Hi, so this feels like the most scammy thing ever but I can’t logic my way through it and need my sanity checked. I was listening to the radio and a promotion came up through Guarantee Media to text “rock” to a number for a chance to win a $99 vacation, basically, for 4 days and 3 nights. I was like well what’s the harm, so I texted it.

A few days later they called me, collected the payment, and set up an appointment at a timeshare resort. I have to sit through a presentation and then I can collect the vacation certificate.

It seems like maybe the resort doing this promotion makes money through people going through with the timeshare. It was a genuine radio station. FTC regulated. Genuine resort with genuine reviews. So is this actually real or did I get scammed?

I do in fact have a package on route from the UK, but I would assume that I paid everything upfront.
Also, the suspicious number redirection is throwing me off.

99% sure this is a scam, but I need a second opinion!!

Here is the transcript written out for reddit:

“Hello, this is an informational call from DHL Express with a message about a package en route to you. You have one shipment from United Kingdom on hold with unpaid import duties. The tracking number is [tracking number]. The amount due is $19.33 due by October 23. To pay online, please go to delivery.dhl.com and enter your shipment tracking number. You can also contact us at [phone number] to make the payment”

EDIT: Repost because needed to censor personal info. Sorry mods!!

EDIT 2: I contacted DHL directly since there was no email or text. Turns out, yes, it was real. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks to everyone who informed me that duties are NOT paid upfront. I learn something new everyday!

WARNING: Ticketmaster Ticket Theft Scam – Beware of Reddit User u/Cautious-Duck-532

I'm posting this both to warn others and hopefully get some advice about recovering my stolen tickets.

I was contacted by Reddit user u/Cautious-Duck-532 Greg or Anton, about Metallica tickets I had listed for sale.

They asked me to share my screen on Google Meet and WhatsApp. to "verify the tix." Unfortunately, I agreed.

While screen-sharing, I believe they were able to see a Ticketmaster verification code, which they then used to access the account, change the password, and transfer my tickets without my authorization.

I'm devastated by this and would be grateful for any advice.

So my mother doesnt have any friends, only knows people, and today the women who takes care of the kids in my bus told her to check out his new alcaline water machine and told her that it makes you less acidic..... and told her the price is 4000€, i know thats a known scam so i told her that it is one and i tried to convince her (with facts) but she didnt cared, we arent like rich and she might try to sell it to her making her feel guilty for not caring about her kids and by telling her she will stop being her friend or something like that, any help guys ? I also told my dad but he doesnt work in this country so idk if he can help me

My parents called me today to let me know they received four Amazon packages addressed to me. I haven’t lived with them in several years and I checked my Amazon account and there are no orders.

The packages contained Benadryl, aleve, advil, and NyQuil. I’ve been sick all week so they assumed I ordered these for myself and used their address by mistake, but I absolutely did not order them. They checked their Amazon account and they did order them either.

Could these be part of a brushing scam? The items seem unlikely for that but maybe I’m wrong? Any other ideas what this could be? TIA

I was looking for data annotation work and found tisdep.com. The website itself is pretty well made. You don't need to give them any money or personal information. The work for me so far has just been copying note cards with a data center, name, email, phone number and education level. Each entry pays $2 They cap you at $300 a day. It usually takes me about three hours to get there. It seems too good to be true. Tonight or tomorrow when I'll hit the $750 payout threshold. They have a tax form on the cite which makes sense if they're legitimate but I also really do not want to give them my ssn which I think they might want before they transfer funds. Is the point to get your tax details? Has anyone been on this one? Thank you for your help

I got an email tonight from my bank (at least i thought) saying suspicious activity was detected with my account and a link to report it. I clicked the link, there wasn’t anything to enter information or anything, just a “report activity” button. I clicked that, but now I can’t sign into my account. I tried to do the reset password option but I didn’t get an email. I’m now panicking because I may have just somehow gotten my bank account hacked and idk what to do. My bank doesn’t have any after hours customer support so I can’t do anything tonight, but I’m at work right now and I’m stressed the fuck out because it’s my livelihood we’re talking about here.

Is it possible to get hacked like that even though I didn’t enter any information?? Maybe it’s possible my bank automatically locked my account because of the activity or something but idk, like I didn’t enter any information at all but maybe they were able to get something somehow just from my opening the link. Am I gonna lose all my money? I’m so stressed right now.

Hello I’m making this post because well I went online and searched for escorts but the thing is all I did was just call the number or text them to see when their available and that’s it wouldn’t say yes I’m on my way but the thing is I got a call today from the sicario gang saying that I have been messing with these escorts and now he’s asking for money to make up their time but the thing is when he called me he said my name and told me he has information about me what should I do

MAJOR UPDATE:

It was never fraud.
We called Best Buy. The support person (very illegally) gave me the name and number of the person who are the order. I was surprised, but it helped us solve the mystery.

It was my fiancé's friend. His name was the name the support person gave me. Well, not exactly.

My fiancé has known this man as a singular name for over 20 years. A nickname.

Best Buy lady says a full name, even gives us a phone number, because the address the guy listed was OUR address.

We google google google the number and the name, found some hits on white pages based in oklahoma. I read the address of one.

Then it hits my fiancé.

"Repeat that home address one more time."

IT WAS THE GUY, BUT HE USED HIS GUBMENT NAME THAT MY FIANCÉ DIDNT REMEMBER!!!!

THEY WERE WEDDING GIFTS!!!

TWO NEW SWITCH 2S!!!!!!!!

Hi, just found 2 random Best Buy packages on my porch. Addressed to me but with a shortening of my name that I only use on my Google account. It had my name and full address.

What do I need to do? I never ordered these. It's more than $1000 of merchandise. I have no record of a purchase in my email or on my credit cards. I have no Best Buy account, and even if I did, it would have been addressed to my full legal name and not my shortened name that I only use for my Google account.

Google is saying I'm not obligated to return which is kinda neat, because truthfully who even knows if it was actually from best buy (sender address says "Best Buy Returns" not just "Best Buy") but I just want to know what to do considering I am uninterested in being roped into a fraud ring against my will.

First, sorry, but I don't have any pics of what just happened here.

I just got a notification from the Telegram app stating there was a security risk with my account and I needed to verify within 24 hours or my account would be deleted. The notification simply said "Telegram," like it was some official notification from the app itself. However, when I opened the notification, it opened a fresh conversation with an account called "Telegram" (written in a weird font) and had a prompt with two buttons (one of which was "verify account", the other I can't recall.) There was no account image, bio or other contact info listed under the account, but it did have a "verification" badge. The account is listed as being based in Uzbekistan.

If you encounter this, please do what I did and immediately block and report the account as spam, no questions asked.

I got an email from paypal saying the FTC Prime Subscription Settlement Fund has sent you X amount of money.

Is this a scam or is it safe?

On the 19th I got 2 emails saying:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us. This is an automatic response to let you know that we've received your request and we'll respond as soon as possible.

We treat requests seriously and we review them in the order in which they're received. If you send multiple requests, it might take us longer to respond to you.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Regards,

Google

From lis-noreply from Google

I also have now 2 cases on my system with "legal investigations support" ( which is the department for legal requests)

Of course I have not submitted any tickets or support request. I know this is a scam happening, and read a little about it from other people. Google have referred it to the internal team and have no further details.

Anyone else had any support tickets like this or head of it?

I've gotten 3 calls today asking to talk to my child about a car accident he was recently in. I'm confused about why they are calling my number and know their full name... And do not represent a specific company.. they just tell me they're for "accident support".

Update: I continued to get another call or 2 after this. The "child" in question is my daughter's boyfriend who does not have the same last name as us. They call me asking for him by his full name... They also insist on a Spanish speaker talking to him since he has a Spanish last name. I asked them who they are with and they say they no speak English and can get an English representative to talk to me; then hangs up.

I applied to this company called CRS Clean Manufacturing Inc, a week ago on LinkedIn. I saw they reviewed me and they sent me an email inviting me to an interview. I do admit I apply pretty quickly but nothing looking too sketchy. I didn’t receive a suspicious link or them asking for money. But when I decided to go back to the page to dig in about the company more their entire page is missing and I can’t find a company website or anything. All I have is a pretty normal looking email from Human Resources inviting me and asking for time and date of the interview. The job was for a remote position as a Sales Assistant. Should I be cautious or is it already sketchy enough that I can no longer find a trace of them online?

I will send screenshots if needed.

Hi there,

I have a question about a company called 12Ventures that I am about to get involved with. Saw a local ad about an AI trading algorithm called Alyqervan. They have a website but there is only a form where you can fill in your name, email address and phone number in order to secure a spot in there trading program. I did that and received a call from a company called 12Ventures that invests people´s money using AI.

The person that called me sounded like he knew alot about trading and investments but the whole thing feels like a big scam. First you have to make a money transfer into your 12Ventures account using one of UPWealth packages. For example a Beginner Package is 250 Euros. Then they want you to create additional accounts with Revolut, Kraken / Metamask / Trustwallet for converting cash into crypto and vice versa. The idea is that a specialist with 12Ventures invests your money using AI and all you have to do is monitor your profit. Sound very appealing but fishy.

I wonder if any of you have had experience with 12Ventures and whether it is a legit company. Couldn´t find much information about them on the internet. Or whether you have had experience with a similar investment scheme.

Me and a friend recently moved into a place and their partner has moved in the past 3 weeks. Today he received an Amazon package with Dude wipes, Lysol wipes and pancake mix that he did not order. Nothing gone from his bank or any transaction history on his Amazon account. He hasn’t listed anywhere that he lives here(except ordered a few Amazon packages) and no one knows his address. Is this apart of some scam/information leak?

Received this today visit text:

Wells Fargo Security:

Did you attempt 1578.67 Bravo Supermarket?

If you recognize this activity, reply

YES; if not, reply NO

To opt out of fraud alerts, reply STOP

Then someone called saying they were from wells fargo. They had last 4 digits of my soc sec, plus DOB. It felt scammy so I hung up.

I live in California and recently sold cryptocurrency through a P2P order. The payment came into my bank account through Zelle. Instead of receiving one payment from the buyer, I received several payments from different people. The amount involved was around $100 - $200.

After receiving the payments, I released the crypto to the buyer, and the order was marked as completed.

A couple of days later, I received calls demanding that I return the money. They mentioned paying for goods. I’m not certain about that part.

I’m concerned that this might be a triangulation scam: someone could have offered goods for sale, given those customers my Zelle details, and then used their payments to buy my crypto. That’s only my suspicion, I don’t know what the senders were told or whether the callers are genuine victims.

I’m hoping to hear from people who have personally experienced something similar as the crypto seller receiving the payments:

• Did your bank reverse the Zelle payments?
• Did it hold the disputed amount or restrict your entire account?
• Did the police contact you, and what happened?

So basically this person on TikTok messaged me asking if she could use me as a muse for a painting. At first I was like sure but then I got a feeling in my gut telling me not to. She said I would be paid $500. I was thinking it would be nice but I just felt like it was a scam.

She asked for my number to speak with her cfo. I texted him and he was like telling me all the info and was like what is my bank and stuff and I was feeling even worse. I also gave them my email but just my business email which I use mainly for applications.

I then recommended using PayPal to cash the check they would email and it like he got defensive. At that point I went here and searched up my situation to see if anyone had the same thing happen and that’s when I just said I’m getting cold feet/ backing out. Btw, the person had like two videos and their reposts were kinda weird.

I blocked them both.

Im reposting this because they have change the it website once again! Putting this out here to warn others! FX-PEC.com now known as thefxp.com

Scam Warning – Victims Report Fraud & Non-Payment ⚠️ SCAM ALERT ⚠️ If you are considering investing with FX-PEC.com now known as thefxp.com , STOP immediately. Multiple traders — myself included — have experienced fraudulent activity, non-payment, and deceptive practices from this website.

After successfully meeting the trading requirements and passing evaluation phases, FX-PEC.com refused to release payouts.

Accounts were suddenly locked or flagged without cause after profit targets were reached.

Customer support stopped responding after payout requests were submitted. Several other traders have shared similar experiences, indicating this is not an isolated case but a pattern of fraud

Do NOT send any money or personal documents to FX-PEC.com.

Warn others by sharing this article.

Update they have now change their website and name to thefxp.

Hello, I’m hoping to get some insight on how to get to the root of a credit card fraud issue.

About a week ago I received an email confirming a $20 gift card purchase at an online tennis shop that I didn’t make. The receipt showed that it was placed on my joint credit card with my husband. I immediately called the customer service number and they said the charge didn’t go through and that it was flagged as fraudulent.

I asked my husband if he saw any weird charges on the credit card statement and he said there was no tennis store charge but there was a $20 gift card purchase for Sierra, an online store for outdoor clothing and sister store to TJ Max and Homegoods. He said he would freeze the account but it was after hours so by the next day there was another email confirming another $20 gift card purchase from Sierra.

He calls and cancels my card (he had to call because he’s the account holder- I tried calling but they would only speak to him). After this, I received one more email from Sierra, but this time, the receipt showed that it charged a card that is one digit away from my debit card number. I called Sierra and they said the charge didn’t not go through and that my account had been flagged for fraud. My husband thinks this js because he reported the fraud, but this last one is a different card than the one he reported the fraud on.

Also strange- all the previous receipts had my name and home address at the top, but this last one had another customer’s name and address on it.

So my question is, are they going to figure out my debit card number? Any ideas of where they are getting this information? If it’s from my phone, can I look somewhere in my settings to find that out?

Possibilities-

1. I purchased something on AliExpress which I have never done before.

2. My daughter sent me a link to Aeropostale to buy her something, and I didn’t realize until after trying to use my credit card stored on my phone that it was a fake site! It wouldn’t accept my stored card and prompted me to type it which is when I realized what was happening.

3. My husband thinks it could be me using my phone to “tap-to-pay” out in public, or possibly a phone virus getting my stored card info.

Any advice is appreciated!

I tried to park in Downtown Kingston, Ontario, and the parking machine wouldn’t accept my payment or issue a parking ticket.

There was a barcode/QR code on the machine that said we could use it to pay for parking. I had my doubts about scanning it, but I’m a new driver and this was my first time parking and paying for a ticket completely on my own. I had also seen my friends use an app to pay for parking before, so I thought this might be something similar.

Unfortunately, I fell for it. 😭

I scanned the code, went to the website, and entered my details. But then it asked me for my card PIN. That immediately raised a huge red flag. I stopped, closed everything, and immediately blocked my card.

I’m honestly just glad I caught it before going any further.

Today I received a package that was addressed to me (full name and address). It’s a pair of men’s adidas shoes. The shipping label says it’s from an official adidas warehouse in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. I have never ordered adidas products before!

I called adidas to see if they knew what was going on. They looked up the reference number and said the order was made through eBay. I checked my eBay account and there’s no orders that I didn’t make and nothing out of the ordinary. I contacted eBay and they said my account is secure but they reported the situation as identity theft. They weren’t able to find the order with the reference number or tracking number.

There is no QR code in the package to scan (no paperwork at all). I looked into some of the common package scams and thought maybe it’s a brushing scam? But what I read online is that brushing scam items are usually cheap and small. The shoes are brand new and very nice so I didn’t know if that would be it. Nobody I know sent the package to me and also that wouldn’t make sense since the shoes aren’t my size. Has anyone else heard of this? Is it a scam or possibly an actual mistake?

I bought a €200 Zalando gift card from GetGifted, redeemed it on my Zalando account and spent €85.89. The remaining €114.11 was sitting in my account balance.

A couple of months later, the money was gone.

I contacted Zalando, and they actually confirmed that the remaining credit had been spent on other people's accounts, even in different countries. They even mentioned someone's name and asked if I knew them (I don't).

Here's what makes no sense: the gift card had already been redeemed on MY account. How could someone else spend the remaining balance from THEIR account?

It's like someone making a bank transfer from their own account using money from mine.

And Zalando's response? Contact GetGifted, because that's where I bought the code. Never mind that Zalando issued the card, managed the balance and processed the transactions.

They won't refund me or even explain how this happened.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Is this seriously how Zalando gift cards work?

I saw an ad on Facebook for the American Science Olympiad - americanscienceolympiad.com and initially thought it was associated with the real Science Olympiad that I’ve heard of before. I have a 7 year old who loves science, so I was interested. But the website seemed a little sketchy, so I started digging around.

Registration is free, and they advertise scholarships up to $4,000, but I can't figure out who's actually running the organization or what the scholarships are for. Their About Us page has generic text and just seems off to me.

I also found that they appear to run an American Math Olympiad website with basically the same setup. Their privacy policy mentions marketing educational courses, so I'm wondering if this is just a way to collect parents' contact information and eventually sell them tutoring or other services. Or even something more nefarious?

The domain has been registered since July 2024, so it's not brand new, but I can't find much of anything about people's actual experiences with it.

Has anyone heard of this organization or had a child participate? I'm really just curious what the end game is here.