Also, you haven’t yet filed a 2026 tax return.
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Ha, missed that totally! Good catch.
For a while we were getting voice mails, allegedly from the IRS, saying that if we didn’t call a given phone number soon they would “send the cops”. “Send the cops” is exactly the phrase a legit IRS agent would use!!!
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OMG guys I almost just lost $16,000. I was driving on the way back from work - and note that’s when I’m just waking up from a nap, so I’m not at my best… and someone said I failed to report to jury duty.
Now that I go back through everything, I’m so embarrassed, but I bought it completely. Now I see so many red flags, but they catch you so off guard. They texted me copies of my warrant and these VERY normal and professional looking information sheets. So I had to get my cash and deposit it at a secure location. And now that I’m looking at it closely and not panicking, yeah they texted from a (404) area code… That’s weird. Also weird they didn’t want me going into city hall - WHERE I WORK - because they said I’d be arrested if I didn’t have the cash with me. So I took the cash to the ‘secure location’ - again, they sent me a professional, probably AI generated, sheet about everything that would happen… and so I go - and it’s a bitcoin machine. That’s when I finally woke up. OMG. I was THIS close… So I finally hung up and called the sheriff’s office and the sheriff - who is a personal friend - actually answered and said people have been losing thousands of dollars every day from this.
So there you go. It can happen to anyone. OMG. I’m so embarrassed, but soooooo thankful that I didn’t send it.
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My sister almost fell for the same scam in Austin.
Curious - why did you think the penalty for missing jury duty could be $16,000?
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They present it as a bond - that you will get back when you appear in front of the judge. On the warrant there are 3 offenses, each with a bond amount. They totaled $15,500.
I KNOW! It’s so stupid. Logically I would have known in a heartbeat. Why I fell for it? I dunno… I did just do city jury duty, where there beat it into our heads that if we didn’t show up to each date on our sheets, an officer would show up at our doors and we would be held in contempt of court - maybe that’s why.
Edit - they also had my name, DOB, address and last 4 digits of my SSN. In the beginning I did think NOT to give them any info, but they had it all. And all the info they sent me looks legit - at least on a little phone screen. Of course, now that I think about it, they wouldn’t text me info like that… And they spoke perfect English BTW
Edit 2 - sort of funny… I just checked my fitbit. Usually when I’m sitting, my HR is in the 50s. It was about 75-85 the whole time I was going through that… So clearly, I was VERY agitated.
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Good article to read & consider.
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I have NOTHING sensitive on my phone – no credit cards, no PWs, no Ring app. It’s too easy to lose.
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I never do any banking on my phone. I can’t log into my bank account. At the very least, it will be very difficult for anyone to use my phone to access my bank info. I think?
Depositing checks by phone is seductively easy. I admit I do that. I also pay bills online.
The thing is NEVER give information online to anyone who calls or texts you. If YOU initiate the call and it’s a number on the back of your CC or on your bank’s website, that’s one thing. If you are called, messaged, texted or anyway contacted, get your info, hang up and call YOUR bank, YOUR CCard company, etc.
When we are tired and/or flustered, it’s easier to be tricked.
Never be rushed!
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Let us never forget that Elon & his goons stole all of our information and are likely selling it piece by piece to scammer’s worldwide!
THAT’S why they know all your information, they don’t need you to give them anything anymore!
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Dang—H was getting texts asking if Amazon orders were fraudulent. D checked out his Amazon account and it had been hacked and they had added a new address in FL as his default address and been sending purchases there! Fortunately this has only been over the past 2 weeks, so she called Amazon and was able to speak to a LIVE person and report the fraud. She also changed H’s password and now she and H are going to the TMobile store because his phone was lost or stolen in Norway when we were there in June. These fraud charges were just started in early July–1st they tried to buy a macbook & it was flagged as fraud and not sent. Then they bought some Apple gift cards and sent it via email to H (he doesn’t own anything Apple). Then they tried purchasing some things that we had purchased before but changed shipping to FL (we live in HNL).
Amazon said they’d freeze the account and investigate for the next 24-48 hours. After that, D still can call Amazon and contest the charges, which were on her Amazon credit card.
H was pretty upset, but we are relieved that Amazon denied a bunch of the charges as fraudulent so total purchases were only about $400 or less, but still upsetting as H and I both have 2-factor ID on the Amazon Prime account.
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I check my spam folder regularly, and for the last few weeks I’ve been seeing emails from “amazon”’ about suspicious activity on my account. Like, at least one a day. I wonder if there’s some new scam going on.
I’ve been getting those emails from “Amazon” for weeks. They go directly to my spam folder.
But in other news – I got an email from Williams Sonoma (where I do sometimes shop) thanking me for my order of two spatulas and an All Clad pot and reiterating that they will be sent to an address in Duluth, Georgia. Uh no – not me. I called WS and spoke with a lovely woman who reported this purchase as fraud. I changed my WS PW, of course. And I checked my credit card statements; nothing had been charged to them from WS. The WS woman said the sale had not in fact gone through because the credit card used didn’t work – !!! – but she greatly appreciated my reporting this. I guess the purchaser thought maybe I had a cc linked to my WS account, but thankfully I did not.
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Mine too - dozens - over the past 3 weeks - but since they land in my spam folder I just (try to) ignore them.
I think I may be a victim of “brushing” , which seems harmless in that an inexpensive item is sent to Me at my address on Amazon. Is there any real risk involved? I will look for tracking on it when I get home and report it but not sure the level of harm it engenders. Anyone dealt with this?
For folks who are getting alerts from Amazon, based on our experience, please check your legit Amazon account and be sure no one has been making charges on it that don’t bring there (don’t click any of the links in the email but do go to the real Amazon website and check YOUR account). Also make sure no one has changed the default address for mailing your purchases. We might have caught this even earlier if we had done so.
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I did this yesterday, thanks to the posts from you & @jym626. Nothing weird in my account or in H’s, but I’m going to add that to my account monitoring list.
I made the mistake of scanning the QR code that was in the order which may have been a mistake even though it clearly came from Amazon. I already have two factor authentication on my account so I should be OK. But it’s a little worrisome. I’d rather not change my password, but I may do that anyway just to be safe.