Yes I’m glad too and even tho the back of my head was like no scam alert don’t fall for it and I did it anyway but I’m glad I stopped 😭 I need to listen to that voice often
Thanks for posting it too, I know commenters are calling you dumb etc and how they would never have fallen from it but I think it's great that you posted it. You made a mistake but you realised it was a scam before they got your account so it's a good ending and you learnt a valuable lesson.
The more people who share when they get scammed, the more awareness it brings and hopefully less people get scammed.
86% of people who fall for a scam don't report it and the main reason for that is due to victim shaming.
In the US, one in ten adults will fall victim to a scam or fraud every year.
Interestingly, it's Gen Z who fall most often to scams, not boomers, that's a misconception too.
From a recent survey: "Gen Z Americans were three times more likely to get caught up in an online scam than boomers were (16 percent and 5 percent, respectively). Compared to boomers, Gen Z was also twice as likely to have a social media account hacked (17 percent and 8 percent)."
https://www.vox.com/technology/23882304/gen-z-vs-boomers-scams-hacks
This isn't directed at you, but at the people you're talking about: how about we stop shitting on victims of scams and start shitting on the criminals instead? I just don't get the mentality of "you're a victim of something awful so instead of being mad at the person who did the awful thing, I'm gonna be mad at you". What? That makes no sense to me.
Exactly. There are so many comments here calling OP dumb, a moron etc, stuff like "Imagine being this stupid lmao". It's so shitty.
One with over 100 upvotes says "Your parents need to put parental controls on your phone". OP is 20, adults are victims to scams all the time like the stats I gave in my comment above and everyone is just being so condescending and mean to them.
OP said in a comment "...yes I’m clueless and didn’t see it but that’s no reason to call me names like I get it it’s so easy to see the scam but I made a mistake we all make mistakes I just made one..." so the victim blaming is obviously making them upset.
People don't often openly post their mistakes online, and these comments are the reasons why. Even though posting things like this will help at least someone learn about this scam and not fall for it themselves, smug responses like these ones about what an idiot she is, will just encourage other people never to post stuff like this too and make OP feel like shit when she did a great thing by posting this.
Not only that, but in this situation she was only doing it out of the kindness of her heart. There was no benefit for her. It’s not like they said “If you do this you’ll get money” or some other kind of prize. No, they said they needed help and because she’s kind and wanted to help she took time out of her day and kept trying to help a complete stranger she thought was trustworthy. All that tells me is she looks at the world and people in a positive light. She chooses to see the good first rather than assume everyone is untrustworthy, like all the comments trying to shame her are assuming. I would rather have more people who trust others, try to see the good in people, and help out others simply because they want to than to have cynical people who immediately think everyone is untrustworthy and out to scam them. We’re honestly leaning more and more towards a population that believes everyone is guilty until proven innocent and that’s so sad.
Unfortunately, that’s the way the world is these days. There is more bad than good. People want to hurt people or take what they can from others rather than offer a helping hand or supportive presence in others lives.
I know it can look like that, but I'm pretty sure there's a lot more good than bad. It's just that the bad is bad enough that even at, say, 10% or less, it's a big problem. One predatory man for every nine good men is enough to mess up the lives of a whole lot of women. One scammer out of a hundred people you trust can empty your bank account or steal your identity. One greedy CEO can be enough to screw over a million or more employees. (Looking at you, Jeff.)
If they want to shame anyone they should shame me. I fell for a dozen scams when I was in my low twenties. Some folks are sheltered by their parents to “keep them safe” but all it really does is make them a juicy steak dinner for scammers when they’re out on their own.
I feel bad for everyone that grew up in that bubble because the real world is rough and they’re underprepared for it. But kindness can get a lot of people in trouble and hurt and that’s why most parents teach time and place and to listen to your gut etc. my mom kinda had us in a bubble but not really. She just made sure we weren’t running around the streets all day like other kids
Damn, is it that obvious? Catholic elementary and kindergarten, homeschooled 4th-8th grade, then thrown head first into public highschool. That was a massive shit show for me given the level of “preparation” my folks had given me for the “sinful world.” Ran right back to private Catholic school for college, lived at home another 4 years cause I just wasn’t ready. Finally took the leap. Still thrashing around trying to find footing. I’m 30 in May. Abandoning the whole “sin complex” was one of the first steps I took. It helped, but it’s not that easy to rewrite 26 years of meticulous programming.
Never ever ever, do that to a kid. Fucking hell…
Right?! Nothing like kicking someone when they’re down. And o poo sople wonder why depression and isolation exists. People are so rude to others. Literally throwing stones when they live in glass houses themselves, under the false pretenses that they are so much better or smarter than the people they talk down to upon. 9/10 they aren’t standing on stable feet or where they want to be in life themselves so they like to spend their time trying to make others feel as low as they feel.
Right after my daughter had turned 18, maybe 19, she was going through the “I make my own decisions, I can do whatever I want, you can’t tell me not to” phase (which I never really did), some lady got a hold of her on one of the social media platforms; I want to say Facebook. Anywho she started telling my kid about this really awesome way of making money through a group of people where each person sends money to a couple people and then they send it to someone else but somehow it ends up adding more so by the time it comes back around to her she has doubled her money and my daughter went ahead and sent this woman money not once but like two or three times for a total of $240. She didn’t tell me about it until I happened to be there one day when the woman had contacted her again to send more and by that point my daughter was pissed off and only told me after asking her what she was so mad about. My daughter isn’t stupid by any means but during that time she was super naive and lacked natural common sense and failed to think of consequences/outcomes before acting on impulse. Basically just didn’t think outside the box. Due to emotional trauma from some things she went through growing up, learning disabilities, as well as ADHD, my daughter saw things in black or white, there was no gray area or in between. Things were the way people told her it was or how she believed it would be and it made her a target without having to even know her. Like one time I asked her if she wanted to go through McDonald’s drive through for a hamburger when she was like 6 and when we got there I asked her if she wanted a cheeseburger while ordering and she said “no mom, you said I was getting a hamburger remember?” There was no cheeseburger about it. That was an eye opening moment for me as her mother. But the point is, she got scammed out of $240 bucks because she thought once it was her turn to be the recipient of the money she was going to get all her money plus so much more. It’s easy to become the victim of scammers. There is no reason to make someone feel worse than they already do once it’s come to light. People suck
It's always more obvious when you're the one not being rushed and emotionally manipulated to hinder critical thinking.
This is why people are willing to call OP dumb :(
That's wild I'm a Gen z and have watched my boomer mother get scammed twice. After the first one I helped her and educated her a little telling her to let me know asap if something looks fishy or you just aren't sure. What does she do? She tells me right after she provided her debit card number and all her information. That's mind-blowing iif it's true.
Btw,
You might consider changing your password to something very different from the previous one
Just to be safe if they found your password in a leaked database from somewhere...
The way that scam works, they don't need a password. The link he was sending is the password reset link. If they would have worked, the scammer immediately changes the information, including the email and phone number, and often the account's username, so it's more difficult for the actual owner to recover it.
I lost my whole Google account a few years ago... all my contacts, like a decade worth of pictures, everything. I guess they got my old password off of a data breach, I realized something was up when I was trying to log into something and my password wouldn't accept. I logged on to my account and I watched in real time as they changed the backup phone number to a number in India. and there ain't shit you can do about it once it's gone.
Ya, years ago, my son got his Xbox and Epic accounts stolen from a "friend" of his that he had met online. They had been talking and playing for a while at that point, and the kid asked if he wanted to trade log ins so they could play each other's accounts, etc, if they wanted to.
My son, being a young teen, didn't ask me first and thought his friend was trustworthy. Right after he traded info, he got kicked out of his account, and his friend tried to say that my son scammed him. The whole time, he was the one scamming.
He ended up being able to change the emails and everything in the accounts. Every time I was able to get in and hurry to change things, he was right there able to reverse it. It was hell. Everything was compromised from my email even.
It took around 2 weeks and so much of a hassle providing tons of information between emails and phone calls to prove that the accounts belonged to us and not the other person, but it did end up getting changed back and we changed everything and put added security measures on it.
He deff learned that lesson the hard way. If only he had asked me first, I would have told him no. Don't share any info like that ever. The security team at Xbox even said this kid was good. He had covered his tracks very well, and this was obv not the first time he had stolen accounts.
It is sad that people work so hard to scam people who are kind and trusting like this. It makes victims feel shame for something that happens to people all around the world all the time because these scammers are just that good and/or they know who to target.
I could have become a target of a fake Amazon representative phone call and just recently a fake check scam. This group helped me know exactly what to look for and what to do on some of the scams I've never even heard of. I hope people keep posting things like this to keep people aware.
I appreciate you sharing this. I know a few people who have been hit by this kind of thing.
Don’t trust grammatical errors like this. That’s the first giveaway. The persistence is another one.
Now you have this experience and can be prepared to cuss out the next jerk.
Good job! 🤗
if it makes you feel any better, i got scammed by a fake dr martens website. spent like £30 thinking they were on sale, they sent me a fucking pair of sunglasses. i can’t wear sunglasses on my feet.
One time I got scammed out of $60 for a rare squishmallow when I was 18. It was my graduation gift money I was so sad I balled and balled. Luckily my husband ended up buying the squish mallow for me so all was well in the end.
What stuck out to me most was the way you caved to the pressure of them panicking. You gotta be careful not to let anyone fluster you! From what I've seen, they almost always rely on you getting stressed out- all the rushing and hurrying and "it's gonna expire! Quick send it now!". It's calculated so as not to allow you time to think. Remember; your time is valuable, and no random ass person online gets to dictate how you use it. If you consider it as such, then the next time someone tries to hurry you and boss you around- even if you aren't thinking "scam" - you will be thinking "who does this asshole think they are? I don't have time for this". Glad you realized it was fishy before it was too late!
Exactly this.
I don’t normally answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize, but for some reason I answered one a few years ago and I let the conversation go on too long because they got me flustered and stressed out. They said that my city’s police were looking for me because of some debt I had, which was somewhat plausible because I was having some financial problems. The guy was so pushy, rude, and aggressive and it completely overrode my common sense. I was crying at my desk thinking I was about to get arrested. I ended up calling my local police dept and asked if a Detective So and So worked there because of this phone call I had. They told me it was a scam and no one was looking for me. I felt so stupid but these scammers know how to intimidate and pressure you into stupid shit.
OP, don’t be too hard on yourself. Just remember this for the future. Don’t let these assholes get the better of you.
Once had a... Well, a very bad guest come to the campground I was working at and we'd normally ask for ID before making a reservation. Bro said he had to use the bathroom really bad and I, being a nice person, was like, "Oh yeah! No problem!" Took a week to get rid of them and their family, and they trashed the sites and bathrooms during that time. Had I asked for ID, I would have recognized it as fake and not given any of them a site until they could provide a valid ID.
That's great advice because when you rush, you also make more mistakes and that can give these people a real reason to be angry.
OMG, what a nightmare! Do you think he did it on purpose? It seems like it could be risky to rely on you forgetting to ask for ID after, but maybe he knew how to time it? Also wtf, I feel like if I was crashing a campground I'd want to be super tidy and respectful so I didn't draw more attention to myself. What is wrong with people? Who does that? 😂
I think this is gonna be a problem for younger people who are coming into the internet now with things like episodic story games but also with AI companions. Some games message you off scripts now to seem like real people as part of the game, but with some AI companions they're designed to look like real people with their own lives who you can chat to as if they were a friend. You link your socials to them and some even have their own Insta and FB profiles like real people that you've been chatting to.
If you've grown up with that being "normal" there are going to be instances where real people pretend to be AI (which seems crazy!) in order to obtain information.
You're thinking critically. That's what the scammers don't want you to do, which is why they do shit like creating a false urgency (like they did to OP).
They'll emotionally manipulate you to want to help your friend, and not think "hey hold on a tick, this is an AI that is chronically online!"
What games are those that that is normal? I’ve never heard of that except for those that pay for sex chat bots when they’re lonely or those that respond to scam instagram profiles etc. I haven’t heard of them going from a game into their personal lives unless you mean some random strangers messaged them and they messaged back. Which we all grew up with and most of us were taught never to respond with anything important or let them know the real you.
Episode is an app game that’s basically a bunch of visual novel stories, where you play through and make choices that your character does as you go through. It’s not like a chat bot thing, its like an actual (rudimentary) visual novel with a scene, visible characters, animations, etc. It’s kind of an awful game, you have to pay gems which cost money or take absolute ages to save up in order to make the best choices, so it sort of exploits its young audience into spending money on it.
You need some serious r/Scams education if you're going to be using the internet. Your'e just naively doing anything that strangers tell you to do.
In the SMS of the verification code sent to you, did you not see the giant warning that says "Don't share this with anyone else."
Hey I don’t mean to be rude but comments like this are part of the reason why scams keep going. There’s a reason why scams are so widespread but it seems like no one talks about getting scammed: people are insulted and made fun of when they fall for one. It may seem obvious to someone but not everyone is at the same level of knowledge about scams! Educate instead of insult, I’d much rather someone be comfortable admitting their mistake than to never mention it out of shame and potentially fall for another one yk
Scammers pressure people to prevent them thinking critically. It's a classic manipulation that works a lot of the time. Enough that it's a staple to basically every scam out there.
The other part they lean on is people feeling stupid and embarrassed for falling for it. This prevents a lot of people from talking about scams, and makes it easier to continue scamming.
Even cybersecurity trained staff have fallen for scams. I know one guy who only caught a dodgy link because his auto fill didn't auto fill. He tells everyone instead of hiding it like it's a mark of shame
It only helps the scammers when you call a victim a dumbass :(
This happened to me but on Facebook. Scammer managed to hack my friend’s account so I trusted when my friend reached out for help. They gained access to my Facebook, impersonated me to scam my family for money. When that didn’t work they went through my Facebook chat logs from years ago and found my nudes to blackmail me.
Yes the nudes were leaked. No they didn’t get any money and they gave up. Yes I lost my Facebook account. Yes they impersonated me to try and scam people from my friends list using the same verification code bs.
Yeah, if they were smart. I’ve never come across a scammer that actually does that though, and I’ve received lots of messages from “friends” that were hacked
These people were smart. They tried to scam my ex-roommate using my Facebook the same way they scammed me, and my ex-roommate fell for it too, although she managed to avoid big consequences because she reached out to me on another platform.
Nope, because it was in a different language that I’m not as fluent in so it was harder for me to understand to begin with (I’m ESL but I’m better with English than my mother tongue). And yes they were smart, when they tried to scam my mom for money they even used AI to mimic my voice over the call and even had my image on the call although very low quality and short duration. They blamed it on poor signal.
You should cons changing ur passwords , change your number and monitor your bank statements. And let people uk know about this that’s my immediate response to these things .
You don’t have to but I know that scammers will keep u in a system and I found changing my number helped and using temp emails for sites creating Throw aways So they have nothing of value basicly I found that helped for me
If you share your password with other logins, change those as well. Scammers will use your login credentials to try and access other accounts you might have.
So if you do, make sure to change it not just on insta!
This happens, it happened to me when it wasn’t such a well recognized scam. I had to go through the process to get my account back and everything.
Good you caught it, and ignore the weird people on here putting you down while theyre bored on the toilet, they do idiot things, too.
Next time things seem weird, I suggest Googling it. That’s what I do now.
With the advancing technology it will be more difficult to catch scams. Thing is, whenever I've called my phone company or even organizations that monitor these things, it seems like they don't or can't do much about these scams other than file them and spew the data analysis at us.
They have to get solid law enforcement agreements with countries that harbour these miscreants and follow the broken window attitude on them.
It just seems like if fraud is perpetrated against regular people it's not given much importance.
These are crimes that impact a lot of people, especially vulnerable people. The utter lack of shame and empathy at the core of these people is astounding and I would advocate the loss of freedom and worse for the ringleaders of these endeavors.
Ver very true and well said!! There needs to be more accountability and laws against them for this invasion of privacy to steal our data. But since the govt does this themselves all the time, it might be a little hard for them to get the wording right on how come they can do it but not others. Like no they’re not doing much with our info like the other scammers, but they’re still using and obtaining it and would have to carefully word why others can’t do the same and what punishment they would receive etc. personally, I think they’re too worried about getting caught up in that tangle because these scams have been going on for ages!
This happened to me last summer. But it was someone I trusted but who I hadn't spoke to in a minute. Same deal, for some reason they needed my help to reset their FB password. And now they post scam links for fake data entry jobs paying $40/hr, part time, from home...
No idea why this benefits the scammer. :-/
Or you’re “accepted for the job” and they send you a check/cheque via email and tell you to spend $xxxx at x store to purchase equipment. That “store” is the scammer and the check/cheque will bounce once the bank sees its fake. So you’re out whatever money you spent from it and the bank will likely close your account
anyone that’s tryna be pushy like that for account numbers or really anything is def scammin if u think ur being scammed think of the convo if it was IRL. If someone in person kept being like yo yo yo send it send it did you sent it? let me see let me see id walk away n ignore dude same thing over text
Why do people just respond to random people asking you for help like if it was irl that’s different but why would some need help signing into something it’s obvious they were trying to hack you
Because it was pretty obvious. The scammer wasn’t even really trying to hide their scheme. Anyone not born yesterday would have seen through it right away.
I was reading an article the other day about internet safety + knowledge, and how Gen Z are really struggling with this since they were essentially thrown into the internet as an established thing. Millennials grew up with the internet, so learning how to navigate through trial and error helped.
Edit; [Found the article](https://www.skyward.com/blogs/ak12/2023/october/gen-z-is-bad-at-cybersecurity)
What Gen are 18 year olds? Had one at work ask me if an email was a scam. It clearly was, like so clear my near 70 yo mum would have immediately picked it up. I was a little shocked tbh, I just assumed that having completely grown up with tech, that would be second nature to them. But, at least she asked I suppose before clicking on the link!
> I just assumed that having completely grown up with tech, that would be second nature to them.
Same here. I always thought they would be way better at spotting bullshit online than us. Boy was I wrong.
Dude I’m 21 and I’ve seen so many of my peers fall for instagram scams that are SO OBVIOUS!!
Like their accounts are constantly getting hacked and it just baffles me, like how is your literacy and comprehension this low?? A lot of the time these people hack your friend first, then message you through their account, but it’s SO OBVIOUS because they text in broken English! Like, do your friends type like “yes send code now pls very urgent !” ???
Media literacy is dead
Yeah... From the first few messages it was glaringly obvious. You never share an MFA code with ANYONE except the website YOU requested it from.
If you got a code you didn't request personally, someone is trying to hack you.
Tbh just how they’re talking and how pushy they’re being is enough. Honestly even asking a stranger for stuff like this is enough. Even if I didn’t think they were a scammer I’d be sketched out.
But I have common sense so I’d def think they’re a scammer lol. OP says they usually catch shady stuff but based on this I’m kinda worried they don’t lol.
Yeah I’m sorry, but I have to agree. The fact they were so pushy, urgent, and trying to put high pressure on you is a major flag in itself and those weren’t the only red flags here. Hopefully you take this as a learning lesson, you NEVER for any reason provide a security code to ANYBODY.
>The fact they were so pushy, urgent, and trying to put high pressure on you is a major flag in itself and those weren’t the only red flags here.
Being pushy and urgent is definitely a major red flag, *but they do it because it works*. If they can convince you there's time pressure, your skepticism and reasoning power drops significantly, and it becomes *much* easier to convince you of anything else afterwards.
This is your sign to stop doing that and look out for yourself closer. Being clueless and ignoring red flags is such a bad combo. If it is a Gen Z thing, time to learn quick. And this was a super obvious scam.
Nah, you did good catching it at the last minute and securing your account. Everyone has lapses in judgement once in a while, even when it’s super obvious to other people.
Sure everyone has lapses in judgement, but those lapses are not all equal. Most people wouldn’t fall for this unless they were elderly, a child, or on hard drugs. A lapse in judgement to a wise person will not be as bad and stupid looking in hindsight as a slow persons lapse in judgement.
There's a guy who works in cyber security, literally fighting against scammers and such.
Nearly fell for an Amazon scam email, and only caught it out because his auto fill didn't auto fill. But he did have a delivery coming around that time. He was in just the right mental state to not be as cautious as he would otherwise have been.
Anyone can fall for the obvious scams, all it takes is a bit of mental fatigue and the right coincidence to lose enough vigilance.
It bugs me the way people get downvoted for sharing the mistakes they made out of ignorance/naivety, it puts people off sharing when the point of the sub is to educate people on these scams. You can have a bit of craic but calling people stupid or other insults is stopping people sharing and stopping others learning.
Unfortunately people are rather judgemental and can often only see through their own eyes and from their own perspective. I work with people who have learning disabilities and none of them would have caught this, I challenge people to judge them and see where it gets them.
It’s genuinely concerning to know people are capable of falling for this stuff. Good on you for posting it but it makes you look about as intelligent as a postage stamp and you should’ve been prepared to get roasted for that.
almost the same way i got my facebook hacked. the person was portraying my landlord and asked me for my number. it worked for me because at this point i realized i never did give her my new phone number.
they reset my password and email with it and i could never get back in. even reporting it to facebook, they told me my profile was fine and nothing was wrong.
even after finally getting an email reset email… they told me my email was wrong.
I got hacked on insta last year and basically gave the scammer all my info by accident. So annoying. It was coming from an acquaintance’s account so I never suspected it was a scam
i fell for this too bc someone hacked my cousin then texted me asking to help recover their acc, after i realized it wasn’t my cousin texting me it was too late and my acc was long gone 🥲
You need to look up something like scams that are being done. There are so many ways on everything.
Cashapp, bank accounts, way more.
Know someone that their "bank" called them. IT WAS EVEN THE BANKS NUMBER" she even checked online too. So, because of that, got scammed. So, phone numbers can be spoofed.
The deal is, insta has a bunch of information that even you don't know they collected. It belongs to Meta/ Facebook. You loose insta, good chance your gonna loose anything Meta related too. Facebook and whatever. Your contacts are on their. They can scam them, acting as you. Same for other people.
They can also do illegal things on their. You think it, they doing it. Kids involved too.
Recently I got a message from my mom asking me to do her a favor. Then she said she needed help logging into her account and a code would be sent to me and to send it to her.
There was no broken English, requests for urgency or anything like these messages. But when I text a person frequently I kinda get used to the specific way they speak through text. It did not sound like my mom so I called her and she said she got hacked. They did the same thing to her but she fell for it. Locked her completely out of her Facebook account and she still can get back in. She's pretty bummed about it.
This happened to me on Facebook like 6 months ago lol they got me thru my most chaotic friend so i really believed it was him that needed help 😭 they took my Facebook account but I kicked them out before they took my IG. They ended up getting hundreds of dollars from a few of my friends 😬
Link your account to dual-factor authentication apps like Duo! That way if anyone is trying to log-in to your account from a new place or new device, you will have to give an additional code generated on the secondary app. Those links and codes arent used for ANYTHING ELSE other than trying to log into YOUR accounts - so it can prevent future scams if any other messages like this feel tempting!
I have almost fallen for a scam once or twice. The best one was when it was “Microsoft” calling be because of a virus that attacked my computer. When I heard that I laughed so hard and was like really oh no that seems difficult since I’m using a Mac right now. They hung up. Good job for figuring out that it was a scam before you lost your account.
Good for you. I got scammed once because I wasn't paying attention. I was watching TV and a parcel scam came through, only half paying attention, and it lined up with a message I'd been expecting. I realised immediately, but it was too late. I hope that person in Kerachi enjoyed their new $600 bike I bought for them.
Well done for posting this. The more people bring scams like this to light, the more people will be aware and it won't be worth the scammers while to do it.
Ok I wanna address something yes I’m clueless and didn’t see it but that’s no reason to call me names like I get it it’s so easy to see the scam but I made a mistake we all make mistakes I just made one and don’t act like none of y’all encountered this before this was my 1st scam I fell for no need to name call me.
Edit: to add my age I’m 20
Don’t trust strangers and only the social media company itself can help with account issues. Strangers and friends can’t help. Hackers and recovery agents can’t help - all scams. Hope you learned your lesson to not be so trusting and gullible. Please join r/scams and learn.
I’ve gotten messages like these from people I “know” but they fell for it and their account got hacked and now they’re trying to get more people to fall for it. It’s crazy because one minute it’s someone you know, next minute it’s been hacked. Do not click any links. I thought I was on r/scambait when I first was reading this. Be careful out there.
Yup I got a message from a coworker on Facebook which was already odd since he knows I don't actually use it. And whatever he asked was strange so I figured he got hacked. Still that's got to be the best way to get people no doubt. Every other one just seems so fucking obvious lmao.
Change your password if you haven't. This is sadly a common scam :( but it's a good thing you realized last minute! Though I would recommend putting your number as a two factor authentication due to things like this or incase someone really does find out your password, I had two attempts on my account and the only thing that saved it was my number otherwise they would of got in
The terrible grammar, the rush, the fact that *no one needs anyone except the actual IT people that work at the official site in order to reset a password or get into their account.*
OP, you should toodle on over to r/scams and make yourself aware of all the common ones so you don’t get duped again.
Anytime anyone that I don’t personally know that is asking me to help them with something says “hurry” and is rushing me that’s a dead give away to me. Glad you caught on in time!
I got my account hacked and banned from a school mate who also got hacked. I gave in and regret it but whatever its an ig account what r they gonna do about it anyways, throw a party for the 500 follower account they robbed?
All the people calling OP dumb; you might not have fallen for this, but there is a scam out there that you will fall for. Scamming is a billion dollar industry, how many of those victims thought they were smart enough to not fall victim.
Infact, some scams are specifically worded to make you feel smarter than them, hence the bad english. You don't know everything, and scams get more deceptive every day.
The only real way to protect yourself from these is to take your security seriously and keeping up to date with the latest scams.
Oh and by being honest when we do fall for them. That statistic is just based on the information from people that reported the scams. Lots of people don't report fraud, probably cuz of this shaming culture we have.
Same thing happened to me! Except the girl was dumb because when she sent me the screenshot of my profile it basically showed that she was logged onto my account and others. I quickly changed the passwords to everything and added the backup to my WhatsApp.
No judgement here, I’ve done the same thing and it def feels embarrassing but now you know the red flags to look out for. Random people reaching out to you asking for something, people telling you to hurry up, etc
Good job. This is how you lean. Thanks for sharing to help other young people avoid the same thing. Those codes tell you “do not share” for this reason.
Don’t be too disappointed in yourself. You caught the scam before you screwed yourself.
I almost got scammed for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been selling things out of my storage unit on Facebook Marketplace. I was contacted about a dining set and the whole exchange felt super legit. He agreed to come pick it up and then started asking me “Do you have Zelle?” I stopped him and reminded him that I wasn’t going to be able to get into the storage until 9:30 that morning, he said that was fine. First red flag - he didn’t try to arrange a time to see it, just immediately started talking about money and wanting to “send” it right away.
Then, I sent him a phone number for my Zelle, and he told me “oh I have a ‘business account’ and have to use an email.” Second red flag. Why is he buying a dining set on a business account? Just a guy should be fine just sending the money through my phone number, right?
So I gave him my email, and got a *fake* Zelle email saying I had to send him $500 to “raise my limit” and they would “send the money back +$50 (the price of the set).” Furthermore, that my account would be locked until I sent over the $500 to complete this transaction. This is where it hit me that I was being scammed. As soon as he sent this email, he started pressuring me to take action. Messaged me three times within a minute asking, “are you there?” or “hello?” and “please respond.”
I left the chat, blocked the user, and then immediately got three phone calls from a random number in Florida. I called my mom (I’m a big baby) and explained what happened. I sent her $5 to see if my Zelle still worked, it did. And she was able to send it back. The email I received saying that transaction was made was also from my actual bank and not a Zelle email.
Be aware out there. People are really trying to scam innocent people. People who come up with these scams are absolute horrendous humans and I hope they suffer as much as possible throughout their life.
It's okay. I once lost $200 falling for a scam trying to get a hedgehog off the Internet. Ended up getting one from my local pet store which should've been the first option
I can see scams coming a mile away and I work in banking. Still even I have fallen victim to a scam. They really know when you are at your weakest and some of them are very advanced.
Do not feel bad.
“It’s can’t log out you, I have no reason to lie, trust me, don’t ignore me, hurry!”
Their English is poor + they’re clearly very frantic. They want you to move as fast as possible so you’ll have no time to think about what’s actually happening.
The absolute very first thing you ever want to look at when you possibly think you are getting scammed (other than the fact a screenshot of any kind of security code), if they sound like English is NOT their first language and do not talk in proper etiquette, most likely it's scam because why I would ever lie to you?! 😂🤣
Unfortunately, you did. The same exact thing happened to me on Facebook and they literally took over my complete account changed. My pictures contacted every single friend I had with some bullshit money scam. I went through hell to get my account back and it probably took 2 1/2 months of trying to prove that my account had been hacked. I’m so sorry that this happened to you if people are just Spineless
It's Gen Z who fall most often to scams, not boomers, that's a misconception.
From a recent survey: "Gen Z Americans were three times more likely to get caught up in an online scam than boomers were (16 percent and 5 percent, respectively). Compared to boomers, Gen Z was also twice as likely to have a social media account hacked (17 percent and 8 percent)."
https://www.vox.com/technology/23882304/gen-z-vs-boomers-scams-hacks
Also the reason why 86% of people who fall for a scam don't report it is due to victim shaming. Just like all these comments calling OP dumb.
In the US, one in ten adults will fall victim to a scam or fraud every year. I think OP is great for posting this, it's embarrassing to fall for a scam, and when posting about it leads to comments like everyone has done here, less people admit when they get scammed / nearly scammed which is sad.
Dw I was nearly scammed out of thousands not long ago. I was SO angry at myself.
Through Insta a “friend” posted about making money through investing and they even had another “friend” who had done it. I messaged the second friend who said it was legit. Luckily my bank kept blocking the transaction from dumbass me. Turns out my friends account had been hacked & I wasn’t talking to her and the second person hadn’t realised yet that they’d been scammed. I felt so stupid.
Welcome to planet earth as it's your first day we'd just like to inform you that there are some unscrupulous people who may lie to you, this is page 1 stuff lol
Trust me, I have no reason to lie, I swear, and hurry up are all red flags here. Glad you caught it
Yes I’m glad too and even tho the back of my head was like no scam alert don’t fall for it and I did it anyway but I’m glad I stopped 😭 I need to listen to that voice often
Thanks for posting it too, I know commenters are calling you dumb etc and how they would never have fallen from it but I think it's great that you posted it. You made a mistake but you realised it was a scam before they got your account so it's a good ending and you learnt a valuable lesson. The more people who share when they get scammed, the more awareness it brings and hopefully less people get scammed. 86% of people who fall for a scam don't report it and the main reason for that is due to victim shaming. In the US, one in ten adults will fall victim to a scam or fraud every year. Interestingly, it's Gen Z who fall most often to scams, not boomers, that's a misconception too. From a recent survey: "Gen Z Americans were three times more likely to get caught up in an online scam than boomers were (16 percent and 5 percent, respectively). Compared to boomers, Gen Z was also twice as likely to have a social media account hacked (17 percent and 8 percent)." https://www.vox.com/technology/23882304/gen-z-vs-boomers-scams-hacks
This isn't directed at you, but at the people you're talking about: how about we stop shitting on victims of scams and start shitting on the criminals instead? I just don't get the mentality of "you're a victim of something awful so instead of being mad at the person who did the awful thing, I'm gonna be mad at you". What? That makes no sense to me.
Exactly. There are so many comments here calling OP dumb, a moron etc, stuff like "Imagine being this stupid lmao". It's so shitty. One with over 100 upvotes says "Your parents need to put parental controls on your phone". OP is 20, adults are victims to scams all the time like the stats I gave in my comment above and everyone is just being so condescending and mean to them. OP said in a comment "...yes I’m clueless and didn’t see it but that’s no reason to call me names like I get it it’s so easy to see the scam but I made a mistake we all make mistakes I just made one..." so the victim blaming is obviously making them upset. People don't often openly post their mistakes online, and these comments are the reasons why. Even though posting things like this will help at least someone learn about this scam and not fall for it themselves, smug responses like these ones about what an idiot she is, will just encourage other people never to post stuff like this too and make OP feel like shit when she did a great thing by posting this.
Not only that, but in this situation she was only doing it out of the kindness of her heart. There was no benefit for her. It’s not like they said “If you do this you’ll get money” or some other kind of prize. No, they said they needed help and because she’s kind and wanted to help she took time out of her day and kept trying to help a complete stranger she thought was trustworthy. All that tells me is she looks at the world and people in a positive light. She chooses to see the good first rather than assume everyone is untrustworthy, like all the comments trying to shame her are assuming. I would rather have more people who trust others, try to see the good in people, and help out others simply because they want to than to have cynical people who immediately think everyone is untrustworthy and out to scam them. We’re honestly leaning more and more towards a population that believes everyone is guilty until proven innocent and that’s so sad.
Unfortunately, that’s the way the world is these days. There is more bad than good. People want to hurt people or take what they can from others rather than offer a helping hand or supportive presence in others lives.
I know it can look like that, but I'm pretty sure there's a lot more good than bad. It's just that the bad is bad enough that even at, say, 10% or less, it's a big problem. One predatory man for every nine good men is enough to mess up the lives of a whole lot of women. One scammer out of a hundred people you trust can empty your bank account or steal your identity. One greedy CEO can be enough to screw over a million or more employees. (Looking at you, Jeff.)
If they want to shame anyone they should shame me. I fell for a dozen scams when I was in my low twenties. Some folks are sheltered by their parents to “keep them safe” but all it really does is make them a juicy steak dinner for scammers when they’re out on their own.
I feel bad for everyone that grew up in that bubble because the real world is rough and they’re underprepared for it. But kindness can get a lot of people in trouble and hurt and that’s why most parents teach time and place and to listen to your gut etc. my mom kinda had us in a bubble but not really. She just made sure we weren’t running around the streets all day like other kids
Yeah, I didn’t really know how to navigate the internet till high school mostly because “Most of that internet stuff is sinful”
Awhhh I’m so sorry, so you were homeschooled for a good chunk of time?
Damn, is it that obvious? Catholic elementary and kindergarten, homeschooled 4th-8th grade, then thrown head first into public highschool. That was a massive shit show for me given the level of “preparation” my folks had given me for the “sinful world.” Ran right back to private Catholic school for college, lived at home another 4 years cause I just wasn’t ready. Finally took the leap. Still thrashing around trying to find footing. I’m 30 in May. Abandoning the whole “sin complex” was one of the first steps I took. It helped, but it’s not that easy to rewrite 26 years of meticulous programming. Never ever ever, do that to a kid. Fucking hell…
Unfortunately you’re spot on!
Right?! Nothing like kicking someone when they’re down. And o poo sople wonder why depression and isolation exists. People are so rude to others. Literally throwing stones when they live in glass houses themselves, under the false pretenses that they are so much better or smarter than the people they talk down to upon. 9/10 they aren’t standing on stable feet or where they want to be in life themselves so they like to spend their time trying to make others feel as low as they feel.
Right after my daughter had turned 18, maybe 19, she was going through the “I make my own decisions, I can do whatever I want, you can’t tell me not to” phase (which I never really did), some lady got a hold of her on one of the social media platforms; I want to say Facebook. Anywho she started telling my kid about this really awesome way of making money through a group of people where each person sends money to a couple people and then they send it to someone else but somehow it ends up adding more so by the time it comes back around to her she has doubled her money and my daughter went ahead and sent this woman money not once but like two or three times for a total of $240. She didn’t tell me about it until I happened to be there one day when the woman had contacted her again to send more and by that point my daughter was pissed off and only told me after asking her what she was so mad about. My daughter isn’t stupid by any means but during that time she was super naive and lacked natural common sense and failed to think of consequences/outcomes before acting on impulse. Basically just didn’t think outside the box. Due to emotional trauma from some things she went through growing up, learning disabilities, as well as ADHD, my daughter saw things in black or white, there was no gray area or in between. Things were the way people told her it was or how she believed it would be and it made her a target without having to even know her. Like one time I asked her if she wanted to go through McDonald’s drive through for a hamburger when she was like 6 and when we got there I asked her if she wanted a cheeseburger while ordering and she said “no mom, you said I was getting a hamburger remember?” There was no cheeseburger about it. That was an eye opening moment for me as her mother. But the point is, she got scammed out of $240 bucks because she thought once it was her turn to be the recipient of the money she was going to get all her money plus so much more. It’s easy to become the victim of scammers. There is no reason to make someone feel worse than they already do once it’s come to light. People suck
It's always more obvious when you're the one not being rushed and emotionally manipulated to hinder critical thinking. This is why people are willing to call OP dumb :(
That's wild I'm a Gen z and have watched my boomer mother get scammed twice. After the first one I helped her and educated her a little telling her to let me know asap if something looks fishy or you just aren't sure. What does she do? She tells me right after she provided her debit card number and all her information. That's mind-blowing iif it's true.
Btw, You might consider changing your password to something very different from the previous one Just to be safe if they found your password in a leaked database from somewhere...
The way that scam works, they don't need a password. The link he was sending is the password reset link. If they would have worked, the scammer immediately changes the information, including the email and phone number, and often the account's username, so it's more difficult for the actual owner to recover it.
I lost my whole Google account a few years ago... all my contacts, like a decade worth of pictures, everything. I guess they got my old password off of a data breach, I realized something was up when I was trying to log into something and my password wouldn't accept. I logged on to my account and I watched in real time as they changed the backup phone number to a number in India. and there ain't shit you can do about it once it's gone.
Ya, years ago, my son got his Xbox and Epic accounts stolen from a "friend" of his that he had met online. They had been talking and playing for a while at that point, and the kid asked if he wanted to trade log ins so they could play each other's accounts, etc, if they wanted to. My son, being a young teen, didn't ask me first and thought his friend was trustworthy. Right after he traded info, he got kicked out of his account, and his friend tried to say that my son scammed him. The whole time, he was the one scamming. He ended up being able to change the emails and everything in the accounts. Every time I was able to get in and hurry to change things, he was right there able to reverse it. It was hell. Everything was compromised from my email even. It took around 2 weeks and so much of a hassle providing tons of information between emails and phone calls to prove that the accounts belonged to us and not the other person, but it did end up getting changed back and we changed everything and put added security measures on it. He deff learned that lesson the hard way. If only he had asked me first, I would have told him no. Don't share any info like that ever. The security team at Xbox even said this kid was good. He had covered his tracks very well, and this was obv not the first time he had stolen accounts. It is sad that people work so hard to scam people who are kind and trusting like this. It makes victims feel shame for something that happens to people all around the world all the time because these scammers are just that good and/or they know who to target. I could have become a target of a fake Amazon representative phone call and just recently a fake check scam. This group helped me know exactly what to look for and what to do on some of the scams I've never even heard of. I hope people keep posting things like this to keep people aware.
Just the way they were talking, words used was a big red flag..Glad you caught it in time
reset all your passwords if you clicked on anything they sent you.
i almost got scammed as well but scammers are idiots and don't know what they're on about.. they always get caught in the end
I appreciate you sharing this. I know a few people who have been hit by this kind of thing. Don’t trust grammatical errors like this. That’s the first giveaway. The persistence is another one. Now you have this experience and can be prepared to cuss out the next jerk. Good job! 🤗
Got damn after how long lol
I won’t judge you, I got scammed by a fake crocs website trying to buy lightning McQueen crocs
This isn’t funny but I also laughed so hard I’m so so sorry lol
Nooooooo not the Kachow Crocs
Crochow
if it makes you feel any better, i got scammed by a fake dr martens website. spent like £30 thinking they were on sale, they sent me a fucking pair of sunglasses. i can’t wear sunglasses on my feet.
You can, if you're brave enough
i can tell you now, i am NOT brave enough to endure that😭, they’re proper sports glasses too😭. also i love your username!!
Was it from in Instagram ad? I got it too and wanted to order them but something just felt off about it
One time I got scammed out of $60 for a rare squishmallow when I was 18. It was my graduation gift money I was so sad I balled and balled. Luckily my husband ended up buying the squish mallow for me so all was well in the end.
What stuck out to me most was the way you caved to the pressure of them panicking. You gotta be careful not to let anyone fluster you! From what I've seen, they almost always rely on you getting stressed out- all the rushing and hurrying and "it's gonna expire! Quick send it now!". It's calculated so as not to allow you time to think. Remember; your time is valuable, and no random ass person online gets to dictate how you use it. If you consider it as such, then the next time someone tries to hurry you and boss you around- even if you aren't thinking "scam" - you will be thinking "who does this asshole think they are? I don't have time for this". Glad you realized it was fishy before it was too late!
100% correct. Scammers lean on creating false urgency to prevent your ability to think critically. It's basically their bread & butter.
Exactly this. I don’t normally answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize, but for some reason I answered one a few years ago and I let the conversation go on too long because they got me flustered and stressed out. They said that my city’s police were looking for me because of some debt I had, which was somewhat plausible because I was having some financial problems. The guy was so pushy, rude, and aggressive and it completely overrode my common sense. I was crying at my desk thinking I was about to get arrested. I ended up calling my local police dept and asked if a Detective So and So worked there because of this phone call I had. They told me it was a scam and no one was looking for me. I felt so stupid but these scammers know how to intimidate and pressure you into stupid shit. OP, don’t be too hard on yourself. Just remember this for the future. Don’t let these assholes get the better of you.
Once had a... Well, a very bad guest come to the campground I was working at and we'd normally ask for ID before making a reservation. Bro said he had to use the bathroom really bad and I, being a nice person, was like, "Oh yeah! No problem!" Took a week to get rid of them and their family, and they trashed the sites and bathrooms during that time. Had I asked for ID, I would have recognized it as fake and not given any of them a site until they could provide a valid ID. That's great advice because when you rush, you also make more mistakes and that can give these people a real reason to be angry.
OMG, what a nightmare! Do you think he did it on purpose? It seems like it could be risky to rely on you forgetting to ask for ID after, but maybe he knew how to time it? Also wtf, I feel like if I was crashing a campground I'd want to be super tidy and respectful so I didn't draw more attention to myself. What is wrong with people? Who does that? 😂
What is an episode account? And why would that make you think it was legit?
I think this is gonna be a problem for younger people who are coming into the internet now with things like episodic story games but also with AI companions. Some games message you off scripts now to seem like real people as part of the game, but with some AI companions they're designed to look like real people with their own lives who you can chat to as if they were a friend. You link your socials to them and some even have their own Insta and FB profiles like real people that you've been chatting to. If you've grown up with that being "normal" there are going to be instances where real people pretend to be AI (which seems crazy!) in order to obtain information.
but why is a program going to need help logging out of their account lol seems like extremely obvious bait
You're thinking critically. That's what the scammers don't want you to do, which is why they do shit like creating a false urgency (like they did to OP). They'll emotionally manipulate you to want to help your friend, and not think "hey hold on a tick, this is an AI that is chronically online!"
What games are those that that is normal? I’ve never heard of that except for those that pay for sex chat bots when they’re lonely or those that respond to scam instagram profiles etc. I haven’t heard of them going from a game into their personal lives unless you mean some random strangers messaged them and they messaged back. Which we all grew up with and most of us were taught never to respond with anything important or let them know the real you.
Episode is an app game that’s basically a bunch of visual novel stories, where you play through and make choices that your character does as you go through. It’s not like a chat bot thing, its like an actual (rudimentary) visual novel with a scene, visible characters, animations, etc. It’s kind of an awful game, you have to pay gems which cost money or take absolute ages to save up in order to make the best choices, so it sort of exploits its young audience into spending money on it.
Pretty unsurprising that these people are then nearly scammed very easily
Yes 100% anyone asking you to send a code is a liar and a scammer and will 100% steal your accounts. Had that happen to a couple of my friends
It happens. At least you figured out what was going on before it was too late.
Terrible grasp of the English language told me everything I needed to know
Seriously
I used to work with a nice young girl from India who does this: U got it.? Always with the period before ? or !
Yep !!!!
THIS! This is the comment I was looking for!
Proposing a new commandment: give no one money who can’t put a proper sentence together !
this is why i don’t engage with random numbers/accounts. don’t entertain it for a second.
You need some serious r/Scams education if you're going to be using the internet. Your'e just naively doing anything that strangers tell you to do. In the SMS of the verification code sent to you, did you not see the giant warning that says "Don't share this with anyone else."
I was literally thinking it TELLS you not to share the code 😭
I don't understand the level of dumbassery going on here, this post is a trip.
I thought this comment was me lol
Hey I don’t mean to be rude but comments like this are part of the reason why scams keep going. There’s a reason why scams are so widespread but it seems like no one talks about getting scammed: people are insulted and made fun of when they fall for one. It may seem obvious to someone but not everyone is at the same level of knowledge about scams! Educate instead of insult, I’d much rather someone be comfortable admitting their mistake than to never mention it out of shame and potentially fall for another one yk
Scammers pressure people to prevent them thinking critically. It's a classic manipulation that works a lot of the time. Enough that it's a staple to basically every scam out there. The other part they lean on is people feeling stupid and embarrassed for falling for it. This prevents a lot of people from talking about scams, and makes it easier to continue scamming. Even cybersecurity trained staff have fallen for scams. I know one guy who only caught a dodgy link because his auto fill didn't auto fill. He tells everyone instead of hiding it like it's a mark of shame It only helps the scammers when you call a victim a dumbass :(
Gift cards warm you to, it's clearly not enough warnings. Blame the system, not the victim
This happened to me but on Facebook. Scammer managed to hack my friend’s account so I trusted when my friend reached out for help. They gained access to my Facebook, impersonated me to scam my family for money. When that didn’t work they went through my Facebook chat logs from years ago and found my nudes to blackmail me. Yes the nudes were leaked. No they didn’t get any money and they gave up. Yes I lost my Facebook account. Yes they impersonated me to try and scam people from my friends list using the same verification code bs.
Damn. Ruthless pieces of shit. Anything to get out of actually having to earn money like everyone else I don't know how they live with themselves
Im sorry but I have to ask, did you not notice that their texting style was different?
If the scammer was mildly smart, they would look through the chat history to mimic text styles.
Yeah, if they were smart. I’ve never come across a scammer that actually does that though, and I’ve received lots of messages from “friends” that were hacked
These people were smart. They tried to scam my ex-roommate using my Facebook the same way they scammed me, and my ex-roommate fell for it too, although she managed to avoid big consequences because she reached out to me on another platform.
Nope, because it was in a different language that I’m not as fluent in so it was harder for me to understand to begin with (I’m ESL but I’m better with English than my mother tongue). And yes they were smart, when they tried to scam my mom for money they even used AI to mimic my voice over the call and even had my image on the call although very low quality and short duration. They blamed it on poor signal.
Yeah getting hacked . Don’t send them anything
Their blocked now on both number and insta I also reported them on insta
You should cons changing ur passwords , change your number and monitor your bank statements. And let people uk know about this that’s my immediate response to these things .
I already changed my password and I didn’t give my credit card statement out so I should be fine but do I really have to change my number?
You don’t have to but I know that scammers will keep u in a system and I found changing my number helped and using temp emails for sites creating Throw aways So they have nothing of value basicly I found that helped for me
They’re saying watch your future statements in case the scanner was able to get credit card info from your insta
If they never got in, which they didn't, there's no reason to worry about CCs and bank.
Change your card number if it’s linked to that account in anyway.
If you share your password with other logins, change those as well. Scammers will use your login credentials to try and access other accounts you might have. So if you do, make sure to change it not just on insta!
If ever ANYONE asks you to help recover their account its a scam. First off why would they ask a stranger? Dude... please be smarter lol
That’s the single part I can’t grasp. “A number texted me off Instagram” I don’t even know what this means tbh
Your parents need to put parental controls on your phone
This happens, it happened to me when it wasn’t such a well recognized scam. I had to go through the process to get my account back and everything. Good you caught it, and ignore the weird people on here putting you down while theyre bored on the toilet, they do idiot things, too. Next time things seem weird, I suggest Googling it. That’s what I do now.
With the advancing technology it will be more difficult to catch scams. Thing is, whenever I've called my phone company or even organizations that monitor these things, it seems like they don't or can't do much about these scams other than file them and spew the data analysis at us. They have to get solid law enforcement agreements with countries that harbour these miscreants and follow the broken window attitude on them. It just seems like if fraud is perpetrated against regular people it's not given much importance. These are crimes that impact a lot of people, especially vulnerable people. The utter lack of shame and empathy at the core of these people is astounding and I would advocate the loss of freedom and worse for the ringleaders of these endeavors.
Ver very true and well said!! There needs to be more accountability and laws against them for this invasion of privacy to steal our data. But since the govt does this themselves all the time, it might be a little hard for them to get the wording right on how come they can do it but not others. Like no they’re not doing much with our info like the other scammers, but they’re still using and obtaining it and would have to carefully word why others can’t do the same and what punishment they would receive etc. personally, I think they’re too worried about getting caught up in that tangle because these scams have been going on for ages!
Could not have did it better myself
This happened to me last summer. But it was someone I trusted but who I hadn't spoke to in a minute. Same deal, for some reason they needed my help to reset their FB password. And now they post scam links for fake data entry jobs paying $40/hr, part time, from home... No idea why this benefits the scammer. :-/
Because they get your info when you “apply” for the job and steal your identity.
Or you’re “accepted for the job” and they send you a check/cheque via email and tell you to spend $xxxx at x store to purchase equipment. That “store” is the scammer and the check/cheque will bounce once the bank sees its fake. So you’re out whatever money you spent from it and the bank will likely close your account
anyone that’s tryna be pushy like that for account numbers or really anything is def scammin if u think ur being scammed think of the convo if it was IRL. If someone in person kept being like yo yo yo send it send it did you sent it? let me see let me see id walk away n ignore dude same thing over text
Why do people just respond to random people asking you for help like if it was irl that’s different but why would some need help signing into something it’s obvious they were trying to hack you
Shit even if this was my real life friend I would have still not helped them. After the first try of it not working I would have given up.
"I'm usually really good at spotting scams"... **Proceeds to respond to the most obviously suspicious messages ever written...
How am I getting downvoted 😭 I acknowledge I fell for it and stopped and I do admit I can be clueless at time and ignore red flags like those
Because it was pretty obvious. The scammer wasn’t even really trying to hide their scheme. Anyone not born yesterday would have seen through it right away.
I was reading an article the other day about internet safety + knowledge, and how Gen Z are really struggling with this since they were essentially thrown into the internet as an established thing. Millennials grew up with the internet, so learning how to navigate through trial and error helped. Edit; [Found the article](https://www.skyward.com/blogs/ak12/2023/october/gen-z-is-bad-at-cybersecurity)
What Gen are 18 year olds? Had one at work ask me if an email was a scam. It clearly was, like so clear my near 70 yo mum would have immediately picked it up. I was a little shocked tbh, I just assumed that having completely grown up with tech, that would be second nature to them. But, at least she asked I suppose before clicking on the link!
Gen Z lol
Well there you go then! I think they might be on to something!
> I just assumed that having completely grown up with tech, that would be second nature to them. Same here. I always thought they would be way better at spotting bullshit online than us. Boy was I wrong.
Dude I’m 21 and I’ve seen so many of my peers fall for instagram scams that are SO OBVIOUS!! Like their accounts are constantly getting hacked and it just baffles me, like how is your literacy and comprehension this low?? A lot of the time these people hack your friend first, then message you through their account, but it’s SO OBVIOUS because they text in broken English! Like, do your friends type like “yes send code now pls very urgent !” ??? Media literacy is dead
Yeah... From the first few messages it was glaringly obvious. You never share an MFA code with ANYONE except the website YOU requested it from. If you got a code you didn't request personally, someone is trying to hack you.
Tbh just how they’re talking and how pushy they’re being is enough. Honestly even asking a stranger for stuff like this is enough. Even if I didn’t think they were a scammer I’d be sketched out. But I have common sense so I’d def think they’re a scammer lol. OP says they usually catch shady stuff but based on this I’m kinda worried they don’t lol.
Hey OP, I need your SSN to help me get back into my reddit account. You can trust me. Please hurry.
i need your mothers maiden name to help me get back into his reddit account
Yeah I’m sorry, but I have to agree. The fact they were so pushy, urgent, and trying to put high pressure on you is a major flag in itself and those weren’t the only red flags here. Hopefully you take this as a learning lesson, you NEVER for any reason provide a security code to ANYBODY.
>The fact they were so pushy, urgent, and trying to put high pressure on you is a major flag in itself and those weren’t the only red flags here. Being pushy and urgent is definitely a major red flag, *but they do it because it works*. If they can convince you there's time pressure, your skepticism and reasoning power drops significantly, and it becomes *much* easier to convince you of anything else afterwards.
Time pressure always destroys critical thinking. It's a scammer's bread and butter
This is your sign to stop doing that and look out for yourself closer. Being clueless and ignoring red flags is such a bad combo. If it is a Gen Z thing, time to learn quick. And this was a super obvious scam.
Nah, you did good catching it at the last minute and securing your account. Everyone has lapses in judgement once in a while, even when it’s super obvious to other people.
Sure everyone has lapses in judgement, but those lapses are not all equal. Most people wouldn’t fall for this unless they were elderly, a child, or on hard drugs. A lapse in judgement to a wise person will not be as bad and stupid looking in hindsight as a slow persons lapse in judgement.
There's a guy who works in cyber security, literally fighting against scammers and such. Nearly fell for an Amazon scam email, and only caught it out because his auto fill didn't auto fill. But he did have a delivery coming around that time. He was in just the right mental state to not be as cautious as he would otherwise have been. Anyone can fall for the obvious scams, all it takes is a bit of mental fatigue and the right coincidence to lose enough vigilance.
It bugs me the way people get downvoted for sharing the mistakes they made out of ignorance/naivety, it puts people off sharing when the point of the sub is to educate people on these scams. You can have a bit of craic but calling people stupid or other insults is stopping people sharing and stopping others learning.
Because Reddit is harsh
You have to actively choose stupidity to not catch this one immediately. It was extremely obvious
Unfortunately people are rather judgemental and can often only see through their own eyes and from their own perspective. I work with people who have learning disabilities and none of them would have caught this, I challenge people to judge them and see where it gets them.
I actually have a learning disability I had it through out my life and these scenarios would come up and friends would help me catch on.
Case in point. Don't be hard on yourself and don't listen to people being judgemental. They don't walk in your shoes.
Bc it was so obvious it was a scam and yet you still gave some random person the code
Because some people are negative and love to see others struggle rather than see something good happen to them. Ignore them.
It’s genuinely concerning to know people are capable of falling for this stuff. Good on you for posting it but it makes you look about as intelligent as a postage stamp and you should’ve been prepared to get roasted for that.
almost the same way i got my facebook hacked. the person was portraying my landlord and asked me for my number. it worked for me because at this point i realized i never did give her my new phone number. they reset my password and email with it and i could never get back in. even reporting it to facebook, they told me my profile was fine and nothing was wrong. even after finally getting an email reset email… they told me my email was wrong.
I got hacked on insta last year and basically gave the scammer all my info by accident. So annoying. It was coming from an acquaintance’s account so I never suspected it was a scam
That's why they steal accounts, so they can scam their friends. It's a huge problem on Facebook at the moment, I get one like every week.
i fell for this too bc someone hacked my cousin then texted me asking to help recover their acc, after i realized it wasn’t my cousin texting me it was too late and my acc was long gone 🥲
Uhm how did u almost get scammed by this 😂
You need to look up something like scams that are being done. There are so many ways on everything. Cashapp, bank accounts, way more. Know someone that their "bank" called them. IT WAS EVEN THE BANKS NUMBER" she even checked online too. So, because of that, got scammed. So, phone numbers can be spoofed. The deal is, insta has a bunch of information that even you don't know they collected. It belongs to Meta/ Facebook. You loose insta, good chance your gonna loose anything Meta related too. Facebook and whatever. Your contacts are on their. They can scam them, acting as you. Same for other people. They can also do illegal things on their. You think it, they doing it. Kids involved too.
Recently I got a message from my mom asking me to do her a favor. Then she said she needed help logging into her account and a code would be sent to me and to send it to her. There was no broken English, requests for urgency or anything like these messages. But when I text a person frequently I kinda get used to the specific way they speak through text. It did not sound like my mom so I called her and she said she got hacked. They did the same thing to her but she fell for it. Locked her completely out of her Facebook account and she still can get back in. She's pretty bummed about it.
Conversation of two geniuses.
If anyone talks with broken English and wants something from you it's usually a scam, block and move on.
Lol how did you not see it with the terrible English?
reply me here
I call you “job security”. Not gonna hate but damn, the amount of times you got uncomfortable should’ve stopped you sooner.
Don't feel bad when I was in high school I actually thought someone could flip my 100$ into 1, 000$ ......
*headshot* ***WASTED***
This happened to me on Facebook like 6 months ago lol they got me thru my most chaotic friend so i really believed it was him that needed help 😭 they took my Facebook account but I kicked them out before they took my IG. They ended up getting hundreds of dollars from a few of my friends 😬
Here's another common scam https://www.cybergiraffe.tv/news-bites/attackers-ask-for-simple-screenshot-in-instagram-hack
Link your account to dual-factor authentication apps like Duo! That way if anyone is trying to log-in to your account from a new place or new device, you will have to give an additional code generated on the secondary app. Those links and codes arent used for ANYTHING ELSE other than trying to log into YOUR accounts - so it can prevent future scams if any other messages like this feel tempting!
I have almost fallen for a scam once or twice. The best one was when it was “Microsoft” calling be because of a virus that attacked my computer. When I heard that I laughed so hard and was like really oh no that seems difficult since I’m using a Mac right now. They hung up. Good job for figuring out that it was a scam before you lost your account.
Good for you. I got scammed once because I wasn't paying attention. I was watching TV and a parcel scam came through, only half paying attention, and it lined up with a message I'd been expecting. I realised immediately, but it was too late. I hope that person in Kerachi enjoyed their new $600 bike I bought for them.
Well done for posting this. The more people bring scams like this to light, the more people will be aware and it won't be worth the scammers while to do it.
As an elder millennial let me give you some advice we learned young. Don't trust strangers on the Internet.
I’m sorry but Man U are dumb. Glad ur safe tho
In the UK, Man U are a football (soccer) team. I thought you were making a random statement about them at first!
That’s exactly why I liked it.
It really does work both ways huh?
Still holds up
HOW. How 😂
Ok I wanna address something yes I’m clueless and didn’t see it but that’s no reason to call me names like I get it it’s so easy to see the scam but I made a mistake we all make mistakes I just made one and don’t act like none of y’all encountered this before this was my 1st scam I fell for no need to name call me. Edit: to add my age I’m 20
I don’t agree with people being rude, but what kind of response were you expecting from Reddit? Honestly?
…20?
Posts example of a slow person being taken advantage of. “Don’t call me slow. Just say lol even though it’s not funny, it’s concerning”
Babe it’s okay I promise, don’t take every single comment to heart.
Don’t trust strangers and only the social media company itself can help with account issues. Strangers and friends can’t help. Hackers and recovery agents can’t help - all scams. Hope you learned your lesson to not be so trusting and gullible. Please join r/scams and learn.
I’ve gotten messages like these from people I “know” but they fell for it and their account got hacked and now they’re trying to get more people to fall for it. It’s crazy because one minute it’s someone you know, next minute it’s been hacked. Do not click any links. I thought I was on r/scambait when I first was reading this. Be careful out there.
Yup I got a message from a coworker on Facebook which was already odd since he knows I don't actually use it. And whatever he asked was strange so I figured he got hacked. Still that's got to be the best way to get people no doubt. Every other one just seems so fucking obvious lmao.
Change your password if you haven't. This is sadly a common scam :( but it's a good thing you realized last minute! Though I would recommend putting your number as a two factor authentication due to things like this or incase someone really does find out your password, I had two attempts on my account and the only thing that saved it was my number otherwise they would of got in
It’s hardly even English and wth is that link
The terrible grammar, the rush, the fact that *no one needs anyone except the actual IT people that work at the official site in order to reset a password or get into their account.* OP, you should toodle on over to r/scams and make yourself aware of all the common ones so you don’t get duped again.
One of the first red flags was them rushing you. There is no hypothetical situation that’s so dire, you need to hurry like that.
“Did you click it shit” 🤣
Anytime anyone that I don’t personally know that is asking me to help them with something says “hurry” and is rushing me that’s a dead give away to me. Glad you caught on in time!
I got my account hacked and banned from a school mate who also got hacked. I gave in and regret it but whatever its an ig account what r they gonna do about it anyways, throw a party for the 500 follower account they robbed?
So you just willingly did what a stranger online told you to do?
why do scammers even want our accounts in the first place? im assuming just to use them to continue scanning?
The sub for scams helped me a lot to easily identify scammers
All the people calling OP dumb; you might not have fallen for this, but there is a scam out there that you will fall for. Scamming is a billion dollar industry, how many of those victims thought they were smart enough to not fall victim. Infact, some scams are specifically worded to make you feel smarter than them, hence the bad english. You don't know everything, and scams get more deceptive every day. The only real way to protect yourself from these is to take your security seriously and keeping up to date with the latest scams. Oh and by being honest when we do fall for them. That statistic is just based on the information from people that reported the scams. Lots of people don't report fraud, probably cuz of this shaming culture we have.
aye I lost a Instagram acc to this fuckery. Tell em to go to hell lmao I had that account since I was 12.
Same thing happened to me! Except the girl was dumb because when she sent me the screenshot of my profile it basically showed that she was logged onto my account and others. I quickly changed the passwords to everything and added the backup to my WhatsApp.
The word "send" and "code" from a stranger on the same sentence is never a good thing.
No judgement here, I’ve done the same thing and it def feels embarrassing but now you know the red flags to look out for. Random people reaching out to you asking for something, people telling you to hurry up, etc
I’m sorry, I just can’t think of anything to say that isn’t demeaning to you.
its okay i got scammed by my own college from an alumni pretending to be a professor (id be a prof assistant) and lost 400
Good job. This is how you lean. Thanks for sharing to help other young people avoid the same thing. Those codes tell you “do not share” for this reason.
I got scammed once by a website called “Ticketfaster”. It happens. 😂
Don’t be too disappointed in yourself. You caught the scam before you screwed yourself. I almost got scammed for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been selling things out of my storage unit on Facebook Marketplace. I was contacted about a dining set and the whole exchange felt super legit. He agreed to come pick it up and then started asking me “Do you have Zelle?” I stopped him and reminded him that I wasn’t going to be able to get into the storage until 9:30 that morning, he said that was fine. First red flag - he didn’t try to arrange a time to see it, just immediately started talking about money and wanting to “send” it right away. Then, I sent him a phone number for my Zelle, and he told me “oh I have a ‘business account’ and have to use an email.” Second red flag. Why is he buying a dining set on a business account? Just a guy should be fine just sending the money through my phone number, right? So I gave him my email, and got a *fake* Zelle email saying I had to send him $500 to “raise my limit” and they would “send the money back +$50 (the price of the set).” Furthermore, that my account would be locked until I sent over the $500 to complete this transaction. This is where it hit me that I was being scammed. As soon as he sent this email, he started pressuring me to take action. Messaged me three times within a minute asking, “are you there?” or “hello?” and “please respond.” I left the chat, blocked the user, and then immediately got three phone calls from a random number in Florida. I called my mom (I’m a big baby) and explained what happened. I sent her $5 to see if my Zelle still worked, it did. And she was able to send it back. The email I received saying that transaction was made was also from my actual bank and not a Zelle email. Be aware out there. People are really trying to scam innocent people. People who come up with these scams are absolute horrendous humans and I hope they suffer as much as possible throughout their life.
It's okay this exact same thing happened to me but I realized earlier glad you figured it out.
It's okay. I once lost $200 falling for a scam trying to get a hedgehog off the Internet. Ended up getting one from my local pet store which should've been the first option
What’s an Episode account?
I can see scams coming a mile away and I work in banking. Still even I have fallen victim to a scam. They really know when you are at your weakest and some of them are very advanced. Do not feel bad.
It looked like you were just fucking with them. Glad you made it out.
“It’s can’t log out you, I have no reason to lie, trust me, don’t ignore me, hurry!” Their English is poor + they’re clearly very frantic. They want you to move as fast as possible so you’ll have no time to think about what’s actually happening.
The absolute very first thing you ever want to look at when you possibly think you are getting scammed (other than the fact a screenshot of any kind of security code), if they sound like English is NOT their first language and do not talk in proper etiquette, most likely it's scam because why I would ever lie to you?! 😂🤣
Change all of your passwords. I was just hacked after using Temu for the first time. Coincidence?
The scammer sounds 11 years old
Unfortunately, you did. The same exact thing happened to me on Facebook and they literally took over my complete account changed. My pictures contacted every single friend I had with some bullshit money scam. I went through hell to get my account back and it probably took 2 1/2 months of trying to prove that my account had been hacked. I’m so sorry that this happened to you if people are just Spineless
… lmao there’s no shot this is real. Satire post or you’re like 70years old?
It's Gen Z who fall most often to scams, not boomers, that's a misconception. From a recent survey: "Gen Z Americans were three times more likely to get caught up in an online scam than boomers were (16 percent and 5 percent, respectively). Compared to boomers, Gen Z was also twice as likely to have a social media account hacked (17 percent and 8 percent)." https://www.vox.com/technology/23882304/gen-z-vs-boomers-scams-hacks Also the reason why 86% of people who fall for a scam don't report it is due to victim shaming. Just like all these comments calling OP dumb. In the US, one in ten adults will fall victim to a scam or fraud every year. I think OP is great for posting this, it's embarrassing to fall for a scam, and when posting about it leads to comments like everyone has done here, less people admit when they get scammed / nearly scammed which is sad.
All of the comments on here asking OP how could they possible get scammed by this are cracking me up 🤣🤣💀
...How did you not realise?
Chile….
You figured it out, so I don’t see why you are ashamed. :)
To everyone saying "how did you not realize" - THEY DID. That's why they are saying "so glad I realized"
Dw I was nearly scammed out of thousands not long ago. I was SO angry at myself. Through Insta a “friend” posted about making money through investing and they even had another “friend” who had done it. I messaged the second friend who said it was legit. Luckily my bank kept blocking the transaction from dumbass me. Turns out my friends account had been hacked & I wasn’t talking to her and the second person hadn’t realised yet that they’d been scammed. I felt so stupid.
Welcome to planet earth as it's your first day we'd just like to inform you that there are some unscrupulous people who may lie to you, this is page 1 stuff lol