[Penninehillbilly]

I have received two separate emails, purporting to be from Amazon, to the effect that I need to confirm my identity as they were unable to fulfil an order.

We had one from 'Paypal', not long after we has started an account for a transaction, saying there was a problem and the transaction could not be completed without confirming details, but as I had spoke with the seller I knew the transaction had been completed, luckily I checked with the 'proper Paypal' and was informed it was a scam. (phishing)
We've also had one from the 'Inland Revenue' saying they needed bank details for a repayment, didn't sound right so I checked with a site and yes it was a scam, but VERY realistic, that was the first time I've ever been realy unsure.
One thing to watch for is whether you are personally named in the 'greeting'

I really like the (normally) african / ivory coast ones, where they have access to thousands of dollars and need a helpful person who'll let them use his/her account to get funds out of the country. I believe people have actually fallen for that one    . (I always read them for the amusing spelling mistakes or to see what the latest reason is  )

[northfifeduckling]

today I had an email from a friend, saying she is in Spain, having been mugged at gunpoint, asking for £2500! Now funnily enough she is a teacher at our school and a quick call to the office cleared her whereabouts! Her email with BT has been hacked. I had heard about that jounalist a few days ago who went public as google wasn't particularly helpful in sorting it out - this seems to happen to folks using their phones for email, so beware and let the poor sods know that you had the email - by giving them a call and do not pay up!

[clumbaboy]

Well told talk talk the other morning that I wasn't the house owner, just in burgling the place and they hung up on me

[Penninehillbilly]

today I had an email from a friend, saying she is in Spain, having been mugged at gunpoint, asking for £2500! Now funnily enough she is a teacher at our school and a quick call to the office cleared her whereabouts! Her email with BT has been hacked. I had heard about that jounalist a few days ago who went public as google wasn't particularly helpful in sorting it out - this seems to happen to folks using their phones for email, so beware and let the poor sods know that you had the email - by giving them a call and do not pay up!

Similar thing happened to a friend in our village, saying he's lost his wallet and credit cards abroad. Again quick phone call and everyone in village soon knew not to 'help'. friend had to change email and lots of personal info they'd managed to get hold of.

[Plantoid]

The last few posts really do make the case for PURCHASING a decent protection system .
 

We have been internet uses fro pleasure and business since early 1987.

 We've never had a prob because we  only use well known purchased uptodate antivirus  progs etc but my pals who use stuff that are free down loads always seem to get problems .

[Penninehillbilly]

Good point Plantoid, trouble is, can they get through to ours by using the friends email address?
We also use a well known antivirus programme, but OH believes it's these companies that come up with the virus's to keep us buying their software

[northfifeduckling]

free AVG is absolutely fine. Some Viruses do pretend to be an antivirus program. We had one  (XP Anrivirus 2011) and had to scrap the pc, so never go without protection again.
Does virus protection help if you get hacked through using your phone for email? That seemed to have been the case for my friend and other cases I've heard about.

[ambriel]

You don't actually need to hack someone's internet account in order to send email that appears to come from them - you just need their email address and your own internet connection with an 'open' smtp server.

Most (if not all) of the legitimate ISPs these days will only let you send emails through their smtp server from the domain name you have with them - to use a different domain name you have to log it with them and prove you own it.

Of course if you're a big company specialising in spamming people then its part of your business plan that you let your customers send emails purporting to come from whoever they want - they're paying you, after all.

I remember a case a few years ago where the head of one of these 'direct marketing' spamhauses was on the telly complaining that anti-spam campaigners had gotten hold of his personal email addresses and were signing him up for all sorts of marketing mailing lists which, in turn, meant he got spammed. Poetic justice.

[northfifeduckling]

You don't actually need to hack someone's internet account in order to send email that appears to come from them - you just need their email address and your own internet connection with an 'open' smtp server.

yes, but if they send it to all your contacts means that they have your interent account or password, doesn't it? Maybe it's easier to get into phones as most computers are well protected these days? I have never heard of anyone with an interent phone using antivirus or similar on it...or someone peeked over their shoulder.

[VSS]

My MIL passed on this one


   " I received a call from a 'representative' of BT, informing me that he was dis-connecting me because of an unpaid bill. He demanded payment immediately of £31.00 or it would be £118.00 to re-connect at a later date.

    The guy wasn't even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media, allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental!

    I asked the guy's name - he gave me the very 'English' John Peacock with a very 'African' accent - & phone number - 0800 0800 152.

    Obviously the fellow realized I didn't believe his story, so offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang up & try phoning someone - he would dis-connect my phone to prevent this. AND HE DID !!

    My phone was dead - no engaged tone, nothing - until he phoned me again..

    Very pleased with himself, he asked if that was enough proof that he was with BT. I asked how the payment was to be made and he said credit card, there and then.

    I said that I didn't know how he'd done it, but I had absolutely no intention of paying him, I didn't believe his name or that he worked for BT.

    He hung up.
    I dialed 1471 - number withheld
    I phoned his fictitious 0800 number - not recognized., so I phoned the police to let them know. I wasn't the first! It's only just started apparently, but it is escalating.

    Their advice was to let as many people as possible know of this scam. The fact that the phone does go off would probably convince some people it's real, so please make as many friends & family aware of this.

    How is it done?

    This is good but not that clever.. He gave the wrong number - it should have been 0800 800 152 which takes you through to BT Business.

    The cutting off of the line is very simple, he stays on the line with the mute button on and you can't dial out - but he can hear you trying  (This is because the person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back.

    You could almost be convinced!

    The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool the elderly and vulnerable.

    By the way this is not about getting the cash as this would not get past merchant services - it is all about getting the credit card details which include the security number so that it can be used for far larger purchases"

 

[ambriel]

yes, but if they send it to all your contacts means that they have your interent account or password, doesn't it? Maybe it's easier to get into phones as most computers are well protected these days? I have never heard of anyone with an interent phone using antivirus or similar on it...or someone peeked over their shoulder.

Facebook is bad for this. So many of their applications require access to your address book and will, no doubt, harvest the email addresses it contains.

I run Kaspersky on my Android phone.

[Sylvia]

Well told talk talk the other morning that I wasn't the house owner, just in burgling the place and they hung up on me

I'll remember that one It will make a change from being a village idiot or a non- English speaking au-pair