Never, ever, respond to a request for ID information on line. Hang up and phone the bank or site directly. As far as PayPal goes, I was scammed the first year it came out, from Germany, and will not use it.
Wow! I can feel your panic and fury! I occasionally get notices from Pay Pal myself, but luckily I remembered in the nick of time that my account with them hasn't been used & doesn't even exist anymore. Also "Amazon" occasionally sends me a notice about something that will freeze my account. Bogus again! I thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier! That's a crock of you-know-what!
One of my favorite FB pages is Payback Scammer. This guy, who uses the name Pierogi, poses as an old fart while hacking into the scammers computer, deletes their files, exposes their real names, etc. He has even hacked into the cameras and shows these people at their phone banks! My hero. Interview with Pierogi at this AARP The Perfect Scam podcast…. entitled “Inside the World of a Scam-Busting YouTuber”.
Scammer Payback/Pierogi is good, but I watch him on YT as I prefer to not share my personal data and correspondence with the uncaring, data thieving Mark "Soulless Bot" Zuckerberg. I like the more technical Scambaiter on YT (yes, YT is owned by Gurgle which also mines data, but whaddayagonnado?). He goes into a lot of detail about these scam centers and their methods and hierarchy as well as calling them out and "dehancing" their systems. A good learning resource as well as a good bit of righteously fun comeuppance. No funny voices, but very thorough. One must gird one's grid to avoid head-on collisions with malignant evil doers who exploit innocent travelers on the information superhighway. Good warning tale from “Easy-going Dave”. Man, I'm taking the wrong meds! ;D
Sorry you had to go thru that. A side note, after quad bypass, I hated those beta blockers. Doc gave me the option of going vegan, and within 6 months was off of them and blood pressure meds. Still going strong!
David, I think this email is from you, but I am a little leery about clicking on the links you so generously included, because if scammers can find a way to hijack your email and change those links, they could lead somewhere I really don't want to go.
Wow, what a story! Thank you for posting this. I hated PayPal -- even before I found out who the originators were. I used to get very convincing PayPal scam emails a lot. Now I get scam texts about "having trouble delivering your package" when I didn't order anything. The weirdest scam was a phone scam from a cheery young woman who greeted me with, "Hi, Grandma!" It took me a few minutes to realize that my only granddaughter old enough to call me and greet me in that manner was in class at the time. Also, my grandchildren don't call me "grandma." When I finally said, "Who is this?" She hung up. What happened to Consumer Fraud Protection?
So sorry that you had to go through all this trouble. It would make anyone’s blood pressure hit the roof.
The same thing happened to me but I didn’t engage. I was being charged $486 for bitcoin. At first it looked real but the sentence structure was clumsy. I called PayPal at a different # from their message. After a long wait the person shared that PayPal had been targeted that day. They gave me the phishing fraud contact.
I also called my Bank and everything was fine. I think the “bitcoin” was what freaked me out and I stopped.
I suspect this comment thread would be an excellent resource for all.
Re Pay Pal: I closed my account years ago when I realized its founder was Marc Thiessen. That was maybe a touch irrational, but soothed my conscience.
Damn… Seems like we’re all living in Dumtrumpistan, where the crooks are running the show.
Never, ever, respond to a request for ID information on line. Hang up and phone the bank or site directly. As far as PayPal goes, I was scammed the first year it came out, from Germany, and will not use it.
Thanks, sir 😉. You are a treasure and this was another sign of your generosity of spirit. Dontcha hate these life lessons?
Wow! I can feel your panic and fury! I occasionally get notices from Pay Pal myself, but luckily I remembered in the nick of time that my account with them hasn't been used & doesn't even exist anymore. Also "Amazon" occasionally sends me a notice about something that will freeze my account. Bogus again! I thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier! That's a crock of you-know-what!
One of my favorite FB pages is Payback Scammer. This guy, who uses the name Pierogi, poses as an old fart while hacking into the scammers computer, deletes their files, exposes their real names, etc. He has even hacked into the cameras and shows these people at their phone banks! My hero. Interview with Pierogi at this AARP The Perfect Scam podcast…. entitled “Inside the World of a Scam-Busting YouTuber”.
Scammer Payback/Pierogi is good, but I watch him on YT as I prefer to not share my personal data and correspondence with the uncaring, data thieving Mark "Soulless Bot" Zuckerberg. I like the more technical Scambaiter on YT (yes, YT is owned by Gurgle which also mines data, but whaddayagonnado?). He goes into a lot of detail about these scam centers and their methods and hierarchy as well as calling them out and "dehancing" their systems. A good learning resource as well as a good bit of righteously fun comeuppance. No funny voices, but very thorough. One must gird one's grid to avoid head-on collisions with malignant evil doers who exploit innocent travelers on the information superhighway. Good warning tale from “Easy-going Dave”. Man, I'm taking the wrong meds! ;D
Sorry you had to go thru that. A side note, after quad bypass, I hated those beta blockers. Doc gave me the option of going vegan, and within 6 months was off of them and blood pressure meds. Still going strong!
David, I think this email is from you, but I am a little leery about clicking on the links you so generously included, because if scammers can find a way to hijack your email and change those links, they could lead somewhere I really don't want to go.
Thank you for sharing. We don’t think this stuff is serious until it happens to us.
I am interested to hear your thoughts on Ozempic.
Wow, what a story! Thank you for posting this. I hated PayPal -- even before I found out who the originators were. I used to get very convincing PayPal scam emails a lot. Now I get scam texts about "having trouble delivering your package" when I didn't order anything. The weirdest scam was a phone scam from a cheery young woman who greeted me with, "Hi, Grandma!" It took me a few minutes to realize that my only granddaughter old enough to call me and greet me in that manner was in class at the time. Also, my grandchildren don't call me "grandma." When I finally said, "Who is this?" She hung up. What happened to Consumer Fraud Protection?
Wow! Scary story. Only you could make this awful tale sound like a lyrical essay, but thanks for sharing. I wish you carefully managed good health!
So sorry that you had to go through all this trouble. It would make anyone’s blood pressure hit the roof.
The same thing happened to me but I didn’t engage. I was being charged $486 for bitcoin. At first it looked real but the sentence structure was clumsy. I called PayPal at a different # from their message. After a long wait the person shared that PayPal had been targeted that day. They gave me the phishing fraud contact.
I also called my Bank and everything was fine. I think the “bitcoin” was what freaked me out and I stopped.
Stay well dear friend,
Edlynne
Ya shouda known better. Too good to be true is . . .
Omg! This hilarious, traumatizing, horrifying and heartbreaking—you are a master at “words for the wise!”