On 13/01/2024 12:56 pm, noel wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Jan 2024 19:51:18 +1100, Trevor Wilson wrote:
>
>>
>>>>> Trevor Wilson wrote:
>>>>>> A little before Christmas, I received advice from Greys Online, that
>>>>>> my 3 bottles of Scotch whisky would be delivered (to my home
>>>>>> address) in a couple of days. Weird. I don't drink Scotch. I
>>>>>> particularly don't drink $2,000.00/bottle Scotch. In fact, I drink
>>>>>> very little alcohol at all. I still have a 30 year old bottle of
>>>>>> Glenfiddich (which I do like. A bit). It's 3/4 full.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I noted that I allegedly ordered the Scotch with a Paypal payment.
>>>>>> This raised further questions:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1) I never ordered the Scotch.
>>>>>> 2) My Paypal account rarely has more than $100.00 in it.
>>>>>> 3) My Paypal account is linked to a bank account with a very low
>>>>>> balance at all times (<$1,000.00).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I called Greys and requested that the transaction be cancelled. I
>>>>>> also requested that my account be permanently deleted.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Then I called Paypal. Now is a job in itself. I finally reached an
>>>>>> actual human and ensured that the transaction was cancelled. I
>>>>>> changed my Paypal password.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What was the point of this 'scam'? After all, the Scotch was to be
>>>>>> delivered to my home and not a third party.
>>>>>>
>>
>>>>
>>>> I still don't understand what the point of hi-jacking my Paypal/Greys
>>>> accounts were. The booze was to be delivered directly to my home, so
>>>> there was, apparently, no benefit for the scammer that I can see.
>>>> Unless it was just designed to piss me off. Which it did.
>>>>
>>
>>
>> **Maybe, but my password is unique and way more difficult than 1234,
>> password, admin or whatever. Nonetheless, it is now way, WAY more
>> tricky.
>
>
> This reminds me of an old scam from decade or so ago, they use you to pay
> for their goods, they used your address, but in each investigation we
> found the contact numbers differed for sms updates so they knew when
> courier was on their way (they are patient vermin and don't mind waiting
> for hours), they'd meet them outside your place - and yes in most cases
> they targeted people they knew were at work or away, so if they fluttered
> around in a car outside or just in your driveway, well, why would courier
> ask questions apart from your name which you knew.
**Excellent point. I often meet a courier out front and they rarely
bother with identification. Make that: NEVER. Thing is, where I live and
work, it's very, VERY quiet. Someone hanging around (even in a car)
would be readily noticed, by me or neighbours. Still, I wonder what the
scammer would do with my regular deliveries of capacitors, transistors,
ICs and other assorted electronic components? Even more interesting
would be if one of my regular couriers (I know a few reasonably well)
would make of an unknown face attempting to collect my stuff? Pretty
risky, I would imagine.
>
> Now days always ALWAYS enable paypal 2 factor authnetication, every smart
> phone has authenticator apps, I just use googles on my android, time
> based codes are my recommendation.
**Yep.
>
> However you also bring up a valid point, if you haven't used an online
> retailer for a long time, and don't see yourself using it in the future,
> yes, close and request deletion of the account, it's scary to think of
> the tens or hundreds of millions of people around the world who sign up
> for one purchase and never go back, leaving your details in their
> databases to be hacked and sold in dark places. (Unless I'm going to be a
> regular buyer I use the guest checkouts and disable any pre filled check
> boxes for "create your account" - why these arseholes do that when you
> specifically chose GUEST CHECKOUT is beyond me, probably so they can
> claim you signed up to be spammed by them :)
>
**Again: Yep.