Needs Pictures: 0
Picture(s) thanks: 0
Results 1 to 7 of 7
Thread: OT How does this scam work
-
31st Mar 2022, 05:44 AM #1Diamond Member
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
- Location
- Laidley, SE Qld
- Posts
- 1,038
OT How does this scam work
My next door neighbour is Cheryl L.......... , she doesn't have an alarm system on her house.
I've received on my mobile the following message from ostensibly an Australian mobile phone
Cheryl L..........
Low power alarm 10%!
Loc Time: 01/01/2034 10:00:00
Alarm Time: 27/03/2022 22:46:22
Up to date location is not available now
Battery 8%
The sender is presumably hoping I will believe that by mistake they've sent this important message to me rather than Cheryl.
There are no clickable links in the message so I'm not sure what the catch is.
Maybe I get charged $20 a minute from Kazakstan if I'm a good neighbour and phone the sender to tell them they've sent the message to the wrong phone.
What really puzzles me is how does the sender know that my mobile number lives next door to Cheryl L..........?
-
31st Mar 2022, 06:27 AM #2Philomath in training
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- Norwood-ish, Adelaide
- Age
- 59
- Posts
- 6,541
Could charge you $20/ minute while you try to explain the error. Could also be a foot in the door manoeuvre, where once having established contact there are all these other things that you 'need' from them - your solar panels need tuning, or the bird bath needs sanitising or...
Michael
-
31st Mar 2022, 07:16 AM #3Diamond Member
- Join Date
- Aug 2019
- Location
- Revesby - Sydney Australia
- Age
- 56
- Posts
- 1,183
Perhaps Cheryl is actually a robot, and her battery is running low?
Her remote monitoring satellite can't find her location (GPS tied to battery),
and thus can't send a recharge/cleanup crew to her location.
But you are on the ground, and can help out. Just look for the oil trail
-
31st Mar 2022, 09:06 AM #4
I would be reporting the attempted scam to the Australian Govt
Scamwatch https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/
The fact that someone nasty has discovered a linkage between you and your neighbor is worrisome and might even indicate corruption in one of the telecom mobs.
Are you and the neighbor are with the same telecom company? If so that bears mentioning in the same scamwatch report.
I have a blocked list of around 20 numbers who ring up and won't leave a message. I won't respond to anyone who will not leave a message No ID -no reply.
I am also very conscious of the dial prefix number as some numbers are clearly overseas. I am advised by my telecom that they know its possible for overseas parties to spoof (thats the term) Australian phone numbers. I thought I would be clever and ask to have any incoming calls OS blocked but they can't do it due to the NBN.
61 is the prefix for Australia, but bear in mind calls can be made from OS that make them appear to come from inside Australia.
The thing is to make sure a report is made.
Cheers
Grahame
-
31st Mar 2022, 09:43 AM #5Most Valued Member
- Join Date
- Nov 2017
- Location
- Geelong, Australia
- Age
- 57
- Posts
- 2,651
There's a lot of data out there that can be correlated if someone wants to, and soooo many ways it can be done.
Could be as simple as you have both of you have ended up with records in the same place that contain your address and mobile.
Freight or online purchases are common ones that come to mind. A lot of smaller suppliers have less than ideal security, and someone could easily extract data without them even knowing.
Although there are regulations governing how companies can use that info and their responsibilities around it - the reality is somewhat different.
Apart from someone getting access to that info online - there are other less complicated ways it could happen.
The courier contractor that delivered the parcel to you last week delivered one to Cheryl yesterday. One of his side deals is feeding data to somewhere dodgy. A photo of each label he delivers that has name, address, and contact number....done.
Not saying it happens, but the data is there for the taking.
As to what the angle is - who knows what they are thinking!!
Could be as simple as the charged callback as suggested.
Could just be gathering valid names and numbers to sell to someone else. A number that has a person at the other end who responds is going to be more valuable than one that doesn't.
Numbers of people who are physically connected somehow is an opportunity for a scam that doesn't work with randoms.
If its someone more local that has gathered the data - it could be a lead-in to determining if you are home at the moment - and subsequent break-in if you're not.
My view is generally the best thing is give them nothing. No response.
Steve
-
31st Mar 2022, 01:27 PM #6Golden Member
- Join Date
- Jan 2016
- Location
- Wodonga Vic
- Age
- 38
- Posts
- 633
If you want to see some scammers getting hacked and shut down have a watch of this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLyrc_JZmF4
-
8th Apr 2022, 05:52 PM #7Most Valued Member
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
- Location
- Southern Flinders Ranges
- Posts
- 1,536
Do some reading on the IoT (internet of things), it will become fairly clear on how the dots get joined, particularly if you use default passwords for things that have an IP address.
Looking at the message, it looks like telemetry reporting, are you sure she doesn’t have something that has telemetry reporting enabled via mobile?
Took me forever to figure out why the ex’s mother kept getting ridiculously high phone bills. Turned out she had one of those duress alarm things forgotten about in a drawer in the kitchen that had flat batteries and was calling back to the mothership to report it via her mobile phone.
Similar Threads
-
Scam Alert (also posted on WW Forum)
By Oldgreybeard in forum GENERAL DISCUSSION / OFF TOPICReplies: 3Last Post: 19th Sep 2018, 09:09 PM -
Beware !!! Firefox 2017 Annual survey scam
By Grahame Collins in forum GENERAL DISCUSSION / OFF TOPICReplies: 3Last Post: 17th Oct 2017, 03:43 AM