New Scam-BEWARE

[Puddlebug74]

We are selling our Tradewind & I was really excited to receive my first inquiry today via text. After a couple of normal questions, they requested my zip code & without thinking I sent the response. What harm could possibly come from knowing my zip code? It's not a social security #...it's a zip code.
After re-reading the text, I picked up on the red flag & did a little Googling. "New scam targeting mobile users-KING5.com" was most helpful.
Apparently, technology has opened many doors for the modern day thief & something as simple as a zip code via text can make your day as "pleasant" as mine has been.
I'm glad I caught it right away and, hopefully, secured the right accounts. I just wanted to share my experience & help prevent any further headaches.

[streaminwild]

Are you saying all they need is a zip code to access bank accounts?

[msmcv51]

They did ask for the zip code by text. With so many people doing banking and credit and debit card purchases with their smart phones I could see that the simple text message could be a path into your accounts.

[Skater]

This is the internet, and we can link to the article that indicates it's apparently a T-Mobile (and other carriers) thing where you can reset your account password using only a ZIP code. The article isn't much clearer than the post above.

Also, I see only that one article, from some local news station. So, I'm taking the whole thing with a grain of salt until I hear more about it from an informed news source that explains exactly what's going on.

[robwok]

A friend of mine has all his credit card mail sent to a P.O. Box that isn't in the same PO as his home address. That way, even if they look him up, and they steal his wallet, they won't have the right zip. It's brilliant, but a bit of a hassle. If you have a good work situation, you could have credit card mail sent there as it's usually a different PO.

[streaminwild]

Thank god I'm old fashion. I use only cash to purchase products. The first time I saw someone use their phone to buy coffee at starbucks, I thought to myself, too much information on a phone. They have a lock-out code, but who really does this every time. It's only a matter of time before they invent a gadget that steals information on phones like the credit cards. Gone are the days when you paid with a twenty and they would ask ''Do you have something smaller?'' Now they don't even bat an eye for a hundred.

[Nomad518]

I work for a large credit union. Social engineering is a process by which bad guys gather pieces of information on you a little bit at a time. Sometimes getting one piece of information makes it easier to get another, and another, and so on. Until they have enough to steal your identity and gain access to your financial accounts. They also sell the information they gather to others which results in another revenue stream. Hard to say that's what was happening in your case, but it's something we all need to keep in mind.

Regarding payment systems that let you use your smartphone, the new Apple iPay system uses tokenization which actually creates another layer of security preventing immediate access to your account information. Other phone payment systems are not this sophisticated and present higher levels of risk. Apple has been pretty immune to security breaches up to this point, but the introduction of their new iPay system creates an attractive new target for hackers. Anyone who uses a smartphone (for any reason) should also use a complex password on the phone. These days your phone contains a lot of information that can be socially engineered to fill in blanks to steal your identity and gain access to your financial accounts.

[BoldAdventure]

Your magnetic stripe on your Debit/Credit card is far more insecure than any near field payment system. All you need is a card reader to pull the information and store it. Perhaps you've read about these being used by thieves to duplicate your card.

In some states, one needs to enter a zip code to verify a purchase using a credit/debit card at gas stations. Here in FL is one.

Someone with a copy of your card could start filling up the tank with just that piece of information.

[Puddlebug74]

I was exhausted by the end of the day & didn't go into detail. I just figured that since the culprit got my info off of this account, there could be others on here at risk. Just a quick & friendly heads up~that's all.
The number that texted me was 405-261-9504. I'm not sure what they were after. It could be access to make purchases on my cell, fill up on my gas card, or a doorway to clean out my savings. Either way, it's a scam.

[Stefrobrts]

I have not heard of this scam, but searching I see other forums where people mention getting calls on their ads from this same number, and they are trying to gather info to scam them.

As always, be very skeptical when dealing with strangers, especially those who contact you via text (easy to hide that they are foreign scammers if you can't hear their voice), and be very careful what info you give out. As Nomad518 mentions, Social Engineering is a way of getting what seems like harmless pieces of info, and putting them together to make big headaches.

[r carl]

Originally Posted by Puddlebug74

I was exhausted by the end of the day & didn't go into detail. I just figured that since the culprit got my info off of this account, there could be others on here at risk. Just a quick & friendly heads up~that's all.
The number that texted me was 405-261-9504. I'm not sure what they were after. It could be access to make purchases on my cell, fill up on my gas card, or a doorway to clean out my savings. Either way, it's a scam.

I just found out that they now can make any number show up on your caller ID, like a local number to you..

http://www.racingjunk.com/forums/sho...-Text-scammers

[Alphonse]

Puddlebug, thanks for bringing this all up. Awareness and diligence is paramount these days.

If someone has your name and even a hint of your state, they can get your address. Google your own name and within seconds you will find yourself and your address. Add in your cell number and now they are getting the gun loaded.

Key is to guard your passwords carefully, assure they they are complex enough (lower case, upper case, numbers, symbols and minimum of 8 characters), and change them often.

Like many, I travel on business and have had my credit card hacked. Like many, the recent Home Depot debacle affected my card. It is always 3 to 4 hours of hard work to make the transition to a new card number and by the end of that I would generally love to club the thieves about the head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, abdomen, hips, thighs, knees, calves, ankles, and feet.

Obviously credit cards are just the tip of the iceberg and generally represent little financial risk but it is all a pain isn't it? It will be interesting to see how the phone payments work out and how quickly and deeply the thieves crack it.

[geowickey]

I don't believe you guys should be worried about sending someone your zip code if they send you a text inquiring about a listing here...

But I can tell you firsthand what this loser tried to pull just today.

They texted me about my current Airstream listing from the same number in this thread--- 405-261-9504


They asked if there was anything on my airstream that needed to be repaired. I responded with no. And then they texted me along the lines of- ok, great. Please send me your Paypal ID and I will submit payment once I reach out to my shipper.

Well-- obviously it is odd that someone would want to pay full price and especially without doing any due diligence on the listed item. So at this point I played along expecting it to be a scam. Honestly- I didn't have any issue sending them my Paypal ID because it is my email address. My email address is pretty much everywhere.

So in the middle of the night they sent me 3 emails. One from a supposed shipping company called Harrison Shipping Company from a secretary named Grace Kelly. Haha. That email indicated that they received confirmation that PayPal payment was completed and that they were waiting on me to send them $750 via Western Union. The recipient name was Alexs Jamal with a Greensboro, NC address.

Then there were two fake PayPal payment confirmation emails from my "buyer" whose name was supposedly James Adams. These messages were instructing me that a new PayPal feature is that I would only see the confirmed funds after the shipping company received their $750.

I had a good laugh at these sloppy emails which had many grammatical errors and lots of awkward phrasing as if someone who didn't speak perfect english (or a translation software) had written them.

Finally, I received text messages this morning from James Adams who was now signing his name as Adams James. He told me that he made payment and that if I didn't see PayPal's emails that I should check my spam folder (btw- that is where these fake messages were).

Anyway- I sent this person a few spirited text messages letting them know where to go.

There were lots and lots of obvious signs that this was a scam. But even if they cleaned up their sloppiness the remaining red flag of course is-----

If you are selling something you shouldn't be the one giving someone else money.

[ZBoater]

I read somewhere that the reason you still see the email scam of the Nigerian prince despite being so discredited it that ---- some people are still falling for it. So they figured if they send 1,000,000 emails and 1 person falls for it, then its worth it.

Some common sense and healthy skepticism goes a looooong way to prevent falling for these scams. My parents got a LETTER in the US MAIL asking them to send their mortgage payment to a new address. In bank letterhead and everything. This was a few years back.

These thieves know no bounds....

[featherbedder]

My computer was hacked by some one Nigeria & some one in vietnam the only way I found out was when trying to change pass words, they changed ip address, had to use web tech, they took control of my computers cleaned everything about ip cost me $400 for 3 computers, & we never bank or put info on line.

[Ganado]

THanks for posting this always good to know scamming and trolling are active. Every form of bank payment has its risks. The key is to know how to have security in place for them and to not click on unknown links.

I do think this site could be more secure. I own a large gaming forum that is more secure than this site and we have code in the footers that lets google search the site so we get indexed, without letting everyone read every post that leaves the site more secure.

We still have some risk with spamming and trolling from people (in gaming we get up to 100 of these new spam registrations a day) but with the double verification we have in the back ground we can block most of those.

So my point in making this post is that it would be great if the site were more secure.

[cwf]

Got a scam yesterday. It even seemed to have authentic wording from the most "beloved" gov agency.. Irs.

I forwarded to the "irs" scam team..... Seems redundant.

Got a "thank you" note!!! Wow!

[pappy19]

What's the irs scam email address, I need to send them a few myself.

[Drathaar]

The FBI has an email address to report scams. We received the IRS scam, too.

I led a corporate security organization for a good sized company (the team had the security skills, not me), and I was stunned at how often we had bad guys knocking at the door. Tuesdays became Microsoft Tuesday, as that was the day MS released patches for vulnerabilities and operating system problems. I quit using my debit card except at MY bank. Our credit card was compromised a few years back, but the banks fraud detection/prevention caught it immediately. No harm to us.

It's a wild world out there...

[carl2591]

this is one of the many reasons why we, my family and any one i can convince to do this, have a credit freeze on all three of our credit files.

if you listen to Clark Howard, clarkhoward.com, on the radio like i do you will hear this said time after time..

do a google search "credit freeze" and learn more. the credit monitoring sites like lifelock and other are WORTHLESS in most cases and can cost 100 of dollars..

Go to creditkarma.com and do free credit monitoring, plus you can get a copy of your credit report from one, trans union, credit reporting agency.

there are three in total. Equifax, Experian, Trans Union

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