> cons target someone currently vulnerable

This. I am a senior software dev, living in Switzerland. Few years ago there was an issue with my residence permit renewal, process that should have taken few weeks took more than a year. No way to contact that Geneva immigration office, and you can't visit them personally, emails ignored. Official phone contact is just a single phone that often rang few times and then dropped the call, 19 out of 20 times. Few times it was picked up clearly annoyed and couldn't-be-bothered woman who just told me to wait, no further info. My boss applied for same after me, got the papers in 3 weeks.

Me and my kids (who have same permit as me) were basically living in Switzerland semi-illegally, while sporting high paying permanent banking job and wife is a doctor.

One day a call came which introduced themselves as Swiss police, a very elaborate scheme, stating that my ID was used in fraud and I am being investigated. They caught me in this period of fear of getting deported, ruining efforts of past 15 years and my whole family lives. I followed through, they were very clever, pulled just the right strings.

But then came the moment when all this could be solved if I just went to the shop and bought... Apple gift card. LOL. But man I felt extremely vulnerable and under tremendous stress during those few hours.

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jan_Inkepa a day ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah, I remember a friend getting a call during coworking and her face just went white, and after the call she told us that was the tax people calling about irregularities (she had moved countries and was slow in sorting out her tax situation), and we all bought it - there was no sober "oh yeah it's a scam" advice from us - it was really perfectly timed, and took a day or to for her to reason through that it must be a scam. (No money lost though!)

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giveita a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

AML/KYC laws have done us a big favour. Otherwise that would be a bank txn they would ask for. And now buying $200 of gift cards as an actual gift is impossible (in physical space)

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mothballed a day ago | parent | next [-]

Always verify a wire details through an initiated call to a verified number of the legitimate institution in question.

My country has AML law, but all the time people are tricked into wiring money to scammer for a house or something else because they take wire details by spoofed e-mail or a received phone call.

The scammers are very clever, they will monitor e-mail from a title company or some other company with large invoices, then trick you at the exact moment you are making a legitimate transaction to a legitimate institution. Because you did not make a mistake sending the wire, nor did the bank, only sent it to exactly the wrong person, once the wire gets forwarded on out of country you're often SOL.

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Beretta_Vexee 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Many scammers have sources in government agencies, companies, insurance companies, etc.

The day my mother asked to receive her pension, she received calls from scammers, even though she had been relatively spared until then. I have had similar feedback from people who have to call for help with mental health, depression or addiction issues.

These people have no scruples and are willing to pay others without much hesitation.

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giveita a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Correct. There is more verification buying a beer at some pubs than sending $1m.

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FabHK a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> AML/KYC laws have done us a big favour.

And crypto, needless to say, enables these pig butchering scams (and others). The Economist estimates the scam industry to rake in about $500 bn a year.

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alexdbird a day ago | parent | prev [-]

We are all vulnerable at some point. I'd even go as far as saying we all fall for something at some point. Even if it's something small the psychological effect can be large, and there can be a lot of shame, so many do not share their experience.