419 Scam of the Day [Email Scams, Phishing, etc.]

yes, sorry, I left half of what I meant to write out: If one rents out accomodation for holidayers it would be pretty stupid not to answer unknown numbers.
Sorry about that.

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If you’ve got kids it’s pretty stupid to ignore unknown numbers.

There are numerous occasions when one could get a call from an unknown number, such as:

  • Child’s own mobile has run out of credit/has a flat battery/broken and they borrow another to call you.
  • Child has an accident or mishap and you are called from the badi/playground etc.
  • Child takes a wrong-turn on the ski slope and the lift operator calls you on the ID info card you always leave in your kid’s ski jacket pocket.
  • School phones you (from an unknown number)
  • Child ends up at a friend’s house and the parents call you to let you know they are there.

etc etc

I needed some plastic hulls to make bio-lip balm with my bees wax, honey and the alike (free for good customers!), no, that’s not the spam part, that’s for real :wink:

but I had the bad idea of ordering them from Ali Express. I got emails 3 times per day on the ā€˜whereabouts’ of my packs. I didn’t open any of them – when it arrives, it arrives, and if it doesn’t, not big deal. I can imagine that they ā€˜monitor’ the opening of emails, and that my data has now been sold to 3rd parties…because yesterday as the email stated ’ the pack is in your region, ready to be shipped’…i received (of course!) an SMS from a ā€œ+59ā€¦ā€, which reads:
(excuse the typos, I cannot copy from my SMS)

"Team der Schweizerischen Post. Das Paket kann nich zugestellt werden, da das System fesgestellt hat, dass Ihre Lieferadressinormation unvollstanding sind. Die Pakete werden im Lager zwischengelagert. Bitte bestatigen oder aktuarlisieren Sie ihre adresse so schnell wie moglich uber den unten stehenden Link…

and, just in case you don’t open the link they also give you the chance of

ā€œAntworten Sie bitte mit ā€œJā€ beenden Sie dann die SMS und offnen Sie sie erneut, um den Link zu aktivieren, oder kopieren Sie den Link und Offnen Sie ihn in Safariā€¦ā€

I know, it was a bad idea… :frowning:

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And they didn’t charge you the regular Fr. 2.90 while they were at it? :rofl:

That happened to me today, data might be sold to 3rd parties.

I ordered something from Galaxus. I have set my whole account in French. I went to the office today and got an SMS in German telling that my Galaxus delivery could not be completed because wrong address, blabla, just like the message you copied. There was a link to confirm my address of redirect the delivery to a new address. I arrive home, the package is in my mailbox.

If I received an SMS like that once a week, I’d just say…damned scammers shooting in the dark. But no, I don’t remember any SMS like that this year. And my whole communication with Galaxus is in French. Anyway, I received a bait in German exactly the day I was expecting a delivery.

I won’t blame Galaxus right away. But someone in the supply chain is selling the data. Warehouse? Galaxus? Credit card company? Delivery company? Delivery driver? Who?

Edit : the damned SMS. So schnell wie moglich…MFers!!! My German level is low, but Schweizerische"n" Post? That’s suspicious. Anyone knows from which language the online translation to German adds than ā€œnā€?

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yep… exactly the same email that you got!! (includying the bad german ). we will never know it – unless it resurfaces because someone important got crooked… like the data crack some months ago, involving the private information of all of the UBS employees… including the private telephone number of Sergio :open_mouth:

Sloppy fraudsters! :smiley:

I keep getting emails supposedly from Ali Express that two items I ordered are on their way and to click to see where.
But the items arrived weeks ago and I confirmed delivery.

From WRS:

There’s a warning of a particularly sophisticated scam linked to Geneva parking tickets.

The Tribune de GenĆØve reports on a victim who first received a text message saying he needs to pay a CHF 40 fine. After clicking on the link and entering his credit card number, he gets a phone call from the bank and saying there’s been fraudulent activity – those payments have been blocked and the fraudster stopped.

He then gets a message from the bank saying there’s been suspicious activity – that came with a code he can use to unblock the card. He then gave it to the person on the phone.

But all along, the person on the phone was part of the scam – and the victim gave them the code from the app – which was genuine.

In all he lost CHF 3,000 in a matter of minutes.

It’s thought as much a CHF 3m has been lost to the scam in Geneva and Vaud alone. But it could be higher as not everyone would report it.

I’ve recently received a few calls where the caller wants to discuss my experience with a share trading. I hang up immediately as these calls are often used to record a person’s voice in order to generate fake AI calls in the victims name. Watch out!

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The answer then is, until you can confirm the caller, to always answer your phone with a fake accent.

Got a call yesterday. My number for the first 5 numbers. It was that dull recording in American English - ā€œThis is the Swiss policeā€¦ā€
Apparently there is an arrest warrant out on me. I held on to find out more, but the call ended…

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Phone numbers and e-mail addresses are easily spoofed. Do not believe caller ID, do not believe senders e-mail address. If in doubt it is a scam.

is that what it is. I had a few of those but hung up right after ā€œthis is the Swiss policeā€. Did they also shout that out in a manner that almost let’s you drop the phone? :rofl:

You have to dial ā€œ1ā€ then you get through to what seems to be a call centre full of ā€œZurich City Policeā€ who demand that you speak English then hang up when you don’t.

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Amazingly the email spams are the most common but easily detected. They want to pay you large sums of money, but the only way to connect with you is via email. Nobody does business transactions like that.

Most worst is that, recently, I have been getting calls from numbers similar to my telephone number (only last 4 digits of the number are different). Caller ID didn’t detect it as spam so had a natural inclination to answer the first time, but got no response, so immediately hung up. I guess this is a new kind of scam now. After that I have been getting calls now and then with similar numbers as to mine, only last few digits are changed, but I don’t pick up anymore. It’s annoying and there is no way to block them as well.

Just read now some people have similar experiences. The number is always similar to mine, 079 747, with the last 4 digits always changing.

I have a flashback of our CH plumber, who used to answer his phone, ā€œWwoooohhhhllll?ā€ I wonder what a scammer would do with a recording of that?

Also recently they send an SMS with a URL link in it saying, the parcel you ordered is stuck in customs and to release it you need to pay. The URL in that SMS is a fake website which imitates SwissPost, DHL, UPS etc. and they use it to collect your personal and credit card details. Please stay beware of that.

Phone numbers are easily spoffed. DO NOT TRUST CALLER ID.

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I’ve also received several calls recently that match part of my number. I never answer, as none of them are in my contact list.

But I get the point from @Tom1234. My colleagues with children receive calls from unknown numbers quite regularly, and many times the caller is someone from the school calling my colleague about their child. Apparently even though the teacher’s number is stored, any teacher can call from any phone. So they always answer and just hang up when it’s clearly a spam call.