People are scum. I just spent 5 hours helping my 87 yo mom contact banks and credit card companies to recoup money. She called a number she found on google for customer service to cancel Youtube TV and instead called some scammer that convinced her to download an info sharing app onto her iphone. Yup, he emptied her bank accounts and bought numerous online gift cards. I deleted the app but who knows what else they retrieved.
Pardon me while I throw myself under the coming snow plow.
What was the exact name of the app they had her download and what was the phone number she called?
Lemme at 'em.
The guy's name (as recognized by Siri) was David at 804-491-8507. The app is called Iperius Remote Desktop.
How old did he sound? To your Mom?
@th3j35t3r She said maybe 35-40 with an accent that was kind of hard to understand, Maybe middle eastern. She said not Spanish.
Last question for now - what was the exact website she found that 804 number on?
I can't find that. She did a google search for You Tube tv customer service number.
I have not been able to recreate and find it, even after checking her history.
@ChippySuave Anything in her browser history?
@th3j35t3r She looked at this page, and based on the comments by Lorenzo Ebe, maybe this is where she got the number? It's the only place I can find a 1-80..... for you tube.
https://youtube-tv.pissedconsumer.com/questions-answers.html
@ChippySuave @th3j35t3r
Here's a post about a scam from a similar phone number. The scammer probably leased a block of sequential numbers
https://scammer.info/t/youtube-scammer-804-491-8455/112453
🍿 O.O
💙 @th3j35t3r
I’m so sorry that happened to your mom, I hope it’s all resolved at the banks asap! @ChippySuave
@ChippySuave @th3j35t3r
That phone number is in a range assigned to a telecom called Bandwidth. Here is their reporting form:
https://www.bandwidth.com/legal/report-a-phone-number/
It's a https://textnow.com number currently. It used to belong to a person called Chad N**** outta Hanson, KY - but it's long since been recycled and used by scammers. Tick tock. 👍
@th3j35t3r @ChippySuave
I can't find it searching for the phone number, which might indicate Google already has identified the page as a scam and removed it. I tried searching for an image of the phone number but the image search functions aren't good at telling text apart.
@ChippySuave @th3j35t3r
It seems that Bandwidth has a history of selling services to scammers. They got a cease and desist letter from the FTC last November.
You can look up who controls with numbers at https://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail
https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/warning-letters/cease-desist-letter-bandwidth-inc
@ChippySuave
Okay. TY. I'll circle back. 'David' lol.