So I got an email from someone pretending to be my boss’ boss that asked me to purchase $1000 worth of gift cards to “surprise employees” with a promise of reimbursement. I believed this and went to CVS and bought the gift cards (2 $250 Apple Cards and 2 $250 xbox cards) using my debit card, and only realized it was a scam afterwards. I DID NOT SEND THE CODES even though he kept on asking me as I realized it was a scam afterwards. I went to CVS and they referred me to my bank and the banker said that they couldn’t stop the transaction and that I would have to call Apple/Microsoft support on my own. I still have all the cards and receipts. Is there any way for me to refund these and get my money back?
I feel so incredibly stupid because I thought it was really my boss’s boss and ignored all the red flags. What should I do?

UPDATE: thank you for all the helpful comments, I redeemed the Xbox gift card for Microsoft & then opened a ticket with Apple where I gave them all the cards/receipts and they said they’ll get back to me in 10 business days

My mother-in-law is convinced she's in a real relationship with someone pretending to be a BTS member. We've tried explaining it's a scam, but she gets angry and refuses to listen.

She's opened new bank accounts and bought gift cards, and we're worried she may have already sent money, but she won't tell us.

If you've been through something similar, what helped? Did they eventually realize it was a scam? Did you report it anywhere, and was there anything that actually made a difference?

We're just trying to help before she gets hurt financially or emotionally. Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Posting this here as it got removed from R/ legal advice

images

Location: Florida / Kentucky

Looking for advice on a confusing and stressful situation. 20sM in FL. About 3 months ago I had a one night stand with a 40sF who lives in Kentucky. I used a condom and as far as I know it didn’t break.

After the ONS she texted me excessively for about a week about future plans. I slowly responded less as I didn’t feel the same way and eventually told her directly that I didn’t see this going anywhere and wished her the best.

Shortly after, someone claiming to be her friend contacted me from a TextNow burner number saying I’d be responsible if anything happened to her. I later discovered she contacted me about the pregnancy from the same TextNow provider, suggesting it was likely her all along.

6-7 weeks after the ONS she contacted me from another unknown TextNow number with pregnancy test photos followed by an ultrasound. The ultrasound appeared legitimate but I have doubts. The timing was plausible so I engaged seriously and offered to cover all costs of termination including travel.
She agreed termination was the path forward but said she couldn’t get to a clinic until August or September due to work. She also mentioned a clinic charging $10,000-20,000 which seemed predatory. She refused every phone call and never provided the clinic name despite multiple requests. Throughout our conversations she focused mostly on lamenting me for ghosting her and barely acknowledged the pregnancy itself.

She then told me to delete her number. I didn’t respond. That was a month ago. She recently texted me again from yet another burner number calling me an asshole. When I asked directly if she had found a clinic and made an appointment she responded with ‘LOL.’

I’m attaching a redacted ultrasound image. I can’t tell if this is real and she’s emotionally unstable, an outright scam, or some combination. The pattern of burner numbers, refusal to take calls, inability to name a clinic, and complete lack of urgency despite a closing window has me seriously doubting the legitimacy.

Questions:

Is there any way to get confirmation of the claim? Could the image be verified by the hospital or someone? What is my best path forward here?

I’m currently looking for a lawyer, but since she’s in Kentucky I need to get a referral from the Florida Bar.

TLDR: ONS claiming pregnancy from fake number, multiple red flags have me doubting legitimacy.

Thanks in advance! 🙏

This happened two weeks ago. I work in a small retail gift shop in a shopping center in suburban Philadelphia. I answer the phone and it’s a gentleman asking if we sell Apple gift cards. We don’t sell gift cards of any kind, so I told him no. I’m immediately suspicious because I know Apple gift cards are often utilized by scammers. He then asked if the grocery store in our shopping center sold them. I said I didn’t know then I said “why do you want these?” He told me that the CEO of his former company emailed and asked if he could buy some Apple gift cards for an event the company was planning.

I told him that this was probably a scam and gave him a rundown of what a scammer will do with the Apple gift cards once they get the codes. He sounded older, and I asked him where he was located, and he said Florida, but that he used to work in the area but had retired to Florida some years back. I asked him if he thought it was strange that the CEO of his former company wanted him to buy gift cards. Then he said when she asked him for his phone number he gave it to her and she called him, he talked with her and she sounded sincere. Again told him that it was this was definitely a scam, he should not respond to this person ever again and block the number (which she didn’t recognize, and said that seemed odd to him), and definitely don’t buy any Apple gift cards.

Now I’m wondering why someone from Florida would call me in Pennsylvania and buy Apple gift cards over the phone for a CEO for a company he used to work at years ago. Is this a new twist on the gift card scam? I’m just hoping that I impressed upon him hard enough not to talk to this person again because I know they can be very persuasive in getting what they want and he sounded rather credulous.

I accepted 2 new people on discord and both recommended me this game called survival front, i have done my research and i know it could probably be scams aswell. But the problem i didn't talked to one of them for days and then send me a voice message, doesn't even sound like an ai voice or something.

I have my doubts and i think they are bots because the conversations with both of them went similarly. First they "mistake me" with another person, have some little chat and after ask me if i like strategic games or something.

This is messed up, i was really convinced that they were real persons.

Can discord bots send voice messages? And this one was a girl with an accent and everything

Hi everyone! Just had this happen to my parents, so I thought I'd share. A company contacted both of my parents and knew their first and last names, phone numbers, and address, saying they were collecting information for a litigation process and that it was urgent. They left a call back number and a case number.

I called the number and the person who picked up said they were from "Emberline Associates" which didn't yield any results for a litigation firm of any kind. Also, it was not the company name left in the voicemail which was OSV. When I prompted the customer service rep for information about what exactly their business did, he was very combative and told me I'd have to give information before he could answer any questions. When I asked him for his name, he said "I already gave you that" which he did not. When I pushed further to know his name, he hung up on me.

Just wanted to make everyone aware. Be safe!

I needed to get my ACE (American Council on Exercise) certification test done and was visiting Indianapolis in March this year and a local gym said I could do the testing there in person. I’ve been certified by Xpert Fitness this way as I know that some studios offer these trainings to make more money. I attended, did the theory and practical and was told I passed and started working at a gym shortly afterwards. I then get an email from ACE today saying the certificate is invalid but I can register for their official exam on their system and need to remove ACE from any materials about my work until I take their exam. I’ve replied to them saying that all references to ACE have been removed and I will book the exam through their system. I was desperate so fell for the scam and now I’m worried about what will happen to me. Does anyone have any advice?

Recently I was looking for jobs nannying and babysitting in my local community babysitting fb group and I responded to a post that offered a competitive rate. I was then asked a series of obvious chat gbt generated questions such as “As a nanny/babysitter you will be required to multi-task. Describe a time when you managed multiple tasks all at once?”. Then I was asked to help manage the “family’s” move in process. They said they would send me a check through mobile deposit to pay the movers and I would get a cut. Duh it was a scam.

Just be warned

If you think your also being scammed some stand out things to look for
- children not matching the number ur asked to babysit in the profile picture
- relatively new fb account
- not describing anything but the children’s age

This happened in Spain.

We were staying at an AirBnB and a guy was at the door. My wife opened. He was there to give legal papers to [x] (I have no idea to whom) at the address we were staying at, a flat. My wife said that there was no [x] at that address (because it's a legal tourist place). The guy said that he didn't mind if my wife was lying.

When my wife closed the door, he immediately called at the next door asking for [x] or maybe for someone else, I don't know.

I'm convinced that's a scam of some sort, but I don't know what scam. Maybe it's something else fishy. I don't believe for one second it's legitimately someone serving court papers.

Just what the title says. I presume someone is trying to access my Venmo account. I don't know who. That's my concern. As for when, it's been going on for a few days. More than 3 but less than 6. I have received four or five 2FA messages in about 72 to 96 hours. Someone seems to be repeatedly entering my email address or phone number and clicking "forgot password" or "change password." I don't know if it's a person, a bot, or something else. Each 2FA message comes by text and email. In addition, I received a similar 2FA alert from Facebook a few days ago saying that I had attempted to login on a new device (I hadn't). I'm obviously concerned that someone is targeting me with persistent hacking attempts. Question is, what if anything can I do about it?

In summary, my dad fell for a classic Facebook Marketplace fake car listing. The page directed him to a 3rd party site, he wired the scammers $20,000, and they ghosted him.

Longer context:

My dad was redirected off of Facebook Marketplace to a third party side called “topshelfmotorsllc.net” and is still up. They’re even still posting AI generated listings to Marketplace.

He contacted the scammer and was instructed to wire the money to their account (Listed under L S Motors Trading LLC) with a Santander Bank.

He sent the money, and then spoke with the scammer over the phone for 2 days, where he was told they were prepping the car for delivery. When the car didn’t show up on the 3rd day, the scammer blocked him on all platforms.

So far, my dad has reported this to the FTC, the IC3, and he contacted his own bank. His bank says there’s nothing they can do because he authorized the transfer.

Is there anything at all that can be done? My family is not well-off by any means. He only had this money because of refinancing, and he’s rather old so he isn’t aware of modern scams.

Sensitivity is appreciated, any advice is very much welcome, even if that advice is that nothing can be done

Okay so I have received a DM from two different Discord accounts in the past two week claiming to be an "artist". I am actually an artist myself currently getting my Bachelor's, but I do not do commissions currently. As of now I post my art simply to post it and build an audience. So I know how commissions work and how online freelancers do their job. The first account that DM'd me sent me their portfolio through discord. Already strange as most freelancers I know don't go around in DM's begging for commissions. Once I viewed their portfolio some red flags went off in my head as the "artist" claimed that they have been struggling with commissions yet their portfolio reported increasing sales. Whatever, I just left them on read and blocked their account.

Well lo and behold, today I got ANOTHER DM from a different Discord account that tried to send me the same portfolio. Obviously a scam, yes, but I decided to poke and prod and asked about their prices, what kind of work they do, and how they do their payments. They claimed, again, that commissions had been slow and they take payment before work is done and without an initial sketch. They were quite pushy and wanted me to flesh out my commission request and payment method even though I told them it would be a couple months before I come into money to pay (obviously a lie to bait them into talking to me about their "art"). Their portfolio, as well the other Discord account's portfolio, was by an artist by the name of Sketch Logicx on a freelance site called Behance. I AM NOT CLAIMING THAT SKETCH LOGICX IS A SCAMMER. In fact, I do believe that this artist exists but that these people claiming to be this artist are scammers.

While Behance is technically a legitimate freelance site it gets extremely low traffic and is generally not reliable for full time freelance artists. Anyway, I just thought I'd post this experience on this sub and warn anyone who may fall for this, especially other artists. Thanks you guys and beware!

Just a PSA—I work in customer service and my company now receives 5+ emails a day from customers that are formatted as an evite to a party/celebration. Their accounts have been hacked and these are sent to everyone in their contact list. This is not limited to one particular evite site, they come in all different formats. If you receive ANY kind of evite from someone you know, do not click on it or give them any info. Ask the sender if it’s real!

I’m feeling really embarrassed and sooooooo fucking stupid, so please be kind. More than a week ago I met someone on on a chatting platform. We talked for around 3 days, then we moved to discord and chat for hours every day, and the connection honestly felt amazing. In just those 3 days

Over those few days:
We sexted. He sent me explicit photos (including genital photos). And his face even

I sent him 2 normal selfies.
I also sent a few explicit videos, but my face was never shown in any of the explicit videos.

I sent around 10 seconds of voice messages.
He knew my nickname, my birthday, my country, my degree (not specifically named) and my tiktok bio briefly mentioned the city I study in (I’ve now removed it) it was a alt acc btw.

I never knew his full name.

I got suspicious and reverse-image searched one of the face photos he had sent me. It was an exact match to a photo that had been posted on Reddit about a year ago by an account that has since been deleted.

I confronted him by sending him the evidence. He read my messages and immediately blocked my Discord account without saying anything.

Since then I’ve:
\- Changed my usernames and profile pictures.
\- Made my personal art account private.
\- Removed identifying information from my bios.
\- change my alt instagram to private. Nothing links to my main acc at all

He never threatened me, never asked me for money, and never said he would leak anything. He simply blocked me after I confronted him.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation where they exchanged intimate content before discovering the other person wasn’t who they claimed to be?

Realistically, how worried should I be about my privacy and safety? I know I should assume he may have saved what I sent, but since my face wasn’t visible in the explicit videos and he doesn’t know my full identity, I’m trying to understand the actual level of risk.

Is there anything else I should do, or have I already taken the right precautions?

I know sending intimate content was my decision, and I already regret it. I’m not looking for people to tell me I was stupid. I already feel awful. I’m just hoping for honest advice from anyone who’s been through something similar or has experience with situations like this.
Thank you.

Some compromised websites have a fake Cloudflare verification page that asks you to open command prompt and "press ctrl+v". It is asking you to run a malicious script that automatically installs malware directly into your device's memory, which will steal credentials and banking info.

Do not do this! Close the website and clear your browser cache immediately.

More information:

https://www.cyber.gov.au/about-us/view-all-content/alerts-and-advisories/clickfix-distributing-vidar-stealer-via-wordpress-targeting-australian-infrastructure

2nd time ive had someone talk to me at this mcdonalds about the same thing. said hes a vet, that he has a vet id, that he needs to ask for money for transport and says its embarrassing to ask. im pretty sure it was 2 seperate guys, but it was pretty much the same spiel both times, so im not sure if its coincidence, the same guy asking me a 2nd time and i just misremembered the first guy, or a scam. he talked different and im preety sure i recall the first guy looking quite different, so that leads me to believe it might be a scam cause 2 people going to the same mcdonalds to ask me for money for the same thing is sus

edit: fixed spelling

First of all called me on WhatsApp, I didn’t pick up. Typed a message:

Hi VixenRoss
This is Sky
Can you send a picture of your fuse board, keep it I open and take the picture please
To arrange the engineer's visit he needs the picture
Thank you
Kind regards
Sky

Then called again via WhatsApp. I blocked them. They then called my actual mobile. I blocked them again. I don’t have SKY. Never have.

I’m just wondering what’s the scam here? Is it engagement?

Have I just ghosted actual Sky?

Got a call this morning, I lowkey believed it at first because I actually did have an international package delivered to me this morning too. I was told it contained illegal goods, they already had my full name and address and just asked me to confirm it.

I still thought this was about my totally normal package. I mean it was peptides but I figured they’d just take them and I’d lose whatever money I spent on it and go about my day.

That’s when the guy tells me a package containing forged and trafficked documents, 7K in cash, under my name has been seized and connected to multiple accounts under my name in the US being used to launder money. I had a bad run in with some crypto and malicious token so I legit thought I’d had my identity stolen.

They stressed this phone call was legally binding and that anything I said could be used against me and was being monitored by the RCMP and I was transferred to the Canadian intelligence agency. They knew what bank accounts I had. Not the account numbers just which banks and what kind. They asked me to confirm the balance, I refused. I was then told to cooperate or hire myself a good criminal lawyer. I started getting suspicious, he told me to stay on the line until I received a call from the local police service. He made me confirm the local police services phone number.

I had a feeling, I was kind of done being terrified my life was about to be ruined over something I didn’t do and I hung up and called the actual RCMP non emergency line. I gave them the details, the fake badge numbers, case number, phone number, told them that these people already had my information and just made me confirm it. I called my banks and made reports there as well.

I feel like a fucking idiot for falling for this, I’m genuinely embarrassed. I’m just confused on why they didn’t try to get any account numbers or money from me. The bank told me they can’t do anything with the information they have, just change my passwords to be safe. Anyway, has anyone else gotten a scam similar to this?

I’ve never been on probation or in legal trouble nor has anyone I know in my family. They left a voice mail that only asked “if this was my mother’s name “ and hung up and sounded like English was their non native language.

It seemed very unprofessional in some ways.

I did a reverse number search and that was the department that came up.

It’s odd and random and makes no sense. Is this a scam? Additionally been getting abnormally “potential spam” calls lately. I’m sure it’s some sort of way to pry personal sensitive data.

I changed my phone number about 5 months ago. Recently I’ve been getting verification codes from several different sites including triple A, google, WhatsApp, Venmo and PayPal from the same number, and then I’ve been getting 8 calls a day from a strange area code number with a lengthy Ai voicemail about passwords. Worth noting I don’t have WhatsApp out of all these.

Are they actually guessing my passwords and activating the 2 factor to my phone? Should I change my phone number and all my passwords at this rate?

I don't know if this is the right subreddit. My question is more related to phishing-defense rather than reporting on a scam...

"""
Cash App: 123-456 is your code. By entering, you agree to the Terms, E-Sign, and Privacy Policy (link to real cash app TOS). Text STOP to opt out. Std rates apply.
"""

I'm already aggressively phished against via email/text/call. Signin attempts to my email every week. Phishing emails that get through spam daily. Fake invoices to my business. Fake stripe/paypal/bank notifications that get through spam on occassion. Okay.

But these texts, I'm getting these from both venmo and cashapp every 12-18 hours, started 4 days ago. a real text from a real 5-digit number (5 digit numbers seem reserved for legit / non spam usage, right?). so, seemingly someone trying to take over my venmo, or create a cash app under my phone number.

A huge pain. What if these guys successfully guess the 6-digit code one of these days? Then I'm fucked. Anything I can do to guard against this stuff? I set a 4-digit passcode on Venmo. I don't have a cash app account.

So my partner has been talking with a company, trying to start up, and they sent a check for $500 for office supplies, and obviously it's going to take a bit to clear, but the man, or HR rep, whoever they are, is rushing her to get the office supplies, and she's afraid she'd have to pay out of pocket for them, because they stated that they need everyone on board at once.

The company goes by Ecomedes, and from what I've seen has been on the internet since 2016.

I need some help finding out if this is a scam, and if she should pull out now and cancel the check.

I had someone reach out to me through Vampr (a networking app for musicians) offering compensation for using one of my songs in an upcoming ad campaign. They sent me to the website for their product (a headphone brand that hasn’t hit the market yet) www.rxxsets.com it looks legit, then they sent me a jotform Advert Agreement with the terms and conditions of the deal. My payment is 1/3 compensation and 2/3 to be used for promotion of the song that they are using in the ad plus royalties. The agreement only asked for basic info like name and address (no ssn) and a few details about the song. It also asked for my bank institution name, but not the account number or anything like that.

Here’s where it got weird, they emailed me a picture of the check for the full amount, so I did a mobile deposit, and my bank flagged it and did not honor the deposit because it was just a picture of a check on a screen. (I know I shouldnt have even done that)I let them know that it didnt work and I could take another form of electronic payment. They said they would talk to the boss to get it sorted out and in the meantime asked if I have any more music they can pay me for. It seems suspicious to me, and I have never done any licensing deals before.

I would imagine the scam-if there is one, is to send me the full amount and ask me to give them the 2/3 back for their promoter before the check bounces. Or maybe I’m just paranoid. What do you think?

EDIT: APOLOGIES! I didn't realize that the iCloud Mail was changing the from address! It seems like the email was legit! Thank you everyone that responded.

Hello just trying to wrap my head around a text and an email I received that I believe are scams but what’s terrifying is the amount of details they know.

I have recently ordered two items on eBay from the USA and they are shipped to Canada through DHL International shipping.

I woke up this morning two a text message from a 5 digit number that had my full name and my eBay email. The text claimed that my package has incurred duties and that I should check my email to resolve the issue.

The email arrived 8 minutes after the texts and it is expertly formatted. It really looks legit. DHL branding seems well placed and professional. Email subject is concise and contains the actual tracking number. The subject and the body are written in both English and French which makes it seem even more legit.

It even has a neat breakdown of what fees I’m meant to pay. It also says that if I don’t “pre-pay” that I “might” still receive the package and I could just ignore this.

Two things that stood out:

1. They listed the contents of the package and while they listed one of the items correctly. There is another item that eBay is shipping to me using the same tracking number but that one was not listed!!!

2. The DHL address that sent me this email is an iCloud address! The address was: "package.notification_at_dhl_com" then a random string of letters and numbers separated by underscores.

This obviously isn’t a DHL email and I understand that scammers have gotten really good at formatting emails to make them look legit. But I just can’t get over how they would know all this info?

How did they find my full name, email, home address, tracking number, order details, etc…?

I am very careful when it comes to giving out my info on the internet. Furthermore, my eBay email address is an alias that I only use for eBay and nothing else. I am pretty sure my eBay account is not hacked or anything.

My head is leaning towards the seller of the item listed in the scam email. Either he’s compromised and somehow scammers are able to steal his customer's info or he's in on it but I really doubt the latter.

I also am not fully knowledgeable on the latest ways scammers find this type of info, so any insight would be much appreciated! Thank you for reading.

So, some time ago, I went into my local mcdonalds, there was a nice looking, big sign by the pick up area that told you to text a number if you wanted to win up to a $200 gift card and something about a resort, Madison resorts.

I texted the number and i think I filled something out, then I just forgot it existed, until now.

I recieved 2 calls back to back and a voicemail. It was telling me I won the mcdonalds gift card and to call this number back.

I called the number and the guy on the phone tells me I actually won a complimentary stay at the resort, for 3 days and 2 nights. And that I will get a gift card on the second day after a tour of the resort.

Is this a scam?? Any other time I would think it is, but the fact that I signed up at a mcdonalds is throwing me off.

But I also cant find anything about mcdonalds + this resort online anywhere.

I would like to know what you all think.