Access To My Unemployment Has Been Restricted....

OneEyedDiva

OneEyedDiva

SF VIP
Location
New Jersey
According to a text I received, allegedly from a N.J. government agency. A link was provided for me to click but of course I did not do that. Boy spammers will try anything. The only time I collected unemployment was about 52 years ago and only for a couple of months. I've been retired from state government for 24 years. Have you been spammed in a similar manner lately?
 

Last edited:
OneEyedDiva said:
According to a text I received, allegedly from a N.J. government agency. A link was provided for me to click but of course I did not do that. Boy spammers will try anything. The only time I collected unemployment was about 52 years ago and only for a couple of months then. I've been retired from state government for 24 years. Have you been spammed in a similar manner lately?
Click to expand...
Oh yes, and this kind of thing seems to be getting worse.
 
I used to get e-mails saying that my Amazon account (which I don't have) has been suspended. Then, I was due millions of dollars from an account in Zambia. Half my In-box seemed to be questionable spam, almost daily. Then, I noticed that there was an option to "block senders" on my e-mail account (Yahoo), and starting doing that.....Without opening such messages, of course....and that has stopped 99% of this garbage.
 

I have received similar texts with links as you describe. They have stopped lately. Now I am receiving
"Hi how are you? We haven't spoken to each other for a long time" in texts from numbers I am not familiar with.
Another type I have received is "thank you for being a loyal customer. Click this link to receive your gift" Ugh....scary how many people might fall for these scams.
 
Don M. said:
I used to get e-mails saying that my Amazon account (which I don't have) has been suspended. Then, I was due millions of dollars from an account in Zambia. Half my In-box seemed to be questionable spam, almost daily. Then, I noticed that there was an option to "block senders" on my e-mail account (Yahoo), and starting doing that.....Without opening such messages, of course....and that has stopped 99% of this garbage.
Click to expand...
I stopped using Yahoo, except for one email connected to Yahoo Finance. I have other Yahoo accounts, which I rarely check, that just wound up being full (hundreds of) spam emails. Gmail does a better job of filtering out spam and sending them directly to the spam folder but I believe from things I've witnessed during Gmail "conversations", as they call them, that they peruse our emails for content.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
According to a text I received, allegedly from a N.J. government agency. A link was provided for me to click but of course I did not do that. Boy spammers will try anything. The only time I collected unemployment was about 52 years ago and only for a couple of months then. I've been retired from state government for 24 years. Have you been spammed in a similar manner lately?
Click to expand...
Oh.yeah.
Most recent have been ones saying "Your ( name of current month) bill has been paid. Visit (link) for 'reward', chance at big prize, or something. I ignore. I pay several bills online, get a confirmation # i write in check register and usually an email too.

And phone messages about help with my student loans, which were paid off some 15 yrs ago! And emails claiming to be from my bank, my ISP or Paypal with some fairly authentic looking logos and such but two problems: 1) The email it is sent from is clearly a personal one and 2) often get the same 'dummied up' scare tactic email from 2 or 3 personal senders within short timespan.

Then there's the fact that any sensible person who transacts any kind of business online will go to website their usual way to check things out. The only thing i've clicked on the link in the email was the Phillips one about CPAP recall. The info matched previous contacts with them and no scares or inflated promises just informing me they can't ship to PO Box (ridiculous since many small towns have no home delivery, but it is common). Ended up talking to Customer Service person to give physical address, because the automatic system 'verifies' address by using USPS Zipfinder site, but if no home delivery the address is often not in their system.

The scary thought is that some people will fall for the scams. There are ways to check when in doubt.
 
Last edited:
feywon said:
Oh.yeah.
Most recent have been ones saying "Your ( name of current month) bill has been paid. Visit (link) for 'reward', chance at big prize, or something. I ignore. I pay several bills online, get a confirmation # i write in check register and usually an email too.

And phone messages about help with my student loans, which were paid off some 15 yrs ago! And emails claiming to be from my bank, my ISP or Paypal with some fairly authentic looking logos and such but two problems: 1) The email it is sent from is clearly a personal one and 2) often get the same 'dummied up' scare tactic email from 2 or 3 personal senders within short timespan.

Then there's the fact that any sensible person who transacts any kind of business online will go to website their usual way to check things out. The only thing i've clicked on the link in the email was the Phillips one about CPAP recall. The info matched previous contacts with them and no scares or inflated promises just informing me they can't ship to PO Box (ridiculous since many small towns have no home delivery, but it is common). Ended up talking to Customer Service person to give physical address, because the automatic system 'verifies' address by using USPS Zipfinder site, but if no home delivery the address is often not in their system.

The scary thought is that some people will fall for the scams. There are ways to check when in doubt.
Click to expand...
A percentage of people falling for these scams is what they rely on @Kika. And yes it is sad when victims do and find themselves out of money or their information compromised.
 
Many scams seem to be directed to seniors. This one seems directed to the young and dumb. Sent by text and there are probably still some young people drawing unemployment due to the pandemic. These people live their lives on the phone so they are likely to click away.
 
Remy said:
Many scams seem to be directed to seniors. This one seems directed to the young and dumb. Sent by text and there are probably still some young people drawing unemployment due to the pandemic. These people live their lives on the phone so they are likely to click away.
Click to expand...
This just gave me a thought...we have a member of local police come every month to speak to everyone on safety issues. Maybe I can ask if one on phone scams has been done. Not a lot of folks here have computers, but we all have phones.
Any suggestions on where I can look for info to present to management? Maybe it could go into out monthly newsletter too
 
Pecos said:
Oh yes, and this kind of thing seems to be getting worse.
Click to expand...
They’re getting worse because they’re getting so much better at it. We got one the other day that was almost credible. We analyzed it carefully prior to deleting.

chic said:
I'm a billionaire in Africa! 🤣
Click to expand...

I’ve been having financial problems lately. Perhaps you can help. 😂

Marie5656 said:
Any suggestions on where I can look for info to present to management? Maybe it could go into out monthly newsletter too
Click to expand...

Excellent idea. The police will be more than willing to talk about this.
 
Marie5656 said:
I think that we, especially seniors, have started to become a bit more savy to the scams out there. The old standbys of car warrenty about to expire, or Windows needs update have run their course, so they have to invent new ones.
We just need to get the word out there to just say no
Click to expand...
We need to just say No literally Marie. There's even a scam that starts as soon as you answer the phone. The scammer will ask is this so and so and the usual answer is "Yes". As soon as the respondent says yes, they have what they need to access (whatever) using the person's voice. Both my nephew and I have warned my sister about this. I have warned non-seniors as well.

I agree that we seniors are getting more savvy about these things, at least I hope so. I think your idea about asking the police to speak about this is a great idea. AARP's bulletin has a feature dedicated to Scams. Here is the latest page. When you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, there's a categorized listing of all the different types of scams out here.
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/?intcmp=GLBNAV-SL-MON-CONP-UXDIA
Also beware of the FOMO scams (fear of being left out):
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2022/fear-of-missing-out.html
 
OneEyedDiva said:
We need to just say No literally Marie. There's even a scam that starts as soon as you answer the phone. The scammer will ask is this so and so and the usual answer is "Yes". As soon as the respondent says yes, they have what they need to access (whatever) using the person's voice. Both my nephew and I have warned my sister about this. I have warned non-seniors as well.
Click to expand...
I had forgotten about that..but I seem to remember that this one may have been debunked. But, If I get a unknown number call, and someone asks "Is this Marie" my response is to ask "Who is calling please?"
 
terry123 said:
Last week I got three calls from my "grandson" needing money. Sorry no grandsons here and they hung up!! It was no lie as I have granddaughters but no grandsons!
Click to expand...
It's funny. I have 4 grandsons (and finally a granddaughter) and countless step-grandsons but I never got one of those calls. That you got three in one week is incredible.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top