I just received an email from Lowes that looks completely legitimate. Return email address looks fine. Looks just like any other “We got your order” email that I’ve gotten from them - but we didn’t order anything. The charge is for almost $800, but the last 4 digits of the CC doesn’t match any of ours.
I am smart enough today not to click on anything. I printed it off and was going to take to Lowes to ask if maybe they entered in something wrong and it got attached to my email. But Google AI says it’s likely a phishing scam, hoping I’ll click/call and give them my right CC info, or they hacked my account and bought something with a stolen CC. I logged into my account (on my own) and there’s no order there, so I’m guessing it’s the former. But wow are they getting good now. It looks just like any other email I’ve gotten from them.
Part of me does want to go down there and try to have them look it up from the email to confirm, but I hate waiting on their customer service desk.
I received a legitimate looking email today from Capitol One, indicating that they have not heard from me in a while - so please click here and check in. Yeah, no!
That’s similar to the email I received from William Sonoma. See post #1913. Luckily there was no cc number included. They were able to help me on the phone.
I truly cannot even begin to explain this. Yes, I got scammed.
I went online back in March to the Wolf Trap website ….WolfTrap.org …..to buy Alison Krauss tickets. It wouldn’t even dawn on me to look anywhere else for tickets. Went through the whole very usual routine. Choose seat, purchase tickets. I never noticed anything change or that I was redirected, etc. The tickets were “forwarded” to me and I didn’t wonder about that, I was just glad to have them. Saved them digitally to my Google wallet. The original date was July 17 but was postponed to the 19th due to the smoke from the fires in Canada, as Wolf Trap is an open air venue. I check Google wallet, and the date had been changed to the 19th. All set. Trust me when I say they were completely authentic looking tickets.
The lady scan the tickets and rejected! She sent us to the ticket office. They looked and said those tickets had been refunded! We had to purchase more tickets. Someone had stolen that money from me. Somehow. I will never understand how.
I contacted the place, got a live person chat and blah blah blah, screenshots of digital tickets and paper tickets sent. Oh, and every chat entity assured me there was no such order number. I ended the chat conversation saying I want a refund, I do not want to have to open a case with my CC company. I rolled my eyes and figured I’d never hear back.
Lo and behold, today I got this word salad in email: “Unfortunately, order #4359630 has been cancelled because the seller is unable to deliver the tickets due to unusual circumstances. We are refunding 100% of your purchase, including all fees and taxes.”
It hasn’t shown on my CC statement yet, but at least I’m hopeful.
I can’t find an answer as to HOW this happened!! I’m sick to death of all this digital crap. When we go again, I’m going to call the Box Office and ask for paper tickets in the mail!!! I swear. You can’t trust anything anymore and for me, everything online has become a hassle. Heaven forbid you should be able to talk to a real person.
I hate opportunists that are taking advantage of folks and doing these scummy things! Boo! I’m tired of all of them. Sure wish they’d get legit jobs and stop trying to extract money from all of the rest of us who are just trying to support the arts and the sports or whatever. It’s exhausting to be constantly watching your back (but of course we have to)!
I ordered a printer ink cartridge, and I was sure I got scammed. The box looked wrong, so I looked up how to spot fake HP ink cartridges. The HP site indicated that there is a holographic seal on the box, as well as a QR code. My ink cartridge had neither. Supposedly, Walmart had my cartridge in stock, so I went there to buy it - and the box looked the same as the one I got. So I made 100% sure that I was on the real HP site & I ordered a cartridge. Guess what? The darn thing looks just like the one I originally received - so I worried about nothing, wasted my time, and found out that HP’s information about its cartridge security measures is not true (at least not for my admittedly older model printer). Sheesh.
Found this in my spam folder; no, didn’t open the email; read it as raw.
Dear Friend,
Please accept my apology for not contacting you earlier before now due to my tight schedules. I did not forget your past effort and attempts to assist me, now I'm happy to inform you that I have succeeded in getting those Funds transferred Under the co-operation of a new partner from Japan.
Meanwhile, I did not forget your past efforts and attempts to assist me in that Process despite that it failed us at that time, due to no trust. Now, I want you To contact my secretary, his name is Mr. Tom Bello and his email address is (tombellochi@coolsite.net) ( tombellochi@coolsite.net ), Arrange with him on how the total sum of two MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($2,000,000,00USD) will reach you safely which I have Already kept for your compensation for all the past efforts and attempts to Assist me in this matter. I appreciated your efforts at that time very much. Please send the below information to him to enable him to get back to you immediately Please, accept this token of appreciation and God blessed you.
Below is the contact details of My Secretary Mr. Tom Bello
Name: Mr. Tom Bello
Email: tombellochi@coolsite.net
Tel: +234-8020684191
Don't Forget to send your following Information to Him
(1) FULL NAMES AND YOUR CONTACT ADDRESS..
(2)YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS....
(3)PHONE NUMBER.....
(4) YOUR OCCUPATION AND YOUR AGE....
Regards From.
Barrister Datti Williams ( Esq.Jr)
We have moved on from Nigeria to Japan. And I found this: Malware/Worm: Historically, “Coolsite” was the payload name for an old JavaScript internet worm that targeted Internet Explorer vulnerabilities. Sorry, Tom Bello.
H had his Amazon account hacked somehow. We noticed it before too much damage had been done. We have made several calls and spoken to Amazon every few days since 7/17. Their records indicate we’ve only spoken since 7/26. They keep saying they’ll resolve it in 24-48 hrs, EVERY TIME WE CALL. They also keep saying they’ll escalate but it’s very slow.
It appears just a few charges went through and were charged to D’s CCard. $275 in apple gift cards mailed to H (he doesn’t even have anything apple). Some small items that were mailed to unknown person & address in FL. They tried to purchase more things (laptop, watch, more gift cards), but Amazon rejected them as suspicious without any action by us.
D hasn’t had her card refunded for the nearly $50 in fraudulently purchased merchandise, nor the Apple gift cards which went to H’s email.
We are still waiting and waiting for Amazon to help. Other CCs and merchants are much more responsive. We are disappointed.
@Marilyn I had the same email in my spam folder yesterday. MyChart had a data breach last year, so while this might not be the reason for this email, one still needs to be careful.
I can sign up for identity monitoring for 2 years due to this last breach. You know, I could have free monitoring for life if I add all the breaches that offer free monitoring that I have been a part of.
Yesterday I received a text from my dentist (had an appointment in April) to pay my $16 invoice, which I assumed was the balance after insurance. While paying it, it referenced Chicago Dental Office, which caught my eye, since I’m in Florida.
I checked my email and there was also an email from the local dentist office, with a $16 balance, but the phone number to call for questions wasn’t the same as the number on their web page.
So I called the main office number and verified that it was all legitimate. I had no idea they were part of a practice in Chicago!
Such a pain to have to double check these things, but these days you have to be careful!
Phew—Amazon FINALLY says they’ll refund us (in 5-7 business days) for the fraudulent purchases which were made early July and reported on 7/17.
They’re much slower at rectifying than other merchants we’ve worked with.
We will still have to watch and be sure we get re-credited. We will be watching. S made agent write a message saying what she told us orally about being re-credited for the fraudulent charges
Now S has to deal with AmEx—someone hacked into H’s AmEx acct too! Boo! They used his points to pay their balance! S got them to restore H’s points but they won’t give S info about the hacker. H is being sent a new CC & will have new password. Hopefully no more hacks going forward as D wiped H’s lost phone remotely, we think & hope.
Ugh, ugh, ugh. This morning I got annoyed at DH for once again paying $5 to have a question answered online, meaning of course there will be a monthly subscription fee. He did that once before and I told him not to do it again. Why do I expect him to remember anything I tell him, though?
Then I goofed up. We got an inquiry on our business website about our services. DH asked them for the construction documents, and they sent a PDF supposedly protected so you had to enter your Microsoft user name and password. Dumb me, I entered everything. Nothing happened. Then it dawned on me - it was just like that party invitation hack (coincidentally, I got another one of those emails today, too). So I looked at the inquiry DH got, and it was very generic, no mention of location or the person’s name. So I’m sure it was a scam. I just didn’t think of that happening on our business website! So I’ve gone through and changed that password on the sites where I use it.
I did notice when I was changing the password that most important sites sent a code to my phone number, so it would be hard for a scammer to access anything.
On the IRS site, I got a PIN that I’ll have to make sure our CPA puts on our tax returns so that nobody else can file in my name.
Somehow I screwed up on one bank website and it’s locked me out. I will have to call and get it straightened out. I have to find the account number first, though! I do everything online.
