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I've told both of my parents--in their 70s--that I will never, under any circumstances, ever call them for money and that any call they might ever receive claim
by techsupporter 6y ago
I've told both of my parents--in their 70s--that I will never, under any circumstances, ever call them for money and that any call they might ever receive claiming to be me asking for money or asking for it on my behalf is guaranteed to be a scam.
Yet it still happened that, during the exact week my family was on a Caribbean cruise that included a stop in Mexico[0], scammers targeted both of my parents' mobile phone numbers insisting that they were alternatively Mexican authorities demanding bail money for me or that they were my spouse sobbing over the phone that I'd been in a tragic boating accident and needed money for the hospital.
This was before international roaming was included with my mobile phone plan so when I got back to port a few days later I turned on my phone that morning to several voicemails from my parents, starting out panicky then realizing what was going on then positively jovial at how they'd played the scammers along for almost a full day.
They didn't send any money but both of them said it was incredibly difficult to keep what I'd told them in mind because "what if it really was you needing help?"
0 - We think the scammers got the information off of the Facebook pages of one of our related family members who posted publicly about "being envious of [my name tagged] going to Cozumel" next week and then trolling linked family members for people who appeared older.
- Scratchy 6y agoI think "trawling" would be more appropriate than "trolling" here.
- chrisseaton 6y agoWhy's that?
- andrewzah 6y agoBecause trolling makes no sense in that sentence. They were looking for older family members for potential targets. edit: apparently trolling is fine here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/troll https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/troll
- greenshackle2 6y agoThey're both fishing metaphors and they both make just about as much sense. https://grammarist.com/usage/trawl-troll/ https://grammarist.com/usage/trawl-troll/
- andrewzah 6y agowell, today I learned troll has other verb definitions.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- greenshackle2 6y agoI think "trawling" is a lot more common, "trolling for cock" is the exception where it's always "trolling" and never "trawling".
- stronglikedan 6y agoProbably regional dialect. I spent my teenage years "trolling" for just about every part of the female anatomy, but never heard anyone use the word "trawling" in the same way. That said, trolling is a much more popular fishing method where I'm from.
- nitrogen 6y agoIn fishing isn't it a question of volume? IIUC trolling is moving very slowly/wakeless with a small number of lines, and trawling is a big net that catches everything?
- bravoetch 6y agoBefore 'trolling' became popular, 'trawling' was common and correct use for this case. Same kina use as fishing trawlers. The dictionary has more detail.
- chrisseaton 6y agoBut trolling is also a type of fishing - you drag a line and try to catch people/fish on your bait (the phone call from the supposed son). That seems the perfect metaphor for what they were doing? They weren't dragging a big industrial net trying to catch anything at random passively (trawling) because they were trying to get individual people by calling them up one by one trying to get them to bite.
- mulmen 6y agoSurely "spear (ph|f)ishing" is the most appropriate fishing analogy here because it targets an individual?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- aqme28 6y ago"trolling" works. It's a method of fishing, just like trawling. It's one of the lesser-used definitions these days but IIRC that is the root for the more well known antagonizing definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolling_%28fishing%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolling_%28fishing%29
- ciguy 6y agoI travel internationally a lot and my parents and grandparents get calls like this on occasion. I send them an annual email reminding them that I will never call asking for money. I also give them a password in the email and let them know that if someone claims to be calling on my behalf about an emergency they will know this word (I give it to my lawyer and girlfriend plus business contacts that might actually have occasion to call in an emergency). My relatives know that if the person doesn't know the word they should hang up immediately. I established this system because it is possible I will be involved in an accident or something and I do want my relatives to be able to trust someone calling if I am unable to do so. Many scams start with news of an accident so this usually stops them before they get to the asking for money part. I also make it explicitly clear that an emergency call would never be a request for money. I have savings and insurance and there is no occasion where I would need money from relatives, ever.
- smabie 6y agoWhat if you get kidnapped and don't have enough money? I highly doubt there is no world in which you would ever need money. When you make blanket statements such as "X cannot ever happen" you're asking to be wrong. A better approach would be to establish a set of preshared keywords that convey information about what's going on.
- wolco 6y agoThese people are in their 70s. Preshared list of words? You are lucky they even accept a password.
- walrus01 6y agoThe most basic solution. People age 70+ keep paper books of hand written names and phone numbers next to their home POTS phone. Have them write down the "password" next to your name in the book.
- ciguy 6y agoKidnapping is a real, albeit unlikely threat in many of the places I end up in. That's why I have lawyers and insurance. There is no scenario in which I want my grandparents or parents involved in a kidnapping situation in any capacity.
- fortran77 6y agoI also warn my mother not to think she's clever and talk back to the scammers. "Don't tell them off" I tell her. Just hang up. Say nothing. > then realizing what was going on then positively jovial at how they'd played the scammers along for almost a full day. ...because once they realize they're talking to an old lady, they may realize the "kidnapping" story may not work, but a call verifying something for a Stimulus check might (for example). Just hang up. You won't outwit them.
- selykg 6y agoI love talking to them because it's time they aren't talking to someone else. My goal is to waste their time, not "outwit" them. I'd like to think that if enough people did this they wouldn't make any money.
- qroshan 6y agoDude. They have infinite time. You don't
- rootusrootus 6y ago> I'd like to think that if enough people did this they wouldn't make any money. The population density and average income disparity between the US and India works strongly in their favor, however.
- mrexroad 6y agoI had a conversation with a scammer claiming to be MSFT support, maybe 5-6 years back. It was clearly a cold call, not based on any PII, so I just toyed along for maybe a half hour until I started getting bored. We talked another 10 minutes or so about life in his city, lack of jobs, using fake tech support as a stepping stone, practicing english, siblings, etc. Seemed like the same familiar monotonous daily grind, just trying to find a path and provide. Maybe that was all an act too, but it felt authentic.
- ceejayoz 6y agoThere are a few Twitch streamers doing this. I saw one that had a VM set up with all sorts of fuckery built-in to mess with them.
- danbolt 6y agoI'm not ready for ad networks start using targeted deepfakes of my parents on me to buy skincare products or something.
- chrisulloa 6y agoWe'll need 2 factor auth for phone calls at that point
- tjmc 6y agoJust ask them what's wrong with Wolfie.
- monksy 6y agoTime to start creating honey pots.
- catalogia 6y ago> "They didn't send any money but both of them said it was incredibly difficult to keep what I'd told them in mind because "what if it really was you needing help?" Perhaps a pre-established code phrase is a good way to address this. "If I ever need help, I will mention that [memorable vacation] we spent together. If that vacation isn't mentioned explicitly, it's not me."
- ipython 6y agoThis is exactly what I have done when we leave the country. We leave a binder with emergency info including code words with expected responses to validate that our emergency contact at home is truly speaking with us. Seemed kind of silly at the time but it truly is a low cost way to mitigate this issue.
- pbhjpbhj 6y agoFine as long as your parents aren't beginning to go senile when such instructions will just be confusing and/or completely forgotten. There might be better protocols - make sure all their cash is in the bank, set a per store per week limit of £200 on their cards, require your/siblings authorisation to make larger purchases? But then there are things like their pensions, who they move their phone/internet account or other utilities to, so much opportunity for malicious people to commit fraud and deception; companies aren't motivated to help as it often reduces the companies income.
- inerte 6y agoA lot of times the victims give these type of information to the scammer. Not saying this is what happened to your parents, but my aunt got a call where a young man was crying and SHE was the one that asked for my name. From there it was quick for the scammer to say "yeah, I am here with so-and-so". Thankfully she got stopped outside the bank branch by a police officer who saw her panicking and was able to talk her out of it.
- GoblinSlayer 6y ago>what if it really was you needing help And people think Pascal's wager is a good argument and you lose nothing believing in hell.