Step up your game, spammers!

[Taxprohere]

At least put in a little effort to infect my computer or steal confidential info!

----------------------

Good morning,

Trying to reach [NAME] — is this the right address?

Want to make sure this reaches [NAME] before I continue.

Just reply "yes" if this is [NAME] and I'll follow up.

[IRonMaN]

How many e-mails have you received that the person extended their returns and now have attached their information———- just click on it😳.   They seem to be coming in quite regularly in my junk e-mail.

[dascpa]

I don't know, I clicked on two, fiished their returns and then got a nice letter from a Nigerian Prince who promised to pay me 100,000,000 Nigerian Naira.

[IRonMaN]

I had some clients in last week.  They are in their late 70s and I thought they knew better but got taken for a short ride on the scam train.  He told me that he was on their computer and a message popped up saying their computer had been hacked so they needed to call "Microsoft" at the number conveniently provided.  The "Microsoft" employee got them to buy a couple of hundred dollar gift cards.  Scratched off the numbers on the back of the cards and provided them to the helpful Microsoft employee.  They were told that was a good start but now they should go to Lowes because they can get some cards for larger dollar amounts.  A couple of employees were talking to them and told them they thought it was a scam so that's when they thought they should stop in to see me. 

A year or so ago we had another client shopping at Walgreens when she saw an elderly lady talking on the phone to someone while she frantically looked for a Vanilla Visa card.  The client saw the lady was really freaking out and asked her if she needed help.  The lady told her that she needed the cards for the person on the phone.  Our client grabbed the phone out of her hand and told the scum on the other end of the line to go to hell and hung up.  We joke about this stuff but it's really sad and surprising to see how easily these scumbags can suck innocent people into their money game.

[ckevin]

Stumbled across this while I should be working. "Slava Ukraini!" got my attention. Tak. Slava Ukraini.

Last Summer I had a 40's-something client come in my office in a complete panic. From Eastern Europe. Male. Said the IRS was going to come and arrest him if he didn't send them "more" payments thru gift cards. From Eastern Europe, mind you.

I took the phone and asked them what the problem was. Guy speaking English in a heavy Russian accent. I called him stupid. Told him to shut up and go away. In pretty good Russian. Phone went silent for about 3 seconds. Then he told me he didn't understand me. I told him he did understand, told him to shut up, again. In Russian. Hung up.

You would think a 40-something Eastern European male would, a. recognize a heavy Russian accent, and b. not be so gullible. He was in a panic that I hung up on the caller. Took me five minutes and then later a phone call to convince him the IRS was not in fact going to come and arrest him.

Wife was a Russian speaking Ukrainian. Now will not speak Russian unless the Russian speaking person she is speaking with doesn't speak Ukrainian or English.

Are you from Ukraine? I was just in Dnipro this past December. We skipped Kyiv because the main person we visit there moved to Croatia.

[IRonMaN]

I’m not Ukrainian.  I just don’t like dictators trying to take over their neighboring countries.

[ckevin]

👍