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Comment by UqWBcuFx6NV4r | Hacker News Reader

That is completely impractical for most people.

Say what?!

It sounds extremely obvious and infinitely practical.

How often are you (or your parents) legitimately asked for money via email / internet? I mean, my answer is: never. My parents' answer is: never. My parents-in-law answer is: never.

The scam is usually a phone call from a loved one in jail or the hospital. It immediately creates a sense of panic and fully explains the random phone number. The voice doesn't have to sound like you either.

This is where "security questions" can be useful; neither the question nor answer need to be real, and the more outrageous the better.

"You're my daughter? Then tell me the name of your twelth pet centipede."

For voice scams this is critical. I set up duress codes with all of my non technical and elderly family and close friends last year.

It should be a simple, pink-elephant-type nonsense question and answer that you rehearse a few times in person and make sure they never share with others. “Q: What’s your favorite leprechaun? A: Rutabaga” or something. Even cognitively impaired folks can, with a few rehearsals over a day or so, retain that easily, I’ve found.

Reminding them to practice it when people reach out pretending to be me takes a bit more rehearsal, but I’ve found that it sticks reliably even then.

I use "Queen to queen's level 3" and then wait for the appropriate response.

The answer is easily found by Google, and any AI could give the correct answer instantly.

And that's why you teach your elders the wrong answer for a right question! :D

That's not "usually" the scam. It's a scam, but it's not the most common.

Great if that works for you.

Asking for money is common over voice or whatsapp in some countries for things like medical care, funerals, weddings, police "fines", school fees etc.

Yeah, fair point, it's pretty well outside normal for me (there's a world outside of my lived experience? Nah!)

The scams have to be culturally relevant to be effective, which is why they set out wide bets looking to see what sticks with a fairly small target audience.

An addendum is don't give money when you're called by a "legitimate contact", call them back first. The scammer is remote so they can pretend to be the "legitimate contact" but not so easy to block the real legitimate contact from being contacted for validation.

Wow. Well those people are going to be scammed. A LOT

Yeah they do. Now add mobile money to the equation.

Why?

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