Warning: social engineering scam

[harryopal1]

€1.500 is a lot of money, what a shame. This type of scam is actually quite common and scammers often pretend to be from all kinds of well known companies like Amazon, a bank, Microsoft, the IRS or anything else that suits their heinous intentions.
Since this is a common practise, there are many videos online that explain the scammers' modus operandi. Often these videos are amusing to watch when the scammers are being hacked back and their identities are reveiled.
An interesting video is for instance this one of Jim Browning: Other well known youtubers dealing with this subject:
Kitboga
Scambaiter

Thanks for the video link. It would be nice to have that level of computer expertise. The thought occurs that another variation for scamming would be to make a call to someone using an Indian accent purporting to be from the victim's bank and then after a brief chat saying you would call back in half an hour. The new scam would then have the person calling the victim indicating that they are from their bank and are concerned about illegal access made by a scammer. "Have you recently had a call from someone with an Indian accent claiming to represent the bank?"
"Yes," says the victim.
"Luckily we have intercepted that illegal access which we can stop. So... here's what I want you to do..."

The earlier main scams were Nigerian emails along the lines of claiming to have a recommendation that you are an honest person and therefore would like your assistance in transferring $20,000,000 relating to surplus oil stocks and in doing so you would receive a 5% commission. I replied to one of these emails and said that I would like to help but was not satisfied with the commission and wanted 90% commission. The scammer responded with an indignant reply and scolded me for being greedy.

 

[free2readme]

Hello everyone, long time no see ...
I just felt like I owe to come back and give some update and feedback. As I was quite puzzled, in shock and upset in the past. However, totally my lesson to learn the hard way.

Although the matter has not been resolved yet between my bank, Wise and probably police (due to being summer vacations and people can finally travel)... I do want to give 100% thumbs up to Wise.

I decided to create a new account with Wise and they were absolute stars. Although I used both of my phone numbers and I had to use 3rd number which was from one of the family members, Wise changed it to my number a day later. I opened a new business account, verified, got the documents I needed for one marketplace which requires it and I am now all ready to go and verified. Accounts and all that stuff is set up. And business adventures await.
Money at this moment is still lost and it is going to be hard to launch and finance my project but I hope it will all work out in the end.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you read this...share it. A friend from the game shared this site with me and it was an eye opener. Now even more of you added some valuable content that can save someones bank card and identity.
And NEVER EVER accept any remote control sharing with anyone who you personally do NOT know.
Especially NEVER EVER when it comes to bank details. NEVER EVER give out last 3 digits on the back of your card, NO MATTER WHAT they say. THEY ARE LYING. Banks never ask for this. So, none else ever should be asking either.
NEVER EVER believe that someone can speed up the process for you, whatever you may need.
Be patient.

And thank you all who responded my thread. I really never expected anyone would since this also happened 2-3 years ago. Thank you. All the best to all of you and I hope all is well with you.
TG

 

[snpark]

Or just use a normal bank to bank transfer
Never trust a 3rd party app.
Plus shit rates
Use a bank.
Send Euro and get it next day here

I had a client last week use TransferGo to send me €37500. I got 612jt a day later. No faster than a normal bank. But 612jt is €35,500

I have now insisted he send me €2000 more. He owed me €37500. Not €35500

If he had sent it from a normal bank I would have got it the next day (same) but I would have got what he sent.

These days traditional banks are just as fast
I can send GBP from UK before I sleep and it's in Hsbc indonesia account when I wake up

US$ will always be slower because it routes through US and they are nosy and suspicious and check every transfer especially over $10,000 and then they are the ones usually who make mistakes routing it forward. Misspelled name etc which delays it.

 

[Vanuatu]

another good idea is to have 2 factor authentication enabled. With this, even if someone has access to your computer / passwords etc... they can't complete the transaction without a secondary code (usually sent to your HP)

 

[harryopal1]

I am still using Wise with a different account and compared to Aus banks the rates are way better and faster. Literally 5 minutes to have a transfer to my local account. My being scammed was to do with the frustration of finding a prompt way of addressing a problem over a less than $50 transferred that led me into the trap of the scammers. I have heard nothing further from Wise or had any contact from the local Cyber Crime Unit which seems focussed on internet and social media comment rather than financial scams. While the loss was painful to me, with millions of scams and now ransom ware hacking involving tens of millions of dollars I can see my incident as very very minor in the scheme of things. I have said goodbye to the money lost, am much more wary about internet transactions but have moved on.

 

[Ruserious]

Although i would not use Wise I feel that the header in this thread needs to be changed as it unfairly blames the company and anyone searching could stumble across it and get the wrong impression.

 

[harryopal1]

Maybe, but scammers are accessing the Wise site to organize illegal transactions which I thought was "hacking".

 

[Teabag]

Wise works perfect for me, since about 2 years. I use it to send money from europe to indonesia and it arrives within hours, sometimes even within minutes. No scam at all. Also the wise debit card works perfect, in Europe and Asia, always in the correct currency. To hold multiple currencies, Wise is the perfect App.

 

[Hawk256]

Maybe, but scammers are accessing the Wise site to organize illegal transactions which I thought was "hacking".

Technically you were hacked not Transfer Wise but the end result to you is the same.

 

[harryopal1]

If the scammers use the Wise web site transaction procedures to transmit their illegal, scammed funds why would that not be termed "hacking"? I am not tying to be argumentative just trying to understand the finer points of the terminology.

 

[Ruserious]

Wise web site transaction procedures to transmit their illegal, scammed funds why would that not be termed "hacking"

No. Hacking implies that they broke into the system and took money from your account. Sorry but you seem to have invited them in so the correct term would be phishing. I dont think you can really blame Transferwise for this.

 

[Hawk256]

If the scammers use the Wise web site transaction procedures to transmit their illegal, scammed funds why would that not be termed "hacking"? I am not tying to be argumentative just trying to understand the finer points of the terminology.

If Transfer Wise was hacked, then all of their customers data could be venerable. You were phished by scammers. If I trick you into sending me your personal information using Gmail, you wouldn't say I hacked Google.

 

[snpark]

Hacking is when you put your orange peel on a wet tissue and it grows into a tree. Don't you guys watch the Instagram videos?

 

[harryopal1]

Thank you for the clarification. I would like to say I am wiser but that would suggest I was already wise and have improved. I am not sure that is the case. It seems the more I know the less I know.

 

[Helpful Herbert]

I've found Wise is cheaper for smaller amounts (up to $1000) but their fees scale up quickly, so if you want to send 5 or 10k Wise becomes way more expensive than a normal bank transfer (which my bank charges just $30/transfer, regardless of amount transferred). Also using your bank gives you a level of assurance that Wise doesn't have (being just an app). But if I want to send £30 to someone abroad, Wise is great.

 

[pantaiema]

I've found Wise is cheaper for smaller amounts (up to $1000) but their fees scale up quickly, so if you want to send 5 or 10k Wise becomes way more expensive than a normal bank transfer (which my bank charges just $30/transfer, regardless of amount transferred). Also using your bank gives you a level of assurance that Wise doesn't have (being just an app). But if I want to send £30 to someone abroad, Wise is great.

It will depend which bank account you are using. HSBC for instance have a ordinary account, but they also have specialist account for currencies, the so called multi currencies account. Or HSBC global currency account.
Generally speaking unless you are using a specialist account, it is more likely you will get a worse exchange rate. Revolut is using an Interbank Exchange Rate, so it will always beat WISE. But it also has limitation.
WISE is using an interbank exchange rate + about mark up of 0.35%. 0.35% is small compare to what many bank will charge their customers using ordinary account.
The interbank exchange rate which is also called Mid Market rate is the one you see in xe.com, yahoo or google finance.

"The Wise card fee depends on the currency you spend in, and varies between 0.35% for popular currencies like EUR, USD, AUD, CHF; 0.38% for currencies like HUF; 0.39% for currencies like RON, PLN; and 1.18% for a currency such as BRL."

How Wise card fees compare to fees for using high street bank cards abroad

In the UK, our research found that it’s up to 87% cheaper to spend with a Wise card abroad, compared to high street banks, if you’re spending £1000. High...

wise.com

 

[jstar]

I've found Wise is cheaper for smaller amounts (up to $1000) but their fees scale up quickly, so if you want to send 5 or 10k Wise becomes way more expensive than a normal bank transfer (which my bank charges just $30/transfer, regardless of amount transferred). Also using your bank gives you a level of assurance that Wise doesn't have (being just an app). But if I want to send £30 to someone abroad, Wise is great.

I agree and have the same experience. Of course the costs can offset the difference in rates and vice versa.

I had a weird situation not so long ago; with my European bank I had a USD account next to the euro accounts. With the strong rate of the dollar and the parity between the currencies I wanted to transfer. That was for free with the bank but their rate really sucked. Wise was very awkward to use, they wanted me to transfer the dollars to their US bank account. Which makes perfect sense when you think about it but in my case didn’t eh …. make sense.