#he was my number four artist xxxx

[sugarsnappeases]

kara!! i would love to know 14, 32, and 98 on your spotify wrapped playlist <3

ask and you shall receive my dearest renn <333

14.

32.

98.

send me an ask with a number from 1-100 and i’ll tell you the corresponding song on my playlist!!!!

[jmdbjk]

The angel chariot

Eagle-eye Army spotted the fact that Jungkook's company car that whisked him away from Incheon airport upon his arrival from Los Angeles was the same one that Jimin used this past December for his comings and goings to the airport. Same license plate. [First 4 numerals/characters obscured to protect the innocent and cover my ass. Also not providing the link to eagle-eye army in the interest of keeping the imbeciles away from them.]

I tried to spy the license plate of the cars during their other past airport comings and goings but they were moving too fast/obscured by objects or people.

Maybe not Jimin or Jungkook but it was used to carry SOMEONE to Hobi's enlistment:

Of course BigHit has a fleet of these identical black KIA Carnival limousines and who knows if actual vehicles/drivers are assigned to specific members, but it was interesting to see and think about.

However, here is a curious bit of trivia: the number 5469 is supposedly the "angel" number. Various sources describe 5469 as:

well mannered

conscientious

artistic

humanitarian

balanced

harmonious

protective

giving

fair

caring

kind

romantic

nurturing

supportive

And this:

"Looking from a numerology standpoint, the energy emanating from the four-digit number 5469 is a decidedly well mannered energy. It resonates with distinct patterns of compassion and perceptible vibrations of romance. The number also points to an awareness which manifests at a subconscious, empathic level — pointing to an almost empathic synchronization with the emotions and thoughts of society."

I don't make that stuff up, other people do.

Anyway, is there a real significance in coming and going in the same car for their separate activities? Of course not. Like I said, we can't know if it's pure coincidence or if members are assigned specific cars/drivers etc. It was just something someone noticed and I'm passing on this extreme level of delulu to you because I aim to please.

The Jikook hug: the live action "I miss you"/"me too" played out right in front of us.

You can't convince me otherwise that when these two are together on their own time, they are up in each other's space in a way that would make you and me blush uncomfortably. It's the way they look at each other and the way they talk to each other. Yes, Jimin gives the best hugs and right before he dove into Jungkook, he gave Hobi the warmest, tightest "I love you hyung" hug as well ... JK's eyes following Jimin all the way until Hobi receives his hug. Honestly, Jungkook seemed like he was patiently anticipating a hug from Jimin too ... it is the attentiveness or awareness of each other and creates a Jimin and Jungkook aura and adds an extra level to their closeness.

Kookie keeps his eyes on his Jiminie all the time and he seems to enjoy his touching. The way JK pulled Jimin in and held on to him...no matter the level of delulu you subscribe to, their bodies in that full frontal, smushed together, I-MISSED-YOU-COME-HERE-BABY-I-LOVE-YOU hug just makes me really happy for them.

So playful and easy with each other.

Yep, I know what I see. If you can't see it, I'm sorry. I don't know how to transfer that ability to detect it to you. If I could, I would so everyone can feel their love for each other.

Did they miss each other? Absolutely. How long had they been apart? 3 weeks? 3 hours? 3 minutes? What difference does it make?

Who knows, maybe they rode back home to Seoul in the angel chariot XXXX-5469 and spent some quality time together before they separated again for their respective solo activities and whatever those might be, we will find out eventually!

[monsterenergysimp]

Permanence

corpse husband x fem!reader 

summary: you meet corpse on a stream and you’re surprised when he reaches out to you 

warnings: cursing, mentions of tattooing

word count: 1.9k

notes: This is proof read but could have missed some stuff. This is my first corpse fic and my first time writing fanfic since I posted that super cringey book on wattpad when I was like 12 or something. I’d appreciate feed back so please reach out to me :)

main blog @itsmysleepover

read part 2 here!

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

You were cleaning up your station so you can get home and stream. You loved your day job as a tattoo artist but you also really enjoyed streaming. It started as a way to promote yourself as an artist and the shop you worked at but it eventually became a really fun way to destress at the end of the week (or day if you were really itching to stream). “Hey Y/N was that your last client?” your boss, KC, asked as she walked to the front of the shop and put new flash drawings on the walls.

“Yes ma’am!” You said back excitedly. You finished cleaning your station and tossed your black gloves in the trash. “And you can’t trick me into staying and taking walk-ins,” you joked with her. She rolled her eyes and walked back into her office “It was one time,” she said as you slid on your jacket. As you walked out your phone buzzed in your pocket and you checked to see who had texted you. It was a message from Sean asking if you were free to play Among Us with him and some other streamers. You replied that you were on your way home right now and totally down. You were excited to see who was playing this time around since their Among Us streams are super entertaining and have gotten really popular.

On your way back you tweeted and posted to your Instagram story that you’d be streaming soon and set up all your stuff once you made it home. After a few minutes, you had a couple of thousand people watching. You entered the discord chat and Sean spoke up. “Everyone this is Y/N she’s sensitive so be gentle.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you guys and I’m not gentle, I'm ruthless,” You say into your mic and notice the chat calling you a liar. Everyone was in the lobby waiting for the game to start. “You sound way too sweet to be ruthless,” Corpse said. The countdown started and you were imposter with Charlie.

“This should be fun,” you told the stream. Yout tried playing strategically but after such a long shift your brain was mush. You saw Poki in nav and killed her then vented into shields. Not long after the body was reported and you were sure you were going to get voted out or at least sussed.

“Where was the body?” Felix asked. “Nav and I didn’t see anyone near there so whoever is imposter must have vented,” Corpse responded. Felix spoke up again. “I think I saw Y/N walk that way and I haven’t seen her since.”

Shit, shit, shit shit. “I’m in shield right now so-” you said trying to defend yourself but Charlie spoke up. “I was doing tasks with her earlier and I saw her walk into shields so she’s safe but I’m still not sure about Rae.” Everyone discussed a bit more and some people, including Corpse, voted for you but Rae got the majority vote and was ejected. You released your breath and kept playing being extra careful.  

“Okay, guys that was super close. Corpse knows and is out to get me,” you said to the chat. You were eventually voted off but one round later victory was written across your screen with your ghost and Charlie’s avatar. “Good game guys,” Corpse said.

“I told you guys I was ruthless!”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

You sat at your station doing nothing because a client had canceled a four-hour session. You were listening to music and sketching some stuff but you were bored out of your mind and you didn’t want to leave in case you got a walk-in. The music got quiet as you received a twitter notification saying someone had messaged you. You reached for your phone and saw you had gotten a dm from Corpse.

C: hey :)

You didn’t know what to respond. You were mostly confused as to why he decided to message you out of the blue. Did he want something? But what would he want?

Y: Hii! This is sudden

C: was i bothering you?

    shit sorry!

Y: Youre fine I wasn’t doing anything rn

C: how has your day been

    i dont usually do stuff like this

Y: Im glad you did im doing better now I was so bored

C: what were you doing that was so terrible

Y: NOTHING! thats the problem :(

C: im sure youll find something to do

You stared at his message. Unsure what to respond.

Y: Im gonna give myself a tattoo

C: what?

    NO!

You tossed the needles you used for your tattoo into the sharps box. “Oh my god you didn’t,” KC said. She noticed the wrap on your calve from the tattoo you just gave yourself out of boredom. “It’s not my fault I didn’t have anything else to do!” You said trying to defend yourself. She sighed and just shook her head. “Just go home business is slow today.” It was raining so the shop probably wasn’t going to get a walk-in anyway and you didn’t have any more clients for the day. It was only 2 pm but you drove home and after making lunch for yourself decided to stream. You weren’t expecting too many people so it was bound to be super chill. Your leg felt sore reminding you of the tattoo. You snapped a quick pic of the fresh jack-o-lantern on the side of your calve and messaged it to Corpse.

Y: [image] it came out nice!

C: thats  super cool actually

    i was concerned why you would just give yourself a tattoo but i found your instagram and       youre super talented

Y: Thank you!

For some reason, it felt strange to just have that be the end of your response.

Y: Im about to start streaming if you wanted to watch

    [link]

C: ill be watching ;)

What’s that supposed to mean?

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

You sat in your apartment watching tv, hand lost in a bag of Doritos, and scrolling through twitter. You had stopped paying attention to the anime playing on the screen since you’ve watched it a hundred times and knew you wouldn’t miss anything. It was Saturday and you usually take those days off. Take the time to do chores or meet up with some friends but today you felt like not doing any of those things. As you continue your endless scroll (not helping the twitter addiction you told yourself you’d try to get a handle on) you got a message from Corpse.

C: wanna talk?

You looked down at the message unsure of how to answer. It was a simple yes or no and the obvious answer was yes. You and Corpse had started talking more regularly. You still didn’t have each other’s phone numbers but it was fine. Your conversations weren’t too big-- just you sending him memes, tiktoks, and telling him how much you liked the songs he would drop. Or him complimenting a tattoo you did. Sometimes he’d message you during streams telling you funny stuff his fans would say in the chat and you’d do the same. You learned a bit about each other but nothing too deep or serious. Like how you two lived a few cities away and you both really liked Donnie Darko. When Sean first invited you to that game out of everyone else there you were most excited to meet Corpse. He’s just so sweet and funny. Of course, you’d love to talk to him but you were also itching to talk to him and the last thing you’d ever want to do was make him uncomfortable.

Y: Yeah id love to talk

Here goes nothing.

Y: Wanna facetime or something?

     No pressure or anything it could even be a regular call

     I think facetime is just my default lol

You sent those last two messages quickly after you had sent the first. You wished you could know what he was thinking. It was killing you to think you had turned him off from talking to you completely. You put your phone down on the couch and went to wash your hand of Dorito dust. When you got back from the kitchen you turned off the tv and tossed yourself onto the couch.

Still no message.

Why am I so fucking stupid?  

Just as you were standing up to stretch from sitting on the couch all day your phone buzzed. You reached for it fast and looked to see that it was him. You became super excited still not even knowing what the message said. It could have told you to never talk to him again for all you knew.

C: sure lets facetime

    xxx-xxx-xxxx

You had his phone number. You added him to your small but growing contact list and called. You sat on your couch waiting for a response when he finally picked up the screen was black. It didn’t upset you; you kind of expected it and didn’t care what he had to do to make himself more comfortable during this call.

“Hey,” he said. His voice was raspier than usual.

“Did you just wake up?” You asked and looked at the time. It was about a little past noon and you had only eaten Doritos all day. Shit, you should probably make a decent meal.

“Not that long ago but yeah,” he responded and giggled. That giggle.

“Well, I’ve eaten nothing but Doritos all day while rewatching Ouran High School Host Club, so you’re welcome to join me as I make myself something to eat.”

“Sounds like fun; what are we eating?”

“I don’t know yet,” You said as you stood up and made your way to the kitchen. You opened the pantry and looked. You noticed a can of diced tomatoes and reached for it then checked the expiration date. It was still good. On your counter were some onions and garlic. “How about some tomato soup?”

“Sounds delicious.” you smiled at Corpse and your phone screen not knowing if he was also looking at his screen or not. “You’re really pretty-- you know that?”

“Thanks, but you don’t have to--”

“I’ve already told you what an incredible artist you are so many times I bet you’re tired of hearing it, but you already know what a talented artist you are.”

“That is very kind of you Corpse,” you said to him bashfully as you chopped the onion and opened the can of tomatoes. “But once again you don’t have to reach so far to compliment me.”

“I’m not reaching you are talented and beautiful and--”

“I thought I was pretty.” You could hear him chuckle with a smile on his face. “You’re both,” he said. You could feel your face getting warm from blushing.

“Fuck you you’re making me blush. My face is all hot and stuff.”

He laughed at how flustered you got. “That’s the cutest thing ever.”

You didn’t know how to respond so you just put some olive oil in a pot and tossed in your onions. It became silent but it was a comfortable silence. You turned the stove on and watched the flame for a few seconds. “If it was dark we could pretend we were together and having a bonfire or something,” you said to the phone as you turned the camera to show him the flame (still not 100 percent sure if he was looking at you or not).

“I’ll put it on the list of things to do when you visit me someday.”

[ellipsesarefun]

FOR @konaharts​ !!!!! This is my pinch hit for @keitorexchange​ event!!!

Hope you enjoy this??? kinda my first time to do a keitor huhu please go easy on me

  Prince Lotor has one of the most outstanding albums of the year and Keith has yet to buy one. Word around the gossip mongers, though, say that Prince Lotor himself will be arranging his first private concert in the nearest mall right across the music store Keith works at. Additionally, anyone who signs up and wins a private concert ticket also gets a signed copy of P. Lotor's latest album (plus, if anyone's feeling lucky, a selfie with P. Lotor himself). 

And no, he's not that excited like his friends claim he is. He definitely hasn't stared at the sign up page every time he's on break and no he definitely wasn't checking his phone for any notifications. Not at all. 

"You definitely are." Pidge teases him and he flinches at the use of a present tense while stacking a pile of music records at the corner of the store, "Just listening to you rave about him with those adorable sparkling violet eyes of yours for hours on end is already a nuisance." 

Keith shoots his mouth open but Pidge shushes him with her complaint, "I can't even do my homework around you!" His cheeks pooled when he eyes her quirked lips and gleaming eyes. 

"First of all, my eyes don't sparkle." Keith shoot her a bland look as he careful places the last stack of records, "Second of all, I haven't been talking about him-"

"Raving. About it him, Keith." Pidge corrects, Cheschire grin in place, "Raving."

"For that long, Pidge." He continues on as though she hasn't opened her blasted mouth, "Not that long." He crosses his arms over his chest. Pidge's giggles burst into guffaws. 

"Sure," she stutters through her laughter, "Tell yourself that." She pauses and then the same gleaming smile shines back on. "Fan boy." 

He grumbles a sigh and turns back to the list of things he has to do today. Why is he friends with her again? And why is she here again? He rolls his eyes and checks his phone for a small email notification bell and was met with only a lockscreen of P. Lotor's latest album photo. His friend caught the image as well, responding a not-so-subtle sharp arch of an eyebrow and a dry expression.

He knows what's coming and prepares himself for the mockery that'll be thrown his way but jolts to a stop when a Ping! from his mobile phone caught his attention. His eyes swoop down and widen at the email notification. Immediately, he swipes his password, opens his mail and-

Congratulations! 

You've won!

Hey Keith Kogane,

Congratulations, you've won a private concert with the one and only talented Prince Lotor, along with a signed copy of his latest album, 'Vrepit Za!' Selfies and pictures are permitted by the given guidelines (see page 2 on guidelines). You are allowed to bring at the maximum of three guests. Send a message through this number xx-xxx-xxxx for us to let you know when and where to claim your ticket! Have a great day!

 There's a hitch in his breath and a thump in this heart before his head suddenly bursts into squeals for joy as his hands shake at the and the muscles on his cheeks ache for a blinding smile. He was so wrapped up in his own euphoria that he almost forgets that a certain presence is still in this room. Almost. His teeth wrench his lower lip to stop the smile. 

"So who're you bringing with?" Pidge asks from behind and by now he knows that she's playfully batting her eyelashes. Pfft 

He turns around with a curl on his lips and a gleam in his eyes and says, "Who else?" Pidge beams and cracks a grin at him.

"Awesome!" She says as they clasp their palms together, "I'll be there as punctual as possible!" Of course she'll be early. "And I'll call up Lance and Hunk too!" ...And of course Lance is coming. Hunk is tame and he can handle Pidge, but Lance? He'll never hear the end of Lance's teasing. He shakes his head. 

"Anyways," Pidge slings her bag over her shoulder, "I gotta go! Try not to embarrass yourself!" Before he could form a comeback she aims a punch on his shoulder and when he finally does find one (because, come on, it's Lance is the one who should try not to embarrass himself), she's already sauntering of to wherever. Probably something to do with that new robot she, Hunk, and Lance have been scheming and building for the past couple months now.  

When he's finally left alone, he breaks down his barriers and lets a smile fall on his face. He lifts his phone and looks to the email he received. No matter how many times he reads through the paragraph word per word, line per line, he still could not believe his luck.  

He has so much to prepare.

 +++

 He has little to prepare at all. He's only going to bring his wallet, ID's and what not but nothing academic of the sort.  

Still.

It's the fifth time he's checked himself in the mirror and he's not satisfied. Slightly rustled hair, accompanied with a tiny eyeshadow and stoic mien to mask his blazing excitement, along with plain red t-shirt that says "May the 4th be with you" and simple black jeans and sneakers isn't going to cut it. Maybe he needs more gel to flatten his tousled hair? Maybe the shirt's too much (but this is the fifth shirt he's changed)? Or maybe-

 "Stop thinking about it so much." Pidge pesters him from his seat by the desk with a nudge on the shoulder, "Another wardrobe change is going to mess your closet and I'm not going to be the one who's going fix it!" He parts his lips but she shushes him once again This is happening too often. 

"And no need to change your underwear," she pesters him some more as she throws his favorite underwear at his face until all he can see is light-sabers on a blue background, "No one's going to know your little secret."

He daintily takes the underwear off his face and slowly sets it on the table, as though his own blunt nails can rip through the threads, and glowered at her. "Can you not?" He says, fiddling the edge of his shirt and patting his hair. Unmitigated by his annoyance, she smiles.

"I can and I will." She replies, that same gleaming smile on her face, "I'm going down and meet with the others." Pidge stands up and pats him on the shoulder more than once and he falls for the bait, batting her hands away. She's already by the door before he can make a quip and she flashes one last giggle at her overly tense friend. 

"Don't take too long!!' She reminds him and she slips out of the door before he can bang it on her face. Once her footsteps fade, he grunts to himself and checks his phone for the nth time. It's five minutes till six in the evening and the concert won't start until it's seven. Seems like he's got time but every tick of the clock counts and he's losing bit by bit of this safety net. 

He heaves a sigh. It doesn't abate his nervousness but his excite hasn't waned in a moment, instead it multiplied to thousands. He's meeting his favorite artist today. Today. Today.  

"KEITH LET"S GO." Right. Yes. Going. He's finally going. With friends. Oh quiznack. 

"Coming!" He yells from his room as he rummages his things in a small slingbag. He hastily fixes his shoelaces and he gives himself one more look at the mirror before zooming down the stairs and out of his apartment where his friends are grinning like mad and greeting him with a tease and a pat on the back.

 It took fifteen minutes for them to arrive due to a heavy traffic along the highway and limited parking space but he's glad to have sometime to compose himself (and he's also silently grateful for Hunk offering to drive them all there even when he's been poking at him by playing P. Lotor's album on the radio the whole ride here). The four of them decide on a place to eat and settled for a semi-empty restaurant with fair enough food. 

By the time they've packed up to leave, it's already fifteen minutes till seven. Keith restrains himself from brisk walking. Part of him wants to dash out of the mall and find a cab to drive him back but Pidge, of course, somehow notices and grasps his hand and pulls him along, their paces doubled. Lance and Hunk follow on beside him, and Keith has no where to escape. Great.  

They walk past a couple of stores, turned right, and before Keith comprehends, they're all standing in front of the glass doors of a studio, the view obstructed by black paper. Pidge releases him from her hold and she knocks on the glass door. No one had to wait long and then they're all inside, sitting on comfy velvet couch and drinking cool ice teas offered by the staff. They're all facing a mini stage, with the whole set of instruments and the like and a closed door to the right.

 And then suddenly, that door opens and Prince Lotor comes in along with his other friends. Prince Lotor. PRINCE LOTOR. In high ponytail, black turtleneck, ripped jeans, and black boots. Prince Lotor. He feels as though his heart has collided with a brick wall and he stops his mental screaming for a moment of breath. 

"Hello everyone!" The familiar satin and sulky voice he's heard in those albums greets them with a saccharine smile, "Welcome to the private concert! How are you all?" His friends throw a hoot while Keith offers a shy smile. Lotor's beaming yellow eyes flit from face to face until it lands on Keith. His smile stretches to a full grin.

"Who here is Keith?" Lotor asks, keeping his gaze on Keith. He stills his body from fidgeting when his friends blatantly point at him. For some unknown reason, Lotor pulls a charming grin (then again, everything about him is just so charming) and stretches out a hand.

"Hello Keith," He greets him, and he can't refrain his own smile from stretching any wider nor his cheeks from blushing into a rose pink color. Keith replies with a small nod and takes the hand offered to him. He lets himself linger at the calloused feel of Lotor's skin before letting go a few ticks later. Dazed, Keith blinks the moment away while Lotor introduces his friends: Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid, and Narti. Ezor rushes, blazing in pink long fringes and pink-black ensemble, to them with an enthusiastic hug, immediately reintroducing herself ("Nice to meet you all!"). Zethrid follows up with an iron grip handshake while Acxa and Narti politely wave.

The events turn towards everyone greeting everyone with waves, gestures, or even some flirtatious marks (Lance). Lotor initiates the conversation first by asking how their day went (pretty chill, for a Saturday, exams just finished), what they do for a living (they're all students with part-time jobs), and anything mundane. They bond over food, with Hunk sharing his kitchen hacks and Ezor and Zethrid supplying with a combination of their favorite dishes. The conversation drags on to other random topics before Lotor interjects between a debate on a TV series, asking Keith what song would he like to play while flashing another one of those saccharine smiles.

Keith ignores the flame heating his cheeks and suggests, "Your favorite." He swears that Lotor's eyes soften at that. He watches his favorite musician sit on the chair by the mini stage. Lotor places a guitar on his lap and a foot on the guitar footstool as though he's following his muscle memory. There's a pause where Lotor lets his eyelids fall to a close and he breathes for several ticks until his fingers move in tandem.

Keith hasn't seen much of Lotor playing the guitar, not even through past live concerts he's watched through GalraTube. He hasn't heard this song, either, not from the previews in the GalraTube or anywhere else. It's different from any of the songs of the recent album because while they're fast-paced and techno, this one feels like he's on a slow drive accross the sunset with the wind kissing his face. Mesmerized, Keith lingers on the fingers dancing across the fretboard as Lotor's silky voice carries with his right fingers tiptoeing on the strings in a melancholic lullaby.  

The tune spins in his head with memories of his own past, the ones longed buried now dredged up to the surface. He feels like he's floating on an ocean full of emotions he never wanted to revisit. They ripple through his thoughts over and over and then he gasps at his eyes welling up with tears. He blinks once, letting them streak down on his cheeks. By the end of the bridge, he wipes his face, unbeknownst to him that Hunk is doing the same.

This is the side of Lotor's music Keith's never delved into before. It's as though he's touched his heart in an intimate way. He muses if Lotor would ever produce this music live but his train of thought stops when Lotor ends his music with one last strum. There was that same pause again, where the song has ended yet the feelings linger as residue. And then everyone gives a round of applause.

 "That was beautiful." praised Acxa.

 "I just..." Hunk bawled into tears again.

 The others around him clapped and gave their own sentiments. Keith finds his gaze intertwined with Lotor's once again. The corners of his amber eyes crinkled as Lotor wordlessly winks at Keith's direction. Keith gleams another shy smile in return and then he turns away and hovers his glass over to his lips. No one catches them except, well, Pidge. She shoots him a knowing look before returning to her conversation with Zethrid and Narti.

Lotor continues playing for awhile, indulging his own covers of his favorite artists as well as his music from his recent album, Vrepit Za, and music from his past albums. Zethrid and Narti harmonize on some occassions, making silly faces and over-the-top voices. Lance also has his own share of spotlight, only as a means to humor everyone.

 When the last music cover ends, it's already past eight by fifteen minutes and everyone decides to wander around the mall. Zethrid, Acxa and Hunk hop over to the nearest bakery store while Narti, Pidge and Lance saunter off to the hardware store for their robot schema. Keith, on the other hand, is idly eyeing the music sheets in one of his favorite music stores a few minutes away from the studio they left.

 "Looking for something?" He jerks at the charming voice behind him. Lotor's smile invites his own as the music artist walks to stand beside Keith. He tears his dazed look away from Lotor and instead continues roaming the collection of music sheets.

 "Not really." He replies, casting a quick side glance at Lotor for less than a minute and then he's back again idly naming the records in his head, "There are some I don't have in my collection at home but I'm not interested in."

 "If there's something you'd like to try, let me know." Lotor states his offer, flashing him a wink. He saunters past Keith, brushing shoulders as he touch so Keith responds with a quirk of an eyebrow and a small curl on his lips. He follows.

 Keith begins another conversation again, praising Lotor for the first music he performed earlier. Lotor shares his insights and inspirations for the music, saying it's a personal piece for his family and Keith shares his sentiments earlier. Gradually, breaks away from his own aweness about Lotor and they begin to goof about over classical music.

They continue on amidst the slight crowd of people, knowing that it's already two hours before the mall closes, until they settle themselves outside by the park, where the full moon bares witness to them all and only a flicker of a few blinking balls of light can be seen from below. Keith and Lotor flip past the mundanity of their lives as they converse over their lives of then, now and the future. Of friends and embarrassing snippets. Of lovers and lamentations.

Unfortunately, their conversation was cut short by their friends hollering from afar. Soon, the mall would eventually have to close (as well as the park they're staying at) and there would be no place to sit. Keith, however, doesn't mind.

"I had a great time today."

"As do I."

Because at the end of the night, he got something more than the signed copy of P. Lotor's album, and that was a piece of his music still singing in his heart (plus his personal mobile number and a kiss on the cheek). Definitely worth it.

[jennifersnyderca90]

Voice Phishing Scams Are Getting More Clever

Most of us have been trained to be wary of clicking on links and attachments that arrive in emails unexpected, but it’s easy to forget scam artists are constantly dreaming up innovations that put a new shine on old-fashioned telephone-based phishing scams. Think you’re too smart to fall for one? Think again: Even technology experts are getting taken in by some of the more recent schemes (or very nearly).

Matt Haughey is the creator of the community Weblog MetaFilter and a writer at Slack. Haughey banks at a small Portland credit union, and last week he got a call on his mobile phone from an 800-number that matched the number his credit union uses.

Actually, he got three calls from the same number in rapid succession. He ignored the first two, letting them both go to voicemail. But he picked up on the third call, thinking it must be something urgent and important. After all, his credit union had rarely ever called him.

Haughey said he was greeted by a female voice who explained that the credit union had blocked two phony-looking charges in Ohio made to his debit/ATM card. She proceeded to then read him the last four digits of the card that was currently in his wallet. It checked out.

Haughey told the lady that he would need a replacement card immediately because he was about to travel out of state to California. Without missing a beat, the caller said he could keep his card and that the credit union would simply block any future charges that weren’t made in either Oregon or California.

This struck Haughey as a bit off. Why would the bank say they were freezing his card but then say they could keep it open for his upcoming trip? It was the first time the voice inside his head spoke up and said, “Something isn’t right, Matt.” But, he figured, the customer service person at the credit union was trying to be helpful: She was doing him a favor, he reasoned.

The caller then read his entire home address to double check it was the correct destination to send a new card at the conclusion of his trip. Then the caller said she needed to verify his mother’s maiden name. The voice in his head spoke out in protest again, but then banks had asked for this in the past. He provided it.

Next she asked him to verify the three digit security code printed on the back of his card. Once more, the voice of caution in his brain was silenced: He’d given this code out previously in the few times he’d used his card to pay for something over the phone.

Then she asked him for his current card PIN, just so she could apply that same PIN to the new card being mailed out, she assured him. Ding, ding, ding went the alarm bells in his head. Haughey hesitated, then asked the lady to repeat the question. When she did, he gave her the PIN, and she assured him she’d make sure his existing PIN also served as the PIN for his new card.

Haughey said after hanging up he felt fairly certain the entire transaction was legitimate, although the part about her requesting the PIN kept nagging at him.

“I balked at challenging her because everything lined up,” he said in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity. “But when I hung up the phone and told a friend about it, he was like, ‘Oh man, you just got scammed, there’s no way that’s real.'”

Now more concerned, Haughey visited his credit union to make sure his travel arrangements were set. When he began telling the bank employee what had transpired, he could tell by the look on her face that his friend was right.

A review of his account showed that there were indeed two fraudulent charges on his account from earlier that day totaling $3,400, but neither charge was from Ohio. Rather, someone used a counterfeit copy of his debit card to spend more than $2,900 at a Krogers near Atlanta, and to withdraw almost $500 from an ATM in the same area. After the unauthorized charges, he had just $300 remaining in his account.

“People I’ve talked to about this say there’s no way they’d fall for that, but when someone from a trustworthy number calls, says they’re from your small town bank, and sounds incredibly professional, you’d fall for it, too,” Haughey said.

Fraudsters can use a variety of open-source and free tools to fake or “spoof” the number displayed as the caller ID, lending legitimacy to phone phishing schemes. Often, just sprinkling in a little foreknowledge of the target’s personal details — SSNs, dates of birth, addresses and other information that can be purchased for a nominal fee from any one of several underground sites that sell such data — adds enough detail to the call to make it seem legitimate.

A CLOSE CALL

Cabel Sasser is founder of a Mac and iOS software company called Panic Inc. Sasser said he almost got scammed recently after receiving a call that appeared to be the same number as the one displayed on the back of his Wells Fargo ATM card.

“I answered, and a Fraud Department agent said my ATM card has just been used at a Target in Minnesota, was I on vacation?” Sasser recalled in a tweet about the experience.

What Sasser didn’t mentioned in his tweet was that his corporate debit card had just been hit with two instances of fraud: Someone had charged $10,000 worth of metal air ducts to his card. When he disputed the charge, his bank sent a replacement card.

“I used the new card at maybe four places and immediately another fraud charge popped up for like $20,000 in custom bathtubs,” Sasser recalled in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity. “The morning this scam call came in I was spending time trying to figure out who might have lost our card data and was already in that frame of mind when I got the call about fraud on my card.”

And so the card-replacement dance began.

“Is the card in your possession?,” the caller asked. It was. The agent then asked him to read the three-digit CVV code printed on the back of his card.

After verifying the CVV, the agent offered to expedite a replacement, Sasser said. “First he had to read some disclosures. Then he asked me to key in a new PIN. I picked a random PIN and entered it. Verified it again. Then he asked me to key in my current PIN.”

That made Sasser pause. Wouldn’t an actual representative from Wells Fargo’s fraud division already have access to his current PIN?

“It’s just to confirm the change,” the caller told him. “I can’t see what you enter.”

“But…you’re the bank,” he countered. “You have my PIN, and you can see what I enter…”

The caller had a snappy reply for this retort as well.

“Only the IVR [interactive voice response] system can see it,” the caller assured him. “Hey, if it helps, I have all of your account info up…to confirm, the last four digits of your Social Security number are XXXX, right?”

Sure enough, that was correct. But something still seemed off. At this point, Sasser said he told the agent he would call back by dialing the number printed on his ATM card — the same number his mobile phone was already displaying as the source of the call. After doing just that, the representative who answered said there had been no such fraud detected on his account.

“I was just four key presses away from having all my cash drained by someone at an ATM,” Sasser recalled. A visit to the local Wells Fargo branch before his trip confirmed that he’d dodged a bullet.

“The Wells person was super surprised that I bailed out when I did, and said most people are 100 percent taken by this scam,” Sasser said.

HUMAN, ROBOT OR HYBRID?

In Sasser’s case, the scammer was a live person, but some equally convincing voice phishing schemes use a combination of humans and automation. Consider the following vishing attempt, reported to KrebsOnSecurity in August by “Curt,” a longtime reader from Canada.

“I’m both a TD customer and Rogers phone subscriber and just experienced what I consider a very convincing and/or elaborate social engineering/vishing attempt,” Curt wrote. “At 7:46pm I received a call from (647-475-1636) purporting to be from Credit Alert (alertservice.ca) on behalf of TD Canada Trust offering me a free 30-day trial for a credit monitoring service.”

The caller said her name was Jen Hansen, and began the call with what Curt described as “over-the-top courtesy.”

“It sounded like a very well-scripted Customer Service call, where they seem to be trying so hard to please that it seems disingenuous,” Curt recalled. “But honestly it still sounded very much like a real person, not like a text to speech voice which sounds robotic. This sounded VERY natural.”

Ms. Hansen proceeded to tell Curt that TD Bank was offering a credit monitoring service free for one month, and that he could cancel at any time. To enroll, he only needed to confirm his home mailing address.

“I’m mega paranoid (I read krebsonsecurity.com daily) and asked her to tell me what address I had on their file, knowing full well my home address can be found in a variety of ways,” Curt wrote in an email to this author. “She said, ‘One moment while I access that information.'”

After a short pause, a new voice came on the line.

“And here’s where I realized I was finally talking to a real human — a female with a slight French accent — who read me my correct address,” Curt recalled.

After another pause, Ms. Hansen’s voice came back on the line. While she was explaining that part of the package included free antivirus and anti-keylogging software, Curt asked her if he could opt-in to receive his credit reports while opting-out of installing the software.

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” the voice identifying itself as Ms. Hansen replied. Curt repeated himself. After another, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that,” Curt asked Ms. Hansen where she was from.

The voice confirmed what was indicated by the number displayed on his caller ID: That she was calling from Barry, Ontario. Trying to throw the robot voice further off-script, Curt asked what the weather was like in Barry, Ontario. Another Long pause. The voice continued describing the offered service.

“I asked again about the weather, and she said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have that information. Would you like me to transfer you to someone that does?’ I said yes and again the real person with a French accent started speaking, ignoring my question about the weather and saying that if I’d like to continue with the offer I needed to provide my date of birth. This is when I hung up and immediately called TD Bank.” No one from TD had called him, they assured him.

FULLY AUTOMATED PHONE PHISHING

And then there are the fully-automated voice phishing scams, which can be be equally convincing. Last week I heard from “Jon,” a cybersecurity professional with more than 30 years of experience under his belt (Jon asked to leave his last name out of this story).

Answering a call on his mobile device from a phone number in Missouri, Jon was greeted with the familiar four-note AT&T jingle, followed by a recorded voice saying AT&T was calling to prevent his phone service from being suspended for non-payment.

“It then prompted me to enter my security PIN to be connected to a billing department representative,” Jon said. “My number was originally an AT&T number (it reports as Cingular Wireless) but I have been on T-Mobile for several years, so clearly a scam if I had any doubt. However, I suspect that the average Joe would fall for it.”

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Just as you would never give out personal information if asked to do so via email, never give out any information about yourself in response to an unsolicited phone call.

Phone phishing, like email scams, usually invokes an element of urgency in a bid to get people to let their guard down. If call has you worried that there might be something wrong and you wish to call them back, don’t call the number offered to you by the caller. If you want to reach your bank, call the number on the back of your card. If it’s another company you do business with, go to the company’s site and look up their main customer support number.

Unfortunately, this may take a little work. It’s not just banks and phone companies that are being impersonated by fraudsters. Reports on social media suggest many consumers also are receiving voice phishing scams that spoof customer support numbers at Apple, Amazon and other big-name tech companies. In many cases, the scammers are polluting top search engine results with phony 800-numbers for customer support lines that lead directly to fraudsters.

These days, scam calls happen on my mobile so often that I almost never answer my phone unless it appears to come from someone in my contacts list. The Federal Trade Commission’s do-not-call list does not appear to have done anything to block scam callers, and the major wireless carriers seem to be pretty useless in blocking incessant robocalls, even when the scammers are impersonating the carriers themselves, as in Jon’s case above.

I suspect people my age (mid-40s) and younger also generally let most unrecognized calls go to voicemail. It seems to be a very different reality for folks from an older generation, many of whom still primarily call friends and family using land lines, and who will always answer a ringing phone whenever it is humanly possible to do so.

It’s a good idea to advise your loved ones to ignore calls unless they appear to come from a friend or family member, and to just hang up the moment the caller starts asking for personal information.

from https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/10/voice-phishing-scams-are-getting-more-clever/

[amberdscott2]

Voice Phishing Scams Are Getting More Clever

Most of us have been trained to be wary of clicking on links and attachments that arrive in emails unexpected, but it’s easy to forget scam artists are constantly dreaming up innovations that put a new shine on old-fashioned telephone-based phishing scams. Think you’re too smart to fall for one? Think again: Even technology experts are getting taken in by some of the more recent schemes (or very nearly).

Matt Haughey is the creator of the community Weblog MetaFilter and a writer at Slack. Haughey banks at a small Portland credit union, and last week he got a call on his mobile phone from an 800-number that matched the number his credit union uses.

Actually, he got three calls from the same number in rapid succession. He ignored the first two, letting them both go to voicemail. But he picked up on the third call, thinking it must be something urgent and important. After all, his credit union had rarely ever called him.

Haughey said he was greeted by a female voice who explained that the credit union had blocked two phony-looking charges in Ohio made to his debit/ATM card. She proceeded to then read him the last four digits of the card that was currently in his wallet. It checked out.

Haughey told the lady that he would need a replacement card immediately because he was about to travel out of state to California. Without missing a beat, the caller said he could keep his card and that the credit union would simply block any future charges that weren’t made in either Oregon or California.

This struck Haughey as a bit off. Why would the bank say they were freezing his card but then say they could keep it open for his upcoming trip? It was the first time the voice inside his head spoke up and said, “Something isn’t right, Matt.” But, he figured, the customer service person at the credit union was trying to be helpful: She was doing him a favor, he reasoned.

The caller then read his entire home address to double check it was the correct destination to send a new card at the conclusion of his trip. Then the caller said she needed to verify his mother’s maiden name. The voice in his head spoke out in protest again, but then banks had asked for this in the past. He provided it.

Next she asked him to verify the three digit security code printed on the back of his card. Once more, the voice of caution in his brain was silenced: He’d given this code out previously in the few times he’d used his card to pay for something over the phone.

Then she asked him for his current card PIN, just so she could apply that same PIN to the new card being mailed out, she assured him. Ding, ding, ding went the alarm bells in his head. Haughey hesitated, then asked the lady to repeat the question. When she did, he gave her the PIN, and she assured him she’d make sure his existing PIN also served as the PIN for his new card.

Haughey said after hanging up he felt fairly certain the entire transaction was legitimate, although the part about her requesting the PIN kept nagging at him.

“I balked at challenging her because everything lined up,” he said in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity. “But when I hung up the phone and told a friend about it, he was like, ‘Oh man, you just got scammed, there’s no way that’s real.'”

Now more concerned, Haughey visited his credit union to make sure his travel arrangements were set. When he began telling the bank employee what had transpired, he could tell by the look on her face that his friend was right.

A review of his account showed that there were indeed two fraudulent charges on his account from earlier that day totaling $3,400, but neither charge was from Ohio. Rather, someone used a counterfeit copy of his debit card to spend more than $2,900 at a Krogers near Atlanta, and to withdraw almost $500 from an ATM in the same area. After the unauthorized charges, he had just $300 remaining in his account.

“People I’ve talked to about this say there’s no way they’d fall for that, but when someone from a trustworthy number calls, says they’re from your small town bank, and sounds incredibly professional, you’d fall for it, too,” Haughey said.

Fraudsters can use a variety of open-source and free tools to fake or “spoof” the number displayed as the caller ID, lending legitimacy to phone phishing schemes. Often, just sprinkling in a little foreknowledge of the target’s personal details — SSNs, dates of birth, addresses and other information that can be purchased for a nominal fee from any one of several underground sites that sell such data — adds enough detail to the call to make it seem legitimate.

A CLOSE CALL

Cabel Sasser is founder of a Mac and iOS software company called Panic Inc. Sasser said he almost got scammed recently after receiving a call that appeared to be the same number as the one displayed on the back of his Wells Fargo ATM card.

“I answered, and a Fraud Department agent said my ATM card has just been used at a Target in Minnesota, was I on vacation?” Sasser recalled in a tweet about the experience.

What Sasser didn’t mentioned in his tweet was that his corporate debit card had just been hit with two instances of fraud: Someone had charged $10,000 worth of metal air ducts to his card. When he disputed the charge, his bank sent a replacement card.

“I used the new card at maybe four places and immediately another fraud charge popped up for like $20,000 in custom bathtubs,” Sasser recalled in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity. “The morning this scam call came in I was spending time trying to figure out who might have lost our card data and was already in that frame of mind when I got the call about fraud on my card.”

And so the card-replacement dance began.

“Is the card in your possession?,” the caller asked. It was. The agent then asked him to read the three-digit CVV code printed on the back of his card.

After verifying the CVV, the agent offered to expedite a replacement, Sasser said. “First he had to read some disclosures. Then he asked me to key in a new PIN. I picked a random PIN and entered it. Verified it again. Then he asked me to key in my current PIN.”

That made Sasser pause. Wouldn’t an actual representative from Wells Fargo’s fraud division already have access to his current PIN?

“It’s just to confirm the change,” the caller told him. “I can’t see what you enter.”

“But…you’re the bank,” he countered. “You have my PIN, and you can see what I enter…”

The caller had a snappy reply for this retort as well.

“Only the IVR [interactive voice response] system can see it,” the caller assured him. “Hey, if it helps, I have all of your account info up…to confirm, the last four digits of your Social Security number are XXXX, right?”

Sure enough, that was correct. But something still seemed off. At this point, Sasser said he told the agent he would call back by dialing the number printed on his ATM card — the same number his mobile phone was already displaying as the source of the call. After doing just that, the representative who answered said there had been no such fraud detected on his account.

“I was just four key presses away from having all my cash drained by someone at an ATM,” Sasser recalled. A visit to the local Wells Fargo branch before his trip confirmed that he’d dodged a bullet.

“The Wells person was super surprised that I bailed out when I did, and said most people are 100 percent taken by this scam,” Sasser said.

HUMAN, ROBOT OR HYBRID?

In Sasser’s case, the scammer was a live person, but some equally convincing voice phishing schemes use a combination of humans and automation. Consider the following vishing attempt, reported to KrebsOnSecurity in August by “Curt,” a longtime reader from Canada.

“I’m both a TD customer and Rogers phone subscriber and just experienced what I consider a very convincing and/or elaborate social engineering/vishing attempt,” Curt wrote. “At 7:46pm I received a call from (647-475-1636) purporting to be from Credit Alert (alertservice.ca) on behalf of TD Canada Trust offering me a free 30-day trial for a credit monitoring service.”

The caller said her name was Jen Hansen, and began the call with what Curt described as “over-the-top courtesy.”

“It sounded like a very well-scripted Customer Service call, where they seem to be trying so hard to please that it seems disingenuous,” Curt recalled. “But honestly it still sounded very much like a real person, not like a text to speech voice which sounds robotic. This sounded VERY natural.”

Ms. Hansen proceeded to tell Curt that TD Bank was offering a credit monitoring service free for one month, and that he could cancel at any time. To enroll, he only needed to confirm his home mailing address.

“I’m mega paranoid (I read krebsonsecurity.com daily) and asked her to tell me what address I had on their file, knowing full well my home address can be found in a variety of ways,” Curt wrote in an email to this author. “She said, ‘One moment while I access that information.'”

After a short pause, a new voice came on the line.

“And here’s where I realized I was finally talking to a real human — a female with a slight French accent — who read me my correct address,” Curt recalled.

After another pause, Ms. Hansen’s voice came back on the line. While she was explaining that part of the package included free antivirus and anti-keylogging software, Curt asked her if he could opt-in to receive his credit reports while opting-out of installing the software.

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” the voice identifying itself as Ms. Hansen replied. Curt repeated himself. After another, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that,” Curt asked Ms. Hansen where she was from.

The voice confirmed what was indicated by the number displayed on his caller ID: That she was calling from Barry, Ontario. Trying to throw the robot voice further off-script, Curt asked what the weather was like in Barry, Ontario. Another Long pause. The voice continued describing the offered service.

“I asked again about the weather, and she said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have that information. Would you like me to transfer you to someone that does?’ I said yes and again the real person with a French accent started speaking, ignoring my question about the weather and saying that if I’d like to continue with the offer I needed to provide my date of birth. This is when I hung up and immediately called TD Bank.” No one from TD had called him, they assured him.

FULLY AUTOMATED PHONE PHISHING

And then there are the fully-automated voice phishing scams, which can be be equally convincing. Last week I heard from “Jon,” a cybersecurity professional with more than 30 years of experience under his belt (Jon asked to leave his last name out of this story).

Answering a call on his mobile device from a phone number in Missouri, Jon was greeted with the familiar four-note AT&T jingle, followed by a recorded voice saying AT&T was calling to prevent his phone service from being suspended for non-payment.

“It then prompted me to enter my security PIN to be connected to a billing department representative,” Jon said. “My number was originally an AT&T number (it reports as Cingular Wireless) but I have been on T-Mobile for several years, so clearly a scam if I had any doubt. However, I suspect that the average Joe would fall for it.”

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Just as you would never give out personal information if asked to do so via email, never give out any information about yourself in response to an unsolicited phone call.

Phone phishing, like email scams, usually invokes an element of urgency in a bid to get people to let their guard down. If call has you worried that there might be something wrong and you wish to call them back, don’t call the number offered to you by the caller. If you want to reach your bank, call the number on the back of your card. If it’s another company you do business with, go to the company’s site and look up their main customer support number.

Unfortunately, this may take a little work. It’s not just banks and phone companies that are being impersonated by fraudsters. Reports on social media suggest many consumers also are receiving voice phishing scams that spoof customer support numbers at Apple, Amazon and other big-name tech companies. In many cases, the scammers are polluting top search engine results with phony 800-numbers for customer support lines that lead directly to fraudsters.

These days, scam calls happen on my mobile so often that I almost never answer my phone unless it appears to come from someone in my contacts list. The Federal Trade Commission’s do-not-call list does not appear to have done anything to block scam callers, and the major wireless carriers seem to be pretty useless in blocking incessant robocalls, even when the scammers are impersonating the carriers themselves, as in Jon’s case above.

I suspect people my age (mid-40s) and younger also generally let most unrecognized calls go to voicemail. It seems to be a very different reality for folks from an older generation, many of whom still primarily call friends and family using land lines, and who will always answer a ringing phone whenever it is humanly possible to do so.

It’s a good idea to advise your loved ones to ignore calls unless they appear to come from a friend or family member, and to just hang up the moment the caller starts asking for personal information.

from Amber Scott Technology News https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/10/voice-phishing-scams-are-getting-more-clever/