• radicalautonomy@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    You have no idea what I’m capable of in <<City>>. 🤣

    Such an obvious mail merge. I’d imagine there is a way to automate pulling the Google Street View images and pasting them in the document, but I don’t know how it’s done.

    But yeah, I got version 1 from that article and just shook my head at such a pathetic extortion attempt. I was like, “C’mon now…everyone in my life knows I’m a polyamorous hedonist. I could sell some of them whatever video you could ever possibly have of me that you definitely don’t. 😂”

  • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    20 hours ago

    I’ve gotten a few of these, but I just moved so it only included Google maps images of my old apartment, and I guess the data scrape didn’t get my phone number, so it included language like “I bet you wouldn’t like it if I called you at 0000000000, would you?”

    I’m savvy enough to laugh and delete, but I’m sure this would be very effective against some older Americans.

    • Praise Idleness@sh.itjust.works
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      9 hours ago

      Authy had a data leak that resulted in partial leak of phone numbers. God an email with this weak ass opener “I could’ve called 123xxxxx567 but I didn’t”

      bitch barely tried 🤣

    • seathru@lemmy.sdf.org
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      20 hours ago

      Yeah, I definitely knew it was fake when they called it a “beautiful neighborhood”. My friend did you even look at the picture you sent?

    • Steamymoomilk@sh.itjust.works
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      9 hours ago

      Gahhh they figured out how to use a publicly available database!

      Just you wait till they figure out what the phone book is!

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      17 hours ago

      I’m torn between asking them to put up or shut up, and maybe just not confirming they got an address that still works.

      • IllNess@infosec.pub
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        27 minutes ago

        Nah. Don’t reply back.

        If all else use VPN if there’s any tracking image in the email, and reply back with bogus information.

    • fitjazz@lemmyf.uk
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      14 hours ago

      I got example 1 verbatim about a month ago complete with Google street view picture of my house. Jokes on them, all of my porn viewing is on an ancient tablet that does not have a front facing camera.

      • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I got one a couple years ago that included an old password I had used to use. It was sent to my work email but because it had that info in it I did legit get scared…until it said it recorded me jerking it over my webcam. I don’t have a webcam.

        I found out at least 2 other coworkers got similar emails so me thinks a shitty work vendor got hacked

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        That’s the way to win. Never fill in your actual address. Just keep them trying and make up new fake addresses as soon as you can.

    • systemglitch@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      I’ve got a variant of this one about 15 times (minus the picture of my house). I sometimes read it out to my partner for the luls. I never keep a web cam attached to my computer, so I find it even more hilarious with the details they go into about my jerking activities and the questionable porn I watch (everything I enjoy is insanely tame lol)

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        4 hours ago

        They really are just looking for the lowest common denominators.

        I don’t have a webcam attached to my desktop, and my laptop is only used for work, and anyway it has a physical plastic cover over the camera.

        A lot of people will have a very similar setup so it’ll be very obvious that they don’t have anything. The only people this will actually catch out are those with a guilty conscience.

        I bet they have a disproportionate number of politicians pay up

  • frickineh@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    I keep kind of hoping I get this one. I’m ace, so I definitely haven’t been watching porn of any kind, and my house has changed dramatically since the last time google came by, so it would just be entertaining. But then I see people on nextdoor all freaked out that “someone has pictures of their house,” and it makes me wish for a large, extremely targeted sinkhole to open up under all these scammers.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      17 hours ago

      My sister got the one where the scam says her son got into a car accident and - mumbling through ‘a broken jaw’ so thats why the voice is off - Officer Peterson needs to arrange bail, but off the books.

      It was surprisingly effective, and my sister had a freakin’ heart attack as any parent would, and THOSE people can rot in a hell made of mealworms, ticks and black flies.

      • GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        These scams are effective because of a thing called Amygdala hijack which

        “is an emotional response that is immediate, overwhelming, and out of measure with the actual stimulus because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat.”

        You can get any human to do dumb things if you can by-pass their logical brain and have them work off the lizard brain.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        My grandma almost fell for this. Asked my mom what to do. Mom almost fell for it. After an hour of freaking out and preparing to go buy itunes gift cards or whatever it was, my mom thought to call me. “Oh my god are you ok what happened where are you etc”

        Uhh I’m at my apartment, getting ready for work.

        Everyone should talk to their parents and grandparents about this scam.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          4 hours ago

          Everyone should talk to their parents and grandparents about this scam

          It would be pointless with my mother, anything involving technology developed after the 1980s goes were in one ear and out the other.

          She never could work out the VCR, I never even bothered with a DVD player.

          They need to invent a “smart” TV that can be remotely controlled, so I don’t have to come around every time she wants to watch another episode of big bang theory, which apparently is the best show ever.

          • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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            2 hours ago

            It would be pointless with my mother, anything involving technology developed after the 1980s goes were in one ear and out the other.

            I just told mine, “If someone calls claiming to be me and says that ‘I’ am in trouble and need money, ask them [about thing from my pre-Internet childhood], and if they get the answer wrong, hang up, because it’s someone else imitating my voice.” No tech understanding required.

          • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            You could get a used pc for cheap, doesn’t need to be powerful. Plug in in to her tv, then set up her streaming services on there and then set it up so you can remote into it.

      • frickineh@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        My mom and I have talked about that kind of thing and she knows to call me directly if someone ever tries to say something happened to me. She’s not stupid, but maybe just not growing up with people constantly trying to scam her at every turn hasn’t prepared her for the depths these assholes will sink to, and they’ve gotten so much more sophisticated.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        17 hours ago

        Pointless – you need to beep through 4 doors to get to my unit. Hell, the elevator won’t even take you to the right floor unless you can get a fob from one of my neighbours so that button will work. Stairs are locked to get ONTO a floor, so they’re only good as exit stairs without another key that only firemen get, and you can’t get in by rappelling onto my patio either, Ethan Hunt.

        • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
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          13 hours ago

          Nobody wants to get into your apartment. This thread is about a digital scam. Have you been paying attention at all?