Telephone / Internet Scams

[I.M. OUTAHEREParticipant @i-m-outahere]

At todays exchange rate that comes to $6 au !

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

The really sad thing is these scumbags rely on the fact that a certain percentage of the population has a low IQ down at the bottom end of the bell curve somewhere and fall for their BS. Preying on the most vulnerable who can't help the way they were born.

Even worse, they prey on the elderly and others in the early stages of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimers and other dementias who are still functional enough to use a computer but have a childlike innocence as a result of their illness.

Absolute lowest of the low preying on them.

The government really should compel phone and IP providers to spend more money on filtering out these lowlifes because for the most vulnerable in our society they are much more than just a nuisance. They are predatory scumbags.

Edited By Hopper on 15/12/2018 04:35:15

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Don't ever for one minute think that you need to be low IQ to fall victim to a confidence trick & therefore you are immune. Although the majority of the scams the modern world will throw at you are fairly easy to see through there are also some very sophisticated schemes operated by some very convincing fraudsters.

Hands up anyone who ever bought an extended warranty for their electrical goods pre 2005 ?

Hands up anyone who has paid for protected no claims discount on their vehicle insurance ?

Don't start me on the many dieting scams and life is just too short to even begin to count how many times your confidence is tricked on every visit to your favourite supermarket of choice.

Anyone can become the victim of a confidence trick, it just depends on how sophisticated the trick is.

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by Chris Trice on 14/12/2018 22:48:49:

The alternative is to just ask them if they think their mothers would be proud of them trying to defraud people of their money like common criminals. I have no sympathy for these bast*rds.

I take this approach on those occasions where I have the time & inclination to engage with them, & I've had some very interesting conversations. Quite often, the actual person on the line are themselve's a victim of a scam & often unaware that what they're involved with is fraud.

Many of the Microsoft support scams originate in the Phillipines & the callers themselve's think they're genuinely working on behalf of Microsoft.

Closer to home we have the teenagers working for the 'Free Pensions Review' brigade. They actually think they're promoting a good thing & totally unaware of the small part they play in a scam which can ultimately cost a victim £1000's.

Asking them how their parents feel about them working for such a fraud can often engage their minds into listening & finally understanding that what they're doing might not be as legitimate as they themselve's have been fooled into believing.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Mick Charity on 15/12/2018 05:47:37:

Anyone can become the victim of a confidence trick, it just depends on how sophisticated the trick is.

.

For example: **LINK**

https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilydugan/home-office-visa-scam-victims

MichaelG.

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Most of the scam calls I receive claim to be from my internet provider, claiming there is a problem with my router. If I have time, I amuse myself by stringing them along for as long as I can, but they tend to lose interest when I reveal I am using a Linux operating system. There is an internet site "Who just called me", where you can enter a phone number and sometimes get information about the caller. I usually post suspected scam call numbers on this site and then block them on my phone.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Mick Charity on 15/12/2018 05:47:37:

Don't ever for one minute think that you need to be low IQ to fall victim to a confidence trick & therefore you are immune. Although the majority of the scams the modern world will throw at you are fairly easy to see through there are also some very sophisticated schemes operated by some very convincing fraudsters.

…

Latest financial scandal brewing in the UK is that many, perhaps most, British pension schemes have been quietly creaming money off on a large scale in the form of complex and unjustified administration charges. Up to 30% of the value of a pension might quietly disappear without the recipient knowing anything about it. Billions have gone walkabout.

Check your own pension(s). It is unlikely the charges are properly explained – you may instead be referred to a website full of generalising gobbledegook. If you write asking your pension provider for a full breakdown of charges, they probably won't tell you. (Expect changes in law that will force them.)

The issue has been suspected for a number of years because UK pensions often underperform compared with foreign equivalents. Also, because people who have tried to consolidate a number of small pensions, have discovered that they're not worth anything because high admin charges have eaten all the money.

I think it's clever in that most people receiving a pension would just accept whatever they get. Very few people understand pensions even if the detail is made available by the provider and we are very inclined to trust them…

Dave

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

My wife had an email scam yesterday from some scumbag site claiming to have sent her a new Samsung phone but as it hadn't been delivered it needed her to reply and send them just £2 for postage and she'd get the phone PDQ – or something similar. Yeah right, and there are lots of little fairies living at the bottom of our garden.

Needless to say the email got binned pronto.

Another usual one is from 'PayPal' saying it needs details updating before a transaction can go through, or that the account has been suspended until details have been updated – these get sent to PayPals scam (spoof) dept.

The trick with all these is to check the senders actual email address and compare it with what it should be, if in any doubt report it to the Company, if it claiming to be from a certain company, and bin it straight away.

What these scumbags don't realise is that not all of us came up on the down train.

Chris

[JonParticipant @jon]

Wish i only had 1 scammer every few days, get several a day for two decades nothing new seen the lot if can be bothered to read past the headline. Just blocked and deleted.
Phone calls much worse, again wish i only had 1 a day and use same number for business!

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

The scam that both amused and irritated me was when i was in business and needed to be signed up to the data protection agency annual money-for-nothing-government rip-off fee. My secretary got a letter for payment of the annual fee. It looked genuine enough at first sight but was via an 'agency' that pays the fee on your behalf and charges for so doing. She had stupidly filled it in with my credit card details and sent it off before i noticed. the real letter came the next day. This proved that the data protection agency itself was insecure with someone accessing their system and selling data.. makes a mockery of the whole thing.

I rang the credit card company to cancel the transaction but was told that once details had been sent it was officially game over even though the letter wouldn't have got there yet. I had an epiphany and asked what would happen if my card was stolen meanwhile and was assured that all pending transactions would be stopped under those circumstances. I then stated that my dog had just grabbed the card and run out of the door with it.

"Oh, dear" said nice Card Company lady "I'd better cancel that card immediately and arrange to send you a new one."

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Here's a terribly sad, albeit ultimately ironic, scam **LINK**

Aussies set up a genuine charity to help Nepalese orphans. Nepalese partners over there recruit and imprison fake orphans via people traffickers and milk half a million dollars from the Aussies. Aussies eventually twig and shut it down. Now the Aussie charity is dedicated to spending money to reunite fake orphans with their families.

Edited By Hopper on 17/12/2018 03:22:19

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Media news says that as of today that the MD's of the scam call companies will now be liable for prosecution up to £500K. Also stated that the number of scam calls had dropped over the last 6 months. Previously only the company could be charged who would then go bankrupt and open up under another name.

As I am phone voice deaf I never answer the phone, it is only kept for outgoing emergency calls and my phone calls bill is zero. I pay for the Broadband with it.

Edited By Clive Hartland on 17/12/2018 08:13:07

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

This scam is becoming a favourite here in Australia. Unfortunately a few people have been sucked in. **LINK**

Last night on the local TV a reporter engaged such a scammer and the abusive language that was hurled at the reporter was bleeped out as it was quite vile and disgusting.

Each month at the Day Club where I volunteer a Scamwatch **LINK** update is presented to the elderly people, The feedback is scary as many are targetted. Luckily, the warnings seem to have worked.

Older people, likely to own their own home, cashed up and not online are quite vulnerable and often targetted, so keep an eye on them please.

* Danny M *

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

My concern is that the really elderly, (Even older than me!) not particularly tech savvy, and maybe with deteriorating abilities, will be prey for these offspring of unmarried parents. At the risk of being sexist, little old ladies?

IF only the current punishments did fit the crime. (But that might offend someone! So pat them on the wrist and send them on their way – GRRRRRRRRRRRR!)

Howard

[Graham TitmanParticipant @grahamtitman81812]

I had a new version this afternoon they wanted to speak to my wife they knew her full name and address and they were going to cancel her windows licence she does not know one end of a computer from another but it is frighting the amount they know about you.She does not go online at all and very seldom buys mail order'

I think the phone number was 01484429317 but when you ring jt back it says the number has not been recognised.

Graham

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

I wouldn't ring it back at all.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Best thing to do with unknown phone numbers is put them into google.

Neil

[Maurice Cox 1Participant @mauricecox1]

I had a call from a nice sounding West Indian gentleman.

Him. "Good morning Mister Cox, I work for Microsoft and need to talk to you about your computer".

Me. " I have an "Apple", what's that got to do with Microsoft?"

Him. (after a short pause) "Mister Cox, you are a bad man"….Click.

I think he had that the wrong way round!

Maurice

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

I got this as an e mail the other day . Luckily I know better and also the senders e mail is totally wrong was the first thing that alerted me

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

I would love to let these scammers take remote control of my computer .I would have a folder marked BANK containing some really nasty viruses. Unfortunately, I don't know how to set this up.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I had an automated spam call pretending to be BT this morning.

I sent the number to Action Fraud but I don't expect much.

Neil

[Punctured BicycleParticipant @puncturedbicycle]

I had a call allegedly from BT (I am a BT customer), claiming I had viruses on my PC. I asked the caller's name, "Jonathan Smith" he says in a heavy Indian accent. I've had quite a lot of dealings with BT support over the years, so the Indian accent wasn't enough to put me off. Ignoring his questions, I asked what dept he was from and where the office was. Realising he'd been rumbled, he said "Mars". I replied "Ooh, I didn't know BT had a Mars office. How interesting!". I was about to hit him with a barrage of Mars-related questions when he hung up. Boo!

[Brian OldfordParticipant @brianoldford70365]

Posted by Anthony Knights on 10/01/2019 11:22:07:

I would love to let these scammers take remote control of my computer .I would have a folder marked BANK containing some really nasty viruses. Unfortunately, I don't know how to set this up.

Have a trawl around https://www.scammer.info/

Make sure you run a VM and have spoof phone numbers and e-mail address.

More advice here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBNG0osIBAprVcZZ3ic84vw

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Hi

I hope that most are aware that there is another scam circulating. Email purportedly coming from the TV Licensing Authority stating that they are having trouble processing a payment. One I received was poorly written and clearly a scam but the other looked convincing and could easily fool the unwary, I believe that there was a case recently where someone lost a fair bit of money to this scam.

The give away is the sender's email address and the fact that I don't need a licence being an old crinkly scrote.

Cheers

Grey/Bald & Aged

AKA: – MartinW

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

I get a text alert every month from o2 saying my latest statement is online but this week I got one saying that I'd used a premium number outside my tariff (I hadn't) and to click on a link beginning http://s.o2….. Obviously I didn't but the unnerving part is that it came into the same folder with the other genuine o2 texts so the scam is mimicking o2 as the sender.

Edited By Chris Trice on 10/01/2019 14:43:31

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