A scam phone calls and emails discussion.

[ainsworth74]

Most seam to be using recorded messages now so you can not tell them to foxtrot Oscar.

Though some of them are very good! The first time I had a really good one for the first couple of responses I thought I was actually talking to a human as it had the right generic responses to the likely first set of questions and the right pause to allow you to answer before the next response. Usually I now just say "hello" to an unknown or private number and unless it's clearly a human (for instance a company I am actually dealing with!) just wait and most of the time it'll then carry on with the script after a pause and I just hang up.

 

[najaB]

Though some of them are very good! The first time I had a really good one for the first couple of responses I thought I was actually talking to a human as it had the right generic responses to the likely first set of questions and the right pause to allow you to answer before the next response.

It's likely that it was an AI-bot that use speech recognition to choose the appropriate response from a bank of possible options.

 

[ainsworth74]

It's likely that it was an AI-bot that use speech recognition to choose the appropriate response from a bank of possible options.

Yes probably, I guess then not answering just triggers it to say something that might make sense. Very impressive (if somewhat alarming) in any event!

 

[ABB125]

A few months ago my dad had a load of scam calls saying that his Amazon Prime subscription was ending (or something like that) and would you like us to sort it out for you sir?
Unfortunately this was a couple of weeks after he'd accidentally signed up to the 30-day free trial (not the first time either) and was waiting for confirmation that it had ended. Fortunately he knows that any communication from Amazon will come by email.

 

[PeterY]

I enjoy watching the scambaiting videos on Youtube. Jim Browning is the best but some of the others, scammerpayback and scammerrevolts can also be interesting, amusing and informative.

 

[Busaholic]

I enjoy watching the scambaiting videos on Youtube. Jim Browning is the best but some of the others, scammerpayback and scammerrevolts can also be interesting, amusing and informative.

Yes, all the above, but the scams not only continue but sucker more and more in. It's a crying shame that our law enforcement agencies refuse to properly engage with this evil, thus so encouraging the world's scumbags to target this country's inhabitants for their vile activities.

 

[py_megapixel]

Yes, all the above, but the scams not only continue but sucker more and more in. It's a crying shame that our law enforcement agencies refuse to properly engage with this evil, thus so encouraging the world's scumbags to target this country's inhabitants for their vile activities.

It's unclear what they could do to target them though. The vast majority of the time they are working from overseas, with alias names and deliberate secretiveness, and with law enforcement funding cut to the bone I suspect the resources simply aren't there to do any kind of analysis to work out who are behind it.

 

[Whistler40145]

My Brother in Law had the Computer Virus scam, he's a qualified computer technician, he went along with the instructions, until he wound them up saying his pc had caught fire, and unsurprisingly they hung up haha

 

[PeterY]

Yes, all the above, but the scams not only continue but sucker more and more in. It's a crying shame that our law enforcement agencies refuse to properly engage with this evil, thus so encouraging the world's scumbags to target this country's inhabitants for their vile activities.

I always think it'd be a good idea to put Public Information adverts on TV to make the general public more aware of scams. No doubt there's some Political Correctness (PC) reason why not.

 

[ainsworth74]

Yes, all the above, but the scams not only continue but sucker more and more in. It's a crying shame that our law enforcement agencies refuse to properly engage with this evil, thus so encouraging the world's scumbags to target this country's inhabitants for their vile activities.

Sadly there's not that much our agencies can do as they're almost always (in fact I'll go so far as to say always) based overseas. It might be something that the police forces/governments in countries like India might be interested in (seeing it's hardly a great advert for India if nothing else!!!) but then again the victims aren't Indian's and aren't even in India! If I'm a chief of police of some town in India do I focus my resources on the scammers who are taking money off people in another country or do I focus on the criminals that are actually hurting the people in my town? However this:

I always think it'd be a good idea to put Public Information adverts on TV to make the general public more aware of scams.

I do think is a good idea. Particularly as those who are perhaps most vulnerable are perhaps more likely to see such warnings via TV broadcast than word of mouth or through (such as through this Forum!).

 

[Cowley]

Though some of them are very good!

Some of them are really good, but the one that Mrs C texted me in a panic today was hilarious.
Not a phone scam as such but similar.



With the wording:

For the following: the vehicle on the road in a charging area which a charging scheme that applies without payment of the appropriate charge, at the date and timestarted below (sic) 05.10.2020 at 4:24pm

This was apparently sent from the Home Office (that well known parking authority), and so when she asked me where I’d parked her car that day I said that it was at home in our lay-by where she’d parked it the day before as I’d taken the van to work that day, but now that the Home Office was involved she was probably going to be deported back to Ireland all the same...

 

[peteb]

My son had a scam text yesterday saying that an attempt had been made to access his HSBC account and he should contact them..........but he doesn't bank with HSBC. So beware if you do.

A few years ago the papers reported someone who'd set up a phone link which redirected scammers calls to a premium rate number which earned him money as long as he kept the scammers talking. Does anyone have details?

 

[Cowley]

My son had a scam text yesterday saying that an attempt had been made to access his HSBC account and he should contact them..........but he doesn't bank with HSBC. So beware if you do.

I had one of those two weeks ago and I haven’t got one either...

 

[Bevan Price]

The most common scam attempts I get are emails, pretending that my bill is on line and can be viewed by clicking a (false) link. They often contain spelling errors, and are sent from random addresses that are not BT.

 

[High Dyke]

It's likely that it was an AI-bot that use speech recognition to choose the appropriate response from a bank of possible options.

Yes probably, I guess then not answering just triggers it to say something that might make sense. Very impressive (if somewhat alarming) in any event!

Alarming indeed. These days, when a human voice comes on and asks "how are you? I respond with "Fair to middling." That confuses the heck out of them, and they soon hang up.

 

[Bald Rick]

A few years ago the papers reported someone who'd set up a phone link which redirected scammers calls to a premium rate number which earned him money as long as he kept the scammers talking. Does anyone have details?

How one man turns annoying cold calls into cash

A Leeds man is turning cold calls into profit by making marketing companies use his higher-rate line.

www.bbc.co.uk

I’d love to do this.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Those who get phishing e-mails should forward them as an attachment ( not as a direct forwarding! ) to the National Cyber Security Centre at [email protected] from where the headers will be analysed as part of a major effort to crack down on fraud of this nature.

You won't get a reply but you will get an automated receipt which contains the most recent monthly statistics from the service, which are currently quite impressive:

As of 30/09/20 the number of reports received stands at more than 2,930,000 with the removal of 13,291 scams and 30,344 URLs.

 

[JohnMcL7]

A few months ago my dad had a load of scam calls saying that his Amazon Prime subscription was ending (or something like that) and would you like us to sort it out for you sir?
Unfortunately this was a couple of weeks after he'd accidentally signed up to the 30-day free trial (not the first time either) and was waiting for confirmation that it had ended. Fortunately he knows that any communication from Amazon will come by email.

This was a really sneaky one and it was quite clever in the way it subverted the two factor authentication. While on the phone the scammer would say they're sending a verification code to the victim's phone to verify them, in the meantime the scammer triggered the user's login recovery to generate the text message.

What's frustrating is genuine companies can be similarly stupid, I had a call from Vodafone about my account and it was a genuine one but they wanted me to go through security identification and give them the very information a scammer would need to access my account. They didn't seem to understand when I told them I'm not giving them my information because they haven't verified themselves.

A while back I received a typical scam mail telling me I'd won an Amazon voucher but I liked to have a look and see where the scam was. In this case it wasn't from an Adobe address despite being on behalf of Adobe, the English was poor and there were multiple spelling errors. However I couldn't work out how they were spoofing the URL which appeared genuine and checked with a workmate who agreed he couldn't see the trick either and I started to wonder, it was in pounds rather than dollars unlike the usual scams. I looked at the URL and it had the voucher code in the URL so I could copy it, log into Amazon and try redeeming it which worked and it was genuine. I looked into the domain that had sent the e-mail and found it was linked to a company that handled marketing for Adobe and I had completed and Adobe survey a few weeks before. I couldn't believe it was genuine and I'd won £100

 

[bearhugger]

I normally get phone calls about being involved in a car accident but last week i had a call which was obviously a text to speech /very robotic and started off by saying a case had been opened in regards to tax fraud. Just thought "Yeah right! I'll wait for the police to turn up at the door if that's true!" and put the phone down.

 

[Pinza-C55]

This is the correct response

 

[scotrail158713]

Those who get phishing e-mails should forward them as an attachment ( not as a direct forwarding! ) to the National Cyber Security Centre at [email protected] from where the headers will be analysed as part of a major effort to crack down on fraud of this nature.

You won't get a reply but you will get an automated receipt which contains the most recent monthly statistics from the service, which are currently quite impressive:

Very useful - I shall make use of that. It’s certainly some impressive numbers.

 

[ainsworth74]

The other week I had a text from "PayPal" (which seemingly use a random mobile number rather than having their actual name appear in their text messages) telling me my account had been suspended with a link for more information. Needless to say when I actually went to the proper PayPal website and logged in there, bypassing the link in my text, there were no such issues on my account.

I normally get phone calls about being involved in a car accident but last week i had a call which was obviously a text to speech /very robotic and started off by saying a case had been opened in regards to tax fraud. Just thought "Yeah right! I'll wait for the police to turn up at the door if that's true!" and put the phone down.

Oh I had that one too! Very disappointing effort I thought

 

[peteb]

Thanks!

How one man turns annoying cold calls into cash

A Leeds man is turning cold calls into profit by making marketing companies use his higher-rate line.

www.bbc.co.uk

I’d love to do this.

Thanks

 

[Jamesrob637]

Police have jumped on the bandwagon too which doesn't help to improve their already shaky record.

 

[SteveM70]

A few months ago my dad had a load of scam calls saying that his Amazon Prime subscription was ending (or something like that) and would you like us to sort it out for you sir?
Unfortunately this was a couple of weeks after he'd accidentally signed up to the 30-day free trial (not the first time either) and was waiting for confirmation that it had ended. Fortunately he knows that any communication from Amazon will come by email.

My parents had one of those phone calls. Apparently the caller seemed genuinely surprised when my mum told him they didn’t “have the internet” and didn’t have any smartphones.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

The other week I had a text from "PayPal" (which seemingly use a random mobile number rather than having their actual name appear in their text messages) telling me my account had been suspended with a link for more information. Needless to say when I actually went to the proper PayPal website and logged in there, bypassing the link in my text, there were no such issues on my account.



Oh I had that one too! Very disappointing effort I thought

Talking of Paypal, here's something that sounds like a scam but actually isn't! If you have a Paypal account and haven't used it for a bit, best log in to save yourself a £12 bill.

PayPal is set to introduce an annual fee of up to £12 for users whose accounts have been inactive for a year or more – but you can avoid the charge by logging into your account before the deadline in December.

From 16 December 2020, PayPal users will be charged the fee if their accounts have been inactive for at least 12 consecutive months.

PayPal defines "inactive" as an account where the user hasn't sent, received or withdrawn money, or logged into their account.

If your account has been inactive for over 12 months, the fee you're charged will be the lesser of £12 or your entire PayPal balance. If you don't have any money in your PayPal account, or your balance is negative, PayPal says you won't be charged a fee (even if you have a credit or debit card linked to the account).

You can avoid being charged by logging into your PayPal account (or making a transaction) on or before 15 December 2020, before the fee is introduced on 16 December 2020.

PayPal to introduce £9 a year fee for 'inactive' accounts – act now to dodge it

PayPal is set to introduce an annual fee of up to £12 for users whose accounts have been inactive for a year or more - but you can avoid the charge by logging into your account before the deadline in December

www.moneysavingexpert.com

 

[swt_passenger]

Hi this is Dave.
Well you don’t sound at all like a Dave.
Why’s that?
I reckon you sound just like a scam artist.
Er... hangs up.

Hi, i‘d like to talk about your Windows Computer.
I don’t need one. If I need to open my windows I just use the normal handles. I just had them replaced, white UPVC, they’re really good, etc etc.
Er... hangs up.

 

[Bald Rick]

Hi, i‘d like to talk about your Windows Computer.
I don’t need one. If I need to open my windows I just use the normal handles. I just had them replaced, white UPVC, they’re really good, etc etc.

You can do that in reverse when Double Glazing sales people cold call!

“My Windows? Oh yes please, can you help me get this virus off...”

 

[PeterC]

What's frustrating is genuine companies can be similarly stupid, I had a call from Vodafone about my account and it was a genuine one but they wanted me to go through security identification and give them the very information a scammer would need to access my account. They didn't seem to understand when I told them I'm not giving them my information because they haven't verified themselves.

I had just that when Nationwide called with about a query on my credit card. Of course the credit card security team didn't have access to the password agreed with the internet banking team to be used if they needed to phone me.

 

[johnnychips]

I cannot understand why anybody whose job doesn’t need it answers calls whose number they don’t know, let alone ‘caller ID withheld’. If it’s that important they will text, email (yes I know) or send a letter.

And the websites like ‘who called me?’ can often point out scammers.

I’m writing this as I just got a scam call from a number that I remembered looked incredibly like Track and Trace number. After not answering I Googled it and it was a scam from ‘Lloyds Bank’ Now blocked, of course.