Are you sure this isn’t a scam?
Import duties are a scam to begin with.
That is a scam, they probably send mass texts linked to tracking numbers that have a registered phone number.
I remember one of the funnier scams.
They said they were from USPS, and in order to finish shipping, they needed me to pay the tariff.
It didn’t have anything about me. No login. No address. No tracking number. It just wanted me to hit that pay now button.
But even then, why would I pay a tariff for something I didn’t order?
For a while (and still every so often), I received fake texts from delivery companies, but they always referred to me as “There”. “There, we tried to deliver your package…”, “There, your package may be returned if you don’t click this link…”. I was curious what I typed in and where that they recorded my name as “There”.
I get that once in a while here in Denmark too, only replace USPS with PostNord, sometimes DHL or GLS
And this is one of the ways to filter random scams. If a legitimate business or public entity is reaching out to contact you about an issue you need to deal with, they will know some identifying information about you. Especially the ones claiming that there’s a warrant (or will be). If that was the case, they would definitely know your name and other specific details.
That said, there are targeted scams, too, so don’t assume that if someone can tell you your name that they are legit. Ask them for a callback number (don’t call it, ask because they might be dumb enough to give you a number linked to them that you could pass on to investigators), then hang up and call the number you looked up online.
Be careful looking up numbers online as well. There are lots of fake numbers and sites out there. Use previous known good communication as your guide for contacting the specific entity you are trying to contact. If at all possible. Also, smammers seem to have databases of scraped and leaked data so will often pull up your data based on your caller ID or other info you may disclose to them. Be careful out there.
Don’t even need an associated list, just a random list of phone numbers. People online shop enough.
Ask them for their bank login details so you can deposit the money directly into their account.
This is the best
It’s probably against your bank’s TOS to give your password to a 3rd party. No way this is legit. Run away.
My understanding is that should you disclose your credentials you would generally void any fraud protection the banks may offer.
Scam
Google seems to suggest they’re some sort of fintech company out of South Africa? Either way if that’s their product then I’d run a mile in the other direction, and then another just be sure.
Yeah no. Plaid is one thing but giving access to your bank login to pay an invoice is something quite another. If it’s legit they can accept a card payment, or send you to a PayPal invoice.
Yep. They’ve been around for years.
Normally you would just give them your card info like any other online pay site like PayPal etc. but I don’t know why they suddenly decided to give everyone at the company a deluxe lobotomy
I saw this shit yesterday when I was trying to buy a weed cart online (still not sure if it’s legal or not. I still hear stories of those moron cops arresting people for “drug possession” i.e. didn’t pay a bribe)
Noped out and just gave the clearnet grey market drug website virtual card info that’s gonna expire in a few hours anyway
Don’t. And report them to your bank.
Well that’s a scam
Seen the same thing with other third party payment systems in south africa. Run away my dude.
As a fellow saffer, and a person who works with scam victims, I’m curious as to what services asked you to do that? Feel free to pm me.
This kind of stuff got legalised in Germany: Banks said that e.g. Sofortüberweisung was instigating their customers to break their TOS and should be shut down, anti-trust then said “nuh-uh you can’t just shut down legitimate business” (Sofort is indeed legitimate) and instead put third-party systems under banking regulations, and required ordinary banks to have APIs allowing third parties do do sensible things.
…which theoretically could mean that you’re sent to your actual bank to authorise and thus getting rid of the normalising phishing problem, dunno, haven’t checked I’m boycotting them out of principle for going down that route in the first place. Don’t serve any purpose now that we have real-time transfers, anyway.
What could go wrong?
They look trustworthy, right?
Hello sir, ozow.com is best most recognize branding. We are trust top tier bank accounts detailed are encrypted so most safe safer than banks actually!
If you’d like, I can show you. Just uh, need you to sign a waiver saying you authorize this little demonstration and accept all risks.
Also, gonna need your login credentials…
They maybe use Plaid to connect your bank? I still wouldn’t do it though. Fuck Plaid. Fuck handing out creds. Find another way.
Whatever it is, it isn’t worth it
They’ve been doing essentially the same thing for years. Here’s the site from 2 years ago. Not to say that this is definitely safe, but scam sites usually don’t last this long
https://web.archive.org/web/20220114215955/https://ozow.com/
Step 3: Log in and select your account to pay from. Don’t worry, we have security covered. 🤣
Yeah, scam or not, this method of getting your account and routing information is not at all secure. I’m actually more surprised that the banks allow another site to initiate the login with a plaintext password. This defies all decent security practices.
