From boatloads of a Nigerian prince’s gold to a “recently departed acquaintance in the Republic of _____” there’s no shortage of schemes designed to hustle anyone who’s gullible enough to think it’s really possible to get rich by giving someone you don’t know all of your banking information.
The latest cons range from using screws to make you think you’ve hung up the nozzle when pumping gas to using RFID readers to steal your confidential credit card information.
Then there are the now time-worn, but surprisingly still effective internet cons that involve fake invoices that look exactly like the real thing. They can come from any company and cover everything from your “Annual Software Protection Plan” to extensions of your car warranty “regardless of the year, make or mileage.”
Sometimes, however, these endlessly inventive scammers are guilty of failing to read the room. They’ve used the dark web to acquire your basic information (it’s for sale out there, trust us), done a bit of work to see some of your browsing history, and generated what they believe to be an enticing invoice that’s designed to set their scam in motion.
The hustle isn’t to get you to pay the invoice, that’s only the hook. The hustle involves the operator you talk with when you call to argue that the invoice isn’t legitimate. The operator’s job is simple: use conversation and your concern to obtain your banking information. It can sound legit. They need your basic banking information (name on account, account and routing numbers) to “make certain the un-authorized funds are promptly refunded to your account.”
If/when they get the information, they’ll likely tell you they will “test” the transaction engine via a debit and re-deposit of $1 to verify the account information. They’ll assure you the entire process is secure end-to-end, then tell you to expect your refund in 24 to 48 hours. They’ll probably give you a toll free number to call if there’s an issue.
You hang up, relieved to have headed off a scammer at the pass. That relief disappearls the instant you check your balances and find out they’ve not only scammed you for that amount, they’ve essentially cleaned out your account.
Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But people are scammed out of hundreds of millions of dollars that way every year using similar hustles.
Fortunately, scammers don’t alway know enough about their “customer,” the company or the alleged product that was supposedly purchased to realize that they’ve blown the whistle on themselves.
That happened to one of our folks earlier this week when a very authentic-looking invoice arrived from Apple. As a longtime Apple user, the invoice appeared to be absolutely authentic. But when we saw what had been supposedly purchased and pre-paid, we burst out laughing.
Rather than waste words explaining, we’ll just let you see the invoice.
Apparently scammers really do believe it’s possible to buy guns online in America. From companies like Apple. For some of us (especially those of us who were sentient during our bicentennial celebration) buying guns online was once true. But those days are long gone.
We’ll keep you posted.
“For some of us (especially those of us who were sentient during our bicentennial celebration) buying guns online was once true. But those days are long gone.”
You can still buy guns on line, I just completed doing so last week. Its just not like it used to be many years ago and its not a direct transaction like buying a book or electronics or ordering from Amazon or from Apple. There is still the shipment to an FFL and background check and transfer processes from there, then there are any state laws to consider also. But you definitely can not buy guns online from Apple.