I’ve just received this from our Neighbourhood Watch coordinator:
“The latest scam is a text or email alerting you to a problem on the census form you recently completed. ‘Just pay £1.05 to have this corrected’. Follow the link and you give brief details and transfer the piddling amount. Half an hour later you receive a phone call from the ‘Police’ advising you that you have been scammed and need to urgently transfer your money to a safe account before it is stolen!”
These awful scammers seem to spend their time finding different ways to extort money from us - the census is one of the last places I would have thought extorting money was possible!
I’m not really sure whether the police or any other authorities can do anything about this.
The problem is tracking them down, and many of them seem to operate from foreign countries.
It isn’t only telephone calls now either, as you say. The Internet is open to all and world-wide.
I can’t see any solution, other than innocent victims being educated as to how not to fall for the scams.
I’m not sure if this one has been mentioned already (there’s a lot to read through).
Got a phone call on my mobile which said it was a call from my sister. On answering, it went to a recorded message telling me that illegal activity had been detected using my national insurance number and that if I didn’t contact them (the national crime agency) straight away, I would be arrested. I was then told to push button 1 to connect. (I didn’t obviously).
I don’t know how they get them Mups. I also had a call from ‘Durrassic vets’ a genuine vetenary practice in Sidmouth but I have no connection with them and I certainly don’t have their number on my phone. I didn’t answer and when I checked the phone number it was from (surprise surprise), India.
That’s awful Dongle. Why isn’t there a way of stopping this?
How come we can launch people off to other planets, but haven’t the technology to stop fake phone calls?!! :twisted:
I don’t think that this is what we call a ‘scam’, but it makes me wonder how it works.
On the TV a few days ago, there was one of those lottery adverts for the Royal society for protection of children. The prize was a 3 million £ home in some exotic place, and a fabulous car.
Well are they going to get enough participants to fund the charity and the so called prize?
I often wonder that Emjay. There’s also those word search competitions which are ridiculously easy but the small print says it cost £10.50 to enter. :shock:
Yes and there are those surveys that come up on my emails. You answer a few questions, and then ask if you will donate x £s
To support the whatever it is.
They could - if they weren’t so soft!
Yes, I know that sentences for specific crimes are limited and decided by the government (I think). Perhaps if a few more MPs were attacked or even killed, they might think about it!
It’s quite easy, these days, just to buy a live telephone number. There are plenty available, in various companies, etc., Then the scammer just uses it like any other.
Nowadays, they can even get a mobile number similar to the ones in your area,.
If the scammer is big time he’ll have a machine which rings every possible number (maybe in an entire country).
If someone picks up, it’s recorded on his “active” list.
If the one who answers, or the answering machine, answers with a name (hello Joe Bloggs here, I can’t come to the phone…) then the scammer has a name and the number.
Then he can ring you with what seems to be a legit query for your house (About your Virgin Media, Census, Elec Bills, etc)
If you say you aren’t a customer he can ring off and try someone else.
If you are a Customer, he only needs “confirm your password, account number, etc” & he’s got all he needs!
He’ll find it hard to get into your bank, but eBay, or some such account, may be much easier.
Goodbye money.
Never give your name, automatically, on answer, a legit caller would know it.
Never give your account number, or password. A legit outfit would be able to tell YOU your account number.
Never give your address, same as above.
I think you’ll find that legit Customers never ask any more.
Fake Delivery Messages to your Android Mobile Phone!
The latest scam, reportedly, is the one called the FluBot.
The National Security Agency says it affects your Mobile phone (Android) by asking you to download an app to track your parcel.
This new text says its from DHL for tracking parcels from Amazon, Argos, or Asda.
Delete it without clicking any link (on your mobile) and head for the DHL site (https://track.dhlparcel.co.uk) to get the real story.
If you have installed the scam, on your mobile, you might have to do a factory reset to get rid!
Been using Gumtree for about a year and have bought and sold stuff, cash, no problems.
we advertised some equipment yesterday for £275 and within minutes someone asked if it was still available. The person said their son was working but would definitely be interested. Could I email more photos to him. I said to my OH “why can’t he just look on Gumtree” and I could kick myself but we were dashing around yesterday and they caught me on the hop as it were.
I emailed the photos so I was now emailing OFF Gumtree.
He replied late last night and said he wanted to pay by Paypal and would send a courier. I felt uneasy because he asked no questions at all about the item. I googled his name and he lives in Romania!!! Then I googled Gumtree/Paypal etc and the advice everywhere was don’t do it. I replied and said No Paypal and asked where he lived and he replied and ignored that question and sent me a link to Paypal and suggested I open an account as it is “fast and reliable” (his language had by now made a marked improvement) .
Obviously it’s a dodgy link. I will now block further emails.
You can’t let your guard down for a moment can you?
:roll:
