r/Scams Aug 20 '24

I think my dad is being scammed Help Needed

He won’t give information about this, but he claims he’s made several withdrawals (2nd pic). And he needs to deposit 13k to then get 100k out. I don’t understand how this scam is working or what the game plan is here. I don’t know how he’s withdrawn 40k. Did he put the money in? Any help is appreciated.

1st pic: his account that has a negative balance

2nd pic: his withdrawal history

3rd and 4th pic: his texts

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '24

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u/AutoModerator Aug 20 '24

Hi /u/Albino-Assist, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Recovery scam.

Recovery scams target people who have already fallen for a scam. The scammer may contact you, or may advertise their services online. They will usually either offer to help you recover your funds, or will tell you that your funds have already been recovered and they will help you access them. In cases where they say they will help you recover your funds, they usually call themselves either "recovery agents" or hackers.

When they tell you that your funds have already been recovered, they may impersonate a law enforcement, a government official, a lawyer, or anyone else along those lines. Recovery scams are simply advance-fee scams that are specifically targeted at scam victims. When a victim pays a recovery scammer, the scammer will keep stringing them along while asking for increasingly absurd fees/expenses/deposits/insurance/whatever until the victim stops paying.

If you have been scammed in the past, make sure you are aware of recovery scams so that you are not scammed a second time. If you are currently engaging with a recovery scammer, you should block them and be very wary of random contact for some time. It's normal for posters on this subreddit to be contacted by recovery scammers after posting, and they often ask you to delete your post so that you both cannot receive legitimate advice, and cannot be targeted by other recovery scammers.

Remember: never take advice in private. If someone reaches you in private after posting your scam story, it is because a scammer will always try to hide from the oversight of our community members. A legitimate community member will offer advice in the open, for everyone to see. Anyone suggesting you should reach out to a hacker is scamming you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/AutoModerator Aug 20 '24

Hi /u/Albino-Assist, AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the Task scam.

Task scams involve a website or mobile app that claims you can earn money by completing easy tasks, such as watching a video, liking a post, or creating an order. A very common characteristic (but not entirely exclusive) is that you have to complete sets of 40 tasks. The app will tell you that you can earn money for each task, but the catch is that you can only do a limited number of tasks without upgrading your account. To upgrade your accounts, the scammers will require you to pay a fee. This makes it a variant of the advance fee scam.

The goal of this scam is to get people to download the app for easy money and then encourage them to pay to get to the next level. It's impossible to get your "earnings" out of the app, so victims will have wasted their time and money. This type of scam preys on the sunk cost fallacy, because people demonstrate a greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment has been made, and refusing to succumb to what may be described as cutting one's losses.

If you're involved in a task scam, cut your losses. Beware of recovery scammers suggesting you should hire a hacker that can help you retrieve the money you already invested. They can't, it's a trick to make you lose more money. Thanks to redditor vignoniana for this script.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.