CRA/iTunes Scam

[baygirl]

I know this scam has been around for awhile, and that most beyonders would never fall for it, however in the past week we have had 3 cases of seniors come into my store to buy large amounts of iTunes gift cards to supposedly pay back taxes after receiving a phone call from someone claiming to work with the CRA. In the first 2 instances a staff member realized what was happening and stopped the transaction, informing the customer why. Unfortuanetly in the third case the customer purchased $1800 in gc, and went to another store and bought an additional $3200. She is now out $5000 cash. There is a reason they are targeting seniors. Please talk to your parents/grandparents and make sure they are aware of the scam:-)

[JRSC00LUDE]

I can't understand how anyone could fall for that, at any age.

[roopi]

I wonder if Apple is behind this to increase sales? Revolutionary!

[bjstare]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
I can't understand how anyone could fall for that, at any age.

[ZenOps]

I do kind of understand this issue.

My parents have an Ipad, and they are well aware that the app store is indeed a store and that it uses real money converted to electronic currency to do so.

Since they go to one of the children to buy the Ipad to start with, or receive it as a gift - they assume its not linked to a credit card.

Then for whatever reason, somehow somewhere along the line someone is claiming that they owe money to someone, usually parent to technologically savvy child. But government body billing for services is not unheard of at all - if you don't shovel your sidewalk they will do it for you and bill you $300 later (in the old days, the bill came in the snail mail by envelope). Often times though, its simply a child looking for a way to squeeze a few dollars out of a parent using a scapegoat like "you bought this addon for this app, and I got billed for it - pay me back!"

Since that generation "always pays its bills", they often do small transactions just to be on the safe side of something that they were not sure they might have been billed for. IE: The app itself might have been free, but the Gigabytes to download it was not or vice versa.

Even as a computer veteran, I have a difficult time determining what is a microtransaction at times. That's why I be loving the old Blackberry playbook - no cellular, no creditcard, no worries. Apple is notorious for charging you money to breathe, so is Bell... Combine the two and you have a retroactively billed nightmare.

I couldn't even get a confirmation that Post office box 99997 was the correct mailing address for my most sensitive information - The long form census. I might have just mailed it to Khadafi for all I know.

[JohnnyHockey]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
I can't understand how anyone could fall for that, at any age.

Wow...you better hope you never get old and start to lose your mind.

Let me guess, you're probably the same type of person that wonders why someone would jump in front of a CTrain to commit suicide and waste everyone's time right. .

[01RedDX]

.

[03ozwhip]

Originally posted by 01RedDX


Uh, yeah, use a fucking bridge. Selfish...

And not a bridge with travelling people underneath for fuck sakes. Waste your own damn time.

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
I can't understand how anyone could fall for that, at any age.

I can understand it with a lot of seniors, as they're often lonely, and will do just about anything provided you're polite and claim you want to help them. It's also unfortunate that many of them are psychologically reduced to a child level gullibility.

We can also talk of the insidious, "This is your Grandson" scam.

Above and beyond that, we can also talk about how easy it is to scam those that claim, "I normally don't fall for scams, but I did for this one". That would be the POS claiming to be from Microsoft. He speaks with an East Indian accent, but names himself as David Smith. You would think that alone should raise an alarm bell., but apparently not.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by Seth1968


I can understand it with a lot of seniors, as they're often lonely, and will do just about anything provided you're polite and claim you want to help them. It's also unfortunate that many of them are psychologically reduced to a child level gullibility.

We can also talk of the insidious, "This is your Grandson" scam.

Above and beyond that, we can also talk about how easy it is to scam those that claim, "I normally don't fall for scams, but I did for this one". That would be the POS claiming to be from Microsoft. He speaks with an East Indian accent, but names himself as David Smith. You would think that alone should raise an alarm bell., but apparently not.

I suppose that makes sense when put that way. I guess it's just a very foreign concept to me as none of the aging in my family experience have ever been left in such a position. Shame people would put them in a state of neglect to make such things possible.

Originally posted by JohnnyHockey


Wow...you better hope you never get old and start to lose your mind.

Let me guess, you're probably the same type of person that wonders why someone would jump in front of a CTrain to commit suicide and waste everyone's time right. .

Cunt.

[JohnnyHockey]

Ya you sure feel like one now eh...

[Khyron]

I got this call twice the other day, and it's TERRIBLE. As if someone took a tape recorder and spliced together the words, horrible sentences and all.

Hello. This is .. Sirijul Jones with ... Canada ... Revenue Agency.... You in big trouble don't ignore this call .. call me back ... at 604 some number. Legal things. Call us.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by JohnnyHockey
Ya you sure feel like one now eh...

No, not at all.

What are you, retarded?

[dj_rice]

Asian grandparents are safe. No understand engrish.

[Amysicle]

.

[speedog]

This is not an age thing or an intelligence thing or of sound mind thing or anything anyone has said it is in this thread.

It is very crafty people/organizations managing to connect with and manipulate a vulnerability that someone has. That person may totally believe that they are above such nonsense but if just the right buttons are clicked then the ruse may very well be on it's way to being successful for the perpetrators.

I've known many, many people who have fell victim to ruses/scams and they come from all walks of life and are of any age. Most people are not willing to talk about it because they are embarrassed once they realize what they've done and they thought they intelligent and wise enough not to fall victim to such a thing.

I'll admit it, I've fell victim to one of these scams and it was at a very dark moment in my life. It wasn't that costly but it was embarrassing but I've come to terms with it because of the state I was in at that point in my life. My parents almost got caught by the grandson in jail in another country scam - they already had their coats on and were headed down to the bank when they decided to call me to ask about my one son. The scammers were very convincing and my son, at the time, had traveled outside of the country for various reasons so it wasn't unimaginable that he might have been out of the country when the scammers tried their thing on my parents. My wife and I had a tire shop who tried the more expensive bill for services thing on my wife when I already had a specific price quoted to me - she suspected them and when she said she would come back to pick up the vehicle and we both showed up, the amount of squirming in that retail establishment was amazing. How many woman have fell victim to that?

Friends, family, acquaintances - many of mine have fell victim to scams and probably many more that I'm not aware of. Again, it's not one's age or intelligence or level of sanity - it can be but more often than not it isn't. People need to be a bit more compassionate for victims of such scams and look a bit further as to why it happened - I was agog that my parents would've almost fall for such a scam because they are very intelligent and of very sound mind but a number of years later I, too, fell for a scam. It can happen to anyone.

The right button is all it takes and everyone has a button at some point in their life that will make them vulnerable even though they truly believe they above falling for such nonsense.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Again, excellent viewpoints presented that make a lot of sense. Good posts speed/amy.

JohnnyHockey, look above for lessons on how to make an intelligent response.

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by speedog
The right button is all it takes and everyone has a button at some point in their life that will make them vulnerable even though they truly believe they above falling for such nonsense.

There are two buttons: religion and politics. Neither of which opinions are hard to find for just about anyone.

Once you've obtained that info, it's only a matter of a "nice guy, and helpful" approach.

So called psychics use a similar approach.

[G-ZUS]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
Again, excellent viewpoints presented that make a lot of sense. Good posts speed/amy.

JohnnyHockey, look above for lessons on how to make an intelligent response.

I wonder if JohnnyHockey fell victim to some sort of scam himself

[speedog]

Originally posted by Seth1968


There are two buttons: religion and politics. Neither of which opinions are hard to find for just about anyone.

Once you've obtained that info, it's only a matter of a "nice guy, and helpful" approach.

So called psychics use a similar approach.

How is the grandson scheme either of those? Please do enlighten us all.