Oh good grief!
My daughter works for a financial institution and told me about a seminar she attended about scams attacking seniors. It's mind boggling how many seniors have lost their savings to scams.
One of the important things she mentioned is that if we get a message or call that appears legitimate, tell them you will call them up later. You can then look up the number yourself and talk to a person you can trust.
She also reminded me to stop answering the home phone if it's an unfamiliar number. Let them leave a message.
OK... OK...
Anyway, I got a 2nd notice about my having an unpaid toll bill, even after I reported it as JUNK to Apple.
Tsk!
Important thing to note: We don't have toll roads in Hawaii and I don't drive anymore.
I reported this to the FTC fraud line too.
I also learned that if you get a message purporting to be from the U.S. government, make sure you see the .gov at the ending.
Stay safe, everyone.
POSTSCRIPT 1:
Oh no! Another one!
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Good grief! I got another one supposedly this time from the Illinois Tollway. We haven't been to Illinois since last summer.
I've always assumed they just used some sort of 1o digit random number generators to send texts to. It would be easy to set up and one only had to monitor any returns.
ReplyDeleteWe ditched our home phone and transferred the number to Google Voice which has an option to mute all phone calls, transcribe those that leave messages and send us an email. I have found that to be quite effective since scammers never leave recorded messages. About the only legitimate calls we get is the local pharmacy letting us know a prescription is ready and that message gets transcribed and emailed so I don't even have to answer the phone. In fact, we no longer have any phones in our house outside of our cellphones.
Yep. I don't answer any numbers I don't know. Figure if they want me, they'll leave a message. That's transcribed on my cell. Glad you're not getting too many toll bills in Hawaii. One tour bus guide in Honolulu was funny. We were on the interstate, and he described the history of it being placed and numbered. Said it was funny that Hawaii had an Interstate highway; like, what state does it connect to when it's surrounded by ocean.?! Watch out for those tolls! Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteMy toll pass is automatically attached to my credit card so it replenishes it own self as needed. And because of that, every time I get one of these "phishing" emails, I automatically have to check my credit card to make sure that it isn't hacked like my phone number.
ReplyDeleteI am sure to always check the sender email, too. Always look for the dot gov at the end. The ones I worry about people falling for are the sneaky punctuation ones. They use a known company name like home depot. A genuine one would say homedepot.com in the address. The fake one might say home. depot.com. I hate this scammers.
Both Sue and I have received such scams in the last week. There is one toll road in Ontario, but we haven’t been near it in ages.
ReplyDeleteKay, you do way too much work fighting these scams. Delete, ignore, move on. They will continue to come, and still the rule is--delete, ignore, move on.
ReplyDeleteScammers work hard to separate people from their money!
ReplyDeleteUnlike many, I do pick up some unknown calls, especially now with my mom in the hospital. It depends on the situation of course. We don't have toll roads either although we do have a couple toll bridges. So anything like this would definitely be a scam.
ReplyDeleteSo many scammers! Just looking at the email address of sender should be a big clue that it's a scam.
ReplyDeleteSo much danger online
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I both got this, although they didn't call; they texted. We haven't been anywhere to go on a toll road for a long, long time, so we just deleted the texts.
ReplyDeleteI get similar scam emails but as dkzody says, I just delete them and move on.
ReplyDeleteToll fee scams see to be the latest wrinkle in scamming. We are getting them too, and we do have tolls on bridges and tunnels
ReplyDelete. However we have Good-to-Go stickers on our car and pay automatically, so we know it's a scam.
I have followed your advice for a long time. I don't answer my phone unless for sure I know the number. Like you, if they're legit they can leave a message.
ReplyDeleteSo many scams and scammers we have to be so careful.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
My cell has been getting a lot of scam calls recently like every other day. I never answer an unknown number. Too many scammers spoof a local number, i.e. 808 #. The calls I get are one saying my order is canceled so click here to see the refund transaction. Another saying my PayPal account was charged $429.00 and my shipment will be sent, another link. One saying I only have 390 documents left for storage and another link. Of course I don't have any such accounts or orders nor do they i.d. Who or what the item is. I just think they're fishing hoping that one person in thousands will bite. And they do get bites. I watch scam fighters on YouTube who penetrate India call centers and they make millions off seniors. It's so tragic.Every trick in the book is used to dupe them and some of them sound so old and confused. They truly believe they need to pay The Microsoft . BB
ReplyDeleteI've gotten that same text.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had that message, though several people here have. I've read it means your data has been breached somewhere. I had an EZ Pass for twenty years and used it from the Mississippi to the Atlantic Ocean. Can't believe I haven't shown up on some scammer's screen.
ReplyDeleteWe get a lot of junk phone calls - since we use a caption phone that transcribes messages or calls the phone shows on its screen who/where the call is from as well as the number and message if any. One last week showed up on the screen as "PROBABLY FRAUD". Of course that is the one I'm tempted to call back. Resisting.
ReplyDeleteCeci
I just mark such calls with "block number," and I think that minimizes my number of junk calls. My Verizon cell usually labels junk calls with "potential spam" or "unknown." They ring, then don't leave a message. Many from my or nearby area codes. I just choose block that number. Not sure there's much of an honest FBI to report these problems to anymore. Sad. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteTerrible scammers. I wonder how they feel about taking advantage of people that could be their mothers.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh. We got a flurry of them after the first of the year, all claiming to have come in December. We didn't go anywhere. I ignored them. I should have probably reported them.
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent, to warn others. It's really hard to believe.
ReplyDeleteI know, according to Equifax, that my name, email, and number have been sold to scammers. It is awful
There is a wonderful new scam going around. The person who calls you wants to know if you got your 2025 Medicare card yet. I laughed and asked for a name and company so I could report it to the Sheriff's Department locally. I did get the number she called from and passed it off to the long arm of the law.
ReplyDeleteImagine how much trouble that could cause???