Possible Scam?

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chuck
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Possible Scam?

Postby chuck » Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:13 am

Received an email offer this morning allegedly from Lionel.com. It was actually routed through an Oracle web hosting site that has been flagged before for potentially malicious material. My Avast Security sweet blocked the redirect. I have emailed Lionel directly about this. I will report back any information I receive from Lionel. I did check their web site and I don't see a link pertaining to the ad.
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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby chuck » Thu Mar 25, 2021 5:04 pm

OK, heard back from Lionel.

Good afternoon,



It is a legitimate email from our newsletter emailing program. We are happy to forward this information over to our IT and marketing departments.



Thank you,
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad, now it's done --
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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby rogruth » Sun Mar 28, 2021 9:20 pm

Thanks for the info.
roger

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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby chuck » Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:03 pm

You're welcome. You can't be too safe. Chrome seems to have security patches almost weekly.

Avast has been pretty good about blocking dangerous sites. It is still reporting the link as a possible phishing attempt/site and has a serious warning about visiting it. It is possible the subcontractor misconfigured something and that is why it is tripping the alarm. All I know is that Lionel authorized the mass mailing. That doesn't mean the site hasn't been hi-jacked.
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
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Once I built a railroad, now it's done --
Brother, can you spare a dime?

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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby robert. » Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:52 am

chuck wrote:You're welcome. You can't be too safe. Chrome seems to have security patches almost weekly.

Avast has been pretty good about blocking dangerous sites. It is still reporting the link as a possible phishing attempt/site and has a serious warning about visiting it. It is possible the subcontractor misconfigured something and that is why it is tripping the alarm. All I know is that Lionel authorized the mass mailing. That doesn't mean the site hasn't been hi-jacked.

It could be that the site does scam emails or mass emails. They may do legit ones and phishing ones. My phone gives a notice of possible scam with some callers numbers. I had a customers trying to reach me. Every time they called i would see an id. of possible scam. I never answered their call. One day the customer says " Why don't you answer when i call?" I told him " You never call" We went through my phone to see his number. There it was listed next to possible scam. " See i call you every day" He works in a large mortgage center. When his call leaves their building . It is on their internet services. My phone will recognize that address as a boiler room address. Legit or not.
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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:14 am

robert. wrote:My phone will recognize that address as a boiler room address. Legit or not.


Might need a new phone.........
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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby robert. » Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:47 am

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
robert. wrote:My phone will recognize that address as a boiler room address. Legit or not.


Might need a new phone.........

I added his number to my contacts and it now says “ his name” it’s not the phone . It’s apple’s iso 14.7 update. If the customer was using his cell service to call there would not have been a problem. When he logged into his company internet. That is when the problem happens.
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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:57 am

robert. wrote: apple


Say no more.
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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby chuck » Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:44 am

VOIP phone calls are causing a lot of headaches for almost everyone. The tools necessary to actually ID the scammer are not easily accessible. The information is embedded in the packets but most consumers do not have access to the tools or knowledge to properly use them if they did. Caller ID is just a text string embedded in the packet, easily spoofed. A second level of ID is also there, CNAM. This is much harder to spoof but much harder to "read" (requires access to the billing data bases). Even if your phone can display the CNAM info about all you can do is report it up the line and hope that someone with appropriate access can look it up.

The wireless services have tried the blunt instrument approach of flagging any ip address ranges they suspect. Not great but it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. The scamming is so bad that we have received incoming calls purporting to be from our own home phone! In theory I should be able to pull this information as our home phone/land line is actually a VOIP service layered on top of our internet service provider. The vendor just doesn't allow access to the raw information. It does allow free blocking services including rejection of any "unknown number" calls and I can block up to 100 numbers at any one time (I have to edit down the list every few months).

We used to use WireShark, a free (at least it was free back in the day) network analysis tool to ferret out issues with a packet switching network. Setting it up to capture wasn't too hard. Reading/interpreting the results was a different story. It was also only useful on capturing "local" traffic, aka stuff on the net you were physically connected to. In order to retrieve additional information you needed to have supervisory access to talk to the switches directly. In addition you needed alternate access to the switches. That wasn't something that was passed out. We often worked with a network admin that would guide us through filter selection and we would capture packet streams and forward those for further analysis.

While technically our land line is VOIP, all of that is handled back at the switch. Caller lookup shows a land line even though it's not a twisted pair copper wire. The "cable" modem has multiple layers of data streams (you can see the indicator lights on the modem indicating which are active) and most of the internet tools are only of use on the internet streams. When we have to reboot the modem you can watch the service lights come up in sequence. Some have multicolor LED's that help indicate the status. The phone service is almost the last to come on-line (WiFi is technically the last but that's local to the modem/house). We don't get a dial tone until that light is on steady green. Whole process takes about 5 minutes from off to fully functional.
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad, now it's done --
Brother, can you spare a dime?

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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby rogruth » Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:50 am

Chuck,
WOW! Lots of info. I understand most of it but it's much more than I can handle. :( :D :roll: :wink: :lol:
roger

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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:24 am

chuck wrote:VOIP phone calls are causing a lot of headaches for almost everyone.


Solution is to turn off the sound to the phone and have it roll to the answering machine; if it's a spam call, they hang up w/o any message. If it's not a spam call, they start talking and we pick up.
Conservatism: The intense fear that somewhere, somehow, someone you think is inferior is being treated as your equal.

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chuck
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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby chuck » Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:26 pm

Solution is to turn off the sound to the phone and have it roll to the answering machine; if it's a spam call, they hang up w/o any message. If it's not a spam call, they start talking and we pick up.


Some of the Robo calls actually start talking after about 5 seconds (I assume they bought an "unlimited plan"). We've picked up a number of extend your car warranty calls on the voice mail and answering machines. This is especially true if the robo call detects the voice mail/answereing machines announcement that we aren't there to take the call. Occasionally the two robots start taking to each other with the "beeps" triggering additional talk. On rare occasions we get two calls coming in at about the same time with the first going to voice mail server and the second to the phones digital answering machine. I programmed 5 rings for voice mail and six for answering machine. "Press six for Spanish" "I'm sorry that is an invalid selection" "Press one to speak to an operator" "I'm sorry that is an invalid selection" "Thank you, goodbye".
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad, now it's done --
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Rufus T. Firefly
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Re: Possible Scam?

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:20 pm

chuck wrote:"Press six for Spanish"


I like that -- I'll make mine press Pi for Klingon.
Conservatism: The intense fear that somewhere, somehow, someone you think is inferior is being treated as your equal.


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