Play Nice Random Discussion II - NO POLITICS, NO RELIGION

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If you DO need to contact a bank for ANY reason - use a phone number you have verified through the Bank's official website. NEVER call/reply back/click links from SMSs or emails.

Further to that when my bank rings me for whatever reason I will say thanks I’ll call you back before I provide any personal details.

Then call them and find out why they were calling. It is about 80% scams and the actual bank 20% of the time
 
I work in the fraud space - great post JAB.

Your tip is spot on. If you did not initiate contact with the bank and you get a random email/sms/call just IGNORE it.

If you DO need to contact a bank for ANY reason - use a phone number you have verified through the Bank's official website. NEVER call/reply back/click links from SMSs or emails.

They can even send an SMS from the bank's official SMS service as well.

My advice, NEVER click any link in any SMS, even if it seems legit from your bank.

We used to have to visit a branch all the time. Would not hurt to do so once every now and then these days if you are unsure about something.
 
Further to that when my bank rings me for whatever reason I will say thanks I’ll call you back before I provide any personal details.

Then call them and find out why they were calling. It is about 80% scams and the actual bank 20% of the time
Yep better half received text saying her credit card was stopped because of an unusual overseas transaction (one she had made many times before) She called the bank and yes it was them and they've removed the block. Why didn't they send a message through the app or through the "mail" system. It appears the banks are deliberately making their systems prone to scams?

Always call back the organization using their official contact details never use the numbers/link provided in any message. It may mean jumping through hoops but that's better than being scammed.
 

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Further to that when my bank rings me for whatever reason I will say thanks I’ll call you back before I provide any personal details.

Then call them and find out why they were calling. It is about 80% scams and the actual bank 20% of the time
When I get a call that wants to confirm my details before we proceed, I tell them point blank I'm not going to do that over the phone without calling them first.
 
It is probably stuff for a different forum/thread - however I am somewhat familiar with the issues involved in scamming as I have an investment in a private regulated 'intervention' technology business whose job it is to find stuff for police on people's phones. The major enablers of scamming are actually the Telcos themselves who make it possible for robot messaging and targetted phone calls to actually work - providing the ability for scamming companies ( they are businesses not rogue individuals) to hide behind a multitude of ever changing phone numbers bounced around the internet and profiting from it.

The proliferation of scamming has also been cultivated by companies outsourcing call centers to all sorts of juristictions around the world-it has already been documented and reported that many of the call centers for example in India once having lost contracts as companies look to redomicile these activities - use the vast amount of data they have accumulated over the years to base their operations on.

As usual - governemnt regulation lags years behind technological advanacement.

The fact that Banks have put very little effort into true zero trust technologies when interfacing with customers is another sad situational negative. The fact that instead of national identity cards and other proof of person do not exist - because of spurious 'libertarian' arguments is another hurdle in teh way of consumer protection. The fact that the penalties for losing customer data to theft are way below the cost of protecting data is another anachronism.

I could go on - buit the best advice I can give to anyone is ignore all digital communication on phones which appear as SMS with links especially or 'unknown' phone numbers. I can add to that but will not go ahead and comment on the easiest ref flag for anyone to identify -and that is dodgy phone lines with identifiable accents for fear of 'stereeotyping' people.

The biggest targets are older people who have rown up in a high trust pre-digital scam world - those least able to afford it of course.
Spot on. I’ve lectured my Mum and her aged associates on cyber security. I’ve explained to them that no one is going to call them from the NBN, or anything like that. And that if it’s the bank security department, they will actually be able to give you details about your account.

as for Weiters, you could be flat stick, concentrating on something else, the message pops up, and because your distracted, you click on it. The good thing is that banks these days have scam insurance, and Weiters will recover his money. It might take a little while to get the money over to his account, and the bank will work with international police to try and track down the culprits (probably from tek city in India) And bring them to justice.
 
Read about a scam recently that targets small companies with high $$ transactions - e.g. Real Estate agencies. Hacker gains access to their email service, and puts in software that scans incoming and outgoing email. They wait for an outgoing mail that requests a customer to deposit a large sum in a bank account. (e.g. deposit on a house). Then change the outgoing email with a different account number.

What you get: An email that you are expecting, from the source you are expecting, with a request to deposit a large sum that you are expecting. There's no trigger for the end customer that this has been hacked. By the time either the customer or the real estate agency has worked out the money isn't in the right account, it's long gone.

What to do? If you've got a request to deposit cash, even one that looks legitimate, addressed to you, and from a source that you're expecting, call up your agent to verify the account.
 
Scammers are getting very elaborate. There are still the "basic" scam mechanisms using texts and emails as you've described. But I have come across some better outfits and I'd say with time they are only going to improve in their ways to convince victims.
Just wait until the campaigners learn to spell, we're all doomed!
 
Scammers are getting very elaborate. There are still the "basic" scam mechanisms using texts and emails as you've described. But I have come across some better outfits and I'd say with time they are only going to improve in their ways to convince victims.
I'm all sorted....my bank manager is a nigerian prince :thumbsu:
 
My due diligence on text messages, of any kind, like that…

View attachment 1672254

No banking institution is texting anyone with a link. No banking institution emails a customer with “Dear Customer,…”, the bank knows your name.

It’s frightening to know how many people can get scammed and especially when it’s actually not that difficult to see through a scam.
Most people know it now but when these started last year, where they were spoofing banks details, it wasn’t as widely known.

Good on him for sharing his story. I don’t get all these people putting shame on them for getting scammed, there’s a reason why scamming is so rife, it works and there will always be a victim.

On a side note, when I get a scam caller I say I work in the same building as them and ask what floor they’re on, they quickly hang up.
 
Most people know it now but when these started last year, where they were spoofing banks details, it wasn’t as widely known.

Good on him for sharing his story. I don’t get all these people putting shame on them for getting scammed, there’s a reason why scamming is so rife, it works and there will always be a victim.

On a side note, when I get a scam caller I say I work in the same building them and ask what floor they’re on, they quickly hang up.

You’re right. It did sound like like I was saying that he should have been smarter and that wasn’t fair. This can happen to anyone.
 
When I get a call that wants to confirm my details before we proceed, I tell them point blank I'm not going to do that over the phone without calling them first.

Exactly. Never, ever believe that anybody you don't already know that calls you is who they claim to be.

Always ask for their details and then call the official number on the website and make enquiries about the person and what they were calling about. You'll usually find out super quickly how legitimate it was.
 
It is probably stuff for a different forum/thread - however I am somewhat familiar with the issues involved in scamming as I have an investment in a private regulated 'intervention' technology business whose job it is to find stuff for police on people's phones. The major enablers of scamming are actually the Telcos themselves who make it possible for robot messaging and targetted phone calls to actually work - providing the ability for scamming companies ( they are businesses not rogue individuals) to hide behind a multitude of ever changing phone numbers bounced around the internet and profiting from it.

The proliferation of scamming has also been cultivated by companies outsourcing call centers to all sorts of juristictions around the world-it has already been documented and reported that many of the call centers for example in India once having lost contracts as companies look to redomicile these activities - use the vast amount of data they have accumulated over the years to base their operations on.

As usual - governemnt regulation lags years behind technological advanacement.

The fact that Banks have put very little effort into true zero trust technologies when interfacing with customers is another sad situational negative. The fact that instead of national identity cards and other proof of person do not exist - because of spurious 'libertarian' arguments is another hurdle in teh way of consumer protection. The fact that the penalties for losing customer data to theft are way below the cost of protecting data is another anachronism.

I could go on - buit the best advice I can give to anyone is ignore all digital communication on phones which appear as SMS with links especially or 'unknown' phone numbers. I can add to that but will not go ahead and comment on the easiest ref flag for anyone to identify -and that is dodgy phone lines with identifiable accents for fear of 'stereeotyping' people.

The biggest targets are older people who have rown up in a high trust pre-digital scam world - those least able to afford it of course.
ID cards is an interesting one. Nowadays anything like that would have to be predominantly digital, and tbh I'd have a fair bit of scepticism that the relevant departments could deliver an appropriately secure / robust / usable / private system. But there do seem to be some countries out there that have done it well -- if we were to follow the lead of somewhere like Estonia then it could stand us in good stead.
 
ID cards is an interesting one. Nowadays anything like that would have to be predominantly digital, and tbh I'd have a fair bit of scepticism that the relevant departments could deliver an appropriately secure / robust / usable / private system. But there do seem to be some countries out there that have done it well -- if we were to follow the lead of somewhere like Estonia then it could stand us in good stead.

mid 80s the Labor govt propose a universal ID card, IIRC to be called the Australia card. Obviously it got howled down, but it had some merit.
 

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My due diligence on text messages, of any kind, like that…

View attachment 1672254

No banking institution is texting anyone with a link. No banking institution emails a customer with “Dear Customer,…”, the bank knows your name.

It’s frightening to know how many people can get scammed and especially when it’s actually not that difficult to see through a scam.
Yep. I thought that. I was smug just like you.
People are particularly smug about being too smart to be scammed.
That's why I admire Jacob for coming forward. I think it's brilliant and more important to want to stop it happening to others by detailing just how clever scammers are getting.
The way you put it kind of reminds me of the hairdresser I once had who told me she won't get cancer cos she eats salad.
Mmm.
(I was in there getting my head shaved cos I'd started chemo.)
Hope it doesn't come back to bite you.
It CAN and does happen to anyone. When you act smug people you love are unlikely to come to you for support if they do get scammed. Or for other serious matters probably.
 
Spot on. I’ve lectured my Mum and her aged associates on cyber security. I’ve explained to them that no one is going to call them from the NBN, or anything like that. And that if it’s the bank security department, they will actually be able to give you details about your account.

as for Weiters, you could be flat stick, concentrating on something else, the message pops up, and because your distracted, you click on it. The good thing is that banks these days have scam insurance, and Weiters will recover his money. It might take a little while to get the money over to his account, and the bank will work with international police to try and track down the culprits (probably from tek city in India) And bring them to justice.

a scammer recently sent me an email telling me that their keystroke software on my computer had told them i was a user of adult sites, and that they'd gotten all my passwords from all my online accounts as well. my heart sank...
 
My Mum recently got scammed in the past few months - and she's currently a COO, has worked in CEO positions and has held spots on boards. It can happen to anyone; intelligence isn't the be all end all filter to sift out all scams.

We need more empathy for things like this, but people aren't quick to give it as it's one of those issues everyone things "pff, that'll never happen to me, you'd have to be a moron to fall for that", but that's a backwards mindset. All it takes is the right story to get you at the right time (or wrong time, depending how you look at it) for someone to slip up and do something they regret.

Professional athletes especially get given specific social media training and awareness for propositions/investments more than the vast majority of the general population. If one of the more intelligent ones in the competition manages to get done by it then anyone can.
 
Read about a scam recently that targets small companies with high $$ transactions - e.g. Real Estate agencies. Hacker gains access to their email service, and puts in software that scans incoming and outgoing email. They wait for an outgoing mail that requests a customer to deposit a large sum in a bank account. (e.g. deposit on a house). Then change the outgoing email with a different account number.

What you get: An email that you are expecting, from the source you are expecting, with a request to deposit a large sum that you are expecting. There's no trigger for the end customer that this has been hacked. By the time either the customer or the real estate agency has worked out the money isn't in the right account, it's long gone.

What to do? If you've got a request to deposit cash, even one that looks legitimate, addressed to you, and from a source that you're expecting, call up your agent to verify the account.
Real estate agencies are hackers and fraudsters dreams. They're only just starting to realise it though. Real estate as a sector has virtually no investment in cyber security and data protection but collect way beyond the required amount of data from rental applications. Tfns, bank details, next of kin, etc etc etc. I've recovered my credit score etc because someone was trying to apply for loans using my name. In my subsequent 'security' audit of myself the main weak point I saw was my history of a student renting and moving around. All those agencies with ridiculous amounts of data and an 18 year old earning 7 dollars an hour as the 'rental property's manager responsible for that information.
 
Real estate agencies are hackers and fraudsters dreams. They're only just starting to realise it though. Real estate as a sector has virtually no investment in cyber security and data protection but collect way beyond the required amount of data from rental applications. Tfns, bank details, next of kin, etc etc etc. I've recovered my credit score etc because someone was trying to apply for loans using my name. In my subsequent 'security' audit of myself the main weak point I saw was my history of a student renting and moving around. All those agencies with ridiculous amounts of data and an 18 year old earning 7 dollars an hour as the 'rental property's manager responsible for that information.
100% it’s appalling the data they store unsecured & these days they ask for a ridiculous amount of personal info.
They need to bring in data storage regulations immediately & wipe what they currently store to.
 
It is probably stuff for a different forum/thread - however I am somewhat familiar with the issues involved in scamming as I have an investment in a private regulated 'intervention' technology business whose job it is to find stuff for police on people's phones. The major enablers of scamming are actually the Telcos themselves who make it possible for robot messaging and targetted phone calls to actually work - providing the ability for scamming companies ( they are businesses not rogue individuals) to hide behind a multitude of ever changing phone numbers bounced around the internet and profiting from it.

The proliferation of scamming has also been cultivated by companies outsourcing call centers to all sorts of juristictions around the world-it has already been documented and reported that many of the call centers for example in India once having lost contracts as companies look to redomicile these activities - use the vast amount of data they have accumulated over the years to base their operations on.

As usual - governemnt regulation lags years behind technological advanacement.

The fact that Banks have put very little effort into true zero trust technologies when interfacing with customers is another sad situational negative. The fact that instead of national identity cards and other proof of person do not exist - because of spurious 'libertarian' arguments is another hurdle in teh way of consumer protection. The fact that the penalties for losing customer data to theft are way below the cost of protecting data is another anachronism.

I could go on - buit the best advice I can give to anyone is ignore all digital communication on phones which appear as SMS with links especially or 'unknown' phone numbers. I can add to that but will not go ahead and comment on the easiest ref flag for anyone to identify -and that is dodgy phone lines with identifiable accents for fear of 'stereeotyping' people.

The biggest targets are older people who have rown up in a high trust pre-digital scam world - those least able to afford it of course.
The biggest thing with my mum, was getting her to never respond to any text or call from any company without showing it to me. Thankfully she's listened to me about it.

On SM-F926B using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
you have done very well for yourself.

May I suggest a side hobby in axe throwing or something to do with swords? You are going to need it in 10 years or so when they become teenagers :tearsofjoy:
Haha thanks mate, I have been enjoying reading your posts today, some great calls.

Think I’ll put some fake trophies around the house to do with shooting, or some old boxing gloves & bags. Not sure how effective it will be, I don't have a very threatening appearance/vibe...
We have a mini dachshund atm, perhaps the next dog is a German shepherd..
 
Haha thanks mate, I have been enjoying reading your posts today, some great calls.

Think I’ll put some fake trophies around the house to do with shooting, or some old boxing gloves & bags. Not sure how effective it will be, I don't have a very threatening appearance/vibe...
We have a mini dachshund atm, perhaps the next dog is a German shepherd..

Having a lot of friends that do have teenage daughters - it often comes down to the girl's relationship with her Dad. If she sees him treat her Mum with respect and model what good relationship conduct is, she will demand that of the guy. If he is a dirtbag, she is likely to date dirtbags. Plus you set clear expectations at 12/13 and you be realistic - if you did it as a teenager then likely your kid is going to do the same stupid stuff. Also can't treat a son different to a daughter - seen that happen a few times. Didn't end well.

German shepherds are amazing dogs. I own two. If you train them correctly they will die protecting you. We have an 8 year old GS boy and good luck upsetting my wife. We just got a new female puppy who is under 6 months. She is showing the same instincts - unfortunately both love the wife a lot more than me. You have to go to a great breeder, invest the time in the first two years and then you will have an amazing companion.
 

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