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GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Amarnath S30-Nov-22 17:56
professionalAmarnath S30-Nov-22 17:56 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Dan Neely1-Dec-22 4:08
Dan Neely1-Dec-22 4:08 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
dandy721-Dec-22 6:48
dandy721-Dec-22 6:48 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Dan Neely1-Dec-22 7:20
Dan Neely1-Dec-22 7:20 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
11917640 Member 30-Nov-22 18:23
11917640 Member 30-Nov-22 18:23 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
OriginalGriff30-Nov-22 18:35
mveOriginalGriff30-Nov-22 18:35 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
OriginalGriff30-Nov-22 18:37
mveOriginalGriff30-Nov-22 18:37 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Rage30-Nov-22 21:27
professionalRage30-Nov-22 21:27 
It happened to me too, but it was an AirBnB scam. I have always wondered how people can fall for obvious things like this, and that particular event taught me an important lesson, so here is the story:
Every year (money decides if every year), we try and go skiing for one week with the extended family and my BIL is in charge of finding and booking a cottage or hotel or whatever we can stay at (because I hate the AirBnB concept, so do not want to do it myself, and because my BIL and his wife have so many requirements to where they want to stay that it is better than they choose to avoid family war). He speaks only French, but can get by with German or English, or uses Google translate. Some years ago, we wanted to go to Austria. So he found out a nice cottage for 18 people (kids outnumber us !), asked us if OK, and told us that we had to book quickly because it would not be available for very long ; in the meantime, he had to leave for a long weekend where he was not easily reachable - bad network area. We confirmed and he tried booking before leaving, but failed, so he sent me the link to the AirBnB website, and could find a spot where he had network to call me on the saturday to tell me to try and book, even if we could barely communicate.
I navigated the AirBnB website, tried to book with my credit card, it failed several times, and I finally used the option to wire money (here the catch, no need to mention it).
Of course, the money was gone - we only noticed the scam after he was back a few days later. The website was an extremely well made fake of the real airbnb site, the domain name was something like booking.airbnb.com, I still have it somewhere on my computer ( I sniffed it because it remained online for a few days ). Some wordings were a bit strange, but my BIL was used to send me link of "google translated" websites, so it did not struck me more than that.

No need to say, I was both impressed and angry that I, the assumed "IT expert" in the family, could fall for a scam that actually raised all the red flags so obviously : external website, no paying possibility using the online platform, too attractive advertisement, bad wording in the website, etc...

So what I learned is : it is always a matter of context -> If I had been only a tad more experienced with how AirBnB works, or my BIL would have been more reachable, or if he did not used to send me bad translated webiste, or .. or ... or ... , it would not have worked. So these scams do not (or not only) work because some idiots are too naive and unable to spot them, it also works because in the millions of people who are approached, there will statistically be one constellation of events that makes it work.

GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Richard Deeming30-Nov-22 21:38
mveRichard Deeming30-Nov-22 21:38 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Rage30-Nov-22 22:08
professionalRage30-Nov-22 22:08 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Richard MacCutchan30-Nov-22 22:19
mveRichard MacCutchan30-Nov-22 22:19 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
den2k8830-Nov-22 23:10
professionalden2k8830-Nov-22 23:10 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Richard MacCutchan30-Nov-22 23:13
mveRichard MacCutchan30-Nov-22 23:13 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
den2k8830-Nov-22 23:24
professionalden2k8830-Nov-22 23:24 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Richard MacCutchan30-Nov-22 23:31
mveRichard MacCutchan30-Nov-22 23:31 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
den2k8830-Nov-22 23:39
professionalden2k8830-Nov-22 23:39 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Rage1-Dec-22 7:05
professionalRage1-Dec-22 7:05 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
den2k8830-Nov-22 23:12
professionalden2k8830-Nov-22 23:12 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Southmountain1-Dec-22 6:56
Southmountain1-Dec-22 6:56 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Nelek30-Nov-22 23:30
protectorNelek30-Nov-22 23:30 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
fgs19631-Dec-22 2:29
fgs19631-Dec-22 2:29 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Southmountain1-Dec-22 6:56
Southmountain1-Dec-22 6:56 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
fgs19631-Dec-22 7:36
fgs19631-Dec-22 7:36 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
BernardIE53171-Dec-22 3:08
BernardIE53171-Dec-22 3:08 
GeneralRe: my friend was spammed and lost huge amount of money Pin
Southmountain1-Dec-22 6:58
Southmountain1-Dec-22 6:58 

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