FWIS3

I was wondering how my last credit card number got stolen, well, it may have been one of these.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/beware-new ... r-me-scam/

You don't have to actually believe the scam to get scammed, you only have to say "yes" during the phone call.

But how can you get charged if you don’t provide a payment method? The con artist already has your phone number, and many phone providers pass through third-party charges.

In addition, the criminal may have already collected some of your personal information -- a credit card number or cable bill, perhaps -- as the result of a data breach. When the victim disputes the charge, the crook can then counter that he or she has your assent on a recorded line.

That part I highlighted is extra disgusting to me TBH, though not exactly surprising - I'm also remembering when text message spam started being a thing, and phone providers would charge people for IM spam they received. This kind of shit is why I'm a huge believer in regulation.

Ugh, that's why I just send all my unknown phone calls straight to voicemail. It's just ridiculous how much these scams proliferate.

I will say though I sure appreciated the few months at the beginning of the pandemic where they stopped. I guess even these lowlifes don't want their families to know what they do!

Yeah, this is also yet another reason I hate how the "professional" world (as well as medical stuff, government related stuff, etc.) still demands phone calls for everything. Realtime voice communication makes it super easy to take advantage of people, or make all kinds of mistakes. It's also ableist as hell, e.g. makes things difficult for hard of hearing folks, or for people like me who have noise processing issues. (Especially with how bad voice call quality is these days, and how poor quality phone speakers are.)