Someone tried to impersonate my Father to scam me on Facebook

2017-01-30

This is effed up! Some scammer just tried to impersonate my father.

I got a friend request from "Terry Tavares" with a picture of my dad. I thought to myself "hmm, I didn't unfriend him, maybe he made a new account or maybe he unfriended me by mistake?" So I accepted.

He then tells me god has answered his prayers. The government has given him $50k. $50k to all deaf, retired, and self employed and asks if I got mine.

Thinking I haven't heard of anything as crazy at $50k a person from the gov I was worried my dad just got scammed. I google "fifty thousand dollars given to me by the federal government and department of human service" and see nothing but scams.

So I post back "are you sure, I think it's scam". That's when I realize it's probably not my actual dad. The account is apparently immediately deleted though it's still in my chat history.

Now I'm curious how did they get the info? Maybe they got it from my dad's public facebook page. If you haven't maybe you should consider making that private. Oh yea, can we're told "it's just meta data" Pffft

In any case the google search led to this page this page which says:

If you respond to the scam artist's come-on, they'll charge you a processing fee and ask you for your personal information, which may include your name, Social Security number (SSN), credit card number, debit card number or other personal information. In exchange, they will give you instructions on how to use bank account and routing numbers to pay your bills online, or print checks so you can make your payments in person or by mail.

At first, you may think your bills have been paid. It's not until the payment is rejected, and you're notified that you still owe the money, that the scam is revealed. At that point, you may owe late or penalty fees to the company you thought you were paying as well as possibly owing fees to your bank for returned or rejected payments. The damage doesn't stop there: Not only do you still owe the money, but you're out the "fee" you paid the scam artist, you're at risk for identity theft, and you could be fined or even arrested for passing bad checks or trying to use a bank account that doesn't belong to you.

It goes on to say

If you see a pitch for this scam, share it with your local police department, Better Business Bureau, state Attorney General's office, and the FTC. If you followed the scammer's instructions, contact your creditors immediately. It's also a good idea to review your credit report, which you can do every twelve months for free. To order a free copy of your report, call 1-877-322-8228 or visit www.annualcreditreport.com. Look for inquiries from companies you haven't contacted; accounts you didn't open; and debts on your accounts that you can't explain. Check that information like your SSN, address(es), and name or initials are correct. If you find fraudulent or inaccurate information, get it removed.

Which is also scary because www.annualcreditreport.com itself is a fucking scam!

Ugh!!!!

And this is why I know we haven't passed "the Great Filter" 😎

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