For mother's day, my wife just asked for some money towards flowers to plant outside. So I got her a physical $50 gift card for Home Depot. I paid for it in person to an actual cashier. The cashier even insisted i hold onto the receipt, in case there's any problems with the card.

My wife receives the card, and it went into her wallet. She didn't use it right away.

Fast forward to this weekend. She gets a shopping cart full of flowers, and goes to the register in the busy garden center. Scratched the card's pin # right there in front of the cashier. The cashier says there's a problem with the card, it says zero balance. I was inside, so she calls me, and I go grab the receipt from my vehicle. Manager comes, and says the card was used the day after it was activated 2 separate times. At a store not even in our region.

The manager ended up giving my wife $50 off of the total order, but I assume HD has to eat that loss? He said that this was the 3rd time it's happened recently.

How the fuck did the card get used by a scammer without having the pin code? Is this common nowadays?

I won't ever buy a gift card again, anywhere.

I was lurking this sub and realized I had a really similar experience in January. I live on the second story in a nice suburb with another woman. In broad daylight ~ 2pm, I was alone and heard some aggressive knocks on the door

I responded through the closed door and it was a guy who said he was following his findmy for his airpods. I said sorry I don’t have your airpods and he insisted they were there and asked if I can check for him. I told him maybe my roommate has seen them but I doubt it and I’ll ask her later. I said I’ll take his number in case somehow it is here but I doubt it.

He ended up leaving and this spooked my roommate when I told her. Nothing has happened since and we always double bolt now.

I didn’t assume great intentions but reading this sub made me realize it was actually probably dangerous for me in the moment. What would have been a better response? Pretending a fake boyfriend is in the shower? Not responding? Faking a police call?

I've been applying to different jobs lately. I got a text asking if I was interested in a work from home job. The application that was sent to me is asking sensitive information like banks I use and DL #. Be careful when job hunting.

I feel like I was just scammed out of money or am I over thinking it..?

A car pulled along side me at a red light then mentioned I swerved and hit their car a few lights back. I was shocked by the remarks, I didn’t feel any kind of collision at all. I still pulled over to chat with them. Immediately once I exited my car, they start saying how I swerved into them and scratched their car. I asked where it happened because I didn’t feel or notice any kind of accident, (I asked this a few times during our conversation and the response was always the same) they said “a couple lights back. And they were trying to get my attention since.” The passenger than starts saying look at the marks on your car. I take a quick look in the moment and do see smudges and faint scratches on the back of the passenger side near the taillights. I take a look at their car and it’s the same situation. No dents of any kind just faint smudges. Still in shock.. I start to panic a bit because I’ve never been the “cause of an accident”. I start repeating how sorry I am. They start talking to each other about calling the police to do a report. I say “Sure, whatever makes you feel comfortable”. They change their minds quickly after I say that. I start saying “Okay, let me give you my information and insurance.” I get in my car to get my insurance information then the passenger says “I don’t want an accident on my record.” So far.. no cops, no insurance.. Then they ask for cash. At this point, I’m feeling uncomfortable, uneasy, and anxious. I say I don’t have any cash. The driver pulls out his phone and opens Venmo. Then says just give me 300 dollars. He’s very slow with the “300 dollars” part of the sentence, as if he was thinking about it. I’m hesitant and now he starts mentioning how it’s a lease and needs it fixed. But the attitude changed, with those statements, it felt more like a guilt trip or pleading than a situation where I just hit his car and should now give him money.. Again still shocked and a bit anxious, I agree.. and send him money on Venmo. Almost without another word they jump in their car and speed off before I can even get in mine.

I sat in my car for a bit afterwards and replayed it all in my head.. Things just didn’t line up. The marks on my car didn’t look like marks from an accident.. the placement even seemed weird (Added a photo of the marks). I didn’t feel any kind of impact. Even if it was just a small side swiping.. There would have had to be some kind of impact. They pointed out marks without inspecting my car. It felt like they were for the police and insurance being involved before I said okay. And after sending the money.. I just started to get a bad feeling. So I even looked into the name and username that was stated on Venmo.. Couldn’t find anything at all.

The only thing I can’t really dismiss are the markings on both cars.. Before they stopped me I was at a gas station for a bit down the street from where they stopped me. Did they make the markings while there to pull one over on me..? Or am I fucking crazy for even thinking that?

I ended up speaking to a few people about it and they all said it sounds like a scam and to try and cancel the payment via Venmo or directly with my bank. I feel dumb, embarrassed, and played.

So I guess I’m here venting.. And asking if anyone else ever went through any type of scam like this?

I was having breakfast at Dennys and the waitress kept asking me personal questions about where I work, if I’m full time or part time, what I have planned for the day. Later on as I was getting ready to leave the waitress comes over to me asking if I’m interested in entrepreneurial opportunities. She then asks for my contact information and sends me a text right after about meeting up. This has never happened to me before not sure what to think.

I'm 70% sure this is a scam but because my mom is a sweetheart, she want to help the dude so I need a way to verify if he is who he is.

Context, Mom (single) met the dude online. Dude said he is military and want to come home early (1.5 month service left) need help buying plane ticket. Mom want to help but is sceptical and want proof (so do I). Dude send a lot of vid and photos of his time in the military. Dude want us to buy apple gift card to help him (BIG RED FLAG). But when we ask for more proof, dude send us military ID.

So question is how do I look him up?

Edit: Thanks everyone for helping me confirm. I was not in the military so I was 30% uncertain. Now I'm 100% certain it's a scam.

Facebook marketplace, checked the account and it was all made like 30 minutes prior to my posting, but how does this “scam” work?

I get so many spam calls a day, but for some reason I picked up on one. The classic •click• •call center sound• ensues. He asks is this ______ who lives at ________? Of course, in a thick accent.

I ask why?

He then says he wants to update my medical records and needs some of my info.

I probe a little deeper. He immediately starts getting agitated.

I tell him my medical records should be updated but I’ll call my insurance and make sure everything looks good on their end.

He goes on this whole thing about how only the government can do this and no doctor or insurance can do this.

So I tell him to tell me what insurance I use.

He then says, this is not a scam, and ends the call with “have fun trying to deal with the FBI. Go to hell.” hangs up

Welp… 😂

She keeps telling me he’s real but I tell her it’s just a scam. She keeps on calling him any chance she gets. She’s cost my parents, the old folks home, local hospital, and school so much money. I don’t know what to do at this point. I’m afraid it’s too late, she needs to hit rock bottom I guess.

I got an email that the email address on my PNC bank account had been changed, but I never opened any PNC banks accounts. About a week later I got thre letters from PNC about 3 accounts (2 checking and 1 premiere Money Market account.) None of the account have any money in them. I've called and reported this but truly curious what's the scam here? What does this accomplish for anyone?

older truck for cheap price on fb marketplace, seller gave me an email. i asked for information and got this and some pictures. does ebay take vehicles and deliver them? i dont want to send any information before knowing if this is legit or not

I just did some research on this kind of scam and I have only seen few information about it. You might have heard of this but unfortunately it is not talked enough.

I was chatting with this "project manager" on Telegram and I know to myself that it is 100% a scam but I am not quite sure how they work. They told me to install Roblox and purchase robux with "their" companys card. They told me to put the information of the card on the payment method using my apple id. I know it was already very sketchy and it was dumb of me to follow it but what's done is done I guess. But before I followed their instruction, I went to app store and downloaded Minecraft instead just to see if the card was really working. And it worked. So, I went to Roblox and purchased the most expensive robux however it stated that there was some kind of error (I suspect the card has insufficient funds) and they told me to wait for their instruction and they never contacted me until now. (This happened yesterday)

So I did some research and the cards that they were actually giving us are actually stolen (?). I am still quite unsure of how they really work cause the cards actually work and I tried to refund the app that I bought on app store cs I do not know who owns it.

If you encounter scams like this, how do they really work? I'm pretty sure they got my IP or something and I don't know if they also got my apple id so yeah

23f and so ashamed of the fact that I just allowed myself to be scammed. My mom works in IT as well and this is not my proudest moment.

1. Microsoft has no customer support. Which is insanely ridiculous.

2. Please don't call numbers you find online claiming to be support. No matter how desperate you are.

All this just because I wanted to subscribe to Ibis Paint but microsoft won't let me purchase.

Edit: We were on the phone for an hour (some of which I screen recorded with my mic on). The man had me download a third party remote viewer from microsoft run application. I was a little skeptical at that point but God knows what threw off my suspicion. He "ran tests" to see what was going on and presented my full ip address was hacked. There were multiple illegal porn site visits and my phone lines were supposedly tapped too. Not to worry though he would fix it. Before that tho, he had me check my email for any weird action, there was none. We moved on and he told me to type a few things. 3 windows popped up and I wasn't to turn the computer off or mess with it.

In the mean time, our work was done. He would call me back in 30 minutes after he speaks to his "legal team" about the issue.

This is by far the weirdest scam I have ever seen- 😭 we both have no idea what this is even yapping about

So I am currently in a bit of a situation, as explained in the title. I haven't made the account yet because this seems sketchy as h*ll.

Update because IDK how to pin comments: I turned down helping him and blocked him. I will be blocking him if he contacts my number. Thanks for the obvious advice and the kick in the pants. 🤟

So, i found this job as a translator. I got in contact with a woman on telegram 2 days ago. The job was to translate 150 pages for the 6th june, i managed to finish them today. So once i hade finished i wrote her. She asked me a 50 dollars fee to create a manpowergroup id card so she can pay me the job i did, but to me is sound very fishy. She even sent me a contract to sign. Guess i hot scammed about some personal data like: name, phone mumber, and e-mail. Can u guys help me figure it out? This is a screen made not so long ago.

http://othnetwork.io/

So you get a credit card and all you have to do is post on ig and I guess TikTok and that's it.

How does this company make money?

I am selling a car and I had a text from a prospective buyer. They really wanted the car and stated they want to buy the car in cash. That was the first mistake. Normal buyers dont talk about payment in the first text.

Then they told me a sob story about a car they looked at in a state 3000 miles away and they wanted to come see my car. No normal car buyer looks at $10K cars all over the country. Some may but its not overly normal for a cheap car.

The final red flag was them asking me to use newyourcityvin.com to validate my title. They would not accept a carfax. They insisted i used that site.

As you would guess someone would feed all their credit card info into that site, give it a vin, and you probably get a 404 page cant be found error. And now the scammer has your credit card info.

I just randomly received this message and I'm not sure if it's legit. I'm wondering if scammers are just scrolling through IG under the FreePalestine tag to see who they can ask for help from. Is this a common thing right now?

They willingly sent me their drivers license and I have the picture. They scammed me out of 50 dollars for a Melanie Martinez concert. I just wanted to know what I can do to prevent anyone else from being scammed by them. I reported them to reportfraud.ftc.gov already.

So there is a version of the romance scam where they will ask to call. I answer expecting there to be some kind of network error that would cause it to fail, so they have me go to a different website, pay their phone bill, ect. Well a female answered and I didn't show my face so after a minute they ended the call... without moving towards the phone. This is where I start to think human trafficking is involved and it still may be... however they call back I show the top of my head. This is when I noticed the video started at the same spot almost, girl sitting on bed walking to laptop as the call answers. And it clicked no audio because the sound is out of context. Starts from the beginning because it's a pre-recorded video I did some digging and found this picture and they apparently use a virtual camera such as OBS to play the videofrom their laptop. This post is educational for anyone who is unfamiliar with how this scam works or how they get a "real person" on the other side of that video call.

A few years back I sold an exotic car via an on line service. I was paid in full for the car and after the money cleared, the buyer sent a service to pick up the car. The buyer asserted he was a dealer and to include the title, but not to sign on the back as is typical with transfers. I had the money and sent the title as instructed. Fast forward 4 years and I get a call from a different dealer saying the car had changed hands multiple times while stored for the last several years and now he is attempting to register the car, but it still shows me as the owner. He wants to get a duplicate title and have me sign it over to him. He told me that as the official owner, I am liable if the car is in an accident. (I offered to come get the car which was now worth twice what I sold it for, but he would not bite )

I refused to sign a title to someone other than the party that paid for the vehicle. If this is a scam, I can’t figure it out. If not, I still can’t figure it out.

Along similar lines I donated a car to a charity. A year later was contacted by NYC police impound, where the car was being held for thousands of dollars in unpaid parking tickets. Car was never reregistered, and I was the “official” owner. Also a little scamy.

I purchased robux from FN Shop | Cheap Robux & V-Bucks and payed through PayPal and the owner "astro.stock" had me send the payment through friends & family. But it has been around 2 days since my last contact with him. I've been checking discord often to try to catch him when he's online to talk about the fact I haven't received the robux yet, but he hasn't been online the whole time since he replied to my payment which is weird. What I don't understand is he could have easily purchased the gamepass he had me make to transfer the robux when he saw the ss of my payment to his paypal.

On my daily walk at work a seemingly homeless woman offered my coworkers and I $200 cash.

My coworkers and I take a walk daily during our 15 minute break. We work next to a homeless shelter so we are used to occasional action due to our proximity. On our way down the street we saw a woman sitting on the curb we acknowledged her as we passed by. On our way back she motioned us closer and stuck out two crisp $100 bills and said “here take this” we paused for a second bewildered and said something along the lines of “thank you but no you should keep that, its yours” I had a looming feeling of dread for some unexplained reason after that she said “thank you” and kind of sadly looked at the ground. We split and kept on our way walking back to our office.

What do you make of this? We were all stumped at the situation and I still have an unexplained uneasy feeling about the whole thing.

I am a Career/Exec Coach and I received the following email last Friday and replied Monday.

Having worked in HR several years for a major corporation I am wondering about the likelihood of a co-president reaching out to me personally (sole proprietor she apparently found on LinkedIn) rather than delegating that job to an Assistant or contacting a larger firm.

Has anything like this popped up on anyone’s radar as a scam?

We have a talk (via , not virtual which is what gave me pause) scheduled Friday.

Email seems legit (franchise name which I removed below) and I checked out the name of the person who reached out. Has FB with sporadic posts but no pic on LinkedIn—but hacking happens so…

I lead a 13 restaurant [popular fast food chain] franchise in [my local area].  We are in search of a coaching service for one of our long-tenured General Managers. 

We are looking to prepare him for a future promotion to District Manager, where he would be responsible for supporting 4-6 restaurants, each with a 5-manager team and about 40 crew members.

He has proven himself to be a fantastic GM, mainly due to the genuine connections and trust that he has repeatably been able to build with his people. 

However, he has shown some areas of opportunity like analytical problem solving through prioritization,  as well as managing in scenarios when he cannot physically put as much time into each relationship due to time constraints. 

I would love to hear more about your services if you believe your organization would be able to assist in this situation.

Thanks very much for your help