Few days ago I was waiting in car at a traffic signal. A young woman came running to me and pledged for help. She said she needed a ride to nearest bank branch. It was very cold weather and she was shivering without wearing any winter jacket etc. Looking at her face I sensed something was wrong. I just asked and she told me in a low voice that she was going to pay someone $9000 to avoid a potential arrest. She was still on call with the scammer as he asked her to keep talking to him on way to bank. It took me lot of time to convince her to hang up the phone. After that I dropped her back at her home. I am still thinking how many like her are being scammed everyday and what can we do to help.
Years ago I helped a guy clean malware off his system. While looking through his configuration, I saw some oddly-named device drivers, and he insisted that they were part of his music hardware and could not be deleted. I told him to at least keep an eye on it.
A week later, he asked me again to clean malware off his system. I asked him how it got back on there, and he told me Microsoft called and said his system was infected, and thus began the tech-support scam. I said "Um, did you forget you already paid me to remove that shit? You just invited that guy to put it back!"
I looked at his config and more "drivers" with similar names appeared in the list that weren't there before. Finally he was convinced the other ones weren't part of his music hardware install and that I should delete them.
While doing this, he confided in me that he had just lost $1500, because a girl he met online from overseas was supposed to visit him, and whatever happened so she had to borrow money from him for the ticket. But gee golly, she never showed up. He was surprised, because she sounded so nice.
After that, I refused to do any more work on his computers. Although I did tell him if he continues to feel like throwing money around indiscriminately at every scam that shows up, I'll gladly quote him for fake services just to keep him happy and broke.
Just can't figure out the enduring appeal of these IRS scams. Is the IRS the scariest bogeyman people can think of? Seems like "I'm a violent criminal and I'll kill you if you don't pay" would be scarier. But then I guess it lacks legal authority, which the IRS has, so maybe that's scarier or more persuasive?
Anyway I note that a misspent youth of getting into minor legal trouble and tax-dodging can actually be beneficial, in that you learn how these agencies actually work and what constitutes a legitimate government action. Is it on paper? Was it (preferably) served to you at the front door by a uniformed deputy?
What is the difficulty/cost/risk level of making a phone call anywhere in the world vs. outfitting someone in a convincing-looking police uniform of that area? Type of thing. I know I'm preaching to the choir...
Maybe if I get one of these calls I'll tell them "Just go ahead and send a deputy like usual." Except no, because if they're especially spiteful they might S.W.A.T. me.
> a misspent youth of getting into minor legal trouble and tax-dodging can actually be beneficial, in that you learn how these agencies actually work
There's the problem. It's no small task to understand the underlying functions and behaviors of a complex system.
It's easy to recognize a "violent criminal". You know it when you see it. Something much more complicated like the IRS? You don't know what you're looking at.... or if it's even legit/legal.... entirely shrouded in mystery and fear.
The IRS isn't to be messed with. They never go after corporations to any significant level, but if they did come after us commoners, we would be fucked beyond belief. Better to not risk it. A violent criminal killing you would be more convenient. The IRS coming after you is comparable to having to go to the hospital in the U.S unless you're rich.
I messed with them. They were actually downright friendly to work with once I came in from outside. Granted I didn't make them chase me down, maybe they appreciated that. But basically they just want the money. And they get more of that by garnishing your paycheck let's say, than doing anything worse to you. It still sucks of course.
I tell everyone I know to talk to anyone in their family about this, especially elders who are more gullible or vulnerable to such scams. IRS does not and will not call you directly on phone demanding money, EVER.
IRS scams mostly originate from India, I get one a day from “John Huntington” with a thick Indian accent from IRS enforcement desk. I can see how old ladies can get scammed easily.
The government can shut it down now, all it needs is a legislation to require VOIP to POTS terminators to require the billing address and ownership information of each phone number they terminate. Game over.
Exactly. There is some entity somewhere that is bringing these calls to your local carrier. The carrier should log which other carrier the call came from when they accept it, and so on and so forth. If there are too many complaints the offending carrier is kicked out of the club and is no longer able to interconnect with that local carrier. Have some financial incentives like huge fines (the carriers are complicit of this fraud because they get paid for delivering these calls to you) and the problem will solve itself in a matter of weeks.
Banks should introduce a policy that elderly people should not be allowed to withdraw large sums from ATM and need to come to the bank for the same. And when they do come to the branch to withdraw large amounts, the banks should do their best to determine that the withdrawal is not related to any scams.
I have an idea on this. Banks should just add a question on withdrawing money with something like "Are you paying cash to IRS based on a phone call you received from IRS" ? If the user selects Yes, flag it may be ?
Another idea is to show a Warning screen on ATM etc before the cash withdrawal screen comes up. The screen should clearly explain the typical IRS scams. This may not prevent all of them but may help.
It is neither banks’ job to decide that elderly people need a conservatorship without court action nor their job to on their own decide to act as conservator.
That's not entirely correct - in fact, banks limit and are even supposed to report unusually large withdrawals by clients to the authorities. This is applicable nearly everywhere in the world.
Europe / UK:
Large cash withdrawals are a thorny issue for banks because of the various scams which have seen some older people conned into handing over large sums of money to fraudsters. On top of that, banks are petrified about falling foul of the regulations on money laundering and financing crime, and being hit with huge fines, so they get twitchy about “unusual account activity”.
> The British Bankers’ Association told us: “There is a clear tension between providing customers with easy access to their money and protecting them from the threat of a fraud that could have a devastating effect on their finances. If you are planning to make a large withdrawal, we recommend you talk to your bank in advance.”
> Federal law allows you to withdraw as much cash as you want from your bank accounts. It's your money, after all. Take out more than a certain amount, however, and the bank must report the withdrawal to the Internal Revenue Service, which might come around to inquire about why you need all that cash.
> Transactions Involving Large Amounts of Cash ...
> Transactions that do not make Economic Sense ...
> Activities not consistent with the Customer’s Business ...
> Attempts to avoid Reporting/Record-keeping Requirements ...
> Unusual Activities ...
> Customer who provides Insufficient or Suspicious Information ...
> Certain Suspicious Funds Transfer Activities ...
> ... Check list for preventing money-laundering activities:...
Ah, question, would a veto by people you named reliable on any large scale move, after your decision has been proofen impaired once, be a acceptable solution for society?
I'm not posting this to be a pedant, but I had a bit of trouble understanding it.
>Ah, so a question: if your decision-making abilities have been shown to be impaired once, would giving veto powers on any large-scale decision to people you have previously appointed, be an acceptable solution for society?
this is not a tech problem - scam phone calls easily solved by requiring authentication - it's political problem that scam companies keep paying to not get it implemented.
trying to get tech solutions that go agains political will is waist of time - work on political first [on cnn] then come here for [tech] solution
