Today was definitely the day I needed a gate delay on the tarmac after landing. 1 hour of sleep in the last 31 hours and an hour ride and hours of shit to do before I can sleep. And I think I’ve eaten 800 calories of food in the last 27 hours.
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My mom’s phone is compromised too, and my father doesn’t remember ever touching it during the whole thing and my mom definitely 100% did not. I assume my father mixed up the phones or doesn’t remember, but I’ve now got the router unplugged from the wall and their phones turned off and hidden from them. I’ve never experienced a bigger shit show in my life. Every single network-connected communication device in their house was compromised and controlled by the scammers.
And the MO is to report it to the police who do not report it to the FBI (I will be in the morning), and they give a report that my parents don’t fully understand, which basically describes how the bank tried to stop them and bears no responsibility. Zero attempts are made to catch the scammers, only to collect the data on the amount stolen. Zero information is given by the bank or the police on how to protect devices, freeze credit, etc. The bank suggested freezing credit, and reminded them to update their pension/social security direct deposit to the new account.
I know the county police can’t do fuck all themselves on this type of thing, but they should be reporting it to the FBI. And how do the police and the bank not have pamphlets with step by step directions on how to proceed with securing accounts? This is insane.
The system is an inch away from tacitly assisting the scammers once the initial scam is successful. The bank made what seems to be a reasonable effort to stop him from taking the money out after the first $10K, but once it was done they give zero fucks about helping a lifelong customer protect themselves. Nobody warned them about recovery scams. And it’s insane that there aren’t laws to slow down/limit withdrawals in these situations. It’s disgusting that the bank managers know what’s happening in real time and are not empowered to stop it.
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Compromised in what way? It seems really implausible to me that they could have, like, remotely hacked it somehow without action on your parents’ part.
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Is it possible this has been going on for longer than you realized?
I’d guess that’s a very real possibility. Pig butchering type scams can be months long before any attempt to get money out of the victim even occurs.
CW, have you posted about this on r/scams? Maybe can get some better guidance there as there likely will be people who were attacked in the same manner.
I assume they got him to download the remote access app on it and it’s such a blur he forgot. It made a call that he insists he couldn’t have made. I guess it’s also possible, maybe more likely, that he made that call and does not remember.
Possible but no evidence of it from what I can tell, in terms of financial activity. I haven’t managed to get into their phone data yet. Currently on hold with FBI, want to ask someone who is more of an expert than the county patrol cop about the phones before I turn them on.
Is this pig butchering? I thought that was more of an investment scam showing fake returns to trick them into more transfers?
I haven’t posted on r/scams but I read 5-10 similar threads and no helpful responses - all “Yup money’a gone you’re fucked.” and arguments over whether all crypto is trash or old people deserve to lose all their money.
I don’t think this is pig butchering either. I always thought that started with someone texting, claiming they had the wrong number, and then starting a convo. It can lead to many different kinds of scams (often investing).
I think that if you get some sort of message from Microsoft or whatever, that would be a non-pig butchering scam. Pig butchering normally doesn’t start with something urgent. It is the exact opposite of that (or at least that is my impression).
I think pig butchering refers to the relationship the scammers build with the mark before they start extracting money. Basically fattening them up before going in for slaughter. It’s possible first contact was made several weeks ago and started with non financial stuff like telling him his microsoft account was compromised, building trust, getting him to download apps, etc before going for the “your bank account is also compromised, go withdraw asap”.
Yeah it’s very possible this started earlier. His mobile browser had a tab with a cutt.ly link that was blocked for suspicion of scamming, and he tried to access it Sunday.
Also he has a simultaneous call history with his scammer and his 401k company, so they likely had him conference the calls together and heard everything.
Also, I shit you not. Midway through the call with the FBI agent she goes, “Oh, yeah this happens all the time. I myself was scammed two weeks ago through Facebook.”
When we send the FBI, we are not sending our best and brightest. This is the person who gives the initial assessment and advice and tells you where to report (IC3 as expected) but still.
The call was useful because my father has been bugging me to turn his Internet back on, and she backed me up on them possibly giving themselves a backdoor and the need for a new router.
Oh also caught my dad sneaking outside this morning to use my mom’s phone he knew he wasn’t supposed to use.
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He just had a car accident in the parking lot while going to the store to buy a TracFone.
Somehow he did not. He thought he hit a parked car, but got out and couldn’t find any damage to any vehicle, he thinks maybe he didn’t hit anything.
This won’t go over well with him but he might not be in a safe state of mind to be driving. Might need to take his keys for a bit.
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You sure you were talking to an FBI “agent” and not a front-line secretary / receptionist / phone answering person?
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I know, but I also can’t get everything done that needs doing myself in the time I have so I really need him to run some of the errands that don’t require tech savvy.
And he’s yelling at me this morning about how he has to get the golf league scorecards to the course tomorrow, and I have to help him get that done because it’s a priority because people are counting on him.
Jesus Christ, after you dropped everything and flew there? I’m sorry, but your dad kind of sounds like an asshole.
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We had to wait 30 minutes for the person, they were probably not an actual agent but it was more than a receptionist I think.