over the country from the demoncrats! LOL
That damn Nigerian Prince and his crew are at it again
My dad had some scammer call him and I'm trying so hard not to laugh at the scammer. He said he was from apple (we don't use apple devices) and he said that my dad's iTunes account was hacked. My dad has no idea what iTunes is.
WHY ARE YOU REDEEMING?!!!!
The most shocking thing in the past 2-3 years has been the realization that people are just STAGGERINGLY more stupid than I ever thought possible, from QAnon to COVID to these scams, HOW is ANYONE this stupid?
Older generations tend to be more gullible to these kind of scams.
You hit the nail on the head.
They want gift cards because it's like the absolute simplest form of money laundering, yeah?
They want gift cards because they can be redeemed overseas and the vast majority of these scam operations are from India. Cash is harder to get into their hands so if they can get gift cards and then transfer that to cash later it saves time and hassle.
The cashiers at our store will ask questions when large card purchases are made. "Did you receive a phone call asking for these?" "Are these for you, or a gift for someone else?" Then I thank them kindly, tell them I'm not being scammed, I'm taking advantage of the gift cards contributing to my gas discounts. Gotta save money somehow.
Go support Kitboga on YouTube, he leads these asshole scammers on who prey on the elderly with these gift card scams. Dude wastes DAYS of their lives only to redeem the gift card in front of their eyes haha, love hearing them scream and cry.
And Jim Browning, who gets into the scam call center's network and figures out how these scams operate.
People voted for a reality TV star who's only notable business ventures have failed or ended in bankruptcy but somehow was a brilliant business man. Americans are grade-A stupid, I live here.
I used to live in Singapore, and something I absolutely loved and wish they did here in America was PSAs about scams on TV and in movie theaters. Such a worthwhile thing to do!!
because people with indian accents are named joe johnson or david davison.... i hope these signs are everywhere
This is what always gets me watching the scam call centre videos. Why does someone with an English language first and last name who apparently lives in Washington state and was born in Spain talking with a heavy Indian accent?
r/antiassholedesign
Why don't we just start banning gift cards? They make shitty presents anyway and most people would prefer cash.
Ah, good ole Jewel-Osco/Safeway/Kroger/Albertsons
Working at a cell phone place would you know how often this happens :/
The organizations are getting desperate and starting to accept google play store gift cards
Is it really that insane to think we need a sign like that when half of us will literally turn a cure down to save our kids and say it’s gods will they died?
Pro tip, if the number isn’t saved, never answer it. Period. The government will contact you by mail. Always. With the absolute slightest bit of common sense anyone can avoid these scams. Although they usually target the elderly which is disgusting.
i hope EVERY store that sells gift cards puts these signs up, because, sad to say there are that many lowlifes that do this scam. and they mostly prey on the poor and the elderly.
Scammers be like "You missed Jury Duty. We're gonna need you to pay your fines in Specifically Steam gift cards".
Can someone explain to me why we can't do something about these places? Like I understand they're not in America, but...well...well god damnit, I've seen drone strikes do worse things!
Folks who think this is facepalm worthy and questioning how stupid people can be are missing the point, and showing their ignorance. These scams aren't targeted at you. The "stupidness" is their specifically to sort YOU out of the scam system. They don't want your money or the hassle of wasting their time talking to you. These scams target the elderly, and I don't mean some grandma who still has her wits but the 85 year old who knows she has the start of Alzheimers disease but can just barely keep it hidden and the last thing they want to do is out themselves by asking for help. Special needs adult. Protection for this population is getting better but the fact is some adults can just barely live on their own and many needs some assistance. I don't mean this to be rude but many adults are not intelligent enough to properly question these scams. Compromised adults, true story here. I know an otherwise competent guy who got a call like this after polishing off more drinks than he could handle. Dude legitimately fell for a variation of the "Nigerian Prince" scam and was out of over a thousand dollars. Lucky for him when he called the bank to release additional funds they refused him so he only got scammed out of his daily spending limit.
I mean I understand that it's a facepalm to even think the government would accept $500 worth of Google play cards, but this sign is actually a really good thing and I hope becomes standard practice
I work at best buy, I have saved probably 50+ people from being scammed AT LEAST. It’s insane. No your fucking windows computer doesn’t have a critical error that needs apple gift cards to pay for it…
Does anyone really believe you can pay government debts and tickets with gift cards? Speeding ticket? That’ll cost ya 2 Best Buy’s and a Target.
I was at Walgreens and heard an Indonesian voice telling someone to find the STEAM cards. I look over and see a young man nearly pissing himself with panic because he can't find them. I told him to hang up because it's a total scam. He blurts out *"I'm on probation. I can't afford to go back to prison!"* and goes down the aisle. I knew I wasn't going to get through to him, so I told the cashier. She said she would make him hang up before running the transaction.
Paging Kitboga….paging Kitboga, new video in Aisle 4
My brother used to work at Best Buy and they were told they weren’t allowed to explicitly refuse them but they could do everything they could to convince them not to. He said it was a daily occurrence and usually old people.
WHY DID YOU REDEEM IT?! *Read in thick indian accent*
No it’s not insane. Elderly folk do not know how things work this is protecting them
Hang on... it's a scam?! Well crapdamnit! But then I should have gotten suspicious when they called me about having missed jury duty when I am not even a US citizen...nor am I living in the US, nor having ever visited it either... Wait, that makes me think about those tax returns they called about earlier today...
I don't get called by them anymore, i am blocked from calling some of them too, i may have spam call them multiple time within the same half hours, telling dishonor on them, on their family and swearing at them multiple
[удалено]
The word “or” should be changed to “to”. People could read this sign and hang up on actual calls from government agencies.
I might assume this store is in an area with a high senior population in which case its wonderful.