Here’s an odd cautionary tale.
The other day I got a call. The usual fraud robot caller saying somthing about a $600 dollar charge. I hang up on it as is normal.
However, I’m a bit paranoid when it comes to money. I’ve had money taken from me more times then I’d like to admit. So I check anyway.
Obviously there’s no random $600 charges on there and the robo caller was just a scammer. But I do see something weird. A charge for $1 to a Vietnamese eatery up in North York (I’m not sure if I am allowed to name it).
I live downtown and hardly ever go to North York. Even more weird is that is was for $1. Nothing in any restaurant cost $1 not even the delivery fees. Again I am paranoid so I report and lock down the card. A massive inconvenience these days.
However, the bank has confirmed it was fraud, and they are changing up my card numbers.
Has this happened to anyone else? I have no idea how they got me.
One theory I have is that this was a probe. Simular to when you set up a PayPal account and they charge you $1 to verify your credit information is correct. But why whould an eatery do that?
Either that or scammers got a giant list of numbers and charged them $1 each hoping no one whould bother reporting it.
You comment on “assuming it exist” made me double check. And it’s gone. It no longer seems to exist on Maps. However I am seeing it on doordash and uberests at several differnt location running as a series of ghost kitchens.
The expense description had a number which, when I Google only had a bunch hits about “why is this calling me?” And other stuff related to fraudulent calls. So that whould give some evendence to your voice prompt theory. I did fall for one of those awhile back as reception in my office is terrible I can never tell if I’m getting one or if it’s a genuine call.
Ahh yeah. Ghost businesses not really existing are another big one, it’s how they get payment processors to allow them a PoS terminal if they don’t have the ability to remote control someone else’s.
The rabbit hole of how scammers operate is a fun one to go down.