It's difficult to comprehend but
| # | Post |
|---|---|
| 1 | People are still getting scammed with this very old trick: nice_lady - 2021-03-26 06:37:00 |
| 2 | Some people want to believe....kind if like religion. lythande1 - 2021-03-26 09:08:00 |
| 3 | The lady in the article said: " the phone call was "very believable" as he stated he was a Spark technician and was able to provide a security number" Yeah right. NOT. That 'security number' exists on ALL windows computers. It is the same number on every one. It adds legitimacy to the 'techs' claim they're from Spark or whoever. The victims are just being too damn trusting. If someone came up to you in the street dressed in a pair of greasy overalls and said "I"m a mechanic and your car was just making a funny sound - let me take it for a drive to test it for you" - would you let them ? nice_lady - 2021-03-26 09:14:00 |
| 4 | nice_lady wrote: guarantee some would... king1 - 2021-03-26 09:17:00 |
| 5 | king1 wrote:
Sad and possibly correct. nice_lady - 2021-03-26 09:28:00 |
| 6 | nice_lady wrote:
Scammers were known as confidence tricksters (pre-computer era) and the trick was to instill confidence in the victim/s. Obviously, they practise their patter to sound genuine and it works on more disingenuous people. Have had the same call twice in last fortnight but I don't deal with Spark. One method for verification would be to ask for a phone no. to call back, then check independently for a local no. However, scammers may be able to by-pass that. amasser - 2021-03-26 16:30:00 |
| 7 | Old people are very compliant to authority figures generally. We'll all be old one day. bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-03-26 17:13:00 |
| 8 | While it's a salutary warning, I really take issue with the dramatic headline "Couple rattled after losing half their savings to fraudster". Especially after reading that the bank called them shortly after the attempted transfers, the article then goes on to say.... "Chris says he and his wife are "lucky" to have received the scammed money back from Kiwibank." - so what have they actually "lost" exactly? Obviously the headline was intended to ensure others read it, but this is far from the first article of this type in the press, and this couple clearly didn't heed those so will it really stop the next one? cookee_nz - 2021-03-26 22:24:00 |
| 9 | cookee_nz wrote: Click bait, pure and simple. The headline does not reflect the reality... king1 - 2021-03-26 22:36:00 |
| 10 | yes - but what I can't understand is when people say that they didn't know it was a risk.. it's like the scammers that ring & tell say you have a problem with windows & get control of someones computer.. but there have been ones with actual losses - maybe it needs to be in local papers? lady went & bought a whole pile of cards where you scratch a number & not only lost her savings, but had borrowed money urbanrefugee54 - 2021-03-28 00:06:00 |
| 11 | bitsnpieces2020 wrote:
Yep, got there. The remaining runway and landscape is not that attractive right now ! asmawa1 - 2021-03-30 17:14:00 |
| 12 | bitsnpieces2020 wrote: lythande1 - 2021-03-30 17:34:00 |
| 13 | The phone rang a while back and they asked for Barry. I said "no, Barry's deceased", and then they asked if they rang tomorrow would he be home then? I said "you can ring back tomorrow but he's still going to be dead, he's been dead since 2010". Then they said "Well, who are you?" and I told them I wasn't going to tell them because they weren't polite enough to tell me who was calling and I wasn't going to be polite in return. gyrogearloose - 2021-03-30 19:04:00 |
| 14 | Lol. nice_lady - 2021-03-30 19:17:00 |
| 15 | it makes me sick that there are people out there doing this sort of thing. Can't blame the elderly folk, as someone said the elderly are very compliant to authority, they can not fathom someone ripping them off. muppet_slayer - 2021-04-03 13:38:00 |
| 16 | muppet_slayer wrote:
And yet - elderly folk were not always elderly. They were younger also. Perhaps even not that long ago. I myself am now 61. Possibly some of you would consider that elderly. Anyone who is say 80 I would consider elderly but when I think about that they were the same age as me only 20 years ago - just around the turn of the century. Did their brains cease to function somehow , did they suddenly become ridiculously trusting for some reason ? How, why ? I cannot fathom that in 20 years time I'll be entirely trusting of someone on the end of a phone just because they say they work for some corporation. I'd say "That's nice" then I'd call that corporation back on a number I found myself. Anyway it's not just elderly folk by far who get suckered. The lady in the story I linked above was only 59. People just need to be less trusting. nice_lady - 2021-04-03 13:46:00 |
| 17 | nice_lady wrote: Agreed. Just to add, I guess we are all different and depending how we lived our life up to that point (some people train their brain more than others) determines how our brains will cope as we get older. 59, and certainly 61 I wouldn't consider old or elderly, but she may have been 59 and her brain capacity might be of, what we would consider, a normal 80 year old, and a normal 80 yr old might have the brain of a normal 59 yr old. Then there is "what is considered 'normal'?. It really is a roll of the dice as to how quickly our brains degrade but you'd think the more we use it the longer it will last. She did hesitate when the scammer asked for her pin number so she did, even for a second, know that she shouldn't give it to them, but then decided too. I agree though, at 59 she should have more of a clue that what she did :o/ muppet_slayer - 2021-04-03 15:10:00 |
| 18 | add into the mix the cultural change over the generations - prior to the 1960's there was a reasonable level of trust in authority figures, government etc, to do the right thing - whether it was deserved or not, is debatable. Then you get vietnam, watergate etc in US, which very clearly showed the world that this trust was somewhat misplaced, it was an eye opening moment for the world. The older generation probably perceived these events somewhat differently to the younger generation... resistance to chance, find it hard to believe etc etc Edited by king1 at 3:54 pm, Sat 3 Apr king1 - 2021-04-03 15:54:00 |
| 19 | Yes. But when the Bank tells customers to NEVER give out their pin....... nice_lady - 2021-04-03 16:08:00 |
| 20 | and definitely not to a 'spark technician' :o/ Could probably understand it a lot more if the scammer was pretending to be from a bank. muppet_slayer - 2021-04-03 16:18:00 |
| 21 | muppet_slayer wrote: I've been on the phone in the past with the technician, and it was probably Telecom and I initiated the call to complain about the rate of disconnections, and they've asked me for my password. "ah, no, it's MY password, it's not a shared password because then it wouldn't be mine, would it. Can I speak to your supervisor please". Click. The problem is, I'm convinced there's data leaks from the service providers to their cousins in India. And I believe the service providers convey these calls to your phone despite full knowledge that they are fraudulent, one day their day in court will come, they put profit above ethics. gyrogearloose - 2021-04-03 17:49:00 |
| 22 | gyrogearloose wrote: I am confused. I thought asking you for your password was so that you could then discuss and change your account as necessary. muppet_slayer - 2021-04-03 20:18:00 |
| 23 | Oh hang on I think that was for my 'my vodafone' password that I had forgotten that I needed to access my account. Gee there's too many passwords! muppet_slayer - 2021-04-03 20:30:00 |
| 24 | nice_lady wrote:
Barnum made some comment about foolish people. bryshaw - 2021-04-06 22:29:00 |
| 25 | Well they do say that fools and their money are soon parted. namtak - 2021-04-07 00:01:00 |
| 26 | There is a very good definition of 'Old". It's always "20 years older than me" So Prince Phillip nearly qualified. davepro - 2021-05-01 22:09:00 |
| 27 | I just told my mother to tell callers who start asking for money to call me. Just say I’m her power of attorney. Some of the scammers actually call me. ???? macman26 - 2021-05-01 22:17:00 |
| 28 | gyrogearloose wrote:
That really doesn't make a lot of sense. If you called them, then you know the Spark technicians are not scammers. They would rarely need your Spark password to diagnose a connection issue, but if they did for some reason, then I would provide it for them. Remember that the password you use for connecting to your ISP should be different from your Windows logon password and your banking password should be complex and unique (along with MFA). Remember that if you do give out a password - for instance for a trusted tech to log into Windows, you can always change it immediately afterwards gblack - 2021-05-02 08:16:00 |
| 29 | gblack wrote:
The techs - the REAL techs you've called - should NOT need your password for anything. They have other authentication methods, name, age, security question etc if it's really necessary. You rarely get to talk to a real tech when you call your isp or phone connection provider anyway. As for people changing their password straight after - well the people who get suckered by the Scam 'tech' callers are screwed as soon as they give out their password or enable/allow remote control/viewing of their pc and it's too late pretty much immediately. And unless they somehow get suspicious they won't even think about changing their passwords. Many people have little idea. For instance Hubby got a call one night from a client who, after an hour and a half on the phone to a scammer had finally gotten suspicious and hung up on them. However by that time they had already gotten her to enable remote control and got her to go into her bank account. Anyway he said to disconnect the computer - the lady didn't know how so he said to turn it off. He also told her to immediately call her bank to stop any transactions etc. Anyway the next day he went to visit the lady to check the computer, remove any remote control software etc etc, turns out she had 'turned off the computer' by pressing the power button on THE MONITOR. She had NO idea that only turned off the monitor and no comprehension that the computer was actually 'that box' under the table. Lol. So the scammer had remote access to her computer for about 24 hours. She was very lucky and lost no money somehow...............But the point of my story is that while you may expect people to change their password after having given it out, (NOT that they should ever need to as the isp etc already know it anyway), many wont as they just don't comprehend even the simplest of things about computing. ETA: I understand what you meant by giving a tech your password to log into windows, say for instance if you have a home visit tech or you've taken the computer to a shop to get repaired. Realistically it's unnecessary as that tech will not be getting unattended access to the device at any time I'd say. Edited by nice_lady at 8:38 am, Sun 2 May nice_lady - 2021-05-02 08:35:00 |
| 30 | nice_lady wrote: I usually tell folks in that situation to turn off the modem/router - of course it often has to be referred to as the box with all the flashing lights... king1 - 2021-05-02 12:53:00 |
| 31 | For some levity ~ a friend answered her phone last year to be told that she had a virus on her computer. She put the phone down and started yelling out to her husband stuff like 'we have a virus so you must have been watching porn sites' (a pretend conversation as he was at work). After a minute she picked up the phone again and said ' Thank you very much, he has promised not to look at those sites again' And then hung up on the protesting caller/scammer. alpha111 - 2021-05-02 13:16:00 |
| 32 | king1 wrote:
Hubby tried but she had NO idea of what it was or where it was lol nice_lady - 2021-05-02 13:49:00 |
| 33 | alpha111 wrote:
???????? nice_lady - 2021-05-02 13:49:00 |
| 34 | king1 wrote:
Yea true that, just another journalist trying to fatten his wallet gypsypom - 2021-05-04 08:03:00 |
| 35 | Journalists tend to have very thin wallets these days. tygertung - 2021-05-04 08:08:00 |
| 36 | gyrogearloose wrote: Or when they call and ask for a particular person, give them your local police station number and say he's moved. tegretol - 2021-05-04 09:37:00 |
| 37 | forget about the ones who want a PASSWORD!! I'm more interested in the ones who flood you with calls from Birmingham and other overseas cities and who (so I'm told) rely on you simply answering your phone.. Then comes the silence, then it hangs up. Defies logic and there appear to be no human beings involved. The natural inclination- after wondering who the hell do I know in Birmingham (or insert any one of a number of otherwise obscure overseas cities) is to CALL THEM BACK to try and find who had called and what they wanted? That's the hook- calling them back so they can (so I'm told) engage with you and somehow YOU are debited for the call. No, I don't really understand it either but that's the scam. Now I don't know about you, and I don't think it depends on just being 'elderly' but these callers- aided by the technology of local providers here to commit their crimes I might add- are 1/ using technology so they just have to set it up and wait for the suckers money to roll in- hence, no 'person' to be committing an offense- and 2/ depending not so much on our gullibility but rather taking advantage of opportunities afforded by what's an otherwise standard phone system. At least in a war you can SEE the enemy- they're the ones in different uniforms taking pot-shots at you. But with this, we don't stand a snowball's show unless, and its a big 'if', the owners of the technology used to commit the crime -i.e. the Vodafones and Sparks- in conjunction with the people protecting us from Crime (i.e. the Police) somehow get together with their overseas counterparts and devise a counter measure to all this. Don't hold your breath.. It's a scammers paradise out there I think.. Edited by johnhb at 11:09 am, Tue 4 May johnhb - 2021-05-04 11:08:00 |
| 38 | If you call them back your a fool. DO NOT call back unknown numbers. If it's important they'll call you again. nice_lady - 2021-05-04 15:22:00 |
| 39 | Agreed! My point was that is someone, somewhere doing anything about this blatant criminal activity, or is it all "too hard", and have "they" (Police?) thrown in the towel? If not, who's doing what? johnhb - 2021-05-21 11:03:00 |
| 40 | The responsibility of trust is with the one who trusts. Yet there is some kind of vague idea that when we trust another they magically become the one who is responsible. mkr_ahearn - 2021-05-21 12:00:00 |
| 41 | johnhb wrote:
How do you expect the police to do anything ? They have no jurisdiction in India or any other country. These calls originate internationally. The Teleco's might be able to block all international calls but they'll tell you they can't - I'm not sure why aside from the fact that scam calls or not they're clipping the ticket on them you can bet on that. Also I'm not sure how they 'see' the calls point of origin but you might see a local number on your caller ID and that is a 'spoofed' number which isn't the real number being called from at all. The call could originate in India but appear to be from Hamilton. That might complicate the situation for the teleco's. Anyway it's really up to people to just have some sense and not get ripped off I guess. nice_lady - 2021-05-21 15:41:00 |
| 42 | same as any other crime on the internet with the help of interpol. But its not worth the paperwork to them, its not as high profile as catching pedo rings, or drug traffickers, (and rightly so) so the prank callers carry on, and so do the ransomeware emails it seems, just ask the waikato hospital. bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-05-22 16:24:00 |
| 43 | bitsnpieces2020 wrote:
Theres mega dollars in ransomware. The calls the OP has mentioned are not 'prank calls' they're scam calls - generally designed to separate suckers from their money, (sometimes many thousands of dollars). nice_lady - 2021-05-22 16:29:00 |
| 44 | I see the Waikato DHB has got ransomware. Why don't they have a look at the other DHBs such as Auckland DHB or Hawke's Bay DHB or Waitemata DHB etc to see how to run a computer system properly? trade4us2 - 2021-05-22 17:46:00 |
| 45 | trade4us2 wrote: could just as easily happened at any of the other DHBs. Human beings are still the weakest link, and human beings are everywhere... king1 - 2021-05-22 17:58:00 |
| 46 | trade4us2 wrote:
It's probably just chance those others haven't been hit - yet. Edited by nice_lady at 6:22 pm, Sat 22 May nice_lady - 2021-05-22 18:21:00 |
| 47 | nice_lady wrote:
It's more likely that the security software for the others was written by someone clever, many years ago! trade4us2 - 2021-05-22 18:56:00 |
| 48 | trade4us2 wrote:
You're talking rubbish. You're living in dream land. Most ransomware attacks are initiated by someone opening an attachement or similar. And no matter how good some 'software written years ago' might have been back in the day it'd be completely useless today. These hackers are far more clued up than you might imagine. NO-ONE is invulnerable. NO company in the world is impenetrable and certainly not the DHB's in Nz. Edited by nice_lady at 7:03 pm, Sat 22 May nice_lady - 2021-05-22 19:02:00 |
| 49 | According to one report it was initiated by a staff member opening an Email .. gazzat22 - 2021-05-22 19:34:00 |
| 50 | trade4us2 wrote: and would be so ineffectual against modern security threats... either a wind up or you have no clue about IT security. Edited by king1 at 7:42 pm, Sat 22 May king1 - 2021-05-22 19:42:00 |
