Watch out for this SCAM! Google WILL NOT call you!

Google will not call you. Uh, I know that because I just got off the phone with the scammer. So, my phone rang and it said Google. It said Google on it. I answered it and it was a recording that said, "This is the security department at Google. Uh, if you uh, you know, basically the the phone number associated with your account for two-factor authentication has changed. If this was not you, press one." I was like, "Okay, I know this is a scam, but I'm going to just push one and see what happens." So I push one and it says a technical support or a security representative from Google will call me momentarily to secure my account and so I wait and you know it hang up hangs up. I wait you know a minute or two goes by. Obviously they have all these scammers in like a call center and a guy calls me. It also says it's from Google. It says from Google. Of course you can make that say anything you want. You can make the from phone number say anything you want and you can make the caller ID say anything you want. So it says it's from Google. Um, so it says it's from Google and uh I pick up and he say the guy says, "Hey, my name is Brandon. I'm from the school uh Google security department. Um, how you know I just want to verify that this is from the Gmail account associated with Joelbombgar.com." And uh, again, American guy, native born, no trace of an accent, sounds, you know, late teens, early 20s. I mean, young guy, but very credibly, very US-based. And you know, now how do I know it's a scam? Because Joel at Joelbombgar.com is not a Gmail address. It has nothing to do with Google. It's not connected to Google in any way. So I know there's a 100% chance it's a scam because his lead is I just wanted to verify that Joelbomb.com, you know, is that you are the owner of that Gmail address. It's not a Gmail address. It's not connected to Google. It's my own domain. So I was like I was like, well, I know you're a scammer. And then he immediately hung up on me. Like as soon as the word scam came out of my mind, out of my mouth, he immediately hung up on me. So just uh stay safe out there. Look, uh scams and hacks are getting very sophisticated. They're running robocalls to try to get people to select one, you know, that way they don't have to have an actual human, you know, do it. So they're running robocalls to try to screen people to get them to push a number, which I did in this case because I knew it was a scam and I wanted to see what see how they were running it. So, they're running they're running rooc calls to field scams. Then they're following them up with a uh you know with a a legit sounding uh person from you know they know what your email is in in advance. They know what your phone number is in advance. These are all from data leaks where they already know what your phone number is. They already know what your email address is. And so when they get on the phone they're validating stuff that sounds legit. You know, hey, I just want to make sure and they've got a script. It's a beautiful script. Hey, I just wanted to make sure I'm talking to the authorized owner of uh the Gmail address associated with Joel at Joelbombgar.com or whatever it was, you know, the Gmail address. Yeah. How it was clear that he was talking about that as a Gmail address. So, again, it's not a Gmail address. There's no reason Google would ever call me about my about that email address ever. Ever. So, anyway, um definitely a scam. Obviously, the guy hung up on me as soon as the word scam came out of my mouth. If he was an actual, you know, security person, he would have tried to talk me down. Um, I would never let somebody talk me down to convince me they weren't a scammer. I mean, come on. That's ridiculous. But anyway, scams are getting very advanced, very sophisticated. They're using all the tools. They're using robo dialers. They're using call centers. They're using US nativeborn people that have been recruited on online chat, you know, chat rooms and stuff. Uh, these people are sitting in their mom's basement, you know, pretending they have a job for a call center. That's what they tell their moms is they have a job with a call center. And the truth is they're just working for an online scam ring. and they're getting paid a ton of money because they get a cut of every scam and they're getting away with it because they sound American and they sound there's no accent and they're good at it and they've been trained and they've got a bulletproof script and all of that and they've got again they got your email address, they got your phone number, all of that they get from data leaks. So be safe out there. Uh assume again Google will never call you. Coinbase will never call you. These people will never call you out of the blue. They will never call you out of the blue. How big a data center do you how big a call center do you think Google would have to have if they physically called someone with a live human every time there was some security, you know, potential issue? It's impossible. They would never do that. Google's never going to spend their money getting live callers to call people about free Gmail addresses. Think about it. Your Gmail address is free. So, are they going to get a live person to call you to check in on you and make sure your free email account is secure and they're going to pay a call center employee multiple dollars to spend multiple minutes on the phone with you? They're not going to do that. Google does not do that. Coinbase does not do that because for security, you would never have an out ofthe- blue person cold call a customer. Not going to happen. They're going to use push notifications. They're going to use, you know, something a lot more credible than an out of the blue phone call. So, stay safe out there. It's a dangerous world. Scammers are everywhere. Very sophisticated. They've recruited people with no accents. They're using robo dialers. They're using caller IDs that sound legit. They are doing all of the things. Stay safe out there. Assume anyone who reaches out to you proactively is a scam. Don't get scammed. If they reach out to you, almost 100% chance it's a scammer. It's a scammer. Stay safe out there, everyone. face.