Phone spam and scams are getting out of control

[nwtl]

This used to be just an email problem, but now it's a phone / text / iMessage problem.

I get phishing links via text pretending to be Canada Post, CRA or the bank almost daily now.
Spam calls with free cruise offers and draw prize announcements aren't far behind.
It doesn't help that many real banks and other legitimate services use the same methods to communicate.

The elderly have trouble distinguishing between the real and the fake, and the fakers are getting more sophisticated by the day.
Gone are the days that you could tell the Nigerian prince from his email, or that fake text because of bad English.

Not a single day goes by without some news article about some senior being cheated out of her life savings by some scam caller or someone sending money to an imposter via e-transfer and the banks won't bother to help get it back.

Something's got to change.

 

[Big_Guy_Rye]

It boggles my mind how people fall for such scams in the first place. My grandmother is almost 100, and even she knew way back when to never agree to anything over the phone, and ask them to send paperwork using the mailing address they 'should' have on file....

 

[chebub]

It boggles my mind how people fall for such scams in the first place. My grandmother is almost 100, and even she knew way back when to never agree to anything over the phone, and ask them to send paperwork using the mailing address they 'should' have on file....

Bless your Nan for still being in control of her faculties at such an advanced age. I think we have to beware of victim blaming as in a roundabout way it justifies the maggot scammers actions.

 

[westwoody]

Serious and dangerous scam occurring in Winnipeg and probably elsewhere.
A guy came to my door with a "Reliable Plumbing and Heating" jacket. Says he's here to check on my furnace. Well I happen t own my furnace and it's not from them, so I ask if he has a work order or any documentation. Nope, he just says oops, I'm at the wrong house and fucks off.
I see the single lady next door later and ask if she had anyone come to her door.
She says yes, a man from the furnace company came. She let him in and he was unsupervised in her basement for about half an hour. She knows nothing about furnaces and it turns out she didn't have a furnace from Reliable either.
Now this woman has kids so I am a bit concerned.
Some fucker got a hold of a jacket and is wandering around knocking on doors and casing out people's basements and security systems.

Be safe everyone! Never let ANYONE into your house unless you know exactly who they are and what they are doing.

 

[dare.devil]

Canada revenue agency, Fedex and Canada post are too concerned about me, sometimes they miss me twice or thrice a day. Oh yes the unclaimaed wealth from multiple prince and princesses also.
My phone gives a very good hint who is calling, so what I do is
1) I cut the call block the number if I dont have time.
2) Talk to them for hours and bore them to death if want to have some fun.
Emails and messages are bit trickier, one should be aware how to identify masking of domain and how to identify supicious links etc.

 

[WandErection]

Telus has a feature that makes callers press a random number in order to get through to you. I enabled this 2 years ago and I've had 0 of these calls since. I'm sure this problem will get significantly worse in the coming months thanks to AI. It'll be hard to trust even a video call.

 

[Bunghole1]

 

[Noob888]

It boggles my mind how people fall for such scams in the first place. My grandmother is almost 100, and even she knew way back when to never agree to anything over the phone, and ask them to send paperwork using the mailing address they 'should' have on file....

I smell BS.

Your comments reek of arrogance and ignorance, perpetuating a toxic culture of boasting about supposed intelligence rather than addressing the real issue at hand. Instead of empathizing with those who have fallen victim to scams, you choose to elevate yourself by boasting about your grandmother's age as if it's a testament to her superior intelligence.

Let me be clear: intelligence and vigilance are not determined by age. Scammers are evolving, utilizing sophisticated techniques like AI-generated content to deceive even the most cautious individuals. Your dismissive attitude not only lacks empathy but also fails to acknowledge the systemic failures in combating these scams.

Furthermore, your eagerness to flaunt your grandmother's supposed intelligence and shame others for falling victim to such tactics is not only unproductive but also harmful. It perpetuates a culture of superiority and discourages victims from seeking help.

Instead of indulging in self-aggrandizement, why not channel your energy into advocating for better consumer protection measures and spreading awareness about the ever-evolving tactics of scammers? Educate yourself before boasting about baseless assumptions and think twice before adding to the already burdensome shame experienced by scam victims.

It's time to dismantle the stigma surrounding scam victims and hold perpetrators accountable. Your words have consequences, and it's high time you realize the harm they cause.

Furthermore, if it wasn't for the likes of Amazon and others who send links in SMS, this wouldn't be reaching such "cosmic" proportions.

Only Telus/Koodo have "Call Control" where it effectively blocks scammers. The other providers including Freedom refuse to implement such measures.

 

[masterpoonhunter]

My Android phone has a spam feature, blocks texts and calls that its ai functions deem as spam. Hasn't missed yet and there are many in the spam list. So its not just a provider function.

This victims are never at fault crap is just more of this modern fucked up woke stuff. Everyone needs to take responsibility and if bilked that is tough, sad, sorry it happened and so on so on, bring on the violins. And yeah get the fuckers doing it but people have to own their shit.

 

[Big_Guy_Rye]

I smell BS.

Your comments reek of arrogance and ignorance, perpetuating a toxic culture of boasting about supposed intelligence rather than addressing the real issue at hand. Instead of empathizing with those who have fallen victim to scams, you choose to elevate yourself by boasting about your grandmother's age as if it's a testament to her superior intelligence.

Let me be clear: intelligence and vigilance are not determined by age. Scammers are evolving, utilizing sophisticated techniques like AI-generated content to deceive even the most cautious individuals. Your dismissive attitude not only lacks empathy but also fails to acknowledge the systemic failures in combating these scams.

Furthermore, your eagerness to flaunt your grandmother's supposed intelligence and shame others for falling victim to such tactics is not only unproductive but also harmful. It perpetuates a culture of superiority and discourages victims from seeking help.

Instead of indulging in self-aggrandizement, why not channel your energy into advocating for better consumer protection measures and spreading awareness about the ever-evolving tactics of scammers? Educate yourself before boasting about baseless assumptions and think twice before adding to the already burdensome shame experienced by scam victims.

It's time to dismantle the stigma surrounding scam victims and hold perpetrators accountable. Your words have consequences, and it's high time you realize the harm they cause.

Furthermore, if it wasn't for the likes of Amazon and others who send links in SMS, this wouldn't be reaching such "cosmic" proportions.

Only Telus/Koodo have "Call Control" where it effectively blocks scammers. The other providers including Freedom refuse to implement such measures.

Was there a point to any of this? all I heard was a bunch of buzzing buzzwords.....

 

[westwoody]

Canada revenue agency

I never knew I could pay my back taxes with Amazon gift cards?

 

[westwoody]

Note to divorced dad: be careful anytime a call asks you to “press one” to speak to someone. That might connect you to a pay-per-minute toll line. They too will drag out the call to make your long distance charges bigger.

 

[LADY-LYRAH]

I’m getting slammed daily and not how I’d prefer by all these companies. Both phone & all 4 emails, C*ock suckers !!

This used to be just an email problem, but now it's a phone / text / iMessage problem.

I get phishing links via text pretending to be Canada Post, CRA or the bank almost daily now.
Spam calls with free cruise offers and draw prize announcements aren't far behind.
It doesn't help that many real banks and other legitimate services use the same methods to communicate.

The elderly have trouble distinguishing between the real and the fake, and the fakers are getting more sophisticated by the day.
Gone are the days that you could tell the Nigerian prince from his email, or that fake text because of bad English.

Not a single day goes by without some news article about some senior being cheated out of her life savings by some scam caller or someone sending money to an imposter via e-transfer and the banks won't bother to help get it back.

Something's got to change.

 

[westwoody]

Phone companies need to give us the option of blocking all calls from foreign numbers.

 

[LADY-LYRAH]

Phone companies need to give us the option of blocking all calls from foreign numbers.

That’s a marvel idea 🙂

 

[Equity Market investor]

I've been getting a mass amount of spam on the phone. But, I don't see any due to the way I've set up my settings. Once is awhile I'll go into my " spam " section and see whats there and yup, there's a lot which I then just deleted them. I use to get foreign calls too but I no longer get them. Or see them anyway.

 

[phukedup1]

Just blocking foreign numbers won't help as a lot of spammers just spoof numbers in your area. Really pissed me off when some spammers were using my number, and I was getting calls back from strangers to complain so I had to explain that I'd never called them.

 

[Mr. J]

I've actually been on the receiving end of text scam messages. The bulk of them say they are affiliated with Costco, but I don't shop there. As for spam calls, my phone just says either 'Likely Spam' or Likely Fraud'.

 

[ModSquad]

The Apple IOS iCloud scam has shown itself twice this week. I have never had a notification to update my iCloud account and it’s happening. It looks freakishly realistic and all I can say is pay attention and don’t go into autopilot mode doing everything your device tells you to do.

 

[EuroSZabina]

The newest one I got recently that I went through speeding on a school zone and we should despute it privately so I don't have to go the court. Lol
Funniest is when I get these scam on my work fone which is clearly not associated with my banks.
Anyways, somebody in my family told me
TREAT ALL TEXT MESSAGE SCAM.
Most of the time we get a call and I made mistake to answer, all they want to know if it's a valid number so they can start spamming you with scam texts.