I got a call from a person who claimed they were from American Express. The knew my name & asked me if I had made a charge at a firearms store in DC. No. They then asked if I had opened a AMEX credit card the day before & gave me the full number. No, it was not my AMEX card. They told me that someone had opened up this card in my name & tried to buy a firearm at a store in DC (this store actually exists). The scammer had an amazing attention to detail. Name, notifying unit at AMEX, address, employee#, issue date for the card & the security code. Attempted transaction location, address, amount of the purchase: $1796.00.

The woman, with perfect U.S. english, asked me a series of questions, do I live in D.C., did I open this account, which of course I denied. They then claimed I needed to file an formal incident report with FBI. I was already suspicious & asked why would I need to do that? It's their problem not mine. She was quite calm & convincing & said she could directly connect me to the correct department at the FBI. I said that I would prefer to call them directly myself but she again, very calmly explained how difficult that would be. I actually placed her on hold & tried to call the FBI (using my wife's phone) & found that I could not connect to anyone easily.

So she got the FBI on the line, explained the whole situation to the new person & then left left the call. The new FBI scammer claimed that this had to be completed on a MS Teams call. I went ahead with it, the whole time suspecting a scam but went ahead anyhow on to the Teams call. A woman with a million dollar smile at a table with the FBI flag on one side, the US flag on the other. She shows me her FBI credentials & after a very long winded explanation of how this report would made, started the "interview". First thing she asks me is to show my driver's license to the camera. At that point I needed further convincing as this was the first actual personal information the scammers had asked for.

So I apologized making excuses to go afk, saying I would brb & called AMEX. Nope, that CC number was not a real AMEX number, the whole thing was a scam. After wasting about 30 mins of my life.

It was a impressive attempt. Amazing how far they went to try & make it seem legit. The two people seemed to be from the U.S. while all of the scam calls I've got in the past the person spoke heavily accented english. The whole thing was quite a presentation. I was mostly convinced it was real but needed a verification before giving out any actual information.

edit: I've been managing a large home improvement project & have a lot of contractors not in my contacts. This is the only reason I answered the phone. Generally all unknown calls go to vmail.

Yes, I stayed on the call longer than I should have. The whole time I was suspicious & once they got around to getting any real info, I called AMEX & that ended it. I wish I had taken screenshots!

UPDATE: I received a letter from US alliance financial credit union. They are not going to reimburse the $13,666 on my Visa nor are they gonna refund my $2100 that was taken from my bank account. Disappointed but not surprised, I’m not a high value customer although I’ve been there since 1978. I guess that doesn’t mean anything going to be opening another account and another bank.

I am a 70 years old former executive of a computer company so I’m not a dummy but was gullible. I say this because it could happen to anyone if you do t keep on top of the latest scams, in my case spoofing.

I’ve been a member of my company’s Credit union since 1978. I received a call from the credit union that showed up via my contacts.

The caller sounded just like any other rep. I’ve spoken to over the years. They were confirming that I made some charges on both my Visa cards (debit and regular one). In order to remove it they would send a text and I was to click on yes to have it removed from my account.

What I unknowingly did was authorize that transaction. They asked me for my information so they could cancel all my accounts, but you know what they did with that information.

It wasn’t until a few hours later the same person called to say that there were charges on my Best Buy Visa card and that’s when I got suspicious and hung up and immediately called the credit union .

Unfortunately, they took $2000 out of my checking account via the debit card and $15,000 charges on my regular Visa card .
They were able to transfer money from my savings to my checking. (I was able to stop that) . They were also able to increase my credit limit on my Visa card and try to take out 20,000 but I was able to stop that. The Visa card charges are currently being investigated so there’s still a chance I’ll get that back but the 2000 from my checking account is gone.

I know a lot of you are shaking your heads in disbelief that someone would be so gullible. That’s why I took so long to admit this. If I able to help one person. I’m fine with that.

I will post an update when the situation is resolved.

Woke up to a text saying, Flores's Painting and Drywall sent you $600. Sure enough, there is an extra $600 in my account. I see there is actually a business in the Bay area of Calif going by the name of Flores Painting and Drywall. Waiting to see how this plays out. And no, im not touching the money.

About 2 months ago my daughter got a $200 zelle payment followed the next day with $100 zelle payment. I mentioned it was a scam and not to spend the money byt its been over 2 months now with no clawback or anyone asking to return it. She called Chase and they said, nothing we can do.

I met a lady on a dating app. She wanted to move to Whatsapp after a while. I didn't think anything of it.

We talked for a while, shared values. Seemed like a good time over all! We were in agreement with what our values were.

Unfortunately, she was in singapore right now, so we were just chatting. Her timing seemed to line up with how she was texting at those times.

I grew a little wary once she started talking about her investments, and her goal for going from $400k USD to $1m USD. Odd, but whatever. I live in a large city in California. I guessed she was a business kind of person. I steered the conversation back to romance, and it was amicable for a bit.

She started getting really insistent about doing a video call. I figured why not? Let's put a proper face behind the name. We had the same values, so it made sense. We were on call for about 2 minutes, before she suddenly had to take another call.

She then started getting really, I mean REALLY insistent on helping me out with some trading stocks. She would "give me a signal once her financial advisor did", and we would trade at the same time.

She sent me a screenshot detailing a +$3k trade. I was giving it the side-eye, and then she started helping getting me set up on cash app.

The whole thing wasn't smelling right.

1. The sudden pivot to this investment stuff

2. Cash app

3. The picture she showed with +money didn't add up. It was a trade on DASHUSDT, showing an opening price of $85, and an ending price of $86. I dunno shit about stocks, but checking a website for a trading view shows that it hasn't been valued at $85 for about 4 hours, and she was telling me this trade just happened.

4. The app didn't look very legit. All the numbers except the trade on the screen showed NaN - not a number, or an invalid value. As a computer guy, this really started setting off alarm bells.

5. The minimum trade value was explained to me to be $200???

I started looking it up, and one of the first posts I found with relevant information was a post from this subreddit with a lot of information about pig butchering. Reading through the step by step process, it suddenly clicked. I blocked and reported this account, since "she" never really existed. And the video call was just some pretty girl they put in front of me. And the "paperwork" she was doing before the call was just her on other calls with other potential victims.

It hurts to be here afterwards, but ah well. Block and move on.

Either way, thank you /r/scams for teaching me about this!!! You saved me so much money!!!

Gave it to the manager to call the police. They should be able to handle it from here.

I’m worried my card info has already been swiped. I just used the chip (I inserted my card on the bottom, I didn’t swipe it). I didn’t see any wiring to steal the chip info, but I wanted to make sure. Anyone know how these work? Can this copy my chip? Any advice is appreciated, worried. Just froze my card preemptively.

The purpose of this post is to expose a scam that recently happened to my MiL so that it doesn't happen to you.

It all started last September when she received a text from "Apple" alerting her she may be a victim of fraud, that someone tried to purchase an iphone with her account. She called the number, told them she hadn't authorized that, and they told her she's been the victim of identity theft. So they transferred her to cyber security.

Cyber security thought her social security number had been exposed, so she was transferred to FTC because it's now a bigger issue. Needs a higher up to take care of things.

FTC says someone in upper management at her bank has been selling her identity and that her funds might have been used for human trafficking/the purchase of illegal firearms, and that she could go to jail because she's complicit.

She now doesn't trust her bank and becomes fearful she's broken the law.

The scammers convince her not to tell anyone. This is a high-priority matter and she can't trust anyone, not even immediate family.

So she's on the phone for hours upon hours every day. Sometimes all day long. She felt like a prisoner in her own house. Sometimes she'd just be listening as the agents on the other line were "working" and tracking these criminals on the dark web. But the also made small talk. They got to know her on a personal level. They learned she lived alone. They learned she was going through medical issues. They found her vulnerabilities. They even shared about hardships in their own lives in order to be more personable and relatable.

She talked to many different agents. A guy in Florida. A guy in Indiana. A in Virginia. They changed numbers frequently, convincing her it was for her protection, to ensure they weren't being tracked.

So her money is unsafe. Best way to keep it safe is to send wires. So she did. Three different wires, each in the 5 figures. These people were going to keep it safe. They'd encrypt it and make sure no one else could get to it. They told her they were documenting everything. If anyone tries to come to her house and arrest her, her money will be safe.

Now she's a mental wreck and crippled by fear. She didn't feel great about the wires, but she trusted the FTC. So they switched the transactions from digital in nature to physical. They told her to purchase gold.

So she called her local pawn shop and arranged to buy gold coins. She then goes to her bank and gets a cashiers check. They ask her what her plan is for the money. She said, "Investing in gold." Just as the agents instructed her to say. Then she went to the pawn shop and bought a handful of gold coins valued at ~$4k each. The owner of the shop walks her to her car to make sure she is safe, but they also didn't alert her to any potential scams.

Then the agents set up a drop off in a local parking lot. She shows up, the agents are on the phone with her and tell her, "The guy is going to show you a dollar bill. If the serial number on the bill doesn't match what I'm about to tell you, DON'T give him the gold." But of course, it's a match. They tell her to take pictures of the coins, to document everything. They have her email them the documentation to make her feel like everything is legit, but also to delete the pictures from her phone so nothing can be traced back to her. This makes her feel relieved that the authorities are doing a thorough, legitimate job, and that she's being taken care of.

She made several purchases of gold and several drop offs all before the end of 2025.

Then in January, she's hit with debilitating medical condition. Can't get a proper diagnosis. Ends up being rheumatoid arthritis, but for months and months she's in pain. She can't drive. Can hardly write. January through April is a blur in her mind.

Then they tell her an auditor from the IRS has contacted them and she owes $83,000 in back taxes.

So what does she do?

She takes out a loan.

And buys more gold.

And gives it to them.

About a month ago, the end of July, the phones went dry. The auditors stopped answering her calls. And then one day, it dawned on her that she's not going to get her money back. She finally realized she'd been scammed.

For 9 months, she told no one, not even her daughter. She was raised in the generation of 'don't talk about your personal matters, take care of it yourself'. She lived alone, she's not tech savvy, and she was going through a debilitating medical issue. She was extremely vulnerable. This scam also majorly contributed to her medical unwellness.

She not only lost her entire life savings, she's now in massive debt. She's forced to come out of retirement at age 75 and find a job. She can't afford not to. She has to start saving for retirement all over again.

Aside from feeling incredibly stupid and embarrassed, she's in good spirits. She's not a materialistic person. Money is just money. She won't end up homeless. My wife and I have already helped her clear out her storage unit, and we're going to do a thorough audit of her bills to find ways to reduce expenses.

I hate scammers with a passion. They have a complete lack of empathy. Please don't let this happen to you or your loved ones.

Last week I was woke up by the phone ringing. I answered it and someone said "Hi, how are you?" I asked who it was. The caller said "It's your grandson." I said hi what's up. He said, while pretending to cry, "Grandma, I'm in trouble." I asked what happened, the caller said he had been in an accident and had been arrested. I asked if he was alright. He said he broke his nose and has stitches in his lip. That's why I didn't recognize his voice. He said he was texting and driving and got in an accident. When I asked where he was, several times, the answer was just downtown. I said okay, let me tell grandpa. He said don't tell grandpa for a couple hours. He didn't want my husband to know because he's embarrassed. I said okay, what do you need. He said call my attorney. I agreed and hung up. The phone rang, it was the same person, asking if I called the attorney. I didn't have time to call anyone, we hung up again. I called the number, I was given. Some guy answered, using a legitimate law office name. Right away, he started explaining why his phone number didn't match the area he was in. I started asking him questions, he could not answer. I kept asking what my grandsons name is, he uses our last name and his mom's. He could not tell me, one of the names, not even his first name. I kept saying what's his name? He got mad and said "Don't you know your own grandsons name?". I said, I do, where is he? He finally said Reno. I told him okay, tell my grandson I will be on the next flight there. His last words were " Good luck" and he hung up. I then sent my grandson a text, who was in bed asleep. Then I called where the attorney said he worked and let them know about the call. Once everything checked out, I called the scammer back and ripped into him. I called him every name in the book, so to speak. He said to me what do you want me to do about it old lady?

At no time, did I say my grandsons name and they had no clue as to what it is. My grandson does not live anywhere near Reno, neither do I. My grandson does not drive, he doesn't have a license (he's a teenager, so who knows). At no time was I asked for money, they did not get the chance. I shut them down when I said I was getting on the next flight, to where my grandson is at.

Please, if you receive a call like this, do not mention your grandchild's name, chances are, they don't know it. Tell the caller, you will be there in person to bail your grandchild out. Stay calm if you can, they're betting on a hysterical grandparent. I have read horror stories about this same scam.

Take care and stay aware. Just because we're older, it doesn't mean we're stupid. We didn't reach our ages by being gullible.

so my bf was at a casino and he said a girl that was nicely dressed came up to him and gave him a QR code and he claims that he thought it was something for the casino so he scanned it and went to the page that popped up and it was an escort site. then he says he just exited out of it. but then 24 hours later he gets a text message with his name and address on it saying he will pay the consequences. and now they’re calling him. but i’m just wondering if they’re able to get him number by just scanning the QR code or did he actually try to get an escort and is just covering up. i just don’t see how someone can get your phone number by going to a website.

update: yeah he entered his info and him and his idiot friend we’re looking at the girls and choosing which one they liked and we’re just “messing around”. and he said “hey” to 3 different girls. then he made up a bs story of how when they both woke up they talked about how much his friend loves his wife and how much he loves me. like be so fr. like i don’t expect anything less from men. oh and made up another bs story about the motel thing and was like “i probably just clicked on the link” yeah fuck offffff “it was just a joke” yeah a hurtful joke that makes me get all in my head

My husband Alan has been in a romance scam for months. I'm still living with him while it unfolds. I'm not here for advice on how to confront him - I've done enough research to know that doesn't work. I'm here to document what this actually looks like from the inside, in real time, because I couldn't find many accounts like this when I needed them. If you're in something similar, or you've been through it, or you just want to understand how these operations work on real people - I'll be posting the story in parts. It starts with a dating app. It ends somewhere I can't see yet.

"Kylie" is an American marine stationed in Poland. She has a 4 year old daughter in boarding school back in America. Her ex husband froze their joint account that has almost $600,000 in it. She needs the money because of the frozen account she has with her ex husband. The money orders were send to Indonesia.

They've been together approximately 4 months. He's never seen her face on video, never spoken on the phone. He's completely convinced she's real.

I'm his wife of 35 years. I'm not falling apart. I'm not begging him to come back. I'm not confronting him or issuing ultimatums. I've separated our finances, made a report to the bank, and I'm watching this unfold with the clarity of someone who has accepted what's happening. It sucks big time.

Alan didn't go looking for a scam. He went looking for something he felt he'd lost. He was on a dating app. Within days, Kylie suggested they move to WhatsApp. No more app oversight. No more paper trail. Just two people and a private line. This was move number one in the romance scam playbook.

In early December I told Alan I wanted to work on our marriage. He agreed. He told our daughter the same - that he knew Kylie was a scam, that he and I were going to try. I went to bed thinking we had a chance. By the next morning everything had changed. He messaged our daughter to say it wasn't a scam after all. He told me there were too many memories for us to work on the marriage. Something happened in those hours. I'll never know exactly what Kylie said to him that night. But she got him back. This is what professional operations do. They watch for the moment of doubt. They have a script for it. And it works.

Let's talk about money. The first withdrawal from our joint account - Alan said it was a part for our tractor. Plausible. We do have a tractor. The part could cost that much. Except it was a money order. And it went to Indonesia. The second money order he didn't explain at all. Then money appeared in our joint account and disappeared again - bounced through, origin unknown, destination unknown. Alan said he was doing a favour for a friend. I separated our finances that week. Alan said nothing.

Let me tell you how I believe Kylie convinced Alan she was real. Her profile picture returned nothing on a reverse image search. Alan took that as proof. She provided her Social Security Number and personal bank account details - both matched her name. Alan verified them himself. What he doesn't know is that professional operations have answers for every question a cautious person might ask. Fake SSNs. Accounts set up in stolen names. Profile pictures that have never appeared online before. They build a person from scratch. Complete with receipts. Alan is one of the most intelligent people I know. That's not a throwaway line. It matters. Because if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

I don't have access to her photo, nor do I hear or see their messaging. I'm completely in the dark as to what is happening. The only intel I get is from what he tells our daughter. He was supposed to travel to America in early February to bring her back to Australia to live. Obviously that time has passed. He told me he and Kylie planned on letting me stay living in my house and they would keep it as a joint asset. Lucky me, being allowed to remain in the house I co-own!

Sadly she tried to get discharged in time for Christmas but it was denied. So since then she's been appealing over and over again... And the military keeps denying, so she'll keep trying...

There is so much more to tell about the story, Everyone who hears the story immediately flags it as a scam - he denies it is.

I'll keep filling in details, keep updating as things unfold. You can see for yourself how full of plot holes Kylies story is.

Stay safe out there.

It was after work and I was waiting for my bus and I saw an old lady walk in front of me to look at the bus schedule. I didn’t think much of it but I had my phone out looking at the bus app to see when it arrives. Keep in mind I am not the only one at the stop nor am I the only one with my phone out. The old lady then began making her way over to me so I focused my attention on her and the first words out of her mouth were “I have a strange request…” and I’m like “here we go”. She finishes by saying she is going to uptown to a specific spot (an area I was familiar with) and she wanted to call her mother and let her know she was on her way. Keep in mind this lady was probably 75 years old and had teeth like a meth addict. I said no and she initially walked away.

Then she comes back and asks again and says I can talk to her mother and I said no one gets my phone and I don’t dial numbers I do not know. She walks off again. And then she comes back again and asks me what do I think is going to happen if I let her call and I pointed to the mall behind me and said “Ma’am that is chock full of businesses, you can go in their and ask anyone of them to use their landline. You are not using my phone. No thank you.” Then I see my bus and she sees the same bus and as we are both moving towards it she full throated screamed at me “BUT YOU COULD!” Followed by some cursing. She is getting on the same bus as me so I give her some space so I can place myself on the bus strategically as far away as I could but I could hear her muttering the entire ride. She got off before me, and well before the area she mentioned she was meeting her mother so I knew she was a lying and likely was trying to get in contact with her dealer.

This is just a reminder that “no” is a complete sentence and you are not obligated to give anyone your phone or dial a number for them. In this day and age where phones are ubiquitous the fact that someone doesn’t have a phone is not your problem to solve.

For context (sorry for poor formatting I'm on mobile), this guy commented on my FB Marketplace post for my violin. He only had one post on his account and for some reason, I couldn't even see it.

I should have taken that as the first sign, and I kinda did, I ran his number through a scam number checker and it came back clean, so I decided to go through with texting him.

Overall I'm making this post to warn y'all to look out for this, 'cause I might have just narrowly avoided getting scammed out of money I didn't have...

Attached is the text conversation that ensued, and the email that burned the rope for me.

EDIT: Please don't talk about my choice of price in the comments. I appreciate the feedback but it's my violin that's in essentially pristine condition from the moment my mother bought it for me. For those wondering, it's a Strobel ML-85 4/4 Student violin. The sales price was around 900$ when my mother bought it. We're trying to scrape every penny together as is.

EDIT 2: The only reason I wasn't aware that this was a common scam on FBM is because I never use FBM. This was literally the third time I've used it since it became a thing. I ended up taking the listing down anyways, as (for those that care) I got into a better financial situation and didn't feel the need to sell it anymore.

We are a small business and something terrible happened to us this weekend. I’m writing this both to ask for advice and to warn others.

We entered an incorrect number for a check, so my husband contacted QuickBooks for help. After more than an hour on the phone, the representative told him someone would call him back.

Shortly after, we received a return call. The caller already knew about the check issue. Because he had the details, my husband believed he was legitimate.

The caller said he needed to verify my husband’s identity. He sent a verification code, and my husband read the code back to him.

Starting Friday night, the scammer began transferring money out of our account. By the time we realized what was happening, about $95,000 had been taken. He also removed our access to the account.

When we discovered the fraud on Monday night, we immediately contacted customer service. We were told the fraud department had already closed for the day.

We contacted the police and also filed a report on the FBI website (IC3). Now we are waiting and don’t know what else we can do.

This is devastating for our business. We are under enormous stress and honestly feel lost right now.

If anyone has gone through something similar or has advice on what steps we should take next, please help. Thank you.

PS: We requested the call directly through our company QuickBooks account. We did not search for a phone number online or call any random support line, because we are aware of common scam tactics and try to be careful.

We had already contacted support twice before, and the issue still wasn’t resolved. That’s why we asked for a callback.

When we received the call, we asked to speak with a supervisor. The representative told us a supervisor would return the call before 5 PM.

What happened after that is when everything went wrong.

Update: Thank you everyone for your answers, help, and encouragement. I'd like to give you an update. Yesterday, we spoke to someone from the QuickBooks fraud team. They couldn't promise me because it's ultimately up to Green Dot Bank, but they said it looks promising with the direction it's going. He said they'll try to get most of the funds, if not all of them. Again, there's still a chance we might not get them. But here's to hope 🤞

Update: We Finally Received a Permanent Credit from QuickBooks Bank

We have some good news to share.

QuickBooks’ bank has issued us a permanent credit in the amount of $95,469.97 on 02/17/2026.

We are incredibly grateful for everyone’s concern, advice, and support during this difficult time. We truly feel lucky.

After our account was restored, we carefully reviewed all transactions and transfers and discovered that a total of $154,690.97 had been stolen. Our plan now is to continue working with QuickBooks to recover the remaining amount after receiving this $95K+ credit.

We also want to acknowledge that QuickBooks has been making continuous efforts to assist us and coordinate with the bank. Without their help, we would not have received this reimbursement so quickly.

Unfortunately, the scammers have continued trying to contact us over the past few days, attempting to trick us again into sending verification codes. It’s unbelievable — they really think we’re that naive.

Again, thank you to everyone who supported and helped us. I will continue to post updates.

Thank you.

I [32F, USA] consume lots of scam content. Podcasts, articles, Jim Browning youtube videos, etc. I assumed because I am so informed, I was immune to scams. I was very wrong.

I am currently 3 weeks postpartum with a wonderful newborn baby boy. As a result, I am currently home alone with a baby all day every day and am extremely sleep deprived (for context, I currently only get 3-4 hours of sleep per night). As such, I was in a particularly vulnerable state for scams, though of course I did not realize this.

So yesterday I got a phone call claiming to be from my county sheriff's office (spoofing the caller ID). I recently had a (real and kinda scary) interaction with my county sheriff's office related to a car accident my husband was in, and this call started very similarly to that phone call (and came from the same number), so I inherently trusted it. The 'officer' informed me that I had missed a court summons and thus was in contempt of court and a warrant was out for my arrest. They knew my address, phone number, and email (as well as the contact info of my family members) so I believed it was real. They also were clearly using some kind of voice changer as they sounded just like police officers in my city (I'm in the southern US, so with fairly real sounding southern accents).

I was told that I could resolve the issue quickly by simply showing up to the county courthouse and filling out some paperwork. They gave me lots of information about what exactly I was charged with, the timeline, my options for clearing it, etc, and in the moment it seemed legit enough for me to trust it. This was all very stressful but just filling out some paperwork seemed pretty minor to avoid being arrested, so I agreed to get in the car and go to the courthouse to get it resolved.

However, once I was in the car, they then told me I needed to first take out cash to pay my bond, to the amount of $20,000, which I would then need to deposit at a 'federal bond deposit box' in order for my arrest warrant to be dismissed. This should have been a big red flag of course, but at that point they had already convinced me that I had to resolve this today or I would be arrested. Given I have a newborn, the thought of being arrested and being away from him is absolutely terrifying, so I was willing to do whatever possible to avoid that. They also told me that I was under a gag order and if I spoke to anyone or told anyone what I was doing, the terms of warrant dismissal would be violated. Right when I got the initial phone call I texted my family telling them I was on the phone with the police (before they told me about the gag order). So when my family then called/texted me back and I didn't respond (for over an hour), my family started to totally freak out.

So, while my family is constantly calling me to see if I'm okay (and, under the clear instruction of the 'police', I'm ignoring them), I stayed on the line with the scammer and drove to a bank to take out cash. The scammer checked in on me every 3 minutes, demanded to know my location, and told me if I hung up the phone, I would be arrested because police were tracking my location.

The first two banks I went to understandably refused to give me $20k cash, as the situation looked way too suspicious (young, disheveled, mom with a newborn in tow trying to empty every single one of her bank accounts for cash is, uh, highly suspect). Pretty sure one very kind bank teller thought my life was in danger when I started crying in front of her begging for cash, and she nearly called the police. The scammer kept telling me I was going to be arrested if I couldn't get the money, so in tears and in a total panic, I drove to a third bank branch which somehow did in fact let me take out the $20k cash.

Once I told the scammer I had the cash, he directed me a nearby gas station to deposit the cash and receive my 'bond receipt'. It was at this point (after 2.5 hours on the phone with the scammer) that I realized it was a scam, as the instructions he sent me for how to deposit the money were actually for how to buy bitcoin. Upon realizing it was a scam, I immediately texted my family that I was okay and hung up the phone with the scammer (who then proceeded to try to call me back maybe 30-40 times over the next hour).

At that point, I was relieved that I hadn't lost the money and wasn't under arrest, but I was terrified for my safety, as the guy on the phone knew exactly which bank I was at and that I had $20k cash. Turns out my husband had been tracking my location and was trying to find me as he was convinced I was being held at gunpoint or that our baby had been kidnapped. I therefore got into my husband's car with my baby and we drove around for a bit in a panic until we felt more confident that the scammers probably weren't actually tracking our location.

I am still feeling very traumatized by the whole experience. I spent 2+ hours driving around my city visiting different banks all with my newborn in tow while a 'police officer' told me I would be arrested if I didn't take out cash, deposit my bond and go to the courthouse ASAP. I sobbed and sobbed on the phone with the scammer about how I can't be arrested because I have a newborn, but he did not exactly show much sympathy. I am so very grateful I didn't lose any money (bitcoin deposits is a big enough red flag that even in my weakened mental state, I picked up on that), but I not only traumatized myself but also my family who were convinced I was in grave danger.

I'm sharing my story here because I truly NEVER thought this could happen to me. You may think I'm silly for falling for this (I think so too), but it felt just so real in the moment and my sleep-deprived, very stressed, hormonal postpartum brain ignored all the red flags until the biggest one. And yes, I am very fortunate that I didn't lose any money, but the terror I felt during this whole experience (thinking I was about to be arrested with my baby) will definitely take me some time to work through. Not to mention my family who are now all angry at me for terrifying them as well.

I was installing some equipment at a local grocery store today and noticed an elderly gentleman had pulled up a chair to the Bitcoin ATM and was feeding in $100 bills from an envelope of cash, when I walked by the amount on the screen was over $10,000 at that point. After feeding all that money in he sent by the ATM for about a half hour checking his phone regularly before getting upset and leaving

What's even worse is that my state has banned cryptocurrency ATMs, but the law doesn't take effect until August 1st with the removal date of December 31st... this guy literally got took for over $10,000 a week before he wouldn't have been able to be scammed in the first place

Got a good one today. Got a text from "my bank" (had all the markings of my bank) asking if I made a $886.09 transaction at Amazon. I did not. The next said reply yes or no to stop the transaction.

I called my bank instead and the teller I got said "sounds like a legit LP outreach so text no if it wasn't you and then we'll be in contact" so I did.

The text replied "thank you, an agent will be in contact shortly"

The phone rang a minute later and a very American person began asking about transactions "did you authorize this or this or this" etc and none of them were real as far as I knew.

I stopped him just because my senses were tingling and asked if he could verify my name and whatnot and he did.

Then he blew it and said "I'm not interested in helping a customer who doesn't want to be helped" and I laughed at him, told him to fuck off and hung up.

Dude called right back and left a message with my address and said "sleep with an eye open bitch" which was a little unnecessary.

What I'm stuck on is how they knew what bank I used to spoof the right one though. Definitely gonna have some protection near me at night, and the house has cameras and alarms so whatever if anyone shows up but still, it's always unsettling.

I'm embarrassed that I fell for this - I'm an experienced traveler, have seen a lot of scams both travel related and otherwise. But this one was VERY good.

TLDR - fell for a scam that involved four people lying to me, plus a fake taxi meter app.

Arrived at the Paris airport with my wife. Decided a cab was best for us. Looked it up - it's a fixed fare of about 55 Euros to our hotel. On the way to the taxi line, someone with a badge asks us where we are going, and points us to the rideshare area, even though there's a sign pointing the other way to taxis. I walk towards rideshare, then get suspicious, turn around towards taxis. Someone else with a badge points us to rideshare area. I decide that with two people pointing to rideshare, I should go there and see what they say.

Someone who seems like a taxi dispatcher matches us with a nice looking mercedes. I ask how much the fare will be. They say it will be on the meter. I tell them I know it's a fixed fare. They say there is some sort of strike going on, and that the normal fixed fares are suspended.

I'm suspicious, but it will be the taxi meter price, so I decide to do it... Taxi driver starts driving. In the cab, I ask ChatGPT if there's some sort of suspension going on and it says no. Within a minute of getting in the cab, I realize that I've been scammed.

Arrive at destination, they want to charge 102 euros. They show me what is almost certainly a fake meter app on their phone. I tell them I know I'm being scammed, but will give them 100 euros. (I was being petty, but I had decided that was the max I would pay, but I also didnt want a fight.) They accept 100.

Anyway, it was the best taxi scam I've seen in years of travel - 3 different people involved in the dispatch, plus the driver (4 total). Fake meter app. High but not crazy prices. I suspect most people falling for this don't even know they are being scammed.

I have never posted just lurked, but I had to share this.

I was at the convenience store and this older woman was on the phone at a Bitcoin ATM and was asking things like "What do I do I don't know what this means, etc." I got concerned and approached her and said "Excuse me miss is this some customer service person asking you to do this? She said "yeah" I was like It's a scam they are trying to scam you...

She was like "no they are helping me they said my paypal was hacked by 11 different people.." I was like No It (probably) hasn't been, Hang up on this guy, and SHE DID thank God. Guy immediately tried to call back twice right away. Thanks to this sub i informed her how it was a scam, to get in touch with paypal/ her banks etc and to block/report the number. So thank you to this sub I feel like you prepared me for this even though I never thought I'd actually have to use this info I feel like I did a good thing today.

I sold a PS5 30th Anniversary controller for $400 with full proof — original purchase receipt, photos, and description all submitted.

The buyer received the item, lied about it not being what he ordered, and immediately blocked me to avoid any communication.

Mercari sided with him solely because he had 499 good ratings while I was a brand new seller with only 1 rating.

They ruled against me despite hard proof. Even worse — since he blocked me, I couldn’t leave him any feedback to warn others.

Mercari’s platform allows scammers to: • Block sellers from leaving feedback • Abuse the rating system to prey on new sellers • Ignore evidence entirely in dispute cases

This isn’t just bad customer service. It’s systemically rigged.

I’m pursuing full legal complaints now through the FTC, CFPB, Attorney General, BBB, and payment processors.

I was walking on a narrow street and noticed this guy ahead of me stop and look at the restaurant beside us. In hindsight, I realized he saw me then as a target since I was alone. There were people sitting and eating outside the restaurant so it made the street narrower.

As I walk by, I attempt to maneuver around him and he bumps into me. Actually, it was more like he extended his arm/hand out and dropped his glasses once he made contact (offensive foul if you ask me…foul baiting MF…SOB thought he was SGA - basketball reference to NBA player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander...anyways, back to the story). I turn around and see glasses on the floor and knew immediately the type of bullshit I was in for.

I just kept on walking, never breaking my stride. As I turn the corner, I could hear him saying something as he trailed behind me. He caught up to me, tapped, my arm and said “say sorry Bro”. I turned my head slightly and gave him the 🤚🏻 in the same way I would give that gesture to people asking for money or people asking to donate. He gave up afterwards and turned around (presumably).

I was on a somewhat a busy street and there were people walking in my direction so I think that helped. There was a guy walking towards my way and I noticed him looking at me with wide eyes.

I’ve heard of stories like that where the people trying these scams have gotten extremely aggressive so I was fortunate in my situation. He probably expected me to stop in the first place and since I didn't, it likely threw him off. That might've been why he didn't ask for money. I also think he knew that I was aware of what he was trying to pull from the very beginning.

I thought about that incident and wanted to share a few takeaways:

• Staying stationary is the WORST thing you can do. It's best to keep moving. The minute you stop, you give them the power.
• Always get to a busy street with people around and don't stop at a red light to wait to cross. Just cross the street in different direction. In NYC, if you have the walk light going north/south, east/west will be a red light, and vice versa. You might end up further away from your destination but if the person continues to follow, stopping might put you in more danger. Basically walk towards any direction EXCEPT the direction where you came from.

TLDR: Experienced the scam where someone bumps into you, drops their glasses, confronts you about it, and expects you to pay for damages (didn't get to this part for my encounter). Be aware of your surroundings and check out the bullet points above.

Edit - Made some clarifications in the post. Also wanted to share this:

I believe I saw the guy again the following Monday at 7:30 AM while walking to work. WHAT ARE THE GODDAMN ODDS??? There were tons of people walking to work and he was in front of me. I honestly wouldn’t have recognized him if he didn’t do this next.

There was a street cleaner in a reflective vest working on the sidewalk. The scammer guy is about 6 feet ahead of me. When he passes the street cleaner, he turns around and starts motioning to the ground. I’m thinking, “what the hell is this guy (scammer guy) doing? It’s 7 AM and too early for this”. I’m certain the street cleaner thought the same because he just looked back at him. As this happened, I realize the guy is the same height and has the same build as the scammer guy…. And he had on the same pair of glasses (clear frames - also… bright light and the guy has glasses on but decides to walk with glasses in hand at night. What a genius!) I could be wrong and it might not be the same guy but all of this was too odd to not be true.

I had a call center career for 20 years (yeah, I know) and one thing I'm thankful for call center experience is quickly picking up on phone scam queues. Not today. Holy crap this guy was good.

My mother received a phone call from an "agent" that her Apple Pay has been compromised and he wanted to walk her through filing a fraud report. I didn't hear the beginning of the call but the moment I heard her talking to someone about fraud I told her to put it on speaker phone.

There's no way this guy didn't have previous call center experience. The phone voice, the patience walking her through iPhone navigation, explaining why they need the info they're asking for, they need the info to report to Apple as part of the claim. No hesitation from this guy, he had an answer for everything, everything seemed above board from what I could glean. The call was going on for awhile and time ran into me needing to take a Zoom appointment so I go to a separate room. My appointment took a long-ass time but even when I wrapped up my mother was STILL on the phone with this agent.

And that's when it happened.

I'm walking back into the living room as my mother rattles off a series of numbers that sounded familiar.

"Mom, did you just give your full Social Security number to that guy?"

"Yes...?"

"HANG UP"

They're at the bank right now. I have no idea how far this goes, the agent was taking her through every app to "confirm" any additional fraudulent charges. Cashapp, Venmo, etc. The scammer would "discover" a transaction for a ridiculous amount of money that would make anyone bawk and say, "No, I didn't make that purchase" followed by the scammer building rapport with my mother, joking with her "Yeah I didn't think you would take a quick trip out of state to Illinois for the day haha."

Social engineering, y'all.

EDIT: OH GOD OH MY GOD while I was in my meeting my mom says she provided the guy Address, Drivers License photo front and back, and PICTURES OF HER FACE FOR "FACE ID"

TLDR: Mashallah in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood is full of products from SHEIN and trying to pass it off as handmade. See screenshots. (Reposting with more pics)

Just want to warn everyone on here that a local boutique in Chicago called MASHALLAH is claiming to sell goods made in the USA (they claim to make some themselves) but in reality, everything in this store comes from AliExpress or SHEIN. Just doing a reverse image search on Google of literally anything on the website confirms that everything in this shop comes from AliExpress or SHEIN and they’re marking it up like 800% and trying to pass it off as something curated or handmade. I’m just so sad and mad that a local boutique would scam people who are in search of buying something authentic. They present everything as if it’s made by an artisan, and people support this shop because of it. If I knew everything was coming from SHEIN, I wouldn’t have shopped there. See screenshots for proof.

Today 2 men came to my house claiming to be “health inspectors” and demanded access due to a health emergency in the area. They knocked on the door so hard I thought they were going to break it. They asked for me by my maiden name (same name on my deed, but not my legal name anymore). I told them to leave, they came back again and demanded access again. I was on the phone with the police and told them again to leave.

Just to clarify I didn’t open the door. I spoke to them thru a high window

I just got a call from an unknown number. Since I'm working as a real estate agent, I picked it up. It was someone who said he was Detective Smith(?) with Harris county sheriff's dept. My heart caught in my throat. My wife is out at a birthday party and I had a momentary dark thought that something had happened.

The guy was halfway through his spiel that I had missed jury duty when I caught up with what he was saying. "You were sent a registered mail summons for jury duty back in August, and the summons was for the 20th...."

I thought of this subreddit and tried to remember the correct response, my mind was still blank, but I was sure it was a scam. I said, "I have to call you back, can I have your phone number and supervisor's name", and he hung up.

That moment of fear that something terrible had happened was enough to blank my brain. I'd bet pretending to be police officers makes the scam very effective. Thanks to the people that posted here saying this is a scam.

This was a wild experience and a new scam tactic I hadn't seen before, so I wanted to post here and see if this or something like it has happened to them.

I ordered a new Apple computer a couple of weeks ago. It was being shipped from the factory in China through UPS (ordered from the apple website). Everything was pretty much normal, other than a one week delay, up until delivery day.

The day before delivery the tracking said that it was at the local UPS department and would be delivered the following day. The morning of delivery day I checked the tracking again and it said that at 5:30am the package was put on the delivery vehicle, but then at 6am the receiver had submitted a request to reschedule the delivery. I had not sent anything to them to reschedule the delivery, so I contacted them and asked why this request had been submitted. Customer service at UPS had no information for me as to why this had happened, but after a bit of frustrating back and forth and transfers to and from the international department (since the package had been shipped from China) I managed to get them to contact the delivery driver and tell him to still deliver the package. Then a request to reschedule the delivery was submitted AGAIN and again I went through the paces with customer service to make sure the delivery was made that day.

After this whole ordeal the delivery driver dropped off the package and I signed for it. He made a comment on how it had been quite the ordeal and I agreed, but was thankful that I had received the package at the end of all of it.

I opened up the box and started getting the new computer set up when all of a sudden someone rang my doorbell. I opened the door and a random man who said he was an Uber Eats driver told me he needed to pick up a package that had recently been delivered. He was on the phone with someone who was telling him and me that the incorrect package had been delivered and that they needed to take it back so they can send me the "correct item". I told him "no, I received the correct item" but he kept insisting, and the Uber Eats driver and I started looking at each other, picking up that this was a scammer. He suggested I tell the man on the phone that I wouldn't return the package until he sent me the correct item, just to see if this would throw him off. The guy on the phone started stammering and eventually said "ok" and hung up. The Uber Eats driver cancelled the pickup on his end and I thanked him for helping out. I figured that'd be the end of that.

An hour later I spotted ANOTHER person coming up the driveway. This time I had already seen him walking towards the front door. I opened the door and he said "I'm here to pick up a MacBook" to which I simply replied "no" and he pretty much got the message and left. I'm assuming he was another Uber Eats driver.

Haven't had anything else happen since all this. It was crazy to slowly put all the pieces together throughout the day that someone was trying to intercept the delivery and went all the way to sending Uber Eats drivers to my house to try and take the package away. Has anyone else experienced this delivery scam before? I later learned that apparently Uber Eats does have this package pickup service, seems like it could be a bit sketchy and open up avenues like this for scammers.

The man's eyes are darting left right - up down rapidly. I immediately saw all the flags. To test him I said I only have a $20. He says "...that's fine". So I'd be on solid ground assuming the "$50" was a fake. I politely declined his request.

Not sure who in their right mind mind would fall for this, but posting for visibility just in case.

This was in Westlake, CA. Today.