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Latest Scams.

 
Anne Miller
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Weekly I get a text from Unifin, a debt collector.  I don't owe anyone as I I been debt free for way over 20 years.

I asked Mr Google and yes, that is a scam.

What kind of scams have you gotten lately?

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Christopher Weeks
master gardener
Posts: 4647
Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods
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I keep getting calls from people offering to clear up my (nonexistent) tax problems.

Last year it seemed like extended auto-warranty scams were all the rage.
 
Timothy Norton
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 5961
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If the phone call is to be believed, I have acquired quite a few unpaid tolls that I need to pay off!

I can't remember the last time I was on the highway recently.

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Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
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I get "your car warranty has expired" which cracks me up, as my newest car is a 1997. Yeah, I bet they HAVE all expired!

Also get "you have unpaid tolls" Last time I was on a toll road was 11 years ago.

I'm not the target market for most scammers.

I  DID get a junk email a few years ago that I was the target market for, they were trying  to claim I had ordered a cool battery operated gardening/landscaping type multi function tool set. OOOH! I wish I HAD!   But the other scams I see, nah, I'm not the target market.

Gardens in my mind never need water
Castles in the air never have a wet basement
Well made buildings are fractal -- equally intelligent design at every level of detail.
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What I am looking for is looking for me too!

 
Ben Zumeta
pollinator
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It was a huge unexpected relief when I finally changed my old phone number to my current area code of over a decade. When I had the same area code as my aging parents, one of whom had a lot of ongoing health problems, I felt obligated to answer those calls which came from their area code, in case it was a first responder or hospital.

I think humans invented the concept of hell and bad karma to rationalize having to deal with the human paraquat who run these scams and perform other forms of sociopathy while having no power to stop them from harming others.

This is all just my opinion based on a flawed memory

 
M Ljin
gardener
Posts: 981
Location: Zone 5
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I had a bizarre one the other day. Something like, rate your experience with someone’s assistance on a scale of one to ten. I’m not sure if it was a scam or just a wrong number!
 
Ben Zumeta
pollinator
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I just listened to this podcast on these scams yesterday:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?i=1000709492911

The podcast was very well done and finds humorous moments, but the story is a sad one. Like soldiers, coal miners or loggers, the people on the ground doing the work are being horribly exploited themselves. In text scam compounds with armed guards, tricked or indebted people are essentially enslaved and tortured if they fail to make their quota. Apparently, the industry makes their captors about $75 billion per year. This makes hell awaiting such SOBs seem like a comforting concept.

This is all just my opinion based on a flawed memory

 
Jennie Little
gardener
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Location: New England
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The funnest one we've had lately is a variant of the "car warranty" one... but it includes the year/make of the car. A Subaru. We've never owned one. Aside from that, we've had people want to talk to the home owner and the toll one. Hubby tells the home people he's homeless and hangs up. We do travel on toll roads and have the device. When we get one that isn't obvious scam, we check our account.

Finished 2 life quests (well... almost). Wondering what to do next? Zone 5b

 
Nicole Alderman
steward
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12812
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For a few days in a row, I kept getting calls that said they were from a police department in a city that's 1+ hour away. The calls came at like 1:00am. I don't know anyone in that city. When I looked up the phone number, it wasn't actually linked with any police department. I never answered the phone, so I'm not sure what the scam actually was--but I sure wasn't falling for it!

Another time, I got a call telling me that my car was in an accident. I looked out my window, and there was my car. Pretty sure it wasn't in an accident!

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Susan Pierson
Posts: 34
Location: Doylestown, United States
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Yesterday May 30), xintd.robert19901220 texted me:

Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicls (PADMV) Final Notice: Enforcement penalties begin May 31. Our records show that you still have an outstanding traffic ticket. In accordance with Pennsylvania (PA) State administrative code 15C-16.003....

It goes on from thereat great length and demands payment by May 31, the next day, or face all sorts of dire consequences.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, not Motor Vehicles, is PennDOT.

I tried the website on my laptop and it didn't exist..

I must get at least five scam texts a day warning me that my system is outdated, that something is wrong with my system etc.etc but my favorite so far is this:

Urgent: Susan, your gadget is currently suspended. Kindly extend at 71oksrk....


A lot of folks get taken in by telephone scams that say that the person owes back taxes and the police will come to arrrest them if they don't pay up right away.

Susan Pierson

 
Anne Miller
steward
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Jennie Little wrote:The funnest one we've had lately is a variant of the "car warranty" one... but it includes the year/make of the car. A Subaru. We've never owned one. Aside from that, we've had people want to talk to the home owner and the toll one. Hubby tells the home people he's homeless and hangs up. We do travel on toll roads and have the device. When we get one that isn't obvious scam, we check our account.



I got this in the mail yesterday, it said I had a 2017 Ford.  I told dear hubby I would take it, the ford not the warranty.

I have a 2015 Subaru.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Anne Miller
steward
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Susan Pierson wrote:Yesterday May 30), xintd.robert19901220 texted me: ...

I tried the website on my laptop and it didn't exist..



I would suggest not going to those website.  That is Phishing expedition ... you did exactly what the scammer wanted you to do.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
John F Dean
master steward
Posts: 7602
Location: southern Illinois, USA
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Yes, I get many final notices..toll roads, speeding tickets, department stores, banks …. I wish they really were final notices.

Some people age like fine wine. I aged like milk … sour and chunky.

 
Ara Murray
pollinator
Posts: 193
Location: Northern UK
87
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Recently I had a WhatsApp message : "Hi mum, it's your daughter here. I've broken my phone and need you to send money so I can get it fixed."  I don't remember having a daughter.
An email once came from the UK tax office telling me I was owed a tax refund. I knew I wasn't and they used my personal email address and not the one I use for banking, government departments etc.
One we used to get frequently was a phone call telling us there was something wrong with our computer. Mr Ara would just say he didn't have one but one time I replied: "Oh yes, and you're going to tell me unless I pay you lots of money my computer will stop working." The person on the phone replied: "Er no." and put the phone down.
I liked the calls that asked me to confirm my address because my response was: "You called me, you tell me."

My goodness, I didn't realise I'd had so many scam messages as that's not all of them.
 
M Ljin
gardener
Posts: 981
Location: Zone 5
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One time some anonymous being texted me a dinner invitation.
 
John F Dean
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Hi Maieshe,

Goodness, I got one last week. It was my favorite.  It was an invitation to an upscale sounding restaurant in a town 30 miles from me.  I know my region well. The town might have a population of 150 …no gas station…no post office…and certainly no restaurant.

Some people age like fine wine. I aged like milk … sour and chunky.

 
Jay Angler
master steward
Posts: 13701
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
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Then there are the "scams" (would "screwups" be not nice?) from our own gov't that we have to be careful of.

Decades ago, Hubby got mail from our tax department complaining he hadn't reported his armed services pension. He was about 20 yrs old at the time and had never served in the military!
Then to complicate it further, his dad got similar mail complaining that *he* hadn't reported his salary from being a movie projectionist.

One lived in Ottawa, one in Toronto. They certainly have different Gov't ID numbers which these tax forms most certainly have, but they do both have the same name. Our tax forms when submitted also have out date and place of birth.

They both rolled their eyes and got the gov't to sort the mess out!

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I found some pretty shells, some sea glass and this lovely tiny ad:
PRE-ORDER Natural Small Batch Cheesemaking paperback
https://permies.com/t/225513/PRE-ORDER-Natural-Small-Batch
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