The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: tizaala on October 13, 2011, 12:21:57 pm
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Someone phones you to say that they are aware that you are having trouble with your internet connection and wants you to log on and follow the instructions on the site they give you. They stay on the phone and talk you through the process. They want to get your details; don't give them.
I have been phoned three times lately and asked to do this. When I said it was a scam they were indignant and tried to assure me that it was genuine. IT ISN'T, DON'T DO IT.
And this one
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. I had no order outstanding with Amazon at the time. The email said that my account had been temporary blocked and that if they did not have confirmation of my identity my account would be permanently blocked. Asked to: CLICK HERE in the email this would, I believe, have taken them into my computer since it was followed with RUN.
Amazon confirmed that these were suspicious emails and had not come from them. They have a dedicated site for reporting such scams so there are obviously quite a few of them around.
There are also several named help desks which will be only too please to take your pocket for a ride.
IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE AND ONE PARTICULR SPECIES OF HUMAN ANIMAL CAN DEFINITELY DO WITH BEING ELIMINATED .........
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Heres another one ::) Whoops just noticed Julie S has already posted this one!
Postal Scam:
Can you circulate this around especially as Xmas is fast approaching - it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:
A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact the m on 0906 6611911 (a Premium rate number).
DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize .
If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £315 for the phone call.
If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 020 7239 6655 020 7239 6655 .For more information, see the Crime Stoppers website:http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/crime-prevention/helping-prevent-crime/scams/postal-delivery-scam
Where will it all end!!!
be safe
Mandy :pig:
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I had someone phone up & tell me that M****soft had called them and told them I had a virus on my PC, and that my PC had sent them a message to this effect, and wanted me to turn on the PC and follow her directions.
I smelled a rat (and has some time to spare) so I started asking questions like 'what operating system am I running?' and 'what is my IP address?' (she couldn't answer these questions which is odd if she's receiving messages from my PC) whilst I pretended that I was starting up the PC.
I managed to keep her on the phone for almost 20mins before I said that, actually, I was running OSX on a MAC, and she couldn't be getting messages from MS about me - she then shouted that I had been wasting HER time and hung up on me. 8)
Childish, I know, but satisfying. ;D ;D
For some reason she hasn't called me back. :D
mab
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Had another good one recently, had a car for sale in a well known magazine, gave my mobile number for contact, received a text saying they had tried to contact me by phone withoput sucess and could I call them back on the number they gave me, well being a suspicious old b----r I decided to check it out, turns out they would engage you in a long conversation about the car and I was told the calls would cost in the region of £10.00. to £20.00. per minute unsure if that was correct but needless to say they did not get a call back.
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Its crazy that these things go on - still.
Telecom companies have to bill this money in order to give them to the scammers - it doesnt cost a telecom company anything to send a fraudelent call at the wrong bill rate.? So why are people still getting billed for this?
Shame on any company who bills for this type of fraud.
Baz
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Someone phones you to say that they are aware that you are having trouble with your internet connection and wants you to log on and follow the instructions on the site they give you. They stay on the phone and talk you through the process. They want to get your details; don't give them.
I have been phoned three times lately and asked to do this. When I said it was a scam they were indignant and tried to assure me that it was genuine. IT ISN'T, DON'T DO IT.
very strange indeed is that a few times we had reported a fault with BT then promptly got a call as you describe! They must share the same office :P . My method is just to put the phone beside me and count the seconds until they notice there's noone there ;D Eqyally childish but satisfying ;D :&>
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I Hate cold callers....I just tell them i dont have a phone, or a computer, or windows, or a kitchen, or a bathroom...or whatever it may be. that usually causes some very entertaining dicussions!
The 'microsoft technical support department' have been phoning me several times a week for months. >:( >:( >:(
I have tried telling them i know it is a fraud, they scream and yell at me that I am the fraud.... the next time i am going to get their number and put the police etc onto them for breach of the peace.
Emma T
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The ones that call us are in India, don't think the police can do much about that...my method is very good for my nerves. There was a lovely ad for teabags a few years ago. where the lady answering a cold caller said "your call is important to me, please hold" and put the phone down next to the radio playing ;D ;D :&>
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the next time i am going to get their number and put the police etc onto them for breach of the peace.
Emma T
Most likely the number won't be available.
Y'all do know about the Telephone Preference Service? You can register that you do not want your phone number on lists that people can buy and use to route cold callers. It does reduce the number of cold calls you get to only those from outside the UK.
We have a caller ID phone. The scam calls we still get come up as INTERNATIONAL. I have reported some to the police and also discussed them with BT and am told that my best bet is to just ignore the calls where they come up INTERNATIONAL. If you pick up, they know someone is there and they will keep trying. We now let it ring when it comes up INTERNATIONAL - and the volume has reduced quite a bit.
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Thats the thing Sally , we have telephone preference here!! Doesnt make any difference ...A couple of months ago i did ask for their number (the micorsoft one) and did call it it was a UK number and it was answered with an offical sounding name! I reported that one to microsoft who confirmed it was a scam!
Next time, next time!!
ET x
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most times they withold their number. The latest excuse I heard from them on a call although we are on the TPF was "we are not with BT so we don't have to look at the list". Many calls are now through skype, the 1471 says 123456789. very helpful indeed ::) :&> The one we hate most is when you hear nothing, then "Goodbye" - definitely one to check if the number is alive but we don't have caller ID...or bl=+@~~ machines telling you to press a button. I hope I have trained the kids well enough to NEVER do that even if they say we've won a holiday on the Bahamas! :&>
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The latest excuse I heard from them on a call although we are on the TPF was "we are not with BT so we don't have to look at the list".
It is true that the TPS database is a voluntary thing. However up until now I have found that most UK-based companies do take notice of it.
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Not really a scam, but something anyone who drives should be aware of.
If you start driving, and notice a bit of paper on your back window, do not pull over and remove it near the area you were parked. keep going and remove it away from the area.
groups of "bad" people are sticking paper on random vehicles and waiting for you to get out and remove them, and when you are out, they get in and b***** off with your vehicle.
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i have available a full and comprehensive list of scams and how to deal with them, now if youd just like to pm me all your bank account details i will send the list to you....... ;)
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;D ;D ;D :&>
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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 ;D ;D )
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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! :&>
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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 ;D
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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.
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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 .
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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 ???
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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. :&>
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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.
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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. :&>
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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"
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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.
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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 ;D
I'll remember that one ;D ;D ;D It will make a change from being a village idiot or a non- English speaking au-pair :D