Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

I work in fraud prevention for a major bank. We had a new one the other day: a client was contacted over Facebook by someone claiming to be a casting agent for "The Property Brothers" TV show. They would put her on the show and renovate her house... if she sent them $45,000.

And she did.

# ¿ May 14, 2021 00:51

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 14:46

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

nonathlon posted:

Wait. You do?

Because I recollect reading about a UK show where they cleaned up your house, redecorated, etc. and one of the contestants straight up stated she only submitted her place because her flatmates were pigs and it was one way to clear all their junk up.

Apparently for Property Brothers you do (I've never seen the show).

From Wikipedia

quote:

The buyers own the property and pay for the remodeling, but the show is able to provide about $20,000 to $25,000 worth of cash and furnishings.[13][12] The brothers do not charge for their services.[12] The total budget presented is for the three or four rooms featured on the show; the rest of the renovations are done off-camera on a separate budget and timeline.

But they probably don't ask for it up front over Facebook.

# ¿ May 14, 2021 19:00

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-principal-scammed-elon-musk/43446499

quote:

A principal of a charter school in Volusia County resigned after writing a $100,000 check to an internet scammer posing as Elon Musk.

Dr. Jan McGee worked at Burns Science and Technology Charter in Oak Hill since its inception. The school and McGee have always been well thought of. Burns Science and Technology is A-rated with just under 1,000 students and a huge waiting list. The principal who has guided it all these years is a superstar in many circles, but a huge lapse in judgment has cost her her job.

�I am a very smart lady. Well-educated. I fell for a scam,� McGee said.

McGee told a packed audience she was taken in by a fake Elon Musk, someone posing online as the space pioneer. Someone she'd been talking with for at least four months despite being warned by staff that the person was a fraud. She claims he groomed her.

�Grooming is when you talk to somebody and you believe in them, and they get you to trust them that this is really real, and so I fell for it,� McGee said.

For years, principal McGee talked to anyone who would listen about getting Musk and his money involved in the STEM school, a stone's throw from the Space Coast, and apparently thought she'd finally gotten his ear.

�Somehow she believed it,� board chair Albert Amalfitano said. �He must have been really convincing.�

Amalfitano says that McGee wrote a $100,000 check out of the school's account. She reportedly believed the person she made the check out to was Musk's right-hand man.

�Matching funds with this guy and he was supposed to give like $6 million to the school,� Amalfitano said.

The principal had authorization to write a check up to $50,000 out of the account but no more without board approval, which she did not get. Fortunately, the school's business manager, Brent Appy got wind and stopped the check before it cleared.

�I put myself into this position and into this mess and I made a bad decision,� McGee said.

McGee apologized to the board and the community but other issues with the principal were brought up as some described a toxic work environment. When three other administrators said they would leave rather than work for her, McGee resigned and left the meeting with her husband who was a teacher but has also resigned. The board chair says it was the only possible outcome.

�When you lose the respect of� When your leadership is now in question, you can't properly lead and that's going to cause chaos,� Amalfitano said.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2023 02:02

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

https://kfor.com/news/local/apache-police-now-investigating-teen-who-posed-as-physician-assistant-more-alleged-victims/

TLDR: Baby-faced teen tries to recreate "Catch me if you can" by posing as a physician's assistant and sneaking into hospitals. Is caught but finds new ways to commit crimes while on probation.

The car scam he is running is a little clever: 1) buy a car with a loan. 2) pay off loan with ACH debit from an account with no funds. 3) sell car to someone else who verified payoff before the payment bounces. 4) profit.

He was on my radar already because he tried to defraud my company. The article has a brief mention that he showed an account with $2.4 million and that he day trades... that was us! He opened and account, deposited a fake $2.4 million check, did a bunch of trades, then tried to take the money out again before the check bounced.

We stopped him because he's using his real name and just a couple weeks before had tried the same thing with a different subsidiary of ours. But we share info on our cases and as soon as his name came up again the account was locked down.

Zero One fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Aug 18, 2023

# ¿ Aug 18, 2023 17:48

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Collateral Damage posted:

Honestly a bit surprised that you can do that. I would have assumed the funds would be on hold until the check cleared, especially at those amounts.

Checks are stupid.

There is a hold period but it only applies to withdrawals because most trades don't usually need to be made on a "cash up front" basis. You can buy a stock and payment is only due on settlement which is T+2 business days.

Also it was a margin account which added more complexity as he could leverage the check amount plus equities value for more trading.

Ultimately we stopped everything within 1 day of the deposit so he wasn't able to do much.

Tunicate posted:

I bet his plan was

1)deposite unbacked check
2)2.4 million from check lands in trading account
3) he day trades earning $$$
4) he withdraws the money including winnings
5) 2.4 million plus winnings land in account
6) bank withdraws original 2.4 million
7) he keeps the winnings, nobody is the wiser

Nah. He was just trying to get some quick profit from trades before the checks bounced and then wire out as much as he could to other accounts. The problem for him is that we are wise to that and have rules in place to stop withdrawals in those scenarios.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2023 21:30

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Had a client today trying to send $2500 to a "friend" who was stuck in Australia and needed to pay for a charter flight home.

She insisted everything was legit and he even sent her a copy of his passport to prove... he was real, I guess?

Anyway she sent us the picture he sent her. It was some weird AI generated image of a passport. Fonts not quite right. Numbers didn't match up. It even listed the guy as both a male and female in different places. But the best part was the photo. It hadn't been adjusted to appear like it was attached to the passport (which was slightly angled like resting on a table). It was just a headshot of a guy copy pasted over the passport.

After a good laugh we were able to point out all the issues and convince her it was a scam.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2024 05:38

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

Comstar posted:

Have you ever played Papers Please? Because it sounds like you're the right person to do it.

It really was a Jorji level fake.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2024 13:38

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 14:46

Zero One: Dec 30, 2004; HAIL TO THE VICTORS!

New Jim Browning video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu-Y1h9rTUs

# ¿ Feb 27, 2024 01:51

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."