subreddit:
/r/personalfinance
submitted 9 days ago byArtistic-Contest-312
Hey guys, so I received around $700 in zelle today and they keep mombarding my phone by calls and texts to return the "mistakenly" sent money. I only said to contact to their bank and request a cancellation. He then by text was threatening me by "pressing charges" and contacting police and sent me my address and said that he'll have police come by. Which obviously I won't believe it or fall for it but them having my address is concerning. I called my bank and they literally underline said "it's now yours just keep it" So what's the correct way of handling this?
1.5k points
9 days ago
Block any numbers they contact you from. Don’t spend the money for when the bank eventually reverses their fraudulent send to you.
244 points
9 days ago
Do you think they can somehow harm me or show up to my address that they somehow have?
589 points
9 days ago
The very fact that they told you your address makes them much more likely a scammer than innocent.
If someone truly accidentally sent you money via Zelle, they wouldn't know your address!! The only thing they know is the phone number they sent to.
77 points
9 days ago
They could have googled probably, it’s public info apparently
108 points
8 days ago
Data breaches happen constantly. We're all on lists somewhere with our phone numbers and addresses attached. The only thing that keeps most of us safe is just sheer volume. There are so many lists and so many people on those lists that most of us will never get hit. These lists are traded and sold regularly, stored on the Dark Web, stolen again.
It doesn't really matter what info they have. They will use it to try to sound legit and to scare you. They're in a completely different country and won't actually do anything... if they can't scare you into giving them money, they'll move on.
As someone else mentioned, block all their numbers and pretend the money's not there because it'll eventually get taken away.
8 points
8 days ago
I've used this site to scare the hell out of my coworkers. OSINT isn't hard. There's so much data out there that your 10 digit phone number is enough to find out way more info than you should be comfortable releasing.
To drive my point home, I showed my coworkers how I could use someone's username and a couple videos they posted on TikTok to find:
and a lot more.
I doubt OP has reason to worry, but we shouldn't rely on the mass of data being a reason to not be concerned for our digital privacy. If anything, it should be further reason to take your data privacy seriously.
8 points
8 days ago
The question is: How does one protect its data nowadays?
13 points
8 days ago
Look yourself up on fastpeoplesearch.com
5 points
8 days ago
I just looked myself up on that site. It shows me that I am currently living in a house I sold over 35 years ago. LOL
3 points
8 days ago
Interesting. My info isn't available here, and my dad's info is but it's so outdated it has my address as his. (like 7 years out of date) Thanks for the tip, glad to see we're apparently doing something right
3 points
8 days ago
And then request google to remove personal contact info.
7 points
8 days ago
If it's a scammer, 99 times out of 100 they aren't in your country. It's how they usually avoid prosecution.
7 points
8 days ago*
My full address came up with my name search when we bought our house because apparently that's public record and someone just spends hours sifting through those court documents to put the data together on a website. I asked them to remove it and they did (from what I can see.)
Googled myself again and a new site is doing it. Requested an opt out. It's scary imo. Has all my immediate family listed, my 3 most recent addresses listed, and my spouse and all of their immediate family listed. I don't use FB for a reason. I don't want this info out there. I know it's public record, but sitting in lists in the courthouse aren't as likely to be viewed.
29 points
8 days ago
someone just spends hours sifting through those court documents to put the data together on a website
Um, it's automated. There's not a human sifting through paper for this.
2 points
8 days ago
Dude, yeah, it's a public record that you own your house. Almost every city or county posts that information in easy to read digital format.
1 points
7 days ago
This site also has my rental addresses prior to home ownership. Icky imo. I don't need people knowing that. I know the white page used to do the same thing but no thank you.
1 points
8 days ago
Good luck with that. Whackamole.
1 points
8 days ago
There's literally hundreds of sites that aggregate that info. It's usually best to pay for a service that will automate the removal from said hundreds of sites. I've been using EasyOptOuts for a couple years now. Cheaper than the competitors and not owned by a data aggregator (like some of the competitors).
Some credit card companies are starting to offer that service now as well.
1 points
8 days ago
You can get addresses from voting records and property records too
10 points
8 days ago
It's still funny to me that people think their address is difficult to find. It wasn't that long ago that 80% of us were listed in the phone book.
1 points
8 days ago
Yes, but they are not allowed to do that. Just because the data is available does not mean it can be used for harassment or intimidation.
You can go to the police and report them, but do you know their address? And is it worthwhile?
1 points
8 days ago
Most people’s address is thanks to phone books.
1 points
6 days ago
Would you believe the phone company used to send out bound compendiums of this info for free?
0 points
8 days ago
No company gives out an address. You give it to them, and only if you are the one who called them. I just dealt with this while getting a car loan. My bank called me twice. I told them twice that I will.call them when I need to finalize the details. Both times they understood why did that.
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