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another scam- just received a fraudelent Treasury tax refund check. If you dont look closely it appears legit. Then look at the details and its def fake. Delivered by the PO.
I'm sure you probably know AMEX doesn't work that way. They might call to confirm a large purchase if they think it looks suspicious, but they don't need to verify that the person they called to ask about it ( whose contact information and phone number is in their files) is actually the cardholder- they KNOW who you are. And they can credit your account or delete the phony charge just on your word that you didn't make that charge, you don't have to prove it's you.
Of course I know it!
As stated in OP, this was from a friend telling me about a woman from his church that got scammed!
I posted it to remind people and for readers to remind friends what is going on!
Even if the scammer seems to have the banking information, the instructions to deposit money into another bank account to "fix" a scam would set off alarms to me, that something phony is going on here. In the event there actually has been some fraudulant or "funny" activity that's been picked up by financial institution personnel, they don't require the customer to make deposits, or any other action, for that matter, to investigate and remedy the problem.
My favorite is when the scammers request gift cards, and I'm still waiting for the call from my nonexistent "grandson" who calls crying and claims to be in trouble. Lemme at 'em...
The latest twist on the "grandparent scam" as it's called is that the scammers are using AI to alter their voice to sound like your "grandson". They can take any recording of a sentence or two of a person's voice and use AI and an app to alter their own voice to the exact pitch and cadence of your "grandson", friend, cousin, uncle, whatever. So even if you think you recognize the voice, ask for information only they would know or trick them by asking something incorrect and see if they fail to correct you. If you don't have a grandson or cousin, obviously hang up, but if you're worried it really is your cousin Bill, try this...
Example: "Cousin Bill, you're in jail?? Oh no! Should I call Coretta and tell her?" (Your real cousin is married to Louise). If they fall for it, you nailed them. Then hang up.
I got a text last week from my bank about some suspicious activity on my credit card. I started to call the number in the text, but stopped, thinking that it might be a con. I hung up and called the number on my card. It turned out to be a genuine alert, but it was wise to be careful.
I finally read your latest email to *****. She reminded me that years ago she received an email from her first husband, ***** (wonderful guy, we were friends, polymer scientist oddball genius who passed away from ALS in 2021) stating that he was in the Philippines, had had his wallet stolen, and needed us to wire him money. All plausible.
She was just about ready to do so and thought, well, let's check. So she replied and asked "*****, please just tell me how long we were married and how many kids we had (correct answer one year and zero).
No reply to the questions. This scam isn't new and the ability of these ****suckers to obtain the information they have about people is scary.
The scam has gone on for years and years - and been posted about MANY times. I would think most folks know this by now.
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