[RRM]

Another day, another attempt to scam. What all ways to scam!

31-Oct-22
Opened my personal email and the first mail downloaded was from YouTube. Initially I thought it may be the usual YT terms and conditions but looking closer, the subject line was different.

Few screen shots below

Based on the email I was asked to contact via Telegram. The first point where I grew suspicious was the spelling mistake - telegramme instead of Telegram.

I like brotomotiv folks for the overall work that they do, and the videos that are posted. I happen to comment "green is next level" on one the video where a VW Polo color was changed from white to green color and it was fabulous

Now, it was quite evident that one will not get a prize for a comment in YT. The prize mentioned was iphone14 pro. I was curious to know how far this will go and hence contacted as mentioned in the email.

The person on the other side congratulated me for winning the prize and asked me to contact their logistics manager. I asked his name, and he mentioned as Parikshit. This name is actually one of the owners of brotomotiv. He also mentioned that I need to pay for the custom clearance, but shipping is free - Another red flag

I pinged the logistics manager. He introduced his name as Gardner. He asked what the prize is? It surprised me that he doesn't know what prize I got - another red flag here. I told him about the prize, and he immediately shared the photographs as well as his id card and assuring me to deliver the package by tomorrow. I asked him about the amount I need to pay, and he responded - USD 100

I said - why don't you pay and send it and after I receive the package will make the same payment back to you. By this he got literally agitated. He said - sir you are getting me angry!!! I have told you it is legit - another red flag. No one gets angry when a customer says something rather will try to convince by saying - it is a process et all.

I just wrote back to the guy whom I had contacted first and mentioned that you are trying to scam me, and I have informed the cyber security folks and they will reach out to you. Post that there is no communication from either of them.

I reached out to brotomotiv (email as well as call) and was told that it is indeed a scam and they have received many such calls. They also mentioned that they are only available in Insta and YT and not in Telegram. This also confirmed my suspicion

There were many red flags here in each step. We need to extremely careful and vigilant (as far as possible), to the emails or SMS or phone calls that comes and states something that catches our eyes/ears and lures us into doing an irreversible mistake. I get SMS of similar fashion which states KYC is pending, with a link given and ofcourse that it is not legit.

Similar issue happened to one of my female colleagues where she was contacted by a guy via WhatsApp (unsure how he got her number) and mentioned that he lives in Germany and works for German Navy. Later shared his pic as well as family pic of mother and sister. He chatted as well as did video call with her for 2-3 days and mentioned that he is sending a gift to her. She will have to just pay the custom clearance the moment it reaches India and someone from the logistics will call her. She happened to share with me, and I was thinking (so did she) as to why someone would send her gifts in 2-3 days of chat as well as family pics and all. I told her to casually do a search in google for any such scams and there it is - enough cases mentioned, and she got the picture as to what is he up to and immediately blocked him and got saved just at nick of time!

With so many red flags, I thought it is worth to share here so that the community gets to know of such scamsters and be alert and share further.

Thanks, RRM

[shankar.balan]

Basically if something seems too good to be true then it probably isn’t true at all.
Good that we are becoming more and more socially aware about these scams.

[condor]

Very old method. For many years it has been winning a lottery where one has not even participated, and now this one about comments on a video ?

Like Shankar said - if something sounds too good to be true, then it is so. Either too good OR true. Not both.

[Funny]

I've seen this exact comment on one of the videos on the said YT channel. The immediate red flag is the spelling mistakes on the commentor's/channel's name and obviously if the said channel was running such a campaign they would've clearly described about it in the video or the video's description. If you are in doubt then it's best to contact the channel and find out if it's true else just let them know about the con guys taking advantage of their channel, they could probably have those users banned from commenting on their channel. Also lastly as told above, nothing comes for free, if something is free then there's a catch or it's a scam.

[adi.mariner]

Any particular reason why all these scammers use such poor English and make some very obvious spelling mistakes. Won't they be more legit if they use a spell check and proof read before sending their messages?

[ajayc123]

Originally Posted by adi.mariner

Any particular reason why all these scammers use such poor English and make some very obvious spelling mistakes. Won't they be more legit if they use a spell check and proof read before sending their messages?

Somewhere I had read that use of poor English is intentional, so as to target less sophisticated people, who cannot make out the difference as they are likely to be easier targets. One such resource.

Link

[Harsha89]

OP should be aware that such messages are posted in almost all YouTube videos. On closer observation, no one even comments to these scam messages, due to fear of being targeted. I wonder why you went to such pains as to exchange emails with said scammer.

Anyway all ends well, and experience gained.

[vaibhavyagnik]

Originally Posted by Harsha89

OP should be aware that such messages are posted in almost all YouTube videos. On closer observation, no one even comments to these scam messages, due to fear of being targeted. I wonder why you went to such pains as to exchange emails with said scammer.

Anyway all ends well, and experience gained.

I run a small youtube channel and get frequent mails for collaboration from hackers trying to steal my channel. I entertain them because I am knowledgeable about what not to do. The more time they spend on me, is less time they have to spend on someone who is far more gullible.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by adi.mariner

Any particular reason why all these scammers use such poor English and make some very obvious spelling mistakes.

Because they are most likely working/have worked in a poor grade call center going by their affinity towards an English (language not the region) name. Usually they try to scam overseas victims(multiple videos on YouTube about them) but maybe they're also going local.
Or most likely from the already famed areas of our hinterland where this is a full time occupation.

In the OP, if the overall language or the number of times "okay" was used wasn't a dead giveaway the usage of "Mr. Parikshit" to name himself was a smoking gun for an adopted external identity. Who would refer to themselves as "Mr. XYZ" when asked about their names

I rarely get these and if detected, just "block and report". Pointless to waste time on such jokers.
If enough people start hanging up and reporting there will be no business for them.

If you engage, its a positive sign for them to make a sale(scam is essentially a sale without the product). If you hang up they can't sell anything to a dead line.

[RRM]

Agreed. I got such email for the first time though. I was trying to see until what extent the discussion will go. There were enough red flags as I had mentioned. There was no email exchange here. I blocked both ids in telegram after the initial interaction.

[nettooran]

Guess its is catching up very fast. HAd the same experiance yesterday. For a moment I was actullaly thrilled to be DM'ed by a favourite youtuber. The moment he gave his Telegram ID, I was skeptical.

I was given an option of an Iphone1 4 pro max, macbookpro, s22 ultra and a PS5. he asked me to select whichever I want . ( God ! I wish if this was not a SCAM.)

Had some time to spare , so went on to have some fun with the guy. I am still mesaging him in my free time. He is yet to realize.

My only worry is , Even though my profile is an Information Security Consulant, It took time for me to realize it is a scam for the first few minutes. Imagine what these guys would be doing to the non-tech folks. I am sure there have been many vulnerable people, especally the old generation.

[Amrik Singh]

I am one of those unlucky ones who did not even get this mail.
Although, if I look at my Spam Mail Folder, I am a multi millionaire by now and have a long list of Banks extending Credit Card to me - all pre approved.
We are the ones who have not fallen for these scams and laugh over the scammers. However for them, even one guy who falls over the scam, makes their day.
We must understand that Nothing is Free in this World.

[Chhanda Das]

Originally Posted by RRM

Another day, another attempt to scam. What all ways to scam!

This is an age-old practice. My son was contacted by a scamster from "Amajhon" who offered a free car which my son had allegedly won (audio evidence below). We would just have to pay a paltry sum of money. After receiving the money, they would then deliver/release the car to us after 2-3 days of processing the documents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEEs29i6V-Q

[Herschey]

I have had my Bank KYC expired at least a dozen times in the past 2 months. It always involved a fake spoof website with a dubious URL trying to steal login and profile credentials. From people faking to sell products on social media and then running away with money to people trying to literally extort money in the name of unblocking credit and debit cards, I've seen and laughed on them all.

I have also been privy to an elderly gentleman loosing quite a bit of his post retirement money to one such spammer and since then, I've been regularly reporting all such fraudsters to the 'Govt. of India's National Cyber Crime' portal. The link is as follows for everyone's benefit: https://cybercrime.gov.in/Webform/crmcondi.aspx

If not pursue these fraudsters and waste their time, let's be reactive enough in reporting such criminals to the authorities.

[RRM]

Originally Posted by Herschey

I have had my Bank KYC expired at least a dozen times in the past 2 months. It always involved a fake spoof website with a dubious URL trying to steal login and profile credentials. From people faking to sell products on social media and then running away with money to people trying to literally extort money in the name of unblocking credit and debit cards, I've seen and laughed on them all.

My bank KYC renewal request came today from a well wisher The link shared was obviously fake. Blocked and deleted the number