This person friended me from an online game I played asking if I wanted to be paid to be a penpal. I’m familiar with a lot of phishing scams and other sorts of scams but I’ve never seen a scam like this one. What exactly is this person trying to get from me, are they hoping to infect my device with something sinister or are they trying to phish information from me without me knowing it? They seem to put a lotta emphasis on me VIEWING this photo they’re gonna send me and it makes me think that whatever they’re gonna send me must be infected with some sort of trojan. Can someone explain to me what’s going on here?

  • AlfalFaFail@lemmy.ml
    63·
    1 day ago

    I’m going to outline this so everyone knows how this works in detail. There’s a number of comments talking about metadata, but this is remote check fraud.

    The key dialogue is here:

    “Okay the check will be written here then I’ll take picture of the check front and back then send it to you and you preview it on your laptop or iPad then you log in your bank app and take the snapshot to the provided space and you get the money”

    Phase 1

    1. Fraudster sends an image of a check through e-mail
    2. You use your computer to view the check
    3. You then use your phone’s bank app to deposit the check
    4. Your bank is required by US Law to make up to $500 available immediately

    Phase 2

    1. The fraudster makes an excuse of why they can’t do it any more or mentions that they over paid
    2. They ask you to send money through an untracable manner (Bitcoin, gift cards, etc)
    3. They may say something like you keep some for your effort or just lean on your kindness
    4. Your bank realizes that this check is fake or been used already
    5. You bank withdraws that amount from your account

    This isn’t an unusual scam, but it’s technically illegal for you to deposit a picture of a check. You need the original.

    Best to block and report them.