tl;dr – a new one on me that almost had me. Fake Google security concern call
Got a call from 1-800-838-7971, a man identified himself as being from Google. The mic was not positioned well and there was typing (sounded like a sound track not real typing).
He said that someone called in and used personal information to change my phone number on my Gmail account. He knew my email and he knew my personal cell number.
In order to remove the phone number, I needed to write down a temporary password and then enter it when prompted. The password he gave me was MESB4!gg
I was suspicious. I asked him his name – he said James Wilson. I asked him what Google location he was at, he said 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 (The HQ). I told him I was a couple miles from there (true) and that I would stop in to meet him in person to discuss (bluff). He repeated his script(?) and said that I need to say “yes” to the prompt that would come on my phone. I opened my Google app on my phone and sure enough a prompt was there to recover my password…. Wow. Now I was questioning… I clicked “No”
I asked him who the CEO of Google was. He delayed and asked me to repeat it, and then (after enough time to check) gave me the right answer.
He sent me another prompt and said to click “Yes”. I clicked “No” (Note: after you click no the screen says – Sign in Stopped – you prevented an attempt to sign in to your account.)
I then told him that my friend who works at google that I was currently texting with (bluff) was going to look him up in the internal directly and call him. The guy hung up…
>I didn’t like that he knew personal stuff and was able to send that google request. I am guessing it is easy. Not sure where the scam would have went from there. But with my email he could access lots of sites…
May be an update on this scam:
