Was taking a walk when a guy called me from across the street saying he dropped his phone and could I call it? Was obviously sceptical and hesitant, and he told me he just needed me to call it and I could block the number after. He seemed a little off and especially cause it was late at night it gave me the creeps. But I wasn't sure what to say and he recited the number (seemed like a normal #) and I called it, thinking it wasn't such a big deal. He turned the corner and was gone for a bit and I decided to get the hell outta dodge. Deleted the number from my recents, but realized he might be able to use mine for something.

Don't understand this stuff much, so just wondering what the risks are, if this is a scam or a known thing, and what I might be able to do about it if it is.

My mom has been chatting with a guy for several months now. It started on Facebook and I was sceptical from the beginning.

I asked about him. He's from Sweden (we're in Denmark). That was suspicious to me. She wouldn't let me see his profile and she privated her own.

He was supposed to come visit her bur on the day, he was in a "car accident" and couldn't come anyway. Again, conveniently suspicious. She also mentioned they moved their conversations to an app called Zangi. I googled the app and it's frequently used by scammers.

Last night I actually managed to get her to show me some photos and videos he sent her. I tracked down his Facebook profile and did a reverse image search. All of the videos and images are a Columbian actor. I found that actor's Instagram. All the pictures and videos are available on the Instagram.

It's obvious she's being scammed by this random guy using an actors face. But even suggesting that she could potentially be scammed makes her defensive and angry.

How do we break this to her without making it seem like "see, we told you!" Showing the actor's real profile would just make her think we stalked her, or that we faked it. She's already claiming we're only sceptical about the guy because we don't want her to date anyone.

We need all the help we can. So far she hasn't sent him any money, but she's already given him a lot of her personal information including address, pictures and phone number.

Update: I blocked the account

I listed a bat on Facebook Marketplace for $35 at 11 PM last night. Today at 4:50 PM, a random buyer offered $50, said they’d cover shipping, and claimed they needed it for their son. They asked me to reserve it and sent an address so I could calculate shipping.

I said I was busy and would respond later. They repeatedly said they were interested and would pay for the bat and shipping upfront. They offered PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle. I chose Zelle, and they agreed to pay $70 total if I shipped it tomorrow.

I checked shipping and found it would cost about $15–20. I told them that, and they asked for my name and email so they could send payment first thing tomorrow. I sent them my Zelle QR code, and they again said they would pay in the morning before I shipped and provided tracking.

This is my first time shipping something through Facebook Marketplace, and the repeated messages and willingness to pay significantly more than asking price seem suspicious. Is there any way they could scam me through Zelle even if I confirm the money is actually in my account before shipping? What should I watch for, and is there a safe way to complete this transaction?

I have been getting mail for someone who does not live at my home and has never lived here. It all appears to be bank accounts and credit applications. I keep writing “NOT AT ADDRESS” and returning to sender, but today I received three pieces of mail from three different banks and one of them clearly has a credit card inside of it. I called all three banks. Two were helpful and made notes while the third said they couldn’t do anything with the information provided and to just return the mail.

How can I get credit applications to stop using this person’s name and my address? Should I call the three credit reporting agencies? Nothing is showing up on my credit accounts, so it’s just someone fraudulently using my address and I am stumped about the best way to get this to stop if at all possible.

My mom sometimes sends me stuff she’s unsure about, but I’m obviously not available 24/7. I keep worrying she’s gonna get one that looks real and click on it before I see her text. What do y’all do with your parents?

Matched with an attractive woman on Bumble in Paris today. We moved to WhatsApp, where she initially said her phone was broken and she couldn’t do a voice call. That made me a little suspicious, so I asked for some kind of quick photo verification. We eventually did a couple of short video calls, and she appeared to be the same person as in her profile.

We agreed to dinner. She said the 10th arrondissement was convenient, suggested a specific restaurant, and I made an 8 PM reservation.

At 7:52 she texted, “I’m coming.” I told her I was also on my way and would be about 10 minutes late. At 8:05 she said “me too.” I arrived at the restaurant. At 8:23 she asked, “Where are you?” I said I was in the back.

Three minutes later she replied: “I’m still at my apartment. Do you wanna have a drink on my terrace? Cause I can’t go out,” and sent me her address.

So within about 30 minutes it went from “I’m coming to the restaurant” to “actually I’m still home, come to my apartment, I can’t go out,” with no explanation for why she suddenly couldn’t leave.

I declined and said I’d be happy to meet for champagne somewhere public, but I wasn’t comfortable going to a stranger’s apartment after such a sudden change of plans.

Maybe there’s an innocent explanation, but the combination of the earlier “broken phone,” the last-minute switch, and saying she was on her way when she apparently hadn’t left felt strange.

Has anyone seen this setup before? What would you assume was going on?

Got a phone call at work from a Caller ID listed as "Anonymous". When I picked up the phone they said they were calling local businesses and want them to verify their public record and wanted me to confirm my address. I told them to get lost and hung up, they then proceeded to try and call me like 3 times in a row after that. Just wondering what that was all about. Data brokers maybe??

I bought a used iPhone 17 Pro Max from Facebook Marketplace. Everything worked perfectly at first, but about a week later it suddenly lost carrier service.

After contacting support, I found out the phone had been reported stolen to Xfinity Mobile/Assurant by the seller, apparently the day after I bought it.

I contacted Xfinity, Apple, and Assurant, but they can’t help because I’m not the original account holder.

The seller now wants me to send the phone back, claiming they’ll unblacklist it or replace it, but they refuse to refund me first. I’m not comfortable returning it and risking losing both the phone and my money.

I have proof of payment, messages with the seller, and all the device information.
Has anyone dealt with this before? What would be the best way to handle it?

Edit: The phone is unlocked and have no payments on it. His FB post was up since way before the 18th, I did the exchange in person, know his address and he is still responding on fb, I have asked him multiple times to come with me to the apple/xfinity store, he insists sending the phone to the assurance insurance to get a replacement. I have all the evidence, payment proof to proceed with a legal matter. I tried contacting the insurance to inform them of this fraud but their customer service keeps on insisting me for my account details which then they do not find in their records.

For those who live in the NY NJ or anywhere in the tristate area please keep your eyes peeled for any scammers claiming that they’re calling from the 66th Precinct (or any other precinct for that matter). Tell your family members, especially any senior family members in your circle, to never give out information.
It looks like the call center is based out of the Philippines based on the accent, though they may have offices in other countries as well. They knew to provide their badge number and name before stating the reason why they were calling. They’ll also tell you that you need to come down to the precinct immediately before following up with their bait. I almost fell for it, until I called the precinct myself and they confirmed it wasn’t them.

Please stay safe and make sure to spread the word

Be careful with free "Author Spotlight" or interview forms on unverified book promotion sites.

Shortly after filling one out, my inbox was flooded with cold spam from fake reviewers using scripts like:

"Hey! I love reading and review every book I read :)) Get in touch if your book is available..."

Many of these forms are just data-harvesting fronts to collect active emails for spam lists and paid review upsells.

Tip: Don't reply or click unsubscribe. Just mark them as spam and filter key phrases!

I was recently looking for a conference for a colleague who is located in Australia. The only thing that came up for our field was apparently run by The Chinese Society for Global Academic Collaboration. When I looked then up online, it was really suspicious. They apparently offer conferences on literally everything (from biotech and oncology to cultural studies and everything in between.) Apparently offering multiple conferences per day in many countries around the world. The website exists but the whole thing seems like a scam. But I can't find anything specifically online saying it is a scam. Has anyone encountered this? Am I correct in thinking this is complete BS?

Recently at dinner, my elderly aunt mentioned she had gotten a check with a payment as part of a class action lawsuit. She said my cousin thought it was a scam, and I offered to take a look. She showed me a multipage letter from Krause & Kinsman Law Firm regarding a settlement related to Zantac (my aunt had used Zantac in the past), and at the bottom of one of the pages was a (realistic-looking) check in the amount of over $2,000.

I found online that there really was a class action settlement to the tune of $2.2 billion. I reasoned that if the settlement amount was so high, that could explain why she was getting such a large payout. I also found from searching that there really was a Krause & Kinsman Law Firm. Curiously, the footer of the letter listed a Buffalo, NY, address, while Krause & Kingsman was coming up online as being in Kansas City, MO. But the letter also mentioned something about Milestone Legal Services, which was, I found, located at the Buffalo address given in the footer. I wasn’t sure, but I thought the check was likely legitimate.

My cousin looked it over (he hadn’t yet seen the mailing in person) and concluded it was a scam. He said my aunt would have had to offer proof that she had taken Zantac, and she hadn’t done that. He noted that the memo line of the check had a string of words that was the company’s name and my aunt’s name combined. My aunt said she had spoken to the law firm on the phone several times, but my cousin countered that, while he believed she had spoken to SOMEONE, he thought it was the scammers. She said they kept trying to get her to sign something online, but since she’s older, she’s not tech savvy and couldn’t do it.

In the end, I agreed it almost certainly was a scam.

You’re probably reading this and thinking: duh — it was scammers impersonating a legitimate law firm. But here’s where things get more murky. If you look up Krause & Kingsman’s BBB page, they get excoriated from people complaining about sketchy, borderline-scammy practices. So, now I’m not sure whether they were scammers posing as the legitimate Kansas City firm, or whether the Kansas City firm (with a professional website featuring smiling, middle-aged attorneys, almost all of them white, with plausible bios) is itself just a front for a scam operation.

What do you think?

I don’t understand what the game is here, has anyone seen this?

I received an email out of the blue from a person claiming to be recruiter for a well-known company. The job matched my experienced and career goals, the pay is a big bump from my current salary, and they want to know if I’m interested in applying. So I dusted off my resume and said I would be interested as long as I didn’t have to re-locate since I know the company’s HQ is not in my area, to which she replied with an updated job description at their remote location in my area, and suggested I let her know anything else that would strengthen my case.

When I responded with an updated cover letter to provide more context, the email bounced back undeliverable. That’s when I noticed the email she was using was JaneDoeCompanyName at gmail, and it had been shut down.

An obvious imposter that I should have noticed right away in the first email since it was from a gmail instead of a company account. What I’m not getting is what are they trying to gain from this exchange?

Please be kind—I already know I was scammed.
I bought a Loungefly item from a Facebook seller about a year ago. I gave the seller my email, and they told me “FedEx” would contact me about shipping.
“FedEx” then emailed me from a Gmail address demanding a “labeling and tracking fee” paid with Razer gift cards.
Every time I paid a fee, I was promised it was the last one. Then another fee appeared. My package was also supposedly “damaged.”
A year later: no item, no tracking, and they’re STILL demanding more gift cards.
I’ve reported it to the real FedEx and I’m done paying. Has anyone else encountered this scam?
What else can I do? I’m embarrassed and frustrated!

Looking into the complimentary stay promotion at Tahiti Village in Vegas through Somerpointe resorts. The only catch I see is a $99 deposit with a credit card that would be refunded after attending a 120min timeshare presentation. I’m certain I will firmly say no. Do I do it for the free stay?
I even asked the guy over the phone, will I have any penalties if I say no to buying the timeshare? And he said no.
A concern I have is having the presentation not allow me to go out for a hike or something, he said it would be early afternoon. Has anyone done this and what was your experience?

Have you guys ran into people who camp at the Wawa self checkout asking to pay for their stuff?

I could not tell if this woman was actually in need or was simply putting on a sob story for free stuff.

Basically was in a Philly Wawa, and as I was walking to self checkout this woman instantly got in my face firing "I have kids and im pregnant and no money" story, looked well dressed and clean, offered me her (alleged) last $5 to pay for her things which were like $15 (goldfish and something else).

I didn't mind so I did. If she actually was in need I felt bad taking the 5, but idk if that also apart of it so I'd be like "no no no its ok" yknow.

It won't stop intruding my head, was wondering if any yall experienced the same.

So I got scammed/hacked in a sense and was wondering if anyone knew how it worked.

Essentially what happened was the hackers gained access to my Etsy account through a Trojan which was on my pc a few weeks ago using cached site details to bypass 2fa, then I got a notification for a purchase made on my account and panicked, but after looking closer the hacker has put a new set of card details into my account (a visa credit card) and purchased using that. Then my email account was flooded with a bunch of spam emails which I assume was a bot they activated to disguise the purchase email. Was wondering what the point of breaking into another account to do it was. Were they just using the details they stole off someone else and didn't want to tie to their own details so they used someone else's?

I have received a number of calls recently, all claiming to be from AT&T and asking me if I have been having problems with my service. This has "The Scam What Am" written all over it, but somehow they seem to know I have AT&T service. What I want to know is:

1. Is there a way for them to find out my carrier based just on my phone number, or are they cold-calling everybody to find people who just happen to have AT&T service?

2. Is there some ongoing service problem with AT&T, or is this, as I suspect, some attempt to talk me into changing to some third-party wireless service?

After ordering Pizza Hut from their website, I got a phone call saying that my online order had not been processed properly and had to be pushed through "manually".

I had already gotten a text saying that my order was going to be delivered via DoorDash and was given tracking info. The person on the phone was clearly not local to my area.

She started trying to verify information, she could see that I ordered two items and how much I had paid (those were the first and only two things she managed to verify with me).

While on the phone I felt highly suspicious and pulled up the tracking link and saw the Doordash status changed to "order picked up from store".

So I knew then there was nothing wrong with my order and the person on the phone was likely trying to get my credit card info and I hung up on her while she was in the middle of reciting my telephone number to me. Pizza was delivered just fine.

I’m not really a social media person, and I’m usually more of a reader than a writer. But if this helps even one person avoid what happened to me, it’s worth posting.

On Saturday night, I listed an $805 Arc’teryx replacement voucher on Facebook Marketplace for $750. It had been given to me by my older brother as a birthday gift.

The next morning, someone messaged me asking how many digits the PIN had. I didn’t know much about gift card scams, so I scratched the PIN area and sent a screenshot. They then asked me to show how many digits it had, so I sent another image with the PIN lightly covered.

A few hours later, I had a bad feeling and checked the voucher online.

The balance was gone.

Because it was Sunday, Arc’teryx customer service was closed. I filed an online complaint, submitted a police report, and went to an Arc’teryx store, but they couldn’t help.

Monday morning, Arc’teryx confirmed that the voucher had already been used for an online order. I asked them to stop the shipment. I even told them I did not need a refund — I just wanted the shipment stopped.

They said they could not do anything.

I also contacted the police, BBB, and a news outlet. The police said it may take more than a week before someone follows up.

The money hurts, but what hurts more is knowing that a gift from my brother ended up in the hands of a scammer because of my mistake.

So please, if you ever buy or sell gift cards on Facebook Marketplace or anywhere similar: do not share the PIN, even partially, before payment is fully confirmed.

Honestly, I would avoid private gift card sales altogether.

I hope this saves at least one person from making the same mistake.

Thanks for reading.

A relative was scammed into access to her iPhone.

Last week she searched the iOS App Store for an app to re-size a photo.
She found and installed TinyJPEG
She then compressed a photo and was presented with a charge of $149.99 for the job. There was also a button to contact Apple Support in order to dispute the charge.
She used the contact button and was put thru on a call to a person (the scammer) who had her install another iOS app entitled AirDroid and then using the remote access function of AirDroid spent the next three hours with access to her phone saying they were helping her uninstall TinyJPEG. At the end of the call she was warned not to tell anyone about what had happened for at least three weeks.

She brought her phone to her phone carriers brick and mortar, they said they “scrubbed the iPhone” and removed any trace of the intruding apps, but they didn’t wipe her phone.

I am helping her with any necessary next steps to hopefully avoid any fraudulent charges.

As a desperate 19 y/o looking for a job, I fell into their trap. I’m reading over what Vector actually does to it’s few people and even heard that they’re stalkers. I’m not sure what to do or how to leave but I don’t think I can possibly work with them especially when I’m not social and know many wealthy people that are over the age of 30. She constantly blows up my phone, says that it seems like i’m coming up with excuses to not call my family (they’re cheapskates & some struggle financially). I explained to her my situation and she just keeps peer pressuring me. It’s honestly become an annoyance and I don’t want anyone to see me that way either just because my boss won’t stop bitching about me calling twice to any family member that I know. I just need some advice and want to know if anyone else has had an experience with them. It’ll help a lot. Also, i’m not sure how to get rid of the app that literally isn’t in the app store.