Telephone / Internet Scams

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Had one yesterday supposedly from TalkTalk, sayng my DD had failed and would I give my acct. details/

No way would i do that. A quick chat to talktalk soon found that my acct was OK.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Talk talk have an address where you can report phishing attempts.

Often they know about it, since you are not the first to report it.

Howard

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

Apart from the two (Two!) calls from 'BT' yesterday threatening to cut me off, as they have been doing for months, I got an English voice asking if I had taken out a plan to protect against spam phone calls. As this provision only came into force on Monday, they are quick off the mark. I asked after the cost, and he said 39p per week. I told him that was £20 a year for something that is allegedly free, … and he cut me off.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Gentlemen,

If I get emails I dont recognise they are deleted but what amazes me is the no of phone calls people answer, I've had call guardian for several years and only get calls that I'm expecting or are family and friends, the phone blocks the rest, I've had five unidentified calls this week that were blocked and except for two single digit calls the other three were identified as scam no's on the internet one being from BT allegidly.

Martin P

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

It would appear that if you make enough calls trying to outwit people then someone will get by. Recent case was the TV Licence scam where a couple went through the internet and selected a site who then skimmed them for £10.000.

Be internet savvy, query anything that seems not right. In any case, a cold call or an email out of the blue is not true!

Clive

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

What am I doing correctly?, I rarely get scam emails or phone calls as described in this thread!!

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by KWIL on 11/01/2019 15:12:10:

What am I doing correctly?, I rarely get scam emails or phone calls as described in this thread!!

Is it possible that perhaps you have yet to 'embrace' the modern world? Even the most security aware of us are still subject to the random block diallers of phone numbers.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by KWIL on 11/01/2019 15:12:10:

What am I doing correctly?, I rarely get scam emails or phone calls as described in this thread!!

Luck perhaps? Despite keeping a low profile and having a hardened system I get dodgy emails – they started after a friend forwarded one of those 'joke' emails to me and a bunch of other mates. By sending the email all our addresses were blind copied to the original sender, who sold them on. Please don't copy funny ha ha email junk to your friends!

A colleague who ran his own mail server was able to use a slightly different address each time he shared on the internet. By monitoring which aliases got spammed he was able to identify which businesses were selling his details on. (Later this became illegal) In addition, many legitimate companies have lost customer details to hackers, as in this example. Don't use free wifi access to conduct sensitive business without a VPN – wifi hot points are easily monitored. Don't use unencrypted wifi at home either.

There isn't a policeman patrolling the internet unless you're buying guns, drugs or porn. In the UK the Information Commissioner chooses not to act proactively – they intervene AFTER your data has been lost, and are unsupportive if you ask for confirmation that an organisation actually has appropriate security in place. As good security is expensive it's common for IT systems to be inadequately protected at any of several key points – risk assessment, policy, design, build, maintenance, networking, processes, management, ethics, or staff management. Hackers are rather expert in exploiting IT weaknesses caused by corner cutting.

Safe enough with reasonable precautions but the price of peace is eternal vigilance.

Dave

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Whats VPN

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by martin perman on 11/01/2019 17:21:47:

Whats VPN

A VPN is an acronym for 'virtual private network'.

VPN's are often used by idiots who think nothing can be traced back to them.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Thank you I googled VPN to try and understand it but it spoke of IP addresses and Servers, now I'm not daft but why do I have to fiddle with those.

It just seems like another piece of software thats been created to earn money.

Martin P

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by martin perman on 11/01/2019 18:19:37:

Thank you I googled VPN to try and understand it but it spoke of IP addresses and Servers, now I'm not daft but why do I have to fiddle with those.

It just seems like another piece of software thats been created to earn money.

Martin P

It is, you are absolutely right. It's what we call an 'idiot tax'.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

As I had to get a new email after the withdrawal of my old freeserve one I have only given it to bona fide businesses and people who really need it, I have a minimal amount of spam now. My landline has always been ex directory and again only given out on a need to know basis, unsolicited calls are rare which is a shame as I quite enjoy a bit of sport with the muppets on the other end. I had a genuine call from my bank one day and it makes their life difficult when you test them but the lady was happy to answer any questions that would prove it was a genuine call. It was a shame I had to return my work mobile when I retired as I used to get quite a few entertaining calls about my accident that I never had.

Mike

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 11/01/2019 17:14:39:

Posted by KWIL on 11/01/2019 15:12:10:

What am I doing correctly?, I rarely get scam emails or phone calls as described in this thread!!

Luck perhaps? Despite keeping a low profile and having a hardened system I get dodgy emails – they started after a friend forwarded one of those 'joke' emails to me and a bunch of other mates. By sending the email all our addresses were blind copied to the original sender, who sold them on. Please don't copy funny ha ha email junk to your friends!

A colleague who ran his own mail server was able to use a slightly different address each time he shared on the internet. By monitoring which aliases got spammed he was able to identify which businesses were selling his details on. (Later this became illegal) In addition, many legitimate companies have lost customer details to hackers, as in this example. Don't use free wifi access to conduct sensitive business without a VPN – wifi hot points are easily monitored. Don't use unencrypted wifi at home either.

There isn't a policeman patrolling the internet unless you're buying guns, drugs or porn. In the UK the Information Commissioner chooses not to act proactively – they intervene AFTER your data has been lost, and are unsupportive if you ask for confirmation that an organisation actually has appropriate security in place. As good security is expensive it's common for IT systems to be inadequately protected at any of several key points – risk assessment, policy, design, build, maintenance, networking, processes, management, ethics, or staff management. Hackers are rather expert in exploiting IT weaknesses caused by corner cutting.

Safe enough with reasonable precautions but the price of peace is eternal vigilance.

Dave

Since the change in the law where websites now have to ask you to accept their cookies, it's interesting when exploring the cookie settings of such websites how much information they want and to who they're passing it on to. Pretty much every website does it which means a buck is being made along the way. Those that allow me to deny all such requests get my patronage. Those that do not, get no traffic from me. Some do allow you to deny all cookie requests but will still let you read the website (BBC News for example) but the most annoying are those that instantly throw up an "Accept Cookies" window that obscures what you've come to look at with no option to decline. I hit the back button straight away. I've also set up a couple of bogus name email addresses I give to those I suspect will spam me (a) to avoid having to see it and (b) to identify which organisations have passed my information on to the spammers. Last night was an example. Toby Carvery are currently offering a 40% discount if you give them your details. Using my mobile, I found their webpage, gave them the bogus email address, they showed me the discount code on the same application page which I passed on to the waitress and then I deleted the page without completing. Consumers 1, Spammers 0.

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Mike despite having elected for my landline number to be ex-directory it still appears to be included in directories, and despite being registered with TPS I still get a few scammers calling, particularly the you’ve had an accident brigade. Having caller display on my landline I now always check the numbers of callers if I don’t recognise then I don’t answer. I now use my mobile for any telephone communications and fortunately to date it is free of nuisance callers.

Dave W

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by Mick Charity on 11/01/2019 17:55:16:

Posted by martin perman on 11/01/2019 17:21:47:

Whats VPN

A VPN is an acronym for 'virtual private network'.

VPN's are often used by idiots who think nothing can be traced back to them.

Posted by martin perman on 11/01/2019 18:19:37:

Thank you I googled VPN to try and understand it but it spoke of IP addresses and Servers, now I'm not daft but why do I have to fiddle with those.

It just seems like another piece of software thats been created to earn money.

Martin P

Mick and Martin, VPNs do actually provide important safeguards for people in certain countries. We are lucky that our need for them in the UK is not so acute:

Link

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

you can avoid many problems by turning off javascript with no_script as in Firefox – you can then partially allow it for specific sites – there is another extension requestpolicy that allows you to control which links get followed eg to turn off all the farcebook tracking on this and other sites – the other useful addition is the ability to turn off all page formatting + use your own format – that avoids the idiots who park a please accept in front of their site – if you are comfortable reading code then looking at page source generally gives you access to much otherwise hidden from site – however if you are using Android then don’t forget it was ‘given away’ by google so that users would find it near impossible not to be tracked and data mined by that now totally unethical company

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Mike Poole,

Have news for you and anyone else who thinks they're 'safe' within EX-D landline. A neighbour living some way along the road ,often chats to me if our paths cross whilst he walks his dog, but at that time I didn't know exactly which house around corner, and of road. One day, I had a package small enough to easily go thro my letterbox but the address label was damaged which I think was the reason for mis-delivery. The wife/partner of the dog Walker looked up my name on the internet, got my EX-D no and left message on my answerphone to come down to no. xx to collect it. Imagine my surprise when the dog Walker opened the door!

Guess that was down to Google's grabbing every bit of info it can. Just goes to prove that scammers could do the same.

John

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Keep your ears to the ground. Someone is going to spill the beans about my nefarious activities on certain porn sites unless I pay him US$630 in bit coin. To prove my system has genuinely been compromised, he says. he sent me the email from my own address …. not that that's what the headers say which indicate an origin in Brazil (probably fake) sent via an ip in Mexico.

Oh dear, what to do, what to do.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mick Charity on 11/01/2019 18:28:12:

Posted by martin perman on 11/01/2019 18:19:37:

Thank you I googled VPN to try and understand it but it spoke of IP addresses and Servers, now I'm not daft but why do I have to fiddle with those.

It just seems like another piece of software thats been created to earn money.

Martin P

It is, you are absolutely right. It's what we call an 'idiot tax'.

Utter nonsense, I'm afraid.

If it wasn't for a virtual private network, you wouldn't get your magazines.

A VPN is how I am able to connect securely to MyTimeMedia's server and, with colleagues, share the folders containing all the files for each issue of MEW.

In short it allows the internet to provide the connections to MTM's network so I don't have to work remotely.

Almost every business operating from more than one location depends on VPNs to operate.

Yes, like many other things they can be abused, but that doesn't make them fundamentally bad.

Neil

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 12/01/2019 11:59:42:

Utter nonsense, I'm afraid.

If it wasn't for a virtual private network, you wouldn't get your magazines.

A VPN is how I am able to connect securely to MyTimeMedia's server and, with colleagues, share the folders containing all the files for each issue of MEW.

In short it allows the internet to provide the connections to MTM's network so I don't have to work remotely.

Almost every business operating from more than one location depends on VPNs to operate.

Yes, like many other things they can be abused, but that doesn't make them fundamentally bad.

Neil

A VPN can be created between computers for no cost at all. This is the type of VPN you are using Neil.

The type of VPN that is nothing more than an idiot tax is something entirely different.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

This morning's eMail included one apparently from Flickr [smugmug]

I don't know if it is a scam, or just evidence of incompetence, but I don't like the look of it:

[quote]

The Flickr Pro account you received through a partnership deal with Yahoo has expired. Because of an error we discovered in our system, you were unable to upgrade to Flickr Pro following our recent announcements regarding changes to Flickr accounts.

[/quote]

… it goes on to offer me a 30% discount on an upgrade to Pro.

.

MichaelG.

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

It is a scam Michael so don't respond. The return email address has been spoofed. Flickr know about it.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks for the confirmation, Chris

MichaelG.

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

A couple of days ago I had a phone call claiming to be from BT. They first call was from 01807603475 which I ended as it sounded like a scam. They then rang back from 02085876419 and spent about half an hour trying to convince me it wasn't a scam. They wanted me to go to this url "www.btsecurityservice.weebly.com". The fact that the format was very similar to my weebly website (www.lesjhobbies.weebly.com) convinced me it was a weebly website made to look like it was a BT website so I ended the call.

Les.

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