It just happened to an East Bay school teacher as the school year was winding down. A Wells Fargo imposter swindled her out of $20,000 -- a huge loss -- and worse, she says her real bank didn't try to stop it.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
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.Anyone calls you to wire $20,000 to the bank's fraud dept and you do it, shame on you. Oh, it's a school teacher so that explains it. She was probably distracted by her trying to schedule a drag show for her kindergarten class.
ReplyDelete^^^^this^^^^
DeletePretty much. And THIS is what we have "teaching".
DeleteI have several teachers in my own family and my extended family. None of them impress me.
DeleteAfter observing my landline caller ID for a while now, I've concluded the spamsters/scamsters can make their calls look like they are anybody calling from anywhere, from any number they choose to make it look like they're calling from. We just don't answer. If it's important enough, they can leave a message. They never do.
ReplyDeleteProbably 95% of incoming calls we get are spam/scam. The majority of them come from our area code, mostly from every little town you could possibly imagine within a hundred mile radius. I often wonder if there isn't a live body on the other end that's working for one of those "I'm making $2000 a day from home" scams, but I'm not curious enough to pick up the phone and talk to them, knowing I'd be getting lied to anyway.
Life in the 21st century, I guess. But crap like this sure gets old.
"After observing my landline caller ID for a while now, I've concluded the spamsters/scamsters can make their calls look like they are anybody calling from anywhere . . ."
DeleteNot only that, somehow they know numbers and caller IDs you trust. I worked at Univ of Penn, and some of my docs are there. I get 'University of Penn Health system' all the time from scammers.
This is easy to do when the calling party is using a DS1 or DS3 high bandwith digital line divided into subchannels for multiple outbound operators. The phone company doesn't assign any caller ID data (number or name) to such "virtual lines", as they aren't direct dialable, but the owner of the phone system (usually a large VOIP PBX these days) can enter any data they'd like to be presented to the called party, and that is what will show on the display.
DeleteSo, this is the result of a shortcoming in the technical specification by which caller ID is implemented, and a regulatory failing that makes it possible to do without consequence to either the scammer or the phone co.
All that aside, stupid people need to learn not to be so stupid.
These scams and the warnings against them have been around long enough that no one should fall for it.
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised. We get calls from Lisa's elderly parents all the time saying they just got an email saying their bank account was hacked and they need to click the link to verify their information or some such shit and what should they do?
DeleteNo, Mom. Don't click the link. Call the bank instead.
Just had this happen to my wife. Different outcome though. She strung the guy along while I got Fraud on the phone. No money lost just some aggravation having to create new accounts. Best part was the guy screeching like Achmed the Dead Terrorist that he was going to kill me.
ReplyDelete"If God didn't want 'em to be fleeced, he wouldn't have made them sheep"
ReplyDeleteHow fucking stupid can one person be?
And just think; she's teaching young, impressionable minds to be just as stupid as she is, while being paid $80,000 a year of taxpayer money to do it.
DeleteInteresting point about the victim being a schoolteacher; you'd think that were the teachers actually TEACHING relevant material that she would have known better herself. As for Wells Fargo: this is a great example of why I only use local banks, never the big national ones.
ReplyDeleteLocal bank is going to have the same response- you authorized it, you eat it. And why shouldn't that be the response? You DID authorize it. Yeah, local bank might be more willing to try to fix, and damn sure are more customer focused, but... this is on the teacher who missed a whole bunch of obvious.
DeleteUnfortunately, she didn't minor in The Obvious while in college.
DeleteThey do have courses in The Obvious, Common Sense, Critical Thinking, Logic and How to Balance Your Checkbook at university, don't they?
They didn't when I graduated in 1983, aside from the logic that comes with engineering math and digital logic circuits design.
DeleteBut the big problem is that teachers, school administrators, and social workers are drawn mostly from the stupidest people to make it through college. Except for the kids that are accepted but directly diverted into remedial courses, those applying to college with the worst SAT scores mainly go into social work and school administration majors, and the second-worst go into the major that leads to a teaching certificate. If they make it through (by very hard work on rather simple classes), most will take a GRE (Graduate Record Exam) during their senior year, and the ranking hasn't changed.
That is, the very stupidest people who have somehow managed to complete a 4 year degree are either running the schools or investigating alleged child abuse, and the barely less stupid will be teaching your kids. All of them have been trained beyond their mental ability until all common sense is lost, and most of them will get at least a few post-graduate classes to complete their miseducation and be certified to fudge up at a higher level.
And this idiot is edumacating children? Yeah.
ReplyDeleteReading through my emails yesterday, I see an email from my bank. The email address looked legit. I open it and its asking me to "confirm my personal details by clicking on the button below". Big read square with "Click Here" printed in the box.
ReplyDeleteClosed the email and called the bank.
The person I spoke to told me that " XYZ Bank will never send an email asking to you confirm any details concerning your account". She then instructed me to forward the email to an email address at the bank that investigates fraudulent emails. I asked if the bank would get back me with their findings. She said yes, but it would probably be a few days.
Nemo
I got a text yesterday warning me that my Wells Fargo account had issues, and I needed to click on the provided link to fix it....
ReplyDeleteProblem is, I don't have an account with Wells Fargo, and the link wasnt to Wells Fargo.
Anyone who falls for such a scam should not be considered a competent adult, with the rights to purchase alcohol, firearms, vote, drive....
I thought the best part of the story was Wells Fargo telling her they were "too busy" to help, maybe they thought that would lead to an overdraft fee or six?
ReplyDeleteThat Calcutta accent always gives the game away.
ReplyDeleteI get up to 20 calls a day. Getting closer to medicare/retirement age has really got the number up. If I'm on the road, I try to enjoy it, get them talking, then I start having breathing problems. Fuck, eventually I'LL DIE!! Some get really concerned, but nobody ever calls 911......
ReplyDelete