The scams are endless and other than AI help, as noted in Doc's post, nothing new.
First and foremost LE agencies, especially the federal ones do not communicate by text, the IRS, Soc Sec. etc., do not call you. As the Police I had to identify myself and would occasionally be told to pound sand, as the caller did not believe me. If the person was local I could go to their home or send patrol out to knock and politely ask them to take my calls.
All most 100% of the time death or similar notifications (bad crash, involved in a major crime, etc.) are done in person by uniformed police officers,. In 32 years on the job I never did such a notification by phone. Not once. Plenty of calls such as, "Go to 123 Main St., and let Mrs. Smith know she needs to call Ofc. Smedley at XYZ PD as they found her stolen purse, car, cat. etc." Many of these calls are by phone, IF, we (Police) have had contact with this particular resident. COVID did not help as PD's started to do everything remotely and frankly got lazy.
The IRS, Sheriff has a warrant, you better pay us or else calls are fun. Especially when they would call the phone number listed to the PD. Are clerk was rather expert at stringing the caller along and one of my former Chiefs of Police loved to play with the callers as well.
James, Annette and a few others posted about various scams, and were asking how do the scammers get your info? A short list...
Social media. Be careful what you post and who you share with.
Info brokers, legitimate and not so. You can buy a list of CC numbers and pins for not so much money on the dark web and even through facebook. (This may have changed about facebook, but probably not).
Lexus- Nexus, tlo.com (owned now by Trans Union) and others provide HUGE amounts of data on you and yours. Used tlo.com at work and we were allowed to run ourselves just to see how much is out there. Very scary. VERY SCARY. Other than substack I do not use social media and avoid Google and Microsoft as much as possible.
State, county and local records. For example WI Circuit Court Access was a favorite as I could look up bad guys and get BETTER information than an "official" criminal history. This site is also useful for screening boyfriends, apartment tenants, tracking psycho ex girlfriends, etc.
Your own wi-fi or using public wi-fi. "Man in the middle" attacks are easy and we all use public wi-fi whether we realize it or not. Your phone pings it and snitches back to Apple on your whereabouts.
Oh there are many funny scammer calls. Older lady named Barbara calls as she thinks she is getting scammed with the “fix your computer scam”…just download this remote desktop app and we’ll fix it for a small fee.
Got to talk to the scammer, probably Indian, directly. He was so flummoxed he forgot to hang up and when he ran out of curses in Hindi and English he was just sputtering. Barb nearly pissed herself (her words) she was laughing so hard. She lives in a largish retirement apt building and passed on how to deal with this sort of scam to her neighbors. We had on of our part time officers assigned to do community outreach for just thus sort of thing.
It’s hard to figure out how these people get so much information on us. 2 months ago I received a letter from capital one bank, I thought it was a credit card application. It had my business name on it which I get pretty frequently. A few days later I opened it, it was a bank statement for an account that I had no idea about. Someone opened an account in my name and my business name. It showed a deposit of 5600 dollars and a withdrawal for 5500. So they gave the person the money and then I guess the check they deposited bounced, so the account showed a negative balance of 5500 dollars. I called the bank asking how could they open an account without a business certificate from the town. They refused to give me any information as usual. Not sure if it hurt my credit, they said it was not my responsibility but I continued to receive letters telling me to deposit money to clear the negative balance. This eventually stopped.
I’ve had so many scams, once I received a letter from the state saying they’re reviewing my claim for unemployment, well I never filed for unemployment. I had my accountant check by my unemployment account with the state and he found 3 people trying to collect on my unemployment account none of which ever worked for me, one guy lived in Florida. More accountant bills, but finally it got resolved. It seems no one ever gets caught, it’s as if they don’t care, they just right it off.
While we were still in Austin, outgoing mail was stolen from our streetside mailbox and replaced by a sheet of pornography. A couple of weeks later, the check that was made out to pay the utility bill was changed to buy an item from Target. We closed that account; now I take outgoing mail straight to the post office.
Buy waterproof pens for all check writing. The criminals soak the checks until ink disappears, let it dry then write what they want. Many gel pens are not washable.
I bought an insert for our mailbox that locks and has slot for mail to go in and adverts to go on top cause they can steal incoming mail also. We had that happen before I bought the insert. Luckily?? it was kids from neighborhood who just threw it in neighbors yard, but that did it for me. I do take outgoing to PO.
Thank you 53. I mailed a check yesterday and went back and forth whether to use my street box or the USPS box that is a quarter mile away. I only considered which box would stay driest if it happened to rain.
To answer your question for millions of Fed Gov employees; some time ago China, hacked and stole ALL information on employees applications, to include ALL family information, prior addresses... People just suck!
Like. So sorry James, that you have been targeted by those fraud schemes. Thankfully, you have the means and wherewithal to stay on top of it. Today’s paranoia may not be symptomatic of mental illness but rather indicative of the necessity of caution.
I've had a fraud unemployment claim in my name as well it took over a year to be clear of it and I had never filed for unemployment. Very disconcerting! I try not to do any purchases or donations or anything financial on my phone. Not sure if that helps because apparently a lot of comes when using cards at atm's or checkouts.
Recently, I was overseas attending to my daughter who had lost her husband tragically and suddenly. My phone rings and the man proposes that he is from the security agency at Walmart, telling me that credit cards have been used in my name and further that the FBI is investigating me Because luggage was found with my name on it and drugs inside in Texas. Then he puts me through to someone supposedly from Social Security that is also on the case. I gave no personal information. it was my grieving daughter who told me to hang up, that it was a scam most likely. So I did. I was vulnerable emotionally and let this conversation go on for about 15 minutes. I did not say much, but listened, curious and afraid whether this was true or not. It’s disgusting what evil people try to get away with these days. No care or concern or respect for others at all, only trying to scam us out of every dollar. Thank you, Dr. Malone, for bringing this to our attention again, now with AI.
It could have been from a post on social media too - even from a different family member. Then scan for posts about a death, go to the profile page, see who the relatives are, and figure out the closest relatives. These people are smart and sneaky.
Just to say it - with surveillance capitalism, they can buy data about people searching for funeral homes, etc. Evidently, you can buy anything on the dark web.
When my father passed away, a man who my youngest brother had gone to high school with called the funeral home asking for my dad's death certificate. He claimed to be my dad's son, and started calling my dad's mourning wife when the funeral home (thankfully!) denied him (and alerted us to the request). Scammer finally stopped when a family member found his number and called him with strong words. (What kind of scammer uses their real name?)
Wow! These monsters didn’t get my number or info from an obituary as there was none published yet. Maybe they assumed I was on vacation- completely the opposite!
Curious: Was the proposed obituary in anyone’s possession outside the family, even if not published? Did you talk about your loss on a smart phone, which may be insecure?
At any rate, obituary scans are longtime techniques predating internet.
People who have access to the Inner Directive can't be bullshitted.
That's why the controllers hate the idea of The Director, kill Tibetan monks, Wegers, Christians, anyone who embodies mandates of The Director or guidance of the CI.
That's the Communications Interface, Spitit of Truth, Higher Self, Small Still Voice, Lord, whatever you want to call it. The Director would blow your mind even if you just got close. The CI is really mellow.
Thank you. I think I subscribe to Sheryl Atkinson THAT IS A GREAT ARTICLE.. MY PHONE IS RINGING OFF THE HOOK. and on the caller ID on my home phone it actually said "probably fraud".. I will take a look at Sheryl.. I just have been deleting a lot of mail.. still dealing with Medicare changes which is like opening a flood gate of bogus calls. THANK YOU. :)
Many times the unsubscribe button makes them aware this is a live person, then they sell your name and email and it gets worse. The receptionists for my Real Estate office told me that 15 years ago. Just block them, by calling it junk so your email program will learn.
Jill silences all calls that aren't in her contacts. I can't do that, due to business reasons. But it does work.
She also had to change her iPhone number - 25 years old because she could not stop the constant spam from the 240 area code on the phone. An area code we haven't lived in for 25 years... She did everything possible to stop the spam - but that number evidently had been sold over and over again to spammers.
I don't answer numbers I don't recognize either. But I understand that numbers can be spoofed so that it looks like the call is coming from a number you would recognize.
When I'm waiting for a call 📞 back, I ask them if they'll be calling from a number that shows the doctor's name on the caller ID as I explain to them that I don't answer calls from NO NAME NUMBERS.
It is my understanding that Facebook has been pushing its users to upload videos of themselves. I don't do Facebook, but there has been a lot of recent discussion about this on Reddit. When I learned about it, my first thought was that Facebook was harvesting voice data from the videos.
The latest I've seen is an email from an unknown name, with subject 3 capital letters and a time of day, with an attachment. Straight to the trash, unopened.
"Many people have turned the tables on scam callers by using humor, creativity, and persistence to waste their time. These recordings often go viral for their wit and boldness, showcasing real interactions where victims become the pranksters.
(Search Youtube! Hilarius!)
One popular tactic involves pretending to be an elderly person with hearing issues, repeatedly saying “Hello? Hello?” as if struggling to hear the caller—mirroring the scammers’ own techniques. Others use fake accents, absurd stories, or even religious responses to throw scammers off.
Some individuals specialize in keeping scammers on the line for extended periods. One Reddit user shared a 15+ minute conversation where they steered the call into absurd territory, even jokingly propositioning the male caller for sex. Others play dead air, loop test tones, or pretend to be in the middle of a medical emergency."
Myself, I say, "Hang on a sec"
Then I yell, "NO! Not over there! I told you it has to go in the garage! Sorry, hang on"
Then walk out of the room talking to the air about what a mess that my imaginary friend is making.
I repeat this over and over and over. It's a blast!
I've had numerous calls from entites claiming to be publishing companies wanting to buy a book from someone named Maia. There's nobody named Maia here. I recorded that but the machines keep callin. Maybe for the fun of it, I'll change the recording to say "Maia moved to Russia!" ; > }
Thankful for advance authorization from my phone server. May cost more each month but helps. I have a scammer changing the last 4 digits of a phone number. It automatically shows up as a potential scammer.
We need to be reminded and thank you Dr. Malone.
While I’m texting, thanks for the homestead email. Amazing stories for a closer to 80 than 70 year old caregiver! Coming up but not 80! Almost!!!! 😅
Another ‘fun’ scam that happened to us was a few years back in the beginning of the month of April we had written checks to the federal government and the state government for taxes. Then we noticed little amounts coming out of our checking account, starting like with $.43 and then $1.50… We contacted the bank and they could not put a hold on our account because we needed these checks for taxes to clear first. These scammers were able to confiscate about $35,000 in a weeks time from the checking account. Thank goodness we were not liable for any of it.
We were targets of this exact “crying child calls to say he’d been in an accident with a pregnant woman as the other driver” scam in 2023!!! We didn’t lose any money but it sure was scary and the voice sounded exactly like our adult son!
A woman at my church thought she was interacting online with a K-Pop star. She was stupid enough to believe that this star, who is 40 years younger than her, wanted a romantic relationship with her. He said he wanted to travel to meet her, but needed money from her in order to do so. By the time this sordid scam ended, she had given away $60,000, part of which she borrowed!
Like being back at work!
The scams are endless and other than AI help, as noted in Doc's post, nothing new.
First and foremost LE agencies, especially the federal ones do not communicate by text, the IRS, Soc Sec. etc., do not call you. As the Police I had to identify myself and would occasionally be told to pound sand, as the caller did not believe me. If the person was local I could go to their home or send patrol out to knock and politely ask them to take my calls.
All most 100% of the time death or similar notifications (bad crash, involved in a major crime, etc.) are done in person by uniformed police officers,. In 32 years on the job I never did such a notification by phone. Not once. Plenty of calls such as, "Go to 123 Main St., and let Mrs. Smith know she needs to call Ofc. Smedley at XYZ PD as they found her stolen purse, car, cat. etc." Many of these calls are by phone, IF, we (Police) have had contact with this particular resident. COVID did not help as PD's started to do everything remotely and frankly got lazy.
The IRS, Sheriff has a warrant, you better pay us or else calls are fun. Especially when they would call the phone number listed to the PD. Are clerk was rather expert at stringing the caller along and one of my former Chiefs of Police loved to play with the callers as well.
James, Annette and a few others posted about various scams, and were asking how do the scammers get your info? A short list...
Social media. Be careful what you post and who you share with.
Info brokers, legitimate and not so. You can buy a list of CC numbers and pins for not so much money on the dark web and even through facebook. (This may have changed about facebook, but probably not).
Lexus- Nexus, tlo.com (owned now by Trans Union) and others provide HUGE amounts of data on you and yours. Used tlo.com at work and we were allowed to run ourselves just to see how much is out there. Very scary. VERY SCARY. Other than substack I do not use social media and avoid Google and Microsoft as much as possible.
State, county and local records. For example WI Circuit Court Access was a favorite as I could look up bad guys and get BETTER information than an "official" criminal history. This site is also useful for screening boyfriends, apartment tenants, tracking psycho ex girlfriends, etc.
Your own wi-fi or using public wi-fi. "Man in the middle" attacks are easy and we all use public wi-fi whether we realize it or not. Your phone pings it and snitches back to Apple on your whereabouts.
Sound advice in the article Dr.'s Malone.
Fantastic comment. Thank you for taking the time to post this valuable (and entertaining) info.
Oh there are many funny scammer calls. Older lady named Barbara calls as she thinks she is getting scammed with the “fix your computer scam”…just download this remote desktop app and we’ll fix it for a small fee.
Got to talk to the scammer, probably Indian, directly. He was so flummoxed he forgot to hang up and when he ran out of curses in Hindi and English he was just sputtering. Barb nearly pissed herself (her words) she was laughing so hard. She lives in a largish retirement apt building and passed on how to deal with this sort of scam to her neighbors. We had on of our part time officers assigned to do community outreach for just thus sort of thing.
It’s hard to figure out how these people get so much information on us. 2 months ago I received a letter from capital one bank, I thought it was a credit card application. It had my business name on it which I get pretty frequently. A few days later I opened it, it was a bank statement for an account that I had no idea about. Someone opened an account in my name and my business name. It showed a deposit of 5600 dollars and a withdrawal for 5500. So they gave the person the money and then I guess the check they deposited bounced, so the account showed a negative balance of 5500 dollars. I called the bank asking how could they open an account without a business certificate from the town. They refused to give me any information as usual. Not sure if it hurt my credit, they said it was not my responsibility but I continued to receive letters telling me to deposit money to clear the negative balance. This eventually stopped.
I’ve had so many scams, once I received a letter from the state saying they’re reviewing my claim for unemployment, well I never filed for unemployment. I had my accountant check by my unemployment account with the state and he found 3 people trying to collect on my unemployment account none of which ever worked for me, one guy lived in Florida. More accountant bills, but finally it got resolved. It seems no one ever gets caught, it’s as if they don’t care, they just right it off.
While we were still in Austin, outgoing mail was stolen from our streetside mailbox and replaced by a sheet of pornography. A couple of weeks later, the check that was made out to pay the utility bill was changed to buy an item from Target. We closed that account; now I take outgoing mail straight to the post office.
Wow! We’ll take our outgoing mail to the PO, too, now
Buy waterproof pens for all check writing. The criminals soak the checks until ink disappears, let it dry then write what they want. Many gel pens are not washable.
I bought an insert for our mailbox that locks and has slot for mail to go in and adverts to go on top cause they can steal incoming mail also. We had that happen before I bought the insert. Luckily?? it was kids from neighborhood who just threw it in neighbors yard, but that did it for me. I do take outgoing to PO.
Thank you 53. I mailed a check yesterday and went back and forth whether to use my street box or the USPS box that is a quarter mile away. I only considered which box would stay driest if it happened to rain.
I won't do that anymore. Thanx again.
Thank you for giving detailed examples of what you experienced. Helps us all.
Crazy Days neli d
To answer your question for millions of Fed Gov employees; some time ago China, hacked and stole ALL information on employees applications, to include ALL family information, prior addresses... People just suck!
OH W-O-W ‼️‼️‼️
Like. So sorry James, that you have been targeted by those fraud schemes. Thankfully, you have the means and wherewithal to stay on top of it. Today’s paranoia may not be symptomatic of mental illness but rather indicative of the necessity of caution.
Just unbelievable what these scammers will do! 👿
I've had a fraud unemployment claim in my name as well it took over a year to be clear of it and I had never filed for unemployment. Very disconcerting! I try not to do any purchases or donations or anything financial on my phone. Not sure if that helps because apparently a lot of comes when using cards at atm's or checkouts.
Recently, I was overseas attending to my daughter who had lost her husband tragically and suddenly. My phone rings and the man proposes that he is from the security agency at Walmart, telling me that credit cards have been used in my name and further that the FBI is investigating me Because luggage was found with my name on it and drugs inside in Texas. Then he puts me through to someone supposedly from Social Security that is also on the case. I gave no personal information. it was my grieving daughter who told me to hang up, that it was a scam most likely. So I did. I was vulnerable emotionally and let this conversation go on for about 15 minutes. I did not say much, but listened, curious and afraid whether this was true or not. It’s disgusting what evil people try to get away with these days. No care or concern or respect for others at all, only trying to scam us out of every dollar. Thank you, Dr. Malone, for bringing this to our attention again, now with AI.
People often scan obituaries or vacation notices to target vulnerable people.
It could have been from a post on social media too - even from a different family member. Then scan for posts about a death, go to the profile page, see who the relatives are, and figure out the closest relatives. These people are smart and sneaky.
Just to say it - with surveillance capitalism, they can buy data about people searching for funeral homes, etc. Evidently, you can buy anything on the dark web.
Agree! Please see related comment here: https://www.malone.news/p/beware-the-christmas-voicemail/comment/183870501
When my father passed away, a man who my youngest brother had gone to high school with called the funeral home asking for my dad's death certificate. He claimed to be my dad's son, and started calling my dad's mourning wife when the funeral home (thankfully!) denied him (and alerted us to the request). Scammer finally stopped when a family member found his number and called him with strong words. (What kind of scammer uses their real name?)
Thanx Big E. There's a big ol' gold mine of great information in here!
👍🙏
Wow! These monsters didn’t get my number or info from an obituary as there was none published yet. Maybe they assumed I was on vacation- completely the opposite!
Curious: Was the proposed obituary in anyone’s possession outside the family, even if not published? Did you talk about your loss on a smart phone, which may be insecure?
At any rate, obituary scans are longtime techniques predating internet.
We're trudging through a blizzard of lies, perhaps in a globalist snow globe.
nice visualization!
People who have access to the Inner Directive can't be bullshitted.
That's why the controllers hate the idea of The Director, kill Tibetan monks, Wegers, Christians, anyone who embodies mandates of The Director or guidance of the CI.
That's the Communications Interface, Spitit of Truth, Higher Self, Small Still Voice, Lord, whatever you want to call it. The Director would blow your mind even if you just got close. The CI is really mellow.
Thank you. I think I subscribe to Sheryl Atkinson THAT IS A GREAT ARTICLE.. MY PHONE IS RINGING OFF THE HOOK. and on the caller ID on my home phone it actually said "probably fraud".. I will take a look at Sheryl.. I just have been deleting a lot of mail.. still dealing with Medicare changes which is like opening a flood gate of bogus calls. THANK YOU. :)
I “unsubscribe” and mark scam from as much junk email as I can
to unsubscribe is not easy; gotta look further; embedded where the sun don't shine. and still emails keep coming!
Many times the unsubscribe button makes them aware this is a live person, then they sell your name and email and it gets worse. The receptionists for my Real Estate office told me that 15 years ago. Just block them, by calling it junk so your email program will learn.
How did you get the "probably fraud" alert on your caller id?
Our code is: If we don't recognize the number, we just don't answer it‼️‼️‼️
Jill silences all calls that aren't in her contacts. I can't do that, due to business reasons. But it does work.
She also had to change her iPhone number - 25 years old because she could not stop the constant spam from the 240 area code on the phone. An area code we haven't lived in for 25 years... She did everything possible to stop the spam - but that number evidently had been sold over and over again to spammers.
I read somewhere not to give out your cell phone number to any business or stranger. It May have been from one of your articles.
I don't give out my cell phone number. I give out our landline.
When they say if they can text me. I inform them that it is a landline‼️‼️‼️
That article warned ⚠️ to protect your cell phone number as if it was your social security number.
I don't answer numbers I don't recognize either. But I understand that numbers can be spoofed so that it looks like the call is coming from a number you would recognize.
For awhile we were getting calls supposedly from our own number. We didn't answer, ha ha.
Too funny 😁
They wanted to know if you were at home 🏡 ‼️⁉️‼️
I hear you. I also don't answer any numbers that are not in my CONTACTS.
sometimes doctors or such call from a ph# not in my cell; so sometimes i have to take a chance. mostly just block.
That's true.
When I'm waiting for a call 📞 back, I ask them if they'll be calling from a number that shows the doctor's name on the caller ID as I explain to them that I don't answer calls from NO NAME NUMBERS.
It is my understanding that Facebook has been pushing its users to upload videos of themselves. I don't do Facebook, but there has been a lot of recent discussion about this on Reddit. When I learned about it, my first thought was that Facebook was harvesting voice data from the videos.
Thank God that I left Fixbook when they cancelled a sitting POTUS‼️
I HAVEN'T BEEN BACK SINCE, NOR DO I INTEND TO GO BACK EVER‼️
The latest I've seen is an email from an unknown name, with subject 3 capital letters and a time of day, with an attachment. Straight to the trash, unopened.
Thanks for the heads-up!
AI generated>
"Many people have turned the tables on scam callers by using humor, creativity, and persistence to waste their time. These recordings often go viral for their wit and boldness, showcasing real interactions where victims become the pranksters.
(Search Youtube! Hilarius!)
One popular tactic involves pretending to be an elderly person with hearing issues, repeatedly saying “Hello? Hello?” as if struggling to hear the caller—mirroring the scammers’ own techniques. Others use fake accents, absurd stories, or even religious responses to throw scammers off.
Some individuals specialize in keeping scammers on the line for extended periods. One Reddit user shared a 15+ minute conversation where they steered the call into absurd territory, even jokingly propositioning the male caller for sex. Others play dead air, loop test tones, or pretend to be in the middle of a medical emergency."
Myself, I say, "Hang on a sec"
Then I yell, "NO! Not over there! I told you it has to go in the garage! Sorry, hang on"
Then walk out of the room talking to the air about what a mess that my imaginary friend is making.
I repeat this over and over and over. It's a blast!
I've had numerous calls from entites claiming to be publishing companies wanting to buy a book from someone named Maia. There's nobody named Maia here. I recorded that but the machines keep callin. Maybe for the fun of it, I'll change the recording to say "Maia moved to Russia!" ; > }
Thankful for advance authorization from my phone server. May cost more each month but helps. I have a scammer changing the last 4 digits of a phone number. It automatically shows up as a potential scammer.
We need to be reminded and thank you Dr. Malone.
While I’m texting, thanks for the homestead email. Amazing stories for a closer to 80 than 70 year old caregiver! Coming up but not 80! Almost!!!! 😅
This was a great article! I shared it with my daughter.
Another ‘fun’ scam that happened to us was a few years back in the beginning of the month of April we had written checks to the federal government and the state government for taxes. Then we noticed little amounts coming out of our checking account, starting like with $.43 and then $1.50… We contacted the bank and they could not put a hold on our account because we needed these checks for taxes to clear first. These scammers were able to confiscate about $35,000 in a weeks time from the checking account. Thank goodness we were not liable for any of it.
We were targets of this exact “crying child calls to say he’d been in an accident with a pregnant woman as the other driver” scam in 2023!!! We didn’t lose any money but it sure was scary and the voice sounded exactly like our adult son!
There’s an app called cloaked that I bought that blocks and eliminates junk emails texts and phone calls. Check it out
A woman at my church thought she was interacting online with a K-Pop star. She was stupid enough to believe that this star, who is 40 years younger than her, wanted a romantic relationship with her. He said he wanted to travel to meet her, but needed money from her in order to do so. By the time this sordid scam ended, she had given away $60,000, part of which she borrowed!
So sad. I think some people are just so lonely they want to believe.