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My uncle got hit with a $2,300 fake invoice and my family still won't set up email filters
Last Tuesday my uncle in Toledo got an email that looked exactly like a bill from his regular supplier, same logo and everything, asking for $2,300 to a new bank account. He paid it. The money was gone in 20 minutes and the bank said there was nothing they could do. What kills me is I've been telling my whole family for a year to turn on two factor and flag odd payment requests, and everyone says I'm paranoid. So I'll say it here: the most basic email rule, never trust a bank change without a phone call to a number you already have, would have stopped this cold. How do you get people to actually do the boring stuff before they get burned?
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baker.simon1d ago
That line about "never trust a bank change without a phone call to a number you already have" is the whole ballgame, and it's brutal that your uncle had to learn it the hard way. I really feel for him, $2,300 gone in 20 minutes is the kind of thing that keeps you up at night. The sad truth is people don't move on this stuff until it happens to them or someone close to them, and even then it can fade fast. What helped in my family was making it less about rules and more about one story, like what happened to your uncle, told at dinner where nobody can tune it out. Once one stubborn person sets it up and shows everyone how easy it was, the rest usually come around. You can't force it, but you can keep planting the seed and hope it lands before the next fake invoice does.
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