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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: guest311 on January 22, 2020, 10:43:31 AM

Title: new scam
Post by: guest311 on January 22, 2020, 10:43:31 AM
received this e-mail this morning, just for info of anyone else who may receive it

PayPal

An unauthorized party may have accessed your account

To protect your information, we have:

-- Disabled the password to your account.
-- Reversed any modifications made by this party.
-- Canceled any pending orders. You can ignore any confirmation emails that you received for these orders.



In the meantime, we recommend that you change your password, to help protect your account from being compromised again.



For your security, your account cannot be accessed via our website until you regain access to your account.

CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD

please ignore and delete if you get one, or access your acct only via your normal paypal login screen, you will be able to log in, I was.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: dannyboy on January 22, 2020, 11:48:16 AM
This is a variation on a theme that has been around for a long time. I always forward the email to
spoof@paypal.com
and then delete it of course.  ;)

I did once get quite a comprehensive reply from PayPal, but basically it said that there was not a lot they could do. We have to be more and more vigilant these days and your final comment @class37025 (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=311) about only accessing your account from the PayPal login screen is a timely reminder to all.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: ntpntpntp on January 22, 2020, 12:09:21 PM
Yep, a classic technique to try and convince you to click the link so they can harvest your password.   NEVER click links in emails, go directly to the site yourself.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: middlefour on January 22, 2020, 01:56:13 PM
There is a similar one doing the rounds claiming that the payment for your tv licence has not gone through, shame these folk have nothing better to do!!
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: silly moo on January 22, 2020, 02:35:47 PM
It does worry me that these scams are getting more and more sophisticated and I’m getting older and more forgetful  :(

It is easy to think that you will not fall for them but you can get caught unawares especially if you are distracted or under a lot of stress. Scams were mentioned on telly yesterday and I really felt for a lady who had been scammed while her husband was very ill.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: guest311 on January 22, 2020, 04:26:44 PM
had a phone call the other day from 'Amazon Prime' I think the Mumbai office, telling me that £39.99 would be deducted from my account unless I gave details enabling the caller to cancl this deduction  :-[

response was

'good luck with that you  :censored:  :censored: as I don't have, and never have had, an account with Amazon.
I shall however be passing details of this call to my inspector, so please await the call from my headquarters, or the met police scam unit'

didn't get any further as, for some reason, the call got cut off  >:D
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: lil chris on January 22, 2020, 04:52:13 PM
I had a similar call from somebody, well actually the wife answered the call. It was a automated voice saying there was a strange transaction on my account press 1 to contact a manager to sort it out. The wife hung up, later I checked on line with Amazon and they confirmed, has suspected, the call was not from them. Who ever it was made the mistake of leaving their number so I gave that to Amazon.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: dannyboy on January 22, 2020, 06:15:13 PM
I do not now have a landline and, (touch wood - ouch!), I have never had a 'scam' call on my mobile. I did once get a 'scam' call on the landline and after a couple of minutes conversation, I asked the caller to hang on a minute, as I worked in security, (which was true), and we were testing a new device that could trace phantom 'phone numbers, (not true). The call was immediately endedl
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: simonprelude on January 23, 2020, 09:10:13 AM
Had a text on Sunday from 'Paypal'

Update Pending,Limited access please confirm: secure-update.co

Obviously didn't click on the link and no paypal problems
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: TrevL on January 23, 2020, 09:56:26 AM
I used to get alot of scam calls, so I got a call blocker, but that didn't stop the the ones that use different numbers each time they ring.  However, being with TalkTalk, is signed up to their free call blocker, where whoever calls for the first time has to say their name which gives me the option of accepting the call from that number never/once/always.  Since being on this, I have not had one scam call, which after years of getting them, is absolutely awesome. :claphappy:
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Newportnobby on January 23, 2020, 11:05:12 AM
I have caller ID so can ignore any number I don't recognise.
Fine, I guess, as long as memory stays intact
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: middlefour on January 23, 2020, 02:07:48 PM
Quote from: class37025 on January 22, 2020, 04:26:44 PM
had a phone call the other day from 'Amazon Prime' I think the Mumbai office, telling me that £39.99 would be deducted from my account unless I gave details enabling the caller to cancl this deduction  :-[

response was

'good luck with that you  :censored:  :censored: as I don't have, and never have had, an account with Amazon.
I shall however be passing details of this call to my inspector, so please await the call from my headquarters, or the met police scam unit'

didn't get any further as, for some reason, the call got cut off  >:D

Just had that call, and like you I have nothing to do with Amazon ever, got a similar response as well !!!
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Malc on January 23, 2020, 04:32:41 PM
I have had emails from just about every bank in the UK and the USA claiming my account had suspicious activity. I suppose the emails are automated and cost nothing to send. If they get 1 in a million clicking the link, it's pay day for them.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: TrevL on January 23, 2020, 08:05:05 PM
Quote from: Malc on January 23, 2020, 04:32:41 PM
I have had emails from just about every bank in the UK and the USA claiming my account had suspicious activity.

Know what you mean.  In fact, I've had them from my own bank too, which is weird, cos they don't have my email address, nor will I ever give it to them, because if I do, there will always be that element of doubt whether it is genuine or not.  They keep sending me letters asking me to update my email address, which get shredded immediately.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Young Bulla on January 23, 2020, 08:34:05 PM
Had one last week, unpaid bill supposedly from British gas! Wrong side of the Irish sea and 100% solid fuel heated house.

Do I just ignore it or ask for a week's grace until the money from my long lost Nigerian relative arrives?

Decisions decisions!

All the best
Stan
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Lankyman on January 23, 2020, 09:18:12 PM
I usually reckon to be able to spot a scam a mile off and have a call blocker on my landline to prevent nuisance calls. They have now resorted to calling me on my mobile but fortunately I can blacklist them on there as well. However, a couple of months ago I was well and truly scammed, On a Saturday afternoon I needed a particular product fairly quickly so went onto the Argos website where I found exaxctly what I wanted. Whats more it was available at my local store so I ordered it and paid by credit card, I nipped down to the store where there was no queue and collected the item in less than five minutes, brilliant service! The following day I got a message from Argos asking me to review my experience at the store and I was so pleased with my experience I was happy to oblige and completed the review. I was convinced that there was mention that my name would be entered in a monthly draw with a prize of £500.

A couple of weeks later I got an e-mail to say that I was the winner of the £500 and just had to confirm my identity by following a link. I was suspicious and left it for a few days but then convinced myself that it was genuine so I followed the link which took me to what I thought was the genuine Argos website. I got a little more concerned  when I was asked to put in details of my Argos card account but I don't have such a thing. At this point I was stuck but thinking they wanted me to confirm how I had paid for my item, foolishly I put in my credit dard details and the matter proceeded. At that point I realised I had just committed a very stupid act so immediately rang Argos. Whilst waiting for someone to answer I heard a recorded message saying that if I had received a message saying I had won a monthly prize draw then this was a scam as there was no such prize draw. I was eventually put through to the Argos fraud department who confirmed it was a scam and advised me to contact my credit card company which I did immediately. They checked and confirmed there was no suspicious activity on my credit card so they gave me a choice, either cancel the card and wait two weeks for a new one or wait and see. As it was approaching Christmas and I needed the card I chose the latter. I always check my card acivities every day and ca ouple of days later a couple of strange items appeared in the pending transactions, a total of £15. I immediately rang the credit card company and confirmed these were fraudulent test purchases. The card was immediately cancelled and I had to wait for a new card. The £15 was was refunded by the bank so no loss to me, only feeling very stupid.

This story only goes to show that it doesn't matter how careful you are you can still get caught out. What fooled me was the quality of the Argos website that I was taken to when I followed the link. It was exactly like the one I had made my original purchase on, so much so that I am convinced it was an inside job. Clearly a lot of other people had been stung if Argos were already aware of it when I rang them. Although I got away with it this time the outcome of this experience is that I will never again complete a review of any product I buy on line. You just can't trust them anyway.

Ron
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: DarrwestLU6 on January 24, 2020, 01:36:16 AM
Excuse my Directness but that's really scary :censored: (changed by forum)!
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: chrism on January 24, 2020, 06:56:22 AM
Quote from: Lankyman on January 23, 2020, 09:18:12 PM
What fooled me was the quality of the Argos website that I was taken to when I followed the link. It was exactly like the one I had made my original purchase on, so much so that I am convinced it was an inside job.

The perpetrators of such scams are both clever and sneaky. One thing that they sometimes do is use characters from the alternative character sets that look similar to real characters but will be interpreted by a computer as something completely different - so a link URL might look at first glance to be completely genuine, even if you look at the actual URL and not just what the text says so think it's perfectly legit.

For example in plain text,  thís or thìs instead of this.

Title: Re: new scam
Post by: njee20 on January 24, 2020, 09:31:52 AM
Ultimately you can make a website look superficially the same as a genuine one easily enough, going as far as to have links to the real one should you click on any, but I agree it's scary.

I got scammed a few years ago by someone who appeared to have intercepted a debit card my bank had sent to an old address - they caught me out because they had more information than I would have expected (not realising they had my debit card), so access to my online banking was comparatively easy. They text me to say "fraudulent transaction yada yada yada" from the same number as all the genuine messages from my bank, and I ended up authorising a transaction. Got the money back immediately, and the police got involved (they transferred money to a bank account in my name, which wasn't mine!), but it was all extremely sophisticated.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Newportnobby on January 24, 2020, 10:32:05 AM
In the days of the E111 European Insurance card (now EHIC) I remember renewing mine on their website only to be informed there was a £14.95 charge. Ouch, thought I. Typical money grabbing by the government. It was only a couple of months down the line I found I'd been directed to a totally bogus but very realistic web site and that the card was always free :doh:
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Papyrus on January 24, 2020, 04:31:12 PM
On a slight tangent to this, my wife received a suspicious phone call a year or so ago, purporting to be from her bank's security department. The caller had an Indian accent (no prejudice intended - simply that a lot of spoof calls seem to originate in the far east) and said that there was unusual activity on her bank account. She said thank you very much and put the phone down.

We considered checking her account online, but to be on the safe side we got in the car and drove straight to the local branch. It turned out the call was perfectly genuine, it was from their security department and there was suspicious activity on her debit card. They refunded all the fraudulent payments, cancelled the card immediately and issued her with a new one. The slight inconvenience involved was minor compared to what we could have lost.

I suppose the moral of the story is - if you're not sure, go straight to the bank, or whatever, in question, even if you end up feeling a right wally.

Cheers,

Chris
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: njee20 on January 24, 2020, 04:37:12 PM
Yes, always worth checking the official website for the number and phoning back, rather than just dealing with an incoming phone call or a phone number from a text.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Snowwolflair on January 24, 2020, 05:14:00 PM
Beware of picking up the phone to call your bank even if you source the number separately. 

Scammers can lock your line so you think you are dialling a new line whilst in practice you are still attached to the scammers line.

If the potential scam call came in on landline use a mobile to check and vice versa.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Safety Engineer on January 24, 2020, 06:44:11 PM
We were always advised to phone a friend or relative in order to release the line, then phone the Bank.
Apparently the scammers can keep the line open by not hanging up.

Martin
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: chrism on January 24, 2020, 07:31:25 PM
Quote from: Safety Engineer on January 24, 2020, 06:44:11 PM
We were always advised to phone a friend or relative in order to release the line, then phone the Bank.
Apparently the scammers can keep the line open by not hanging up.

They used to be able to take advantage of the fact that a call wouldn't be ended until the caller hung up. This was originally to enable the called person to unplug their phone and plug it into a different socket if that were more convenient for them whilst taking the call.

Since the scammers were exploiting this, sometimes even playing a dial tone sound to convince their mark that the line really was clear, BT reduced the time duration before a call is cleared automatically to 2 seconds after either party has hung up. This was almost five years ago now and, IIRC, all other service providers have done likewise.

Title: Re: new scam
Post by: njee20 on January 24, 2020, 08:40:46 PM
And there's no way of keeping a line open on a mobile. I forget people still use landlines!
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: jpendle on January 24, 2020, 10:03:26 PM
A long long time ago when I worked at STC, a 'feature' of the Electro-Mechanical exchanges was that the line could only be cleared by the caller hanging up. Hence, you get a call from Mum, she doesn't hang up properly and then half a hour later you pick up the phone to make a call and all you can hear is Mum in the background watching the telly.

At the time it was assumed that digital exchanges would fix that problem, it seems bizarre that this 'feature' would be deliberately added back, but there you go.

Regards,

John P
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: middlefour on January 25, 2020, 09:41:36 AM
We have had 2 of the Amazon Prime spoof calls now, one number was Sheffield the other Market Deeping?? Are they able 'acquire' a phone line for these purposes??

Title: Re: new scam
Post by: chrism on January 25, 2020, 09:57:56 AM
Quote from: middlefour on January 25, 2020, 09:41:36 AM
We have had 2 of the Amazon Prime spoof calls now, one number was Sheffield the other Market Deeping?? Are they able 'acquire' a phone line for these purposes??

Depends what you mean by "acquire".

If you mean obtaining your phone number, they usually use autodiallers which go through an entire number range sequentially and stop when they get one that actually rings.

If you mean the number from which they are calling, they can have their system cheat the caller display and present any number they like - which will never be the line, STD code or, even, country from which they are really calling.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: swisstrains on January 25, 2020, 10:00:44 AM
It's the ones that start by asking "Are you being troubled by nuisance calls?" that amuse me.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: guest311 on February 03, 2020, 11:28:59 AM
just a heads up that the TV licencing scam e-mails are around again.

wonder how many people get caught out by this one.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: TrevL on February 06, 2020, 06:01:49 PM
Yes, I got one of those today, b******s!
Problem is, sadly, some poor soul will fall for this.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Dorsetmike on February 06, 2020, 07:07:42 PM
Not a scam as such but still worrying, I've twice had electricity supply companies  send me a letter saying with effect from -date- your direct debit will be increased from £50 to £185. I switched from the first company about a year ago then had the second occurence from the new supplier. The price hike is an attempt to force one to supply meter readings

My electricity meter is not in the flat, it's in a locked room with meters for about 20 other flats, the key is held by the house manager; due to mobility problems I have difficulty in walking twice the length of the building to get the key, go to the meter room get up on a step stool read the meter, return the key and return to my flat. (building has 65 retirement flats so total walk for mewould be about 400M+)

I found that the  Citizens advide bureau have a section dealing with power supply problems, within 24 hours they had the electricity company add me to a Priority service which means they have to read my meter every 3 months, and my billing will not jump to £185.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: dannyboy on February 06, 2020, 07:19:22 PM
Well done Mike. It is amazing what can happen when you talk to the right people.   :thumbsup:
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: guest311 on February 06, 2020, 07:36:40 PM
"Are you being troubled by nuisance calls?"

my response is usually, if I'm in a good mood

'no, I take no notice of them'

if I'm in a bad mood it's

' no, I just tell them to  :censored:, and I feel much better'

>:D
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Bigmac on February 06, 2020, 07:54:59 PM
i unplugged my landline phone last year.  all i ever got were phoney! calls from "talk talk " telling my my internet was going to be cut off.  i just use my mobile now.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Rishtonite on February 06, 2020, 11:19:00 PM
I had a text to my mobile a few days ago, basically saying they can't process my last payment and to update my billing info. This was (supposedly) from EE. I'm with Tesco, and anyway the url in the text was dodgy.

I often report scam calls or texts on https://who-called.co.uk/ so if you get a call that sounds dodgy you can see if anybody has already reported that number.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Bob Tidbury on February 07, 2020, 10:22:06 AM
There is a new TESCO scam going round as well a guy rings to say he is giving away Tesco vouchers to certain house in your area .I just told him we don't shop at Tesco's so not interested .
Bob Tidbury
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Trainfish on February 19, 2020, 11:18:02 AM
I had 3 calls a few weeks ago from someone who wanted to review my pension arrangements I think. I blocked his calls but he somehow managed to leave a voicemail. Now, if someone can tell me how to transfer that voicemail to a PC I'll put it on here. I guarantee you will either be shocked or amused by the content.
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Bob Tidbury on February 19, 2020, 02:21:11 PM
We've just had three calls from different numbers within the space of ten minutes saying that my sons Amazon Prime account needs to be renewed again another scam .
My son has now blocked all three numbers ,
Bob Tidbiry
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: Snowwolflair on February 19, 2020, 02:29:58 PM
This is not a scam, but possibly an opportunity  :goggleeyes:

Las Iguanas restaurant chain are emailing this to customers.

Might be eating South American this weekend  :D


(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/87/3761-190220142845.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=87674)
Title: Re: new scam
Post by: dannyboy on February 19, 2020, 02:30:11 PM
Beware -the above post is obviously a scam - the poster even got the name wrong!  ;D

Addit: The post by Snowwolflair got in the way - I am of course referring to reply #40