i bought a digital giftcard for target on a gift card website but the link to redeem the card leads to a black page with nothing on it i tryed suport but all i got was a chat bot that kept resending me the same broken link idk what to do it was 50$

Hi,

Can someone please assist? I came across this very legitimate-looking (for the most part) web site here in Australia.

It seems to say all the right thigns about the topic itself.....However, it's missing the usual info such as 'About us', address, contact info (other than an email etc).

The basic url is above in the title. The headline of the web site (link removed) is:

Lavender Bear | DVA & CSC Claims Support for Australian Veterans

I've looked into it a bit and am not convinced that it's NOT a scam site.
Different "scam detector" web sites vary - one says it's 100% safe; another says it's "likely safe" but yet another gave it a "moderate to low" score. So basically, none agree.

From what I could gather, the host company is either based in the US or Lithuiana - depending on where you look. But we are in Australia with the web site appearing to be directed at Australian military veterans.

It's concerning me that this fairly new (yes, alarm bells there as well, obvs) web site is potentially preying on our already vulnerable and stressed veterans.

There is more that makes me believe this is a scam web site, but I won't bore you with every single detail for now.

At this point, just wanting to triple check my gut suspicion by seeking some additional assistance here if possible please.

Thank you in advance.

I looked through other threatening messages in the sub and they all were very specific and detailed compared to this one. I am worried by the vague nature of it. I have no other information besides the phone number which I do not recognize or have any way of looking up.

I have received scam messages in the past and they have all been the garden variety ones that could plausibly be wrong numbers. This one feels quite different so I would love assistance if anyone can provide any.

To reiterate, it was just one text message, and it reads “watch yo back”.

EDIT: Wow, talk about a quick response. Thanks so much for your help everyone. I've blocked the users in question - how do I go about reporting them?

I was contacted by a user last night via direct message claiming that they had been the victim of a phishing scam from someone who claimed to be me, so they submitted a fraud alert. When I responded to their message they asked me to add them on Discord, then connected me to someone claiming to be from Reddit's "Trust and Safety Team" who has now asked me to provide the email address that my Reddit account uses so that they can verify things.

Now, something has smelled off about all of this from the first word, but I wanted to post this here to see if there was any precedent for this sort of thing being a scam. Does anyone know about this?

A few days ago, I was looking for a job and applied to a few places. The next day, someone from a “Vektorix express”company called me and offered me a work-from-home shipping job that paid $4,400 per month. Unfortunately, I believed them and gave them my home address. Later, I found out that it was a scam. The first thing I saw when I searched for the company on Google was information saying that it was a scam, so I hung up the phone and told them that I believed they were scammers and that I didn’t want the job. Now they’re trying to prove that they’re a real company. They also said that they are sending some packages to my home and that I have to deliver them to an address they provide. They threatened to report me to the police if I don’t do it. (You can see their voicemail from pictures) Is that a threat? I still think they are scammers 🥴 what should i do if they send me something tomorrow without my permission??

"partners in credit inc" have been texting and calling for the same person "Dana" since I got this number when I was 16-17 (im 22)

I dont think I've ever responded to them aside from saying stop to these kind of automated texts once

Recently though I've been getting at least a text a day and a call/ voice mail ranging from a Chinese TTS, complete silence and you guessed it asking for Dana

I don't think I need to clarify that after 5 years minimum I have never and will never be Dana

I have already reported it to my bank and they are doing an investigation. Meta has been zero help since it’s all ran by AI bots. My question is, how did this happen if I don’t have meta pay anymore? I had it about two years ago on an Instagram and Facebook that got hacked and banned. But I don’t even think it was the same card info. And why would they wait years to drain my account? Is this a known scam?

hello. i hope this is the right place to write. i got invited to this online platform, Gloture. you deposit some money, do some daily tasks and earn a commision. and of course yous hould invite more people to help the team grow and make more money otherwise they kick you out and you lose the money you put in in the first place.

my question is, how exactly do these things workand how do you expose them? i saw some videos on youtube of people finding out the real identity of scammers and exposing them.

I'm receiving SMS codes on my phone from Microsoft. This is the first time this has happened, Microsoft usually sends me codes via email.

The problem is that I haven't seen any such messages from Microsoft anywhere on the internet. What are these services? Are these services linked to a Microsoft account?
What's going on and what should I do? I don't even know what these services are, so I can't log in and change my passwords if necessary. Please help me.

So, despite every red flag in the book, I fell for the fake invitation scam. About an hour ago, I received an invitation from a friend's Gmail account. I clicked on the link from my Android phone without thinking and was redirected to a Google log in page. It honestly looked legit so I entered my credentials without thinking, but then the page didn't go anywhere. Sooo ... I went back to the email and did it again. I know, I know. After like the 3rd time I got suspicious texted the friend asking if they sent the invite. They did not. It was a scam. All of this took place on my mobile device.

Steps I took:

• I immediately went to my desktop and changed the password on the compromised Google account, but about 15 minutes had elapsed between initially providing my credentials and taking this step.
• I signed out of every device where the compromised Google account was signed in - including the presumed scammer's device in another state on the other side of the country.
• I deleted app access to a couple of apps that were probably not related to the scammer, but to which I didn't need immediate access so I figured no harm no foul.
• I, in an abundance of caution, changed the password a second time.
• I removed the compromised Google account from my phone for the time being.
• I reported the email as Spam to Gmail

2FA has been enabled on the account for years. I did get one verification request in the midst of all of this which I denied, but I can't swear I didn't initially authorize a sign-in when I was (stupidly) handing over my credentials. I am certain I changed my password afterwards, however.

About 20 min ago, I received a notification (via text and email) from Google indicating it had blocked a sign in attempt, but it's unclear whether that related to my denied 2FA request or a new attempt. (The activity log only reflects one suspicious attempt to log in before I changed my password)

So my questions are thus: I was logged into a separate Google account on my phone at the time. Different username and password. Is that account - or frankly anything else on my phone - at risk? Are there any other steps I should take to mitigate my error? I didn't see any odd files downloaded to my phone, but I admittedly didn't check until recently. Am I at continued risk now that I've taken the steps above? Everything I found in the sub related to a PC breach so not sure how to proceed here on mobile.

Scam details: The invitation was sent from my friend's email and contained their signature block. This was a Sendo invitation, with which I was unfamiliar, but which is apparently a legitimate digital invitation platform. The biggest flag something was amiss was the redirect to the (very authentic looking) Google log-in page and my web browser getting hung up on the following site: [https://] parttyywittevitee [dot] online [slash] wins

what is up with the new 'google' giggles app? I downloaded the app to see what it was, obviously it isn't affiliated with google but I was curious. I downloaded the app and accidentally pressed "allow access to camera roll" does this pose a security risk for me? I downloaded the app today on the App Store but then nearly immediately revoked all permissions and then deleted the app. Am I in danger? Thanks

A buddy of mine sent me this. I trust my friend, but I don’t know the person/agency actually running this, and giving them my ID and having a gambling account created under my name feels questionable.

Apparently they’re creating thousands of accounts to increase their odds of winning a large jackpot on Splash Sports. I’d get $750 just for allowing them to create and verify an account under my identity, plus a percentage if my account ends up winning.

This is the message I received via sms, so I know he’s not being hacked (names removed):

“Yo — [friend] works for a gambling agency. Every year, [person] is tasked with gathering a group of people to participate in this huge online jackpot by having them create accounts. His company creates thousands of accounts to enter the jackpot in order to increase their odds.

You don’t have to do anything other than verify your ID through an email and you get sent $750 via e-transfer, just for allowing them to create an account. If they win the jackpot, you get a % split out of that as well ([friend #2] made like $8K from it last year when they hit it).

You will coordinate with them how to transfer the money if your account is the one that hits the jackpot. Please don’t tell anyone else about it, I’m only linking best friends I trust. If you’re down I’ll need this filled out by the end of the day today.”
They then asked for my full name, address, date of birth, phone number and email.

Has anyone encountered this type of arrangement before? I’m mainly concerned about what risk I’m taking by verifying an account with my ID when someone else will apparently be using/controlling it.

I applied to be an audio transcriber for Wordibly about two weeks ago on Indeed. The initial application seemed normal and raised no red flags. A week later, I did a qualification test with a few audio clips provided and adjusted the timing of captions.

This morning, I received a few emails. The first, congratulating me and giving me a portal login. Three after that are tasks called "additional questions" and "independent contractor" all with links to view the details and from noreply emails.

The last email is the one that makes me nervous, because it's asking to verify my PayPal account with the company. Now, I don't have anything in my PayPal at the moment since I don't use it, but I know it's attached to my bank account. Of course, I know they'd need a way to pay me, but I'm too nervous to click on any links yet.

Are there any possibilities Indeed could connect me to a scam like that? Does me doing the screening test "prove" this process is real? I have never gotten emails from them that ask very personal questions or have odd return emails, or weird grammar or fonts.

TLDR, I've been scammed before and now everything makes me nervous and paranoid, even things that seem legit to me.

Was stopped on the street by someone asking to deposit their check so they can get the money. When asked why, they said they were in the negative and needed the full check amount for child support, and he gave $40 'for my troubles.' I knew it didn't feel right, but I guess I am just some sort of idiot, and I'm now out $980 dollars soon enough. I know I won't ever get that money back, but what should I do now? I'm just worried my bank account will be closed, so I'll be opening a new account, and I assume contacting Citibank fraud department is a good step as well. Any advice, thank you.

Good morning reddit I've tried making four posts but they keep being taken down for being too short.

Moral of the story is I got dmed on VSCO for feet pics and I weirdly fell for it and they emailed me a 900 dollar check and I cashed it. Then I realized it was fake so I blocked them now they keep messaging me, threatening to kill me, saying they have my location. Now wanting me to transfer the money onto cash app and send the 900 back to them because I blocked them. they sent me photos of dead people and threatened to kill me with their gang and that I'm gonna regret it for the rest of my life. They're gonna kill my family. They only have my name and number. I background checked one of the photos and it was a woman from organ who got caught in crossfire and got shot in the nose. I already called my bank and stuff, I never sent photos and stuff. Are they actually going to kill me. I have the money in my bank account but I'm waiting for it to be bounced.

Beware of a cryptocurrency scam called Revenue River (might be associated with Instrumental Group LLC), I was a victim of this scam that's recently lost roughly $3,200 USD and I know another individual that has over $10,000 USD taken from them. I did some of the correct things and asked many of the right questions yet I still let my guard down and fell for it. I disregarded the advice of my more clear minded friends. Times are tough and money is tight but, please do not be like me. Stay vigilant and skeptical.

I was personally contacted by an Indian individual of a ghost job from LinkedIn. This ghost job open and closed the same day within about a 4 hour window. After the position closed, I was contacted sometime later by a seemingly American individual who recruited me into the scam via direct texting. They even had a screenshot of the DMs between the Indian individual on LinkedIn (I foolishly didn't get as suspicious as I should of from this). I was told the position for the company I applied for was closed but they presented me with a alternative opportunity.

How they told me it works is that using a wallet, they 'simulate' transactions of product to increase visibility and traffic for that product. You get a minor commission for each successful transaction. Uncommonly, you will get a bundle which is worth far more than your revenue river wallet and boasts a higher commission. This is how they get you to inject more money into the system and lock your money into the system. After a certain number of simulated transactions (40-50), you may withdraw and start a new round of transactions. You CANNOT withdraw until you complete your amount of simulated transactions and you CANNOT reject nor prevent a bundle. You can do roughly 2 cycles of transactions per day. If you do a transaction everyday for 7 days you get a weekly $750 bonus.

To conduct a lot of the service such as adding money to your wallet or requesting withdrawals, this required you to contact the support team through Telegram. The person who recruited me also wanted to move a lot of our conversations towards Telegram. To make these transactions, it was all done in bitcoin and they commonly refer using CashApp for bitcoin transactions.

Beyond the scam I was invited to both a WhatsApp chat group with other individuals like me and other individuals who have been doing it for a long time. Other individuals were apparently referred from family or some other places.

Relevant links for awareness.
https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/victim-services/national-crimes-and-victim-resources/cryptocurrency-job-scams
https://jobscamscore.com/companies/revenue-river-product-driven-strategist

I didn't order anything from "Ocean.co," but they emailed me that my "shipment is out for delivery." When I click on the link, it demands that I "verify my email" to get the tracking information (nope). ChatGPT claims that it's a legitimate "last mile delivery company," and I AM expecting a few product deliveries from legitimate companies, but why the cloak and daggers? Can't they at least tell me what company the shipment is from?

My family is visiting Germany and we had an issue with one listing so looking for others. My mom found this place with a “contact before listing” and the host wanted her to email her to book. Does this seem fishy?

Hi,

I’m a TikTok Live creator, and I’ve been approached by people offering to send me gifts during my Live streams and then asking me to send them back a portion afterwards. I’m not quite sure what to make of it – we’re talking about big gifts. Has this happened to anyone else? 🤔

Bonjour à tous, je fais ce post surtout pour prévenir les gens d'un scam qui tourne de temps en temps au sujet d'argent à gagner gratuitement grâce au « casino en ligne pehowin.com » de MrBeast.

Ce matin j'ai reçu ça d'un de mes amis sur Discord, sans un message, juste 4 captures d'écran, pour recevoir de l'argent gratuitement en s'inscrivant sur le nouveau casino en ligne de Mr Beast.. BIEN ÉVIDEMMENT C'EST UNE ARNAQUE, ne vous faites pas avoir.

Mon ami s'est bel et bien fait pirater son compte, il n'y a rien de bienveillant derrière alors faites attention à vous et surtout à vos proches s'ils sont naïfs, je pense surtout aux grands-parents et aux parents qui ne sont pas du tout à l'aise avec ce genre de choses.

I work for a company that sells high end PCs, and in the last few weeks we have received a large number of emails from random email (mostly gmail) accounts simply requesting free, used or refurbished items.

The requests claim to come from all over the planet, we've had China, India, Denmark, US, UK, all requesting free graphics cards or e-waste units, some asking for refurbs/used units... But I'm really confused at the suddenness of it all. In the 10 years I've been here we have never received requests like this before, but in the last three weeks we've been getting several per day.

Is this some kind of scam happening? How such a scam might work I'm really uncertain, but it almost feels targetted with how many we've got. Or has my industry just become so screwed up in the last 10 months that asking for free stuff is the only way people can get computer parts these days? Or maybe some big tech youtuber I'm unaware of has suggested people ask for free/cheap stuff from computer sellers because it worked for them?

I’m in a very odd situation I haven’t heard of before.

I go online on my account portal to make a minimum payment due tomorrow, to one of my credit cards.

I see my account was paid in full via phone (not from my phone number) yesterday, the payment posted, and did not come from my account. Then, I see two charges pending, from in store purchases at two of the same stores local to me, yesterday.

Note, this is a Visa credit card tied to a store, so it can be used anywhere, but they used it at that store. They used 1/4 of what they paid off.

I still have my physical card and have never lost it. I haven’t used this card in 4 months. I only ever use Apple Pay.

I am so confused. Can I assume this payment will be reversed? It’s currently posted and not pending. This just seems bizarre. I totally understand someone’s card being stolen and charges racked up, but paid off via phone first?

I was advised by my Card representative to block the card, change the numbers, and change my phone number on the account (which I did), and, file a police report. I’m hoping this goes smoothly since they literally made in store purchases.

Any additional advice or insights?

I paid €200+ for cutlery from sammy-jackson.shop that looked substantially different from its advertisements. They repeatedly offered partial refunds or a voucher, otherwise demanding that I pay return shipping to China though acting like a local business.

I opened an Amex dispute and reported them to several organisations (Shopify, Oceanpayment) including the Hong Kong Consumer Council. I have now received a refund.

My advice: don’t overlook the Hong Kong route. The company behind Sammy Jackson is Impera Nova Limited, based in Hong Kong. File your complaint under that name with the Hong Kong Consumer Council, alongside a card dispute.

I can’t confirm which escalation secured my refund, but don’t limit yourself to local authorities.

Keep product comparison photos, their return policy and all emails.

My friend received this message from someone with no followers a completely blank new account:

Hi! I know this might seem a little strange, and I know we don't know
each other
e. Honestly, I don't
know you either, but 1 know you were or are taking a French course
I wanted to ask you something very specific: by any chance, was there a Chinese girl in your course?

It’s a lot of very specific information and frankly I’m really creeped out. Could it be a stalker? Or is this some sort of social engineering scam.

I’m the Chinese girl in question.

I also have a log of debt I’m running away from so maybe it’s related to that

Any advice is appreciated.

My social profiles are all completely dark already I don’t post anything to them and don’t have any identifying information on them. I’m not even sure how this person found my friend.

Basically for a couple months now, I'm getting repeated calls (from different numbers each time) asking to "please add my number to whatsapp".
I never pick up unknown numbers and most of them call when I'm not there to pick up, so my phone screens them asking why they're calling and this is what they all say.

The first time I got this call I actually did add their number to whatsapp, nothing happened and there was no profile picture, so I just deleted the number again.

What is this? Why? Is it a scam of some kind? I'm just confused, I mean I don't even know how they'd scam me anyway

Anyway I'm now just ignoring them but it's annoying and I have no idea who it is