Lessons from the Lady Who Gave Scammers $50k
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ABOUT: Rebecca Watson is the founder of the Skepchick Network, a collection of sites focused on science and critical thinking. She has written for outlets such as Slate, Popular Science, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. She's also the host of Quiz-o-tron, a rowdy, live quiz show that pits scientists against comedians. Asteroid 153289 Rebeccawatson is named after her (her real name being 153289).
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The real scam is how a person who doesn't know how taxes work has a financial advice column.
Capitalism and generational wealth
She has money!
@@therabbithat ... yes
That plot twist hit me like a fucking tidal wave. Nepotism leads to the funniest shit sometimes
@@therabbithatYes she was probably born with it.
Lesson 1: Don't put money into a shoebox and give it to a stranger.
Lesson 3: Profit!
Lesson 2: ???
No? I was just about to do that very thing. Are you sure?
Lesson 2: Google It!
@@philbarone4603Yes. Unless the stranger is me, then it’s ok. Lemme give you an address real quick…
My mom (a woman with Alzheimers) got scammed so many times before we were finally able to get guardianship over her. They were so cruel, preying on her desperation and desire for security and taking advantage of her diminished ability to think critically. It was an awful thing to witness. The scams were so transparent, but she just couldn't recognize it.
Very relatable. My MIL has rapidly advancing dementia and keeps falling for phishing attempts. The most recent one (last month) basically drained her account TWICE; so my partner had to close her accounts, reopen, and basically retain control of her savings in a joint account. We're at the point where we're seriously considering guardianship. Also, I'm grateful she's broke as I could see her totally falling for something like this video documents.
That's so disheartening
I'm going through the same thing with my grandmother at the moment. She's so desperate for debt relief that she is willing to give her personal info to any Tom, Dick, and Harry that calls her. I'm lucky enough that she tells me this when she does it so I can take care of it, but it's immensely frustrating.
Unfortunately, we can't really get guardianship over her despite our attempts.
@@pennyforyourthots Yeah, some people need secured and controlled electronic devices. Internet is incredibly dangerous.
I have worked in the financial industry and the old folks blatantly getting scammed was heartbreaking. You can only slow them down but in the end it's their money you can't stop them. Financial advisors would call in and do everything they could to freeze the account but it's their money so it's all just temporary. If you have older family members make sure they have trusted contact people listed in the accounts. These are family members we can contact for such a situation. Again it's the elderly person's money so all they can do is convince Grandma not to do it.
Anybody who tells you that you don't need a lawyer are NOT on your side.
I would go a step further and say the moment someone tells you that you don't need a lawyer is when you should immediately stop talking to them and get a lawyer.
"why tell your spouce? You can't make your own decisions?"
@@therabbithat I mean there's SOME arguments to make on that one (abusive spouse going down the DARVO checklist and isolating their victim from the people who WOULD help), but also when it's NOT an actual abusive partner case that reasoning is a red flag that SOMEONE'S relationship is headed for the shitter.
Let me guess, you're a lawyer. $
speaking of scams
@@neoqwerty if the spouse is abusive the reasoning not to tell them isn't "you can't make your own decisions?" tho. It's that they're abusive and don't have their partner's best interest in mind
A thing that is both heartwarming and frightening that came from this is the discovery that our first line of defense against scams like this are... grocery store and drugstore cashiers.
I read more than one post on various forums from people working the checkout line that, yeah, they noticed the customer buying a lot of Amazon and Starbucks gift cards, and gently asked why.
Whereupon they would politely explain what was probably happening.
Cashiers who are fighting for wages and health benefits are better at protecting us than disappointing scions of a political family.
A couple of years ago I was in an Office Depot and saw signs posted at the checkouts, warning people of gift card scams. I asked the clerks if they're able to help people before they get ripped off, and they said that people often get so hostile about it that the clerks have largely given up trying to help.
The current older generations would rather DIE than admin they could possibly be wrong about something. The only thing they hate worse is advice from younger people.
It's super maladaptive/destructive and I just hate it 😢
Yup. My 21-year-old daughter is a grocery store cashier and she has to sign a paper _before every shift_ that says she understands the signs of gift card scams.
This is what shocked me the most about her story, she glosses over the bank teller. I run the customer service counter at a grocery store and the SAME DAY I read this article I stopped someone who was being talked through buying gift cards by a scammer. He was only buying $250 but I knew something was wrong when he was on the phone. All it takes is a few questions and being polite to start walking people back from that edge. I'm shocked that the teller at the bank didn't say anything, ask any questions.
It's not always easy!
I have had an older woman get pissed I wouldn't sell her $1500 so she could pay off scammers who "had her bank account." I've also had a young lady start crying in relief when I told her she could hang up the phone, that the people on the other end weren't really the police and that they weren't going to arrest her at the school she worked at because of an "unpaid bond".
I've had more people mad about the inconvenience than I have actively being scammed, but I never want to neglect the safety of people in my community. A lot of people don't understand how much we are the last line of defense against these scams, and that they do target all kinds of people.
@@neverhave thank you SO MUCH for your care and efforts 💪
Oh absolutely, I've done this with 1 customer.
That "author" seems like the kind of person to write an article called "Use these 5 tricks to get financial freedom" with numbers 1-4 being cost cutting stuff and the 5th saying something along the lines of "I also got my multimillionaire parents to pay off my student loans and buy my house with cash to avoid a high interest mortgage"
Allot of people with rich parents just go into finance so i belive it tho i think its scummy af
In the article she mentions that “part” of her $50k savings came from an inheritance from her late grandfather and I’m gonna guess it was a fairly large “part”
They wouldn't have student loans to begin with, silly 😜
Eat less avocado toast and profit!!!?!!1!
These people are the reason the Estate tax was created. And now look what we've wrought by dismantling it
I love that she mentions the fact that she flosses as a reason why she wouldn’t fall for a scam. I also love the theory that she spent $50K on something else and this scam story is an elaborate lie that got very out of control.
That's my theory
Gambling problem, maybe?
The biggest red flag in all of this is the actual person on the ground that drove to her house and collected the money. Usually scammers want gift cards or bitcoin because they’re overseas. Having a local accomplice would make it much easier to get caught.
yes - unusual for a scammer to put themselves in a position where they could easily have been caught
Not unheard of though. Usually it's more of a "meet in this parking lot" type of thing though, not door to door service. Makes me wonder if this attack was specifically directed at her.
These are called money mules. They are not directly affiliated to the scammers, but basically exploited subcontractors who have no clue whom they are working for.
i saw cases of overseas scammer paying people to get a box and those peoplel dont evenn know what is on the box
@@RCake Yeah, get a box from this person and put it into this PO Box. Okay boss.
My parents- very intelligent and rational people- got a phone call recently asking if they’re looking to buy a house, etc. and at the time we were actually purchasing an apartment so yeah, they answered the call and talked to the person and even gave my name as someone that might be interested. And then my dad called me and my brain exploded because it seemed to obviously be a scam and I couldn’t believe they’d talked to them (and they said too ‘how could you think we’d be dumb enough to fall for a scam?’) but that ‘I’m too smart’ mindset is exactly how people end up falling for it! Precisely because you think you’re too smart, so if it was a scam you wouldn’t have fallen for it, so this couldn’t possibly be a scam.
Oh! And one of my friend’s grandmother was scammed recently- grandma got a call spoofing my friend’s number in the middle of the night, a young woman (grandma swears it was my friend’s voice) saying ‘grandma, I’m in trouble, I need money, how much do you have?’ and then grandma was convinced into putting all her money in a box and handing it to a taxi driver. And worst of all- the first taxi driver she was wasn’t the scammer! He was a legit taxi driver and told grandma no, don’t give anyone your money, you’re being scammed, but she was so convinced her granddaughter was in danger she went along with it. She never thought to call my friend or her parents. The family’s going to be okay but it was still a really big blow to them financially.
@@LilyLewis771I imagine the tactic of appealing to emotion like that helps the scammer because then you're not thinking critically, you're feeling worried.
It might be useful to tell your parents, "Hey, I know you're smart, but these criminals keep getting more and more sophisticated, so it's best to operate from a place of least trust."
Then send them news stories about the LMG spearphish and all of the billion dollar corporations and government agencies who've had their social media accounts hijacked.
The last thing you want is for your parents to get robbed and then be too embarrassed to tell you.
I fell for a scam once, but it was for only a couple dollars(presumably to access my credit card or god forbid a person's debit card). It was because I was using the Postal service for something very important and time critical. I got a confusing message and only had my phone and slow internet to deal with the "problem" in less than 45 minutes or so before I would be busy with something else. A few hours later after thinking about it, I checked the security certificate or something for the website I was directed to and was like fuck. I got scammed. Disputed the couple dollar charge and cancelled the card.
The weird thing was I never get post office scams. I got this only a couple days after going in to the Post office. So I think somehow the scammers got the information that I used the post office in order to target me. By their good luck they put out the bait while I was in a rush myself. So I think there is an element of successful scams that target something new you're doing and also catch you or trick you into believing the situation is time critical.
@@LilyLewis771shout out to that taxi driver for being a real one lol
Imagine having 50k.
Imagine having a box
Jeff Bezos wipes his ass with 10 times that amount after he takes a shit. Try to imagine that ☺️
Imagine having someone wanting to call.
And then imagine just giving that 50k away without thinking twice
And then devising a scheme to cheat your fellow Americans out of tax money.
I got a call similar to that before. I forgot exactly what they said, but I remember my reply was something like "Did you know that the CIA actually does not investigate identity theft?" long pause... "Sir, they do, sir." Hung up lol.
I'm also pretty confident¹ that if you're ever on the phone with someone from a clandestine service, they _will never tell you over the phone_ that they work for said service. Because that would be really bad OpSec.
¹I was applying for a job at a three-letter agency. And I guess technically speaking I don't actually know that the person I was talking to was actually from the agency.
CIA specifically is not allowed to operate on American soil (they do, but they aren't allowed to), so investigating identity thieves in the US is really not something they'd do (and certainly wouldn't admit to it on a phone call). So yeah, this feels like one of those mistakes to weed out the people that know better.
@@GSBarlevIf someone tells you they're with the CIA, either they're lying (and you shouldn't trust them) or they're telling the truth (and you _definitely_ shouldn't trust them)
Ohhhh, _that's_ what the article on _Hard Drive_ was parodying. It's distressing to me how much "breaking news" I get backtracking from _Onion-esque_ outlets.
lol such a weird feeling. Kinda like hearing a Weird Al song and then hearing the original on the radio a decade later and you're like "ohhhhh, now I get it"
@@idontwantahandlethoughHappens to me every time I hear "Gangster's Paradise." I also can't sing "American Pie" without accidentally throwing in an Anakin verse.
@@GSBarlev as an 11 year old who was gifted a best ofs album for weird Al, I didn't even know half the original songs at the time so it was always kinda a let down to hear some of them for the first time haha
Same, which also too often leads me assume absurd real things (most recently Trump's sneakers) are just Onion articles. 😂
Imagine thinking that the FTC and the CIA would proactively get involved in solving your identity theft. That's some privilege right there. That's someone who has either never interacted with law enforcement, or whose experience of such has been uniformly positive - unlike us non-rich people.
With Amazon facilitating it even!
To be fair to her, her relative FDR founded the precursor to the CIA - so it makes sense she’d think they’re her personal crime solvers
To be fair, I didn't see too many people just outright saying, "I'm too smart to be scammed." They mostly said, "There is no way I would fall for **this** scam." Many were even, "Ok, I was going to get mad about people blaiming the victim, but then I read the article, and... ok, no, I would never fall for this." And, yeah, this particular scam was exceptionally goofy. It's actually so goofy that the plot I've invented to entertain myself is that this lady has some other secret that caused her to lose $50k, and this article is the grand culimation of her attempts to keep her family and friends from uncovering the truth. The nature of her big secret can drastically shift the tone for the film I'm workshopping in my head.
This is set in America, yeah? Isn't it obvious? She needed to fund interstate travel for an abortion which her social group would ostracise her for having if they knew about it :/
Am on board with this conspiracy of yours all the way! 👌🙆
I'm thinking that too. I'm certainly very suspicious of the idea of her waltzing into the bank and taking out that much cash without them asking a lot of questions. I worked for a bank and wasn't even in any kind of customer facing role and still got yearly training about this sort of thing, scams, money laundering etc.
Gonna find out in 3 years that she bought 50k in opiates or something like that.
Elaborate tax avoidance scam? Create such a humiliating story to cover for the shoebox with all your "stolen" money actually being under a loose floorboard.
Spoofing PSA in case anyone needs it: Phone numbers and caller ID can be faked! When called regarding anything of sensitivity, hang up, look up the number separately, and call back by manually dialing it in--don't use the callback button.
@@SkipSlegday If you want to call the scammer, I guess. My advice is aimed towards trying to call the actual service that's maybe being impersonated.
@@Sky-bx9mn That's a much better advice, even if often that means you're gonna get bounced like a pinball between departments because for some godforsaken reason most services' front-facing number is NOT the number you need for your issue. (UGHHHHHHHH)
Also goes for emails: DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS (unless you know DAMN WELL that you requested a confirmation email for registration or a specific newsletter), go type the URL of the website yourself and only log in from THERE.
At least a few times a month at work I get calls from people accusing me of calling them for something or other and have to explain what spoofing is....
Another PSA. It has been known that scammers have changed the phone number on Google Maps listings. So always go to the actual company's website, or better yet, get the number from something physical (like the back of your credit card for your bank)
@@beckyboradley Oh, dang. That makes sense but I hadn't even thought of that.
And then when Googling, you have to be careful of tricky domain names and sponsored links.
Is it time to bring back the phonebook? *laughs but only sort of*
Whenever these type of scammers call me I try to keep them on the line as long as I can. My record is 2.5 hours. 😂
When I worked at the -Nerd Herd- Geek Squad (terrible job for the record, not that anyone would think working for Best Buy would be fun), we used to get fake "tech support" scam calls all the time. I'd always try to sell them OUR tech support and pretend I was the one who called them. They didn't think it was funny, but hey I got paid for it.. that's definitely funny :)
Ain't nobody got time for that.
If you are unaware of Kit Boga's output, you will be delighted!
@@PinataOblongatayou do realize that most of Kit's output is artificial, right? pay attention, and you will notice the same "actors" appear across many of his videos. He does have skill as an entertainer though. His vids have often had me in stitches.
That's impressive! My record is about 1.5 hours and then he was telling me that he was Osama Bin Laden's brother in law and that he was going to have people come to my house to kill me. Hilarious! Scammers never call me anymore. I miss the fun times we used to have.
She absolutely doesn't deserve to be scammed (nobody does).
But the claim that "I must be a financial expert because I had a financial column in the New York Times" is a perfect 2020s version of stupid. It makes no sense logically. The large number of NY Times columnists who are paid to write about things they know nothing about belies the claim. And it perfectly encapsulates a particularly idiotic version of influencer culture in which the fact that people are listening to you is taken to be proof that you have something interesting to say. The fact that she likely got her NY Times gig because she's fabulously wealthy and/or because she's from a famous family is the icing on this cake.
@4:47 "I vote, floss, cook, and exercise" WHO TALKS LIKE THAT?!
That's how i imagine an _Arthur_ character describing a competent adult.. not an actual adult describing *themselves* 😂
Old money, apparently
Has anyone checked the see if this lady is three kids in a floral dress?
She probably uses 'to adult' as a verb
@@kmo9790how do you fit 3 kids into one floral dress?
You mean "adulting" god i fkkn h8 millenials.
The first rule of illegal, underground hamster fights is no one talks about illegal, underground hamster fights. 😀
Rule number 2: never bring a guinea pig to a hamster fight.
In the end, no one can escape the hamster wheel of life.
First, they came for our illegal underground hamster fights, and I did nothing...
Social engineering is the first and most effective method of 'hacking'. People can be preyed upon using their ignorance and fear against them. It's often the case that scammers will give up on a target if they push back even a little bit because it's not worth their time to try and convince someone who is even slightly skeptical.
I've also found it helps to de-stigmatize victims to use phrases like "social engineering," "spear-phishing," "smishing," "vishing" and "whaling" to make it clear-hey, you didn't just walk blindly into a trap, *you were maliciously **_targeted._*
The fewer people who are shamed into silence, the more people who report these crimes, the harder we can *all* make it for these criminals to operate.
We can't prevent un-aware people fallin onto scams.
There *are* instaces where very sophisticated social engineering is a thing.
This specific case isn't that.
@@GSBarlev Good points!
@@Splarkszter How is it not social engineering? They called her up pretending to be an authority and gained her trust by reciting the last 4 digits of her ssn and emulating the behavior of a wider, professional organization (giving her a case number, multiple transfers to different departments, etc). That's social engineering. It might be a fairly standard example of it that you could learn about easily, but its _still_ social engineering.
I've taken classes in network security, you know what one of the examples my teacher used was? "A person dressed as a delivery man approaches a secure door with a heavy package at the same time that an authorized person is entering/leaving. The authorized person is likely to hold the supposedly secure door open because it is just the polite thing to do and because the person looks legit. The fraudulent delivery man might even claim that the package is for someone who _actually does work there_ to help build trust."
Hack the person, not the computer. I feel like I have a pretty low amount of knowledge on security stuff, but coworkers and friends think I'm some kind of hacker because I regularly stop them from doing some dumb insecure thing or show them how easy it is to find information on people. I find myself saying "I'm not a hacker" very often these days.
I came close to being hit by a "you missed jury duty and owe a fine" scam. I was taken in by a fast and confident talker that applied pressure pretending to be law enforcement. What tipped me off was the direction to purchase Visa debit cards to pay the fine.
same. but with traffic tickets. it was like. we're doing a special amnesty on the courthouse steps...
With any kinda debt, your attutude should always be "oh yeah, what are you gonna do about it" you can punk them and keeep their money. Just don't be a coward. I want all the smoke
@@banquetoftheleviathan1404tried that with my bookie, currently wearing a full-body cast
ROTFL... Just lookup the statistics on the percent of the population that actually goes to jury duty, and you'll get your answer on how punitive they will be on the matter. I believe the term "toothless" comes to mind.
Official payments are hilariously obvious as to where they're going, and whom to. They make that shit so specific that by the time you get to one of those city clerk windows to pay it, you've been through the ringer. And it is NEVER done another way. Scammers cannot fake bureaucracy.
A friend of mine got called about that one while in backcountry mostly without cell coverage (the caller left a message), and while in a spot with coverage asked me to look into it. Came from a very lightly populated county they'd never lived in. We talked to the sheriff's deputies there who said "yeah, it's a scam. We'd just show up at your door with a warrant if there was one."
To paraphrase Star Trek V: "What does customs and border patrol need with Amazon gift cards?"
Careful. That's how you get hit with the lazer eyes.
Cuz that's where all the oxygen is made. They are doomsday planning ahead before president mel brooks vaccums all the air
Good rule to follow: If the authorities really want their money, they don’t email first.
I think I am too trusting. Got scammed for 500€ a couple years ago.
I think what hurt me more was not the lost money (although 500€ was a lot for me back then), but the sense of betrayal and feeling stupid. Took me a while for my self-esteem to recover from that.
I’ll always remember a former con artist I heard years ago that said “it doesn’t matter how smart you think you are, there’s a scam out there that will work on you”
Scams work because people are vulnerable. Anyone can be scammed, because everyone has moments where they are vulnerable.
not me
Yep. Same goes for MLM's (which are also scams). I nearly fell for a scam because they woke me up from a nap.
Truth.
It's true i was in full withdrawal and there was a drought in Portland. People were violently sick with withdrawal everywhere and my friend called and told me their friend had found someone who had something. Thinking it was my friend who was meeting this person and not some stranger they just met, i gave my friend the money and when they handed it to someone else, i was immediately against letting the money leave my sight, but i got, "then go find someone else. I don't give a fuck" desperation set in and they ran off with everyones money.
@@user-xj5xp6qz5g let me guess... Trump supporter?
The funniest detail I saw was that one of her articles from a month earlier was titled "What it's like to take a $50K pay cut".
dude LMAO there is no way
I was thinking the same thing. She is either trying to gain attention or she is doing this for tax evasion purposes. She lives in NYC - she could have filed a police report on this - I don't know whether she did or not. There are thousands of publicly facing high definition security cameras surveilling every square inch around the place she lives in - one of them should have been able to capture a license plate.
She got hit by two buses and THEN wrote the book saying that only idiots get hit by buses.
I withdrew $28k from a bank (from a settlement I'd deposited) and the headquarters (not a branch) needed ten days notice to GET THE MONEY TOGETHER.
You are not a Roosevelt and I bet she wasn’t using a typical main st bank.
Now _that_ is suspicious unless your assets were tied up in investments. Money in a checking account should be *immediately* withdrawable-otherwise how would anyone ever pay, for example, a general contactor or a large medical bill?
By any chance was this *Bank* based in *Silicon Valley?*
@@GSBarlevIt was a regional, not national bank. First they told me I had to come back. When I came back (again, to the headquarters) they again said they couldn't. I complained and said I had AN APPOINTMENT for that very purpose because they'd told me to come back that day... they took their time and "managed" to come up with it.
@@jafafa This tracks in that regional banks aren't as tightly regulated and explicitly don't have the same liquidity requirements.
I don't know the specifics of your situation, obviously, but I *absolutely* wouldn't have any more than the $250k FDIC insurance limit kept in that account. Which I really hope for your sake is FDIC insured.
@@GSBarlev As I understand, banks only have so much money on hand every day. Even if it is all in a checking account, they don't want to hang onto potentially 10,000s of dollars on the _off chance_ that someone needs to make such a large withdrawal. They still need to have enough money for everyone else for the rest of the day after all. Plus, you don't just...hang out around one bank. You might have 10k in a checking account (why?), but the bank doesn't know where you will attempt to withdrawal that from. Banks often have many branches, all of which need to maintain a certain amount of physical cash on hand for petty withdrawals throughout the day.
Its common knowledge that banks don't just put all your money in a local vault and hold onto it. They invest it, they move it around, they trade it to other banks, etc. Banks don't just hold onto your money out of kindness, they do it because they can make money off of _your_ money. They make it worth the effort because they keep it nice and safe and give you some of the profit they make.
Such large payments you wouldn't pay in physical cash, rather you would tell your bank to transfer to money to someone else. Its safer for you that way too. What, are you just going to walk around with 10,000$ in cash?! Nah, I'd rather let an armored truck driver manage that. At least then, if something happens the money is insured and _I_ don't have to pay for that loss.
A very, very common one in church communities is for the scammer to send an email that looks like it's from a church leader (minister, board member, staff member, etc.), saying something innocuous like "hey, do you have a minute?" And then once the person responds, they'll say something like, "I'm in a meeting so can't go out myself, but can you please go buy a visa gift card / amazon card / etc. and tell me what the number is. The church will reimburse you." (Sometimes they will instead ask for a copy of the members directory, in order to get more names.) Obviously, if you look at the reply-to address, it's not the person's normal address, but sometimes they're surprisingly close. We've had a number of members at the church where I work nearly fall for it, because it preys upon the goodwill that people have toward church leadership and people wanting to help. Very insidious, and very hard to counteract, no matter how many times we tell our members that we will never ask them for this sort of thing.
They do this in large companies too, they can often look up the whole hierarchy and pretend to be your specific boss and spoof the email very closely, sometimes even copying the signatures. Happened to me personally when I worked in a University, but of course we had training about this specific scam so I didn't fall for it lol
6:51 "Apartment with no heat, and a Meth-head secretly living in the basement."
We need a separate video for this story.
Me "I don't think I'd fall for a scam" then after watching this video and reflecting on the past decade of my life realized/remembered I gave money to an online Twitch friend who needed help with their bills...
I am susceptible, I need to be more humble
See? Can't be scammed if you don't care its a scam. Idgaf what homeboy on the corner gonna so wif the money i gave him. He out there so tgats reason enough. Whatever gets em thru the night.
Wallet Inspector. Come on, hand em over.
FBI here
C'mon jesus, show us your tiddies!
Hey, I don't think that guy is the wallet inspector!
I had my wallet open and my bills out before I realized what was happening. I'm total scammer bait. 🤦
I'm not one to say, "I'd never fall for a scam," because I'm smart enough to know how stupid I am. (Wait, did I just unintentionally write a little rhyming couplet?)
People are making fun not just cuz she got scammed but cuz she’s 1) rich 2) a financial columnist.
"some light googling reveals she comes from immense family wealth" can't help but recall the mother from Saltburn.
This is not the scam that is catching otherwise smart people. It’s the spoofed emails coming from “known” friends or family members who need help, and prey on their generosity and trusting nature. My family fell for this, and they’re a doctor and geologist, hardly “rubes”.
This is why companies now inject text into emails that read, "This person is an external sender," or, "This may be a spoofed email." Or outright block spoofed email. People often complain, "the external email thing is obvious." But it isn't always obvious.
@@Arikayx13 There's a difference between thinking you're smart and actually being smart, though. Of course being dumb makes you _more_ likely to fall for a scam.
Here's a depressing window into my life and the human condition. I have said probably once every few months for like 20 years, "just about everything in an email is spoofable - that means fakeable" to family, friends and acquaintances. The vast majority of people basically ignore they even heard that. The couple dozen people that reacted at all were basically 50/50, "You sound like a conspiracy nut" or "Wow I can see how you could use that to scam people." People are learning resistant.
@@HeadsFullOfEyeballs
That in itself is a foolish thought. The problem isn't intelligence, it's being overconfident in yourself. You can be as smart as you want, you're still likely going to fall for scams if your ego runs away from you.
Intelligence is not a videogame stat, it does not bestow immunity to anything to you. You can have weak moments, you can be flattered, you can mishear, or you may lack information that would let you spot a scam.
@@Arikayx13 Every time I see people talking about how they're too "smart" to fall for this, I always tell them "the minute you think you're too smart is the moment when you set yourself up to fall for it"
If you think you'll never fall for it then you aren't going to be critical of every interaction with a supposed authority figure.
My foolproof method for not getting scammed:
1. Do not make spur-of-the-moment decisions.
2. Forget to make decisions.
I think the tax dodge theory makes the most sense.
Her biggest mistake was betting it all on Squeakers in the fifth round.
Have you ever watched Hot Fuzz?
My main problem with the people mocking scam victims is that they’re often mocking them for being stupid. And like… not being smart is not a moral failing? You don’t deserve to be scammed because you’re not intelligent. Some people are so quick to mock “stupid” people as if that’s not a very ableist thing to do. At least criticize people for valid reasons
Anyone can apply critical thinking at any time. They just choose not to.
@@No_True_ScotsmanThat's simply not true. Some people have learning disabilities. Some people have dementia. Some people have neither, but were never taught critical thinking. Some people were actively taught to reject critical thinking as the devil's work, and to accept illogical statements on faith.
People with dementia and a lot of mentally disabled people just don't have those critical thinking skills, and it's really not their fault if they get scammed@@No_True_Scotsman
I agree, I feel like that’s peak capitalist culture being weaponized as well
As dumb as this story is, I still stop myself from thinking, "I won't fall for that...." I assume con-artists are smarter than me, and I can fall for it. Helps to prevent complacency. I wonder the percentage of scams are actually low value amounts? Small enough where you may not realize it's a scam or forgotten about it. For example, in high school I fell for the, "Buy a Star Name" scam. Adult me realizes it's REALLY stupid, but 16 year old me thought it was the coolest thing ever.
I don't think it's because middle-age me is smarter than teenage me, it's just that I am more jaded and cynical. I know science/evidence based skeptics try to avoid the cynicism trap, but this where cynicism is actually pretty useful.
Considering the number of people who fell for the "Scottish Lord" scam (you know the one, the company selling tiny portions of land in Scotland because all you need to be a lord is be a landowner) the star scam isn't all that weird. I live in fear that the scam that will work on me is just around the corner. Doesn't help that the only people that call me on the phone these days are scammers, and 90% of my emails are scams.
Yeah even if this scam was dumb… it didn’t need to be smart! Because the person was not very savvy. That doesn’t mean smarter scams don’t exist, or even that those scammers would have put together a smarter scam if they were dealing with a more savvy person. Not to say that all scammers are smarter than us, but if any scammer is a bit smart, and they are looking to scam you, you are vulnerable if you are complacent.
Thus, we can laugh at this person while also realizing that we might have fallen for whatever these scammers ended up saying to us, based on our responses to them, if we thought we were too smart to be scammed.
@@VeronicaWarlock Yeah 16-year old me thought buying a star name was cool. So I did before I gave it too much thought. Obviously at the level of scam-y-ness this on the low level.
I hadn’t even considered that the story was fake, but it’s definitely questionable
I don't know ANYONE who would willingly admit to a scam like that. I do tech support for senior citizens (the pay isn't great but old people are adorable and they *always* give me food so it's worth it 🤗), and most of them literally take multiple minutes to "work up" to admitting that they got got. It's really embarrassing for them. Especially for the older people, because they _know_ people were already questioning their cognitive abilities, and now they've just made it worse :/
Actually now that I say it, I kinda just argued in your favor: a person who got scammed would likely be too ashamed to admit it publicly like that (especially rich people), but someone who _didn't_ get scammed would have no reason to feel that. So maybe you're right! (On the other hand, the article does come off as mighty defensive.. hence the need to convince the reader that she's not a rube. So maybe, idk).
P.S. One time I had an old man referred to me and I got to his house, asked him how I could help and he was perfectly honest with me: "I'm gonna shoot straight with ya: I was looking for some pretty ladies online, I clicked on a popup, and now I have a virus". I was so happy that he told me that I fixed his computer for free 😂 . Makes it so much easier that way! I don't think most people realize it, but if the computer tech doesn't know how you broke your computer, it makes it a hell of a lot harder to fix it! Accordingly, when people come up with ridiculous stories it often ends up obscuring the actual issue!
It’s one of those things that you’d think no reasonable person would ever lie about, because… why would you. But I guess doing it to avoid paying taxes makes a lot of sense
Lesson: Avoid ADT at all costs. Thank you, Rebecca. If I can ever afford a house, I will carry this information with me!
I've also been scammed! For me it was while having my brand new washing machine fixed. I contacted the company i bought it from (a big furniture company) and they sent a repairman. The repairman was super nice and he told me "yeah you should have taken insurance on that" and I argued, thinking that the minimum warranty would be enough. But he kinda mansplained me a bit, and he said "Well you can get an insurance with OUR company (the repair company) right now and before your warranty issues out we call you, scedule a maintenance so you wont have to worry when the warranty is over"
So i agreed. I paid 400$ for a 4 year warranty on this stupid samsung washing machine. The guy gave me his card. Then when i tried to contact his "company" for said maintenance.... well the number didn't exist.
Wow, how scary the company you bought the machine from sent the scammer to your house!
Glad I'm the type of millennial who learned early "everything is a scam unless proven otherwise". Also that I learned that we all have vulnerabilities, especially if we think we're too intelligent. I'd rather look a fool double checking every financial interaction than be a fool and lose money.
My father was a very paranoid person, and I’ve had lost money to people, closest to me who took advantage of me, wanting to help them, and some things stick as far as trying to be cautious.
Scam victims are crime victims like any other crime victim and don't deserve scorn or insult. "I would never fall for that" is very possibly wrong. In many cases scam victims are temporarily in very specific vulnerable states of mind that really can happen to nearly anyone.
The stories also always start with the extreme part at the end which was the bit where they finally realised and broke away from the scam. There can be months or years of build-up and grooming to reach that point
@@theomegajuice8660 Whoa, that's a super good point!
Or it can depend on particular circumstances. A few years ago I was almost scammed by someone who claimed to be from Microsoft telling me there was a problem with my computer. I went along with him for a bit before finally becoming suspicious and ending the call. Thing is, the only reason I even let it get that far is that I just just bought a new computer a few days before, and in my mind I thought it was something similar to a recall. If not for that I probably would have hung up immediately.
Exactly. It's pure victim-blaming, and that sucks.
yeah like in general I know what you're saying but this lady is a financial writer and literally gave her wallet to the wallet inspector. She didn't deserve that, and we can feel bad for her but listen, it's also very funny.
There's the other end of the spectrum, where you're so mindful of scams that you interpret poorly-handled but legitimate business communications as phishing attempts
That's me. Hah, one time, years ago, I got an email saying I'd won a Kindle Fire tablet from a monthly draw of people who'd left a review on a retailer's website after doing an order. I was immediately suspicious. (I never win anything!) Only when I'd found the guy sending the email on LinkedIn, with his current job showing as being in the marketing department of the retailer in question did I even reply to the email. It was legit. Got my Kindle Fire tablet.
But yeah, emails, phonecalls, texts, I try to start out with the assumption it's a scam.
I lost my house betting on illegal underground hamster fights: not cool Rebecca, not cool.
clearly you should have saved your cash for the GERBIL fights. duh. say... I could hook you up if you want...
You should know to only go to licensed legal underground hamster fights.
No hamster is illegal, even if they burrow underground.
To be fair to Charlotte Cowles, I also google the details of a potential scam, not to confirm it’s real but rather that it’s a scam. Scammers often reuse the same phone number, case number, etc., and googling them sometimes returns relevant results.
I’d argue this isn’t really true of phone numbers very often anymore. More often than not they spoof new numbers every time to make it look like a different number is calling, and to get around any people who have blocked numbers they’ve called from before. Googling these numbers either brings up nothing or random innocent people. If you were to actually call back most of the numbers that call you you’d get some confused person who doesn’t know what you’re talking about when you say they’d called you. I’ve gotten voicemails from confused people calling me “back” cuz my number must have been the one that was spoofed. Alternatively the number may not even be one that’s truly active.
@@pancake2700 I agree with you about the futility of googling the phone number that scammers call from. They are often spoofed to look like a number from your area. I was referring to the phone number scammers give you to contact them, like in a voice mail, email, or text message. Those tend to change less frequently.
For years, my mom refused to make any online purchases. She would not put her credit card info into her computer. So, imagine my surprise when she called to say she just let someone have remote access to her bank account. The scammer sent her a warning that her computer had been hacked, but he could fix it, for her.
She said, "But he knew stuff about my accts and our location." I said, no, he knew what you had just shared with him.
Luckily, her bank limited the withdrawals to $5000 per day. But that meant she lost $5000 from her acct, $5000 from my stepdad's acct, and $5000 from their joint acct. Ugh.
Excellent video. All I would add is that people should remember, being gullible is not a crime. Scamming people out of money is.
Lying to the IRS and committing fraud and blaming it on scammers is a crime though.
@@Aaron.Thomas Even if you are a Roosevelt?
as long as you remember that crime is just a legal category, and not a description of value.
@@spambot7110 Crime has more than one definition in the Oxford Englsh Dictionary and some do not need a legal basis, "An evil or injurious act; an offence, a sin; esp. of a grave character."
I once worked in a store where an employee fell for a ridiculous scam. I was overseas at the time thankfully so found out a little later.
The scam was someone from "corporate" called the store at a ridiculous time in the evening (long after corporate normally finished work). They somehow convinced a staff member that the store owed FedEx a bucket load of money and he should empty all the cash in the store. Then take that cash to another store and convert it all to bitcoin. Apparently at no point did that staff member think "hey this seems a bit weird". Nope, he converted almost $10k into bitcoin.
In unrelated news. That same employee was later fired for stealing from the store and last i heard was under police investigation. Sadly i never found out if there was ever a result to that investigation.
Perhaps it is related, how do you know the employee wasn't in on the FedEx scam?
I think I’ll cancel my Cut subscription.
I once fell for a “you are being audited” scam via phone. I had been working 12-18hr days for several months and had some pretty big problems with critical thinking. Silver-lining… whatever they were trying to steal with my SSN, I guess it wasn’t important enough for me to notice. They probably saw my bank account and decided it wasn’t worth the bother.
Youth pastors also use that trick. They'll say something to the room of teens like, was" I sense that someone here is struggling with sexual sin, or I sense that one of you doesn't really believe." And they'll say it confidently enough that almost all of the kids in the room will think it's them because they just stated an incredibly common thing for their age group
If the real fbi is talking to you too, the only word you know is lawyer (to quote the 5-4 podcast)
I believe the advice went something like this: "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
I'll tell you what scammers really hate, in person or during a phone call - being called out before they have a chance to finish their spiel! I ran a (very small) business for 30 years, so I had plenty of chances to observe this.
They are prepared for calls for confirmation after they have said their pre-prepared bit, but if you butt in and tell them they are wasting their breath they freak out! They had worked so hard, and must have practised every nuance of the bit - they think it is so unfair they are not allowed to finish it before you tell them to eff off. ;-)
I’m always aware of them trying to record your voice so they can use it for something later. That’s why I will often just grunt or go u-huh when they ask me questions.
@@mk1stnever ever EVER say the word "yes" until you are 100% certain that the call is legit. It took me AGES to get my husband to stop automatically saying "yes" that way when answering his phone.
If a caller asks "Is this such-and-so?" the ONLY reply you should give is "Who are you with?" or "Who is calling?"
Because yeah, scammers have used recordings of people saying the word "yes" to legitimize illegitimate contracts.
@@suzbone
Oh yes, totally agree. If I'm fairly sure the caller is a scammer, I will totally just tell them where to go, in very plain language. But if I'm not sure, and the call maybe legit, the first thing I ask is who the caller is and who they represent - ignoring anything they say first.
*Then* I tell them where to go! ;-)
i always go “speaking, who is this?” even if its a call im expecting tbh
all it took to hook me was a guy calling to tell me I had unpaid traffic tickets. it's been a longstanding problem that my wife tosses out mail if she thinks it's junk mail. so anything can get tossed, like replacement credit cards, DMV license plate renewal forms, a car title once.
So I was sure she had tossed the tickets.
Luckily I caught on after about five months minutes of them explaining how I needed to pay them.
Two immediate red flags:
- don't accept credit
- require you to log into some site through a captured portal (that is, a link they send you)
I'm glad you were able to quickly figure it out and save your family the stress of getting scammed.
But I'm sorry -- I feel we just have to circle back a second; when you say it's been a longstanding problem that your wife throws out all mail she thinks is junk ... uh, how did you guys manage to resolve it? When it first became apparent very important correspondence was being missed she didn't feel y'know ... super compelled to stop doing that?
@@akinyiomer4589 i think the legal expression is "asked and answered" she didn't feel y'know ... super compelled to stop doing that - that's the answer. It's also no uncommon for me to go through my trash after she tosses it.
I got done by my mobile provider back in 2004 ish. I kept trying to cancel because it was a rip-off. Every time I called, they asked if I was sure I wanted to cancel, and then they said they would process it and then it wouldn't get canceled and I would call again. This went on for weeks. I ended up having to send a signed for letter so they couldn't deny receiving it and then sending a letter to my bank explaining the situation and telling them to stop direct debits. That worked but they got more than 100 pounds extra out of me before I shut them down.
I would never lose money to a scam like this because I throw out shoeboxes.
Great financial advice:
Pop out of the right womb. Worked for her!
"Scam victims tend to be single, lonely, and economically insecure". Ah yes, scammers are gunning for the people who have less money and more incentive not to lose it.
I was in the process of moving to a new province and working a full time job. I was under sooo much stress. I had ordered a package and i knew it had arrived that day.
10 minutes after getting the notification that it arrived, I got an email saying that I needed to pay duty. I was so sleep deprived that I gave my information without thinking. Two minutes later I realized what I had done (I got the money back luckily)
I am someone who watches videos about how to catch scammers and trolling scammers and even I got tricked.
I’ve seen several people online questioning the amount she withdrew because it would’ve been reported by the bank to the IRS (and thus not super secret and untraceable). I also recalled my mother’s story of having to pay a large cash transaction once ($30k) and the fact that her bank did not have that much cash on hand. They had to order it specifically for the transaction. Maybe New York banks are different but it seems wild that they would just let her stroll in at 2 pm and withdraw $50k and nobody bats an eye. That’s “50 Shades of Grey” nonsense.
That's some great advice. I work for the anti money laundering and fraud department at a bank, and I 100% agree everyone has a scam they would fall for. The scammers are constantly coming up with new and clever ways to steal your money and we are constantly trying to figure out how to prevent those scans from working without making your banking experience a nightmare
Teaching students about the basics of scams always yields the same responses: "I'd never fall for that!"
They probably wouldn't. They've grown up steeped in a society full of the psychological tricks of advertising and a bunch of actual scam hazards that they likely got introduced to gradually with their gradually increasing access to technology as they aged. They are "scam natives", to paraphrase the sociology term of "internet native" describing the competency differences in technology use between everyone after gen X and everyone before. If you've seen thousands of scam attempts and know what they look like, obviously you're going to be a lot better armoured than someone who has never seen one and couldn't pick it out even if they had.
The best way to not get scammed is to accept that you can get scammed and to always be skeptical.
That's basically the same way you minimise the number of false or unjustified things you believe.
I could easily see it being true. I know some wealthy people who got scammed badly. It easily could have just been someone who knows her, knows she’d fall for it, and knew they’d get 50k with no strings. It’s not really a scam, it’s just part of a robbery.
They did mention her son...
I tell myself I absolutely could be scammed or manipulated and I use that mind set to be diligent about who or what I trust.
In fact, I did get scammed out of $80 once because I followed a bing (I know, right?) search to a site selling refurbished 3DSs for $40 a piece. They even gave me a legit FedEx tracking number and when it was "delivered", no, it wasn't. so I dunnoh... Must have had someone on the inside at FedEx? Not really sure how they pulled that off, but the site was gone two days later, even while the FedEx tracking was still working. I was honestly disappointed I didn't even get a box of rocks or something. Like I knew mediately it was too good to be true, but it was too late.
People *do* get taken in by these scams, so I guess it is good that she shared her story. But also I'm kinda glad in this case that it was someone who could recover financially after all this, assuming this is all happened.
What you said at the start of the video is so important. Instead of ridiculing the person who got scammed, we need to ridicule the scammers. Instead our culture almost celebrates the scammers. In "Trick Mirror" by Jia Tolentino she really details the ways we reward and even encourage scamming. I found it really eye opening.
Agreed!
The truth is that we are all likely to be vulnerable at some point! Although it can be fun to see fictional con artists, real life ones are criminals and deserve to experience consequences.
Although we’re better off as individuals if we remain aware and skeptical, as a society we need to create systems that protect vulnerable individuals.
I remember making up lies as a kid in an attempt to cover up for some stupid thing I did. Of course, decades later people still remember me for the cockamamie story I told. She will never live this down.
These scammers found an old money dope who cosplays as "middle class" and is so disconnected from real life that she's probably never even done her own grocery shopping or done her own taxes before.
Her accountant might also be scamming her then…given that she thinks she only needs to pay her taxes once a year rather than every quarter
As someone who has watched a bunch of scambaiting videos, Im well aware of the tactics of the scammers and see how much they can persist against someone who isnt gullible, but just has a finite amount of emotional resistance to be word down. However some people do definitely fall into the category of WTFWYT? There are other 'shoe-box money' stories much older and less dramatic on youtube. So this does at least have some plausibility to it.
I watch this woman on TH-cam who is sometimes snarky but very smart so I will never get scammed
Some twenty or more years ago, when I was learning stranger danger at school for the first time, they said one way to increase your safety is to have a family password. For stranger danger, it was what if a family friend is picking you up from school and you don't recognize their face. But for a deepfake facetime call from your grandson, if he can't supply the family password, hang up. Naturally, there'll be a scam script that's more robust than this, but it's good to have a plan that covers some bases.
Public service announcement, check in with your loved ones and make sure they are listing someone in the trusted contact person in their retirement accounts/investment accounts. Usually a family member that can contact the account owner and check in when someone is getting scammed.
I'm young. Smart. Savy.
Almost fell for the "your Amazon payment isn't going through" text. I took a breath and went "wait." But it was close.
I can easily see that happening. I can't blame people when it happens.
Except for this woman.
I am a software engineer with deep experience in many aspects of security. I was conned out of $1500 a few months ago by a stereotypical "There's a bench warrant out for you, pay this fine or you'll be arrested" phone scam. The person I was talking to had just enough personal information about me to sound credible, and was extremely good at keeping me off balance and panicked. To my shame, i even said "This seems so much like a scam!" twice during the call, yet I was manipulated into paying anyway.
In retrospect, I consider that $1500 I lost to be well spent tuition money. Now I have to admit it can happen to me. I am mentally rehearsing what I will do differently the next time I'm in a similar situation.
If I could talk to that lady, I would say, "Don't worry, one day you'll back on this and laugh. Not nearly as soon as most people are, but some day."
17:00 I tried to find if there had been a lawsuit over that kind of practice by ADT and there are so many different lawsuits involving ADT that I gave up on finding one for this specific type of malfeasance.
I thought the CIA posted all their case numbers and files on the internet.
The CIA would also like to speak with you about your awareness of underground hamster fights.
The CIA only pursue international underground hamster fight organisations, everyone knows that.
This is like the old lady who swallowed a fly. She swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the spider, she swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly, but no one deserves to get scammed for swallowing a fly.
Remember, the IRS knows who you are, knows where you live, and will contact you by mail to come to them **in person at an IRS office**. If you are that far in the bad that you are imminently under thret of arrest, they will not call you, they will serve you a summons, in person, with a process server, or; they will show up with the sherrif and arrest you.
As someone who used to occasionally freelance on the side, I had no idea I was supposed to pay taxes every quarter. Thankfully, I never actually made enough on freelancing to owe taxes for it, so that’s a silver lining I guess. This really is the type of thing that should be taught in schools though.
I would Google the "case number" because sometimes others post the scam in forums and it's fun to see how it was supposed to work. Obviously, if it was a legitimate case, then it won't show up on Google, but it's a scam so they likely just reuse numbers and it will show up.
If my job was writing about financial advice, I don't think I'd fake a story like that, but I also would not write about it if it were the truth.😂😂
Some weird part of my mind wonders if illicit hamster fights exist.
It wasn't illegal or underground, but Richard Melloni at Northeastern University ran experiments on steroids and aggression in hamsters, and this was covered by both the NY Post and PETA (two of the most credible and non-biased sources of information) as a "fighting ring."
See, I fall for your scam every video cuz i watch until the end so i can see Indy :D
I'm glad that you rightfully call out ADT's actions as a scam, but there also definitely is a difference between giving your info to somebody who you know is an actual representative of a real company as opposed to a scammer who's just straight up illegally stealing your money. At least ADT has to account for their actions as a business after a certain point and you had some recourse for getting your money back. I've moved before and I know how irritating and desensitizing it is to have to deal with all of the miscellaneous admin tasks that come with it and I probably would've just given them my card info at that point too.
Non profits are such bullshit. I not only do not feel bad for her, people with "non profit" money should keep quiet about being scammed so it happens more. They should not have that money.
There’s a reason we refer to scammers as con artists. Con is short for confidence and therefore they are confidence artists. Highly skilled at manipulating emotions and developing confidence.
And I think it’s also worth pointing out that marketing degrees are very much about this emotional artistry! So is it a scam only if fraud is involved and exactly what level of fraud. I submit that our current state of marketing relies on significant levels of misrepresentation or fraud!
I can say, that interestingly: When it comes to online/art scams, darkness is their enemy.
They operate more on a "Fraud is just a business model" and proudly boast about being scammers.
As, I've exposed hundreds of scammers, and the response is always the same: "You're SUCH a meaniepants!", and overall the community attacking you for exposing it. Heck: Several well known art sites have "scammer protection". Not FROM scammers, but FOR scammers. Ie: You'll get banned IF you report them. It's very weird how it's a kind of 180 situation. People cheerily go "Oh hey! It's the guy that stole $4000 for a fake art pack and never delivered, I LOVE that guy!". And TONS of "It's JUST their art style/preference!".
I have the scammers beat. I never leave the house for any reason whatsoever, and I never open the door for anyone. There, done. I do share my private opinions in TH-cam comments, but I'm sure nothing bad will ever come of that. 😁
A good point of comparison might be the recent Corey Doctorow article about being scammed. Kind of similar to your story in that it involved being caught while tired, stressed and traveling.
Thanks to this video I just realised something about my self.
I wasn’t laughing when Rebecca first described the very obvious scam, I was full of empathy for the poor dummy person… then she mentioned this person was wealthy and I started to find all of this very amusing. I guess my dislike for rich people is greater than my empathy 😂
I could definitely see myself falling for the scam you did. I also would not use ADT after that. It's one thing for the person to work out the issue and then do an upscale at the end, after they have dealt with the current issue, but another to keep passing you around to different people while leading you to believe you still need to solve it, and hope they can frustrate you into saying yes.
And do they really think someone who stayed on the line that long wouldn't also be persistent enough to check their Bank account and push until it was resolved?
She comes off as someone who thinks she is financially literate because she has a lot of money. While those things are often correlated they aren't mutual exclusive. In fact I'd argue some of the richest people are the worst with money.
I would fall for a scam, I have fallen for one before, I'm too trusting because I'm autistic. Luckily I have never had any money to steal.
My 80year old grandmother was almost scammed when some dickhead pretended to be police officer working on a scam circle that was taking advantage of old people. She was so scared she wouldn’t tell me or my mother, but in the last straw of clarity she called the actual police and kept what little she had of her savings. Since it was a hidden number they never found the culprit. It makes me so angry that someone would do that