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Ask HN: Scammed. Now what?

6 points by andreygrehov ↗ HN
Hey HN,

My wife has just been scammed through a PayPal phishing e-mail. I'm angry as fu*k, but long story short. Here is what she did:

  - typed her PayPal username/password;
  - provided her name, phone number and address
  - shared her credit card details
  - uploaded a photo holding her driver's license and cc. This is the format "required" by the fraudulent web site:
https://ibb.co/dAC5t6

Now here is what I've done so far:

  - changed her PayPal password
  - locked her CC
  - changed password on other web sites (email, amazon, etc.)
  - reported scammers to PayPal
Any other immediate steps I should take?

9 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 31.6 ms ] thread
Slaul
I would start with educating your family about phishing.

It might be worth calling the bank(s) you do business with and notifying them of the fraudulent activity so they can keep an eye out too.

samfisher83
You probably need to freeze the credit with the major agencies (experian, equifax, transunion)

This is for equifax: https://www.freeze.equifax.com

j_s
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15207754 (Sep 2017) <- the whole parent discussion there may be at least partially useful

>mistersquid: tl;dr: Freeze requests for your credit data at the big 3: Equifax [1], Experian [2], and Transunion [3]. (Note: these services may require multiple attempts, some persistence, a service fee, or a phone call to an automated system. YMMV.)

[1] https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo...

[2] https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

[3] https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze

>MicroBerto: Don't forget Innovis https://www.innovis.com/personal/securityFreeze

trcollinson
It’s hard to tell through text on a post on HN but make sure you take a breath and gently show your wife that you aren’t “angry as f*ck” at her. You might already have done this and if so, disregard this advice. But you sound overly mad. All of this is fixable. But she now had been violated and is the victim here. If I were in her shoes I would not want you to be angry with me as well. Phishers are pretty good at suckering people into these scams and she was caught. Oops. Life will go on.

Second, and this is coming from a guy who has horrible anxiety and panic attacks (me) especially when it comes to money and scams, again take a breath. Relax. It’s going to be ok.

andreygrehov
Thank you. I am mad, but I handled it properly. She was deeply frustrated, so I had to give her a hug and explain, that everything is ok.
pravula
No point in locking your CC. Ask for new credit cards. Also, add a security question or key to allow customer service to access your account (different from online one)

Freeze your credit, add a pin.

Get new DL number?

tomascot
Did they buy something? You can make PayPal reverse thr transaction. I was on the other side of this before, a scammer used a stolen account to pay me. PayPal reversed the transaction and I couldn't do anything. Really unfair considering that I wasn't the one phished.
assafmo
You should also cancel the credit card and make a new one