Talk to your young adults about online scams

[Anonymous]

My 18 yo got scammed today out of several hundred dollars.

When my kids first got on the internet we monitored, talked a lot, and drilled into them that people online might not be who they say they are, online stranger danger, etc. I can't say we did the same with online scammers and warnings, at least not to the same degree.

I realize that this isn't the most forgiving forum so some will say my kid was stupid, and perhaps so (they sure feel stupid right now), but PSA - your kid may be very tech savvy, but they probably haven't encountered this situation before.

The scam was a DM through X, where my kid has an account related to their art interest. It was a mutual who said THEY had been scammed and as a part of it all the accounts associated had been reported and were going to be shut down. They told my kid they knew kid wasn't involved personally, and that X support was notified of the same, but kid still needed to talk to X support to fix things.

From there it was a handoff to a supposed X support person, who then switched to Discord, etc. They used all the tactics you read about - sympathy to gain trust, assurances that this could be resolved quickly if kid just stayed online with them and paid close attention, "official" language, link and screenshot of the scammer's X credentials (fake, of course), threats of legal action if this wasn't resolved, and repeated reassurances that no money would actually be withdrawn - it was just a test. The reason given for the money transfer exercise was to verify identity.

It all took about half an hour.

We've called the bank and filed reports, but the money is likely gone. I know we all think we wouldn't fall for this and surely our kids wouldn't either, but if you haven't talked to them about this, I hope you will.

[Anonymous]

I listened to a podcast about how a lot of scammers are actually trafficked to Myanmar after being lured to work in normal sales jobs in Thailand. They are kept in scam farms and forced to scam all day and have quotas, get starved and beaten if they don’t meet goals.

[Anonymous]

I understand why people will get cornered by scammers in meetspace where it's hard to escape, but I don't understand how someone doesn't think to ask anyone to look at "scary" message on the computer.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry, OP. Hopefully the resolution isn’t too painful. Unfortunately, we’re all likely susceptible, at some point.

This article covers the issue well (and offers some solidarity):

https://www.canadianfinancialcrimeacademy.ca/financial-crime-articles/the-psychological-tactics-behind-fraud-how-scammers-exploit-human-behavior

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand why people will get cornered by scammers in meetspace where it's hard to escape, but I don't understand how someone doesn't think to ask anyone to look at "scary" message on the computer.

When you start to realize and pull away, that’s when they get urgent and threatening. This is when they used pii against my DH for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand why people will get cornered by scammers in meetspace where it's hard to escape, but I don't understand how someone doesn't think to ask anyone to look at "scary" message on the computer.

When you start to realize and pull away, that’s when they get urgent and threatening. This is when they used pii against my DH for example.

The key is to not engage from the start, at all because yes, they will go after you more the more you engage.