It might be useful to keep OFF members up to date on some of the horrible scams which are being sent our way, these days.
Maybe some will know about them, maybe some will be bored by them, but maybe some will be pleased to hear the “outlines” of scams so that they further research them if they need to.
For example:-
“Royal Mail Text Message” scam -
Mostly sent, by Hackers, to Android Phones saying that Royal Mail failed to delver a parcel to your abode.
The message has a Royal Mail Logo and comes with a couple of helpful messages which end up with you being asked to OK them to read all of your text messages - When you click OK they take over, install the Fake Spyware on your phone and run your connected devices from there even when those devices are in standby mode. apparently it’s called “Faked Spy” and is Chinese!
I had a text this morning allegedly from HSBC telling me my account had been frozen and to release I was to contact this Email address. Was I suspicious? of course I was …i’ve never had any accounts or dealings with HSBC.
The most recent one I remember was purportedly from Virgin Media.
It asked for members’ opinions, which I was (initially) happy to supply.
Some innocent questions were asked, such as local area, etc., but then having established that I am an existing customer, it asked for my bank details.
At that point, of course, I closed it and deleted it.
Believe NOTHING you get in an email and delete without opening unless you know for sure who it is. Believe NOBODY who rings you on a landline or SMS you on a mobile if you don’t know who they are. If they really want you they will write to you with an identify address. It’s like cyber COVID. I personally don’t have a bar of internet banking. I can do without it.
I believe that I have said it before. I am bored at the present time, so when I get a scam phone call, I ‘play’ with them for as long as I can. Oh yes I have given fake bank details, of banks that I don’t have accounts with.
When I am entertaining them, they can’t be trying it on with others.
I recall when all this telephone ‘scam’ business first started, I had a friend who had just started his own small business. As his telephone number was widely advertised he was getting many scam calls every day, a real annoyance anyway but worse if existing and prospective customers couldn’t get though, plus he had to stop working to answer the phone. One time I was with him in his office when a call from one of these ‘scam’ callers came through, his answer went like this:
“Hello, this is xxxx company for all your printing requirements, xxxx speaking.”
“I do not divulge confidential information over the telephone.” “I do not divulge confidential information over the telephone.” “I do not divulge confidential information over the telephone.” “I do not divulge confidential information over the telephone.” “I do not divulge confidential information over the telephone.” “I do not divulge confidential information over the telephone.”
It went on like this and continued until the caller decided they had heard enough and terminated the call, a brilliant way of dealing with that annoying kind of call.
I used to play along and keep them talking for as long as possible, but I don’t waste my time now.
I leave the phone on answerphone and leave it to them.
If it’s someone I recognise (and want to talk to!), I pick up.
The junk calls these days are usually along the lines of “Your bank account / Amazon Prime account / internet / etc., has been compromised. Press ‘1’ for assistance”.
They are recorded and when button ‘1’ hasn’t been pressed, they hang up.
Easy and requires no effort on my part except for deleting the recordings at the end of the day.
Of course, they never get the message simply because they never know they’ve called me. It’s an automatic dialling system (like the one that Homer Simpson once ‘obtained’!)
I was the same. I used to have a ball playing along with them: pretending to be non English speaking, pretending to be drunk or stoned, saying…OMG! I’m so glad you rang. I need a sympathetic ear…you know I’ve had the week from hell!..blah blah blah. Or I’d take the chance and answer with…“THis is the Australian Federal Police telephone monitoring service…What is the reason for your call to this number.”…THat invariably did the trick. NOw I just turn the phone off and it’s only an answering service.
Text supposedly from Three. Usual payment failure update your details rubbish. They don’t even obfuscate the website link to pretend it is a real three domain - it just shows as three-support-centre.com I took a look at the site and they haven’t even bothered making it look real - all the links on it 404 too.
Oh the big giveaway is I don’t have a Three account.
Just recently I have been receiving what could be mistakenly thought to be scams, from a reputable bank, Santander. It’s an invitation to open an online bank account with all the reasons why, showing all the benefits. It’s all looking very authentic – because it is! Very misleading though as I have had an account with them for 15 YEARS OR MORE!
Santander have the information on who has online accounts with them, and who does not, so why put out something that could cause worry in this way to some unwary customers? They could easily direct this advertising at those who actually don’t have online accounts.
I have now received four or five of these and have complained but it continues. If it wasn’t for receiving all communications from them by e-mail I would cancel that option.
Good advice that is, best of it cannot fail to work!
I have great fun in a similar way. When they mention Windows, Microsoft or that they work for big companies like BT, as most do, I just go along with them. Strangely though, as soon as I ask which of my Macs is affected it goes silent, then they hang up!
If it’s scammer using Microsoft’s name and telling me I have a virus, I most often tell them I know that I haven’t. When they insist I have and threaten to block the Internet, I tell them that’s OK because I don’t use it much anyway.
Another tack taken is to thank them for the information then tell them I’ll format the disk and reinstall Windows. I had one say, “You don’t understand, it’s software trouble”. I tell them that formatting the disk is a software operation and gets rid of everything.
The phone goes dead either way.
An e-mail we have been receiving persistently lately says that McAfee is out of date. Apart from never having had McAfee, a look at the e-mail header shows it’s nothing to do with McAfee. Usually something like: ‘wfsd.fjsf@bnmfnjd.xyz’
Turn off automatic display of images if you use an e-mail program. If you look at an e-mail with an image in it, the spammer will know you looked at it and probably send more spam or perhaps even sell the the e-mail address on to other spammers.
I have just received a recorded message on my mobile telling me that I owe money to Inland Revenue and that I must press 1 to be connected to someone in the tax office. If I did not press 1 I would be arrested shortly! No name, no address, no tax number - just this message. Obviously I did not press 1 and I have blocked the number …
