Current scams
Comments
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Getting a phone that lets you block certain callers, or monitors them before allowing the calls, seems to help a lot. It's not foolproof though as the scammers generate false calling numbers but we get very few these days.👍🏻
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Never happened to me SB, I never choose anything I don’t understand. PayPal are now a freestanding enterprise. If you have ongoing problems-drop them. I had the same with Amazon failing to deliver on time as promised & getting damaged goods then they agreed a refund that never materialised so I’ve cancelled my AmPri account. Sorted.
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It certainly pays to be suspicious but the other side of the coin is that it can scare some people into believing something is a scam when it's genuine. On Watchdog the other night they mentioned about deliveries via DPD and emails asking you to pay for redirection. Margaret had arranged a M&S hamper to be delivered to her sister in Southampton. Up pops an email from DPD which went into junk and she immediately remembered the Watchdog programme. I have Norton on all my machines which I am pretty confident in so I decided to click on the link. Low and behold all it was telling us was that the parcel would be delivered the following day with all the correct details. It probably went into junk on Margaret's laptop because she rarely buys from other than JL or Amazon.
I think Rocky mentioned this up thread. If you get emails that seem to be from someone you have regular bills from or your bank. If genuine they will always be addressed to you by name, not dear customer or dear email name. Something you can do to check is the press the reply button and see to what email address your are being directed to. More often than not it will have a foreign country designation at the end of the email.
This is always a good topic to discuss as it might just make some think twice.
David
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More fool them, I say.
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We had an email saying that our PayPal account was outstanding....very strange as we don't have a PayPal account. I did report it to PayPal who deployed that they would investigate.
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Someone tried the parcel delivery scam on us last week. Fake note through letter box saying couriers had tried to deliver a parcel, contact this number etc........ We gave it the dog, who shredded it😂
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Just before Christmas I was browsing on a Tesco groceries website. Seamlessly, I was moved to another page. Which had 12 red pressy boxes and had to open one. Wow, won an iPhone 11, and had to pay £1.50 towards postage. So I did it! Daft, I know, but I thought I was still on a Tesco website. Then, I got another offer for an Apple Mac, an iPad and an iPhone. Warning bells jangled, and I then spotted that the address in the browser had changed. Exited the website immediately. Getting the deduction on my debit account, I found the email address of the Company, emailed a complaint to them, and the £1.50 was refunded.
BUT - last week I got a message on my phone from my bank, saying the debit card had been blocked because of a suspicious transaction for £47.99. Went through the procedure and card cancelled with a new one to be sent. Got this card (with different last four digits) on 31/12/2020, and used it same day in ATM to validate it. On 01/01/2021 I got message from my bank to say card again blocked due to suspicious £47.99 attempted transaction.
Going back to my bank, when I asked how this could happen I was told that the mystery Company would have contacted VISA, who would have given them my card details with the new 16-figure number. And this to a Company who I do not recognise and with whom I have never had contact.
So, despite my jumping through hoops when using my account on line, VISA have driven a coach-and-horses through the security. My good relative is advising me again and says that VISA have broken General Data Protection Rules (GDPR). She has also given me the VISA Customer Services phone. Number and advised me to tell them that I wish to take the matter to the Ombudsman. Which VISA cannot prevent. Sh e says I do not have to wait for response from my bank to my complaints to them - it being my finances that are under threat and I am perfectly entitled to pursue my interests in the matter. So Visa will be getting a phone call on coming Monday.
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I think that arises from an abuse of what is termed a ‘stored credential’. For example, card details stored by a merchant to process a future payment e.g. card payment taken as deposit pending settlement of final account sometime in the future.
iPhone 11 normally retailing at upwards of £600 for £1.50 was a bit of a red flag!
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feeling very neglected....never get any of these scams, perhaps its because I spent many years in telecoms/IT and learnt over the years never to click on links that look remotely suspicious, unsubcribe from all those emails from the likes of Cotton Traders with their £100 competitions and i always use the view pane on my emails so i can see what is in the text before opening, oh! and ensure your phone does not log onto any BT broadband other than your own which it could quite easily do if you are a BT user
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Le Touriste. It is most unusual that your new bank card details have been given to a third party. Make sure you are definitely speaking to your bank on their fraud line number via their secure web site and discuss what has happened with them.
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No, my post is definitely not a “wind up”. I was annoyed with myself for falling for what I believed to be still a Tesco website. And when you see some of the competition prizes that appear in genuine ads, the iPhone 11 “prize” is not unusual. The possible threat to my account was fortunately minimised by my own methods of doing any transactions on line.
I keep a separate current account which I only use for on line dealings. This normally has only about £30 in credit. When I intend to make a purchase I simply move the money from my main account to this one, then make my purchase. So a debit of £47.99 would not have been successful despite VISA being so careless.
When I make my complaint to VISA and say I wish to take the matter to the Ombudsman, VISA must reply and, if I am still not satisfied, they must refer the matter to the Ombudsman and VISA will be charged £550 for this. VISA have 8 weeks to reply to me before the Ombudsman gets involved. I imagine this fixed “fine” is a method of encouraging companies to sort things out satisfactorily - and fast!
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My 90 year old Mother-in-law has been caught twice by the ‘you will be charged £47 on (date). To stop this payment press 1’.
Unfortunately she has mild dementia and our warnings the last time she did this (and was charged £5 for the call) were forgotten. At least it’s only another £5 but it’s so darned annoying.
She won’t give up her bank card but we have hidden it so she can’t give out details and contacted her bank who have put a ‘flag’ on her card so it can’t be used for E purchases. You take what precautions you can and hope for the best but I would like to string up the perpetrators by a very tender part of their bodies.
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As did thousands of Amazon customers who selected free postage only to discover they’d subscribed to Amazon Prime at £79 per year!
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You’ll get your money back for sure, but still not convinced Visa is in breach. As I mentioned in my earlier post, a transaction that appears to be legitimate will be honoured by Visa until proven otherwise. A merchant (scammer in your case) who has validated a transaction can pursue it in the event that it subsequently cannot be completed because the means of payment has been cancelled or expired.
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With due respect LT it won’t be as easy as that. I formally complained to my car insurer. They give you an answer, you reject it, they kick it upstairs & this continues until you can’t go any further, then with the final rejection you then approach the Ombudsman. It took me almost 5 months then at the 11th hour I got an apology & a refund from my ex insurer for the secret increase I’d not agreed to. . .That was never on my insurance in the first place. It’s frustrating to say the least. The whole thing is loaded against you, yes it works but after all the hassle it’s hard to believe it’s a win🤷🏻♂️
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Well, isn’t any government based organisation riddled with bureaucracy? But you got there in the end, Rocky. I didn’t suggest getting satisfaction from large companies is easy, so I do congratulate you on it being a win - hard fought though it may have been.
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I doubt you are any less doughty, the thing is-cross all the T’s & dot all the i’s. They will cave at some point. After your win never use them again. It was obvious from the outset the attitude my insurer displayed was their MO, it no doubt succeeded with many because they still used it. Good luck to you, keep your eyes on the prize, the prize being justice👍🏻👏🏻
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Not sure if this post is referring to actual scams on the thread, or about scams that posters are reporting that they have encountered.
Concerning the matter of being caught by a scam, I have always thought myself as being cute enough to spot them. But, having now been caught, I realise that as the scammers become more sophisticated, so we also need to raise our game in detecting scams immediately. Just as banks, financial institutions and companies have to update their security levels, so we need to update our ability to spot scams. Otherwise, over time, our activities on line will become less safe.
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When you get a suspicious email, never respond to it by using the reply button, even if the sender’s address looks familiar. I received a “demand” for over £4,000 which was apparently from a company in Grimsby, whose website name appeared in the fake invoice. Typing the web address in my browser brought up a list of websites, and there was the genuine address along with the one for the email I’d received. A careful check showed the received email to be slightly rearranged compared to the genuine address; not enough to draw immediate attention, but obvious enough when checking it against the email address on the genuine website. This was the only difference, but to a computer it is an entirely different address.
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Received an E-Mail today from Cheshire Police via Neighbourhood Alert warning about :~~
Fake Texts re-- Covid 19 test Dangerous fake NHS texts circulating telling people they are eligible to apply for your Vaccine. For more information & where to apply, follow here :-
uk-application-form. com
DO NOT USE THIS , IF YOU SHOULD GET SUCH A POST / TEXT / E-MAIL ONLY PASS THE INFOMATION ONTO ACTION FRAUD phone 0300123 2040 or visit www.actionfraud.police.uk
This has been verified via a known neighbourhood watch member as well as a local PCSO
Brian a k a A B M
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We get so many cold calls on our landline, we generally don't always answer the phone unless the number comes up as recognised.
I also get folk who use Messenger to let me know about scams. These are often fake scams which I always check out.
If I'm in doubt as to the validity of a scam, I always check it out. A useful website is hoax-slayer, which I've generally found reliable. See:
https://www.hoax-slayer.com/ .....for the old website, or
https://www.hoax-slayer.net/ .....for the new website.
Both websites do have quite a few 'adverts' but I personally find it's worth putting up with these for the information.
David
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, not sure you can say the same 
