Help Scammers/Spammers

[Brian706]

Okay, so I got an interesting scam/spam text this afternoon and it's got me a bit stumped.

I just spent 9 days at my brother's house watching his dogs while him and his wife went on vacation.

So today I get this text:


Mind you, the scribbled out text is my brother's address. Can someone please explain to me how they tied my phone number to that location in the 9 days I stayed there?

 

[olbriar]

Crazy isn't it? My email address is lower case r then last name @ lat te dah. A week or so ago I got a junk email to Ralph. Next day I got a couple more. Now every bs email is calling my Ralph.
I'm thinking about changing my name. Katie bar the door if you do a google search for some random thing. Within a few minutes everyone is trying to sell you one. It's a crazy world we live in.
Not good... just crazy!

You might as well order up your brother some replacement windows or vinyl siding. That's what brothers do.

 

[Brian706]

I get that they can get a hold of your personal information. Home address, name, etc. I just want to know how they knew I was at my brother's house? I have no information tied to that place. I just simply stayed there for a week.

Now how did some random scammer know where I was staying or get a hold of my location data?

 

[olbriar]

Google location service perhaps?

 

[Brian706]

Google location service perhaps?

I'm thinking that location services is part of the deal. I guess my confusion stems from not understanding how they got access to that information.

This one just has me confused as I can't figure out what's happening.

 

[olbriar]

Big Brother... somewhere, sold your information. Pretty raw deal IMO. Happens daily to everyone that uses any location service.

 

[Brian706]

I'm tempted to reply and play along just to see where it goes.

 

[olbriar]

Might lead you somewhere. I don't know what you can do about it but you might get some clue where they got your info.

 

[Brian706]

I doubt there's much I can do. I'm sure all of these scammers are using bogus phone numbers. I'll let you know if I toy with them a little.

 

[Hadron]

One nasty possibility is that one of your apps is knowingly passing or selling this information to scammers.

One thing I deeply dislike about the Play Store is that they do not give you any warning when an app you have installed changes hands, e.g. when QuickPic (a nice little gallery app) was bought by Cheetah Mobile (data-miners who sold your data to anyone who would pay). You are just left to spot that the developer has changed, which is hard enough anyway but with Google heavily promoting automatic updates is very unlikely for most people. So it's quite possible for an app that has been installed for a long time to become a liability, and you are given no hint that anything has changed.

 

[tube517]

One possibiility is whitepages.com or similar websites.

They have relatives information and address history under each person. And of course phone numbers that were listed before.

Too much information out there

 

[MoodyBlues]

Can someone please explain to me how they tied my phone number to that location in the 9 days I stayed there?

No, I certainly can't, but just wanted to say they're coming up with new twists/turns all the time.

I recently started receiving snail mail to my maiden name. I mean Jane Doe instead of my married name Jane Smith. I haven't been called Jane Doe since I was 17! And that was.....*cough*....many decades ago. It's really weird, and makes me wonder where the hell they got that. I happen to be back in the same city I grew up in, but I moved away and lived elsewhere for many years. It's just strange to be called the same name I had when I originally lived here, you know?

 

[Dngrsone]

No, I certainly can't, but just wanted to say they're coming up with new twists/turns all the time.

I recently started receiving snail mail to my maiden name. I mean Jane Doe instead of my married name Jane Smith. I haven't been called Jane Doe since I was 17! And that was.....*cough*....many decades ago. It's really weird, and makes me wonder where the hell they got that. I happen to be back in the same city I grew up in, but I moved away and lived elsewhere for many years. It's just strange to be called the same name I had when I originally lived here, you know?

I think that information is included in your credit history. THat's how they managed to tie my previous spouse to me a good decade after the divorce (and cross-country parting of ways)

 

[MoodyBlues]

I think that information is included in your credit history.

True, that. But these mails are from companies like home warranty....and I can't remember what else, but nothing to do with a credit card offer or anything like that, that could've involved a soft pull. (I monitor my credit like a hawk, and I'd definitely notice a hard pull!)

THat's how they managed to tie my previous spouse to me a good decade after the divorce (and cross-country parting of ways)

Oh no!! That sucks.

 

[puppykickr]

True, that. But these mails are from companies like home warranty....and I can't remember what else, but nothing to do with a credit card offer or anything like that, that could've involved a soft pull. (I monitor my credit like a hawk, and I'd definitely notice a hard pull!)

Oh no!! That sucks.

Don't feel bad.
I get annoying e-mails for my father, from the political party that he claims to be a part of.

He is 75.
He does not use e-mail, or the internet.
He cannot remember his e-mail address, let alone mine.
He donates no money.
We are at odds politically.

How did this political party (better said as scammers looking for donations supposedly for this political party) get my e-mail, and why are they asking for my father by name on my e-mail account?!?

 

[MoodyBlues]

Don't feel bad.
I get annoying e-mails for my father, from the political party that he claims to be a part of.

He is 75.
He does not use e-mail, or the internet.
He cannot remember his e-mail address, let alone mine.
He donates no money.
We are at odds politically.

How did this political party (better said as scammers looking for donations supposedly for this political party) get my e-mail, and why are they asking for my father by name on my e-mail account?!?

Oh, I can relate! To some of it, anyway.

I get mail addressed to my mother, offering everything from life insurance to credit cards, hearing tests to funeral plots. Mom died in 2013.

I get mail addressed to my brother. As above, plus information on planning for Medicare. He died in 2014. He'll never see 65--he killed himself at 56.

My mom, I was really proud of her, and I've written about her before, I'm sure. She used computers from their early days--BUT they always ran the dreaded micro$oft so-called operating systems. She did everything, from e-mail to playing games. When she was 80, I wiped window$ off her computer and replaced it with my favorite Linux distro, Kubuntu. She asked what I was doing and I said I was upgrading her computer.

Afterward, with no instruction, I let her have at it. I had configured it to only have one desktop--since that's all window$ users could have, and I didn't want her getting confused by accidentally switching to another desktop--and I made its UI familiar to her, with a taskbar on the bottom, a cascading menu, etc. I installed things she was already using, like SeaMonkey (or whatever it was called back then) browser and e-mail client, games that I thought she'd like, an office suite, etc. She had ZERO problems. Her one ongoing complaint? "It's too fast!!" She couldn't believe that her slow, cumbersome computer had magically turned into a fast, blazing, easy to use version. Loved it!