Be warned, there's some nasties out there !

Discussion in 'The Lounge Bar' started by Ron Goldstein, Feb 27, 2009.

  1. DavidW

    DavidW Well-Known Member

    Thanks for posting.
     
  2. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Given up on all third-party Anti-virus monitor software, largely because of crap like this creeping in 'for your protection' & the way they try & insert their free versions bundled with assorted nonsense.
    Windows Defender/Security really rather good now, OS developers having woken up to the fact they really ought to protect their own systems. Seems everyone I know that's 'into' PCs has come to the same conclusion.
     
    Harry Ree and Blutto like this.
  3. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    A particularly nasty one floating around aimed at the limited bank balances of our elderly.

    Don't be fooled by a letter purporting to come from the TV Licensing authorities claiming that for some reason or another your TV Licence is "not renewable".

    Go on line now to read all about this scam and don't click on anything which will subsequently take you to your "supposed" bank manager.

    Ron
     
    Harry Ree and JackW like this.
  4. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    A mate received 'Selection for vaccination, due to genetic susceptibility' email.
    Sounded sort of reasonable given his parents had been jabbed the day before. Written in lucid English.

    Further inspection: 'Please provide full financial details'.
    Ah.

    There aren't half some scum out there...
     
    gash hand and JimHerriot like this.
  5. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    Keep highlighting the shysters Adam, and knocking 'em back.

    Kind regards, always,

    Jim.
     
  6. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  7. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Scams ?

    When in doubt ...... blank out !

    (I hate the b....ards !)

    Ron
     
    gash hand, JackW and JimHerriot like this.
  8. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    It may be of interest that there is an email address where you can forward scam emails (any, not just covid related), it is:

    reportATphishing.gov.uk - obviously use the @.

    More info here:
    Dealing with suspicious emails, phone calls and text messages.


    Suspicious text messages can be forwarded to 7726 which is free of charge.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2021
    Shiny 9th likes this.
  9. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  10. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    A princely price for a one week course. Do you have to supply your own crown, or is one provided?

    Kind regards, abdicating, always,

    Jim.
     
    gash hand and CL1 like this.
  11. Shiny 9th

    Shiny 9th Member

    I have used these to report suspicious texts and emails and had responses indicating they were scams. It must be a nightmare investigating them!
     
  12. Blutto

    Blutto Banned

    It used to be easy to identify scams from the details in email routing information; I spent a number of years doing just that. Then the big IT outfits, starting with Microsoft, started to hide that data. They have more to answer for than just Facebook and Twitter.
     
    gash hand, Shiny 9th and JimHerriot like this.
  13. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    JimHerriot likes this.
  14. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  15. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    gash hand likes this.
  16. Trux

    Trux 21 AG

    The real danger is that we become so wary that we ignore genuine and important messages. Her indoors was no longer sending emails using her BT account but was receiving them. Several emails threatened to terminate the account but we have had threats to terminate all manner of accounts that we never had so this one was ignored. It was of course genuine and the account was terminated. No great loss but it could be that important messages have failed to reach us.

    Still get phone calls pretending to be from Microsoft, BT, Amazon Prime etc.

    Mike
     
    gash hand likes this.
  17. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Chris C and gash hand like this.
  18. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    Two letters in the local paper re "smart" phones, which I do not use. One says for the first two AZ jabs the jabbees were given "business" cards with the date and batch number. For the "booster" apparently it is assumed everybody has a smartphone so the jabber deals with a phone number. I will see in due course when I go and get a booster, and then proudly produce my 20 year old phone. Then they will say: " I used to have one of those."

    Another letter says:

    " If you have a Vodaphone contract and are called by "security" asking if there has been a change of address for your account or if you have ordered a new phone" then it could well be a scam.

    When you say "No I haven't, actually, thank you" "security" says " we have stopped the transaction" and then asks for confirmation that your phone is in your possession.

    " In order to do this "security" will send you a genuine security code."

    The phone owner is asked to read the code back to "security."

    The writer says he refused to do this, on the basis that the sender must surely know the code that was sent.

    Apparently possession of the code means "security" might be able to empty your bank account.

    The writer concluded that the scammer had the means to send genuine Vodaphone codes but did not know what they were.

    Somebody might understand this. As a London black cab driver said to me the other day, "cash is king."

    Except the same local paper says : " Beware forged £50 notes", especially forged Bank of Scotland notes !
     
  19. Blutto

    Blutto Banned

    My 'smart' phone has a useful built in monitor that warns if an incoming call is a suspected scam. If I get the warning message I turn the phone face down and the call is dismissed. Any genuine callers rejected this way can leave a voicemail. What beats me is if my phone can warn me, why the hell don't the telcos do something about it in the first place!
     
  20. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    Thanks for that, if ever I acquire such a phone, I'll bear in my mind that a computer boffin is trying to help me.

    The answer is to have a phone as an identity card, which is what the UK Government wants, and never answer it. Just pay lots of bills, just to park a car....or show that I am jabbed.

    Our new "home phone" is so clever that when you dislodge the phone bit from the base ( which is absurdly easy to do ) then it rings the last number shown on the little blue panel, which is very likely to be a scam caller, despite all the usual BT safeguards.

    Which means that I am constantly clearing the call list. Whoever sends potential scam calls must know that a heavy bakelite phone would not be worth their while calling, the cradle of old black phones being far more secure against the handset lifting accidentally.

    We have in the UK a "Victim's Commissioner" who reported in her annual report for 2020/21:

    "Fraud victimisation
    Fraud accounts for over a third of all crime according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales. Indeed, as I said in a speech to the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APPC) this year, fraud seems to be the ‘volume crime of our times’ with millions of victims each year. But I don’t sense we are allocating enough resource to tackle fraud or responding to the scale of fraud with sufficient urgency."

    Her plans for 2021/22 are:

    " Complete and publish the first stage of a deep dive review of the experience of fraud as a crime (a typology of fraud victimisation) and the pathways of support for victims."

    I have never heard of a deep dive review: "review" would have sufficed.

    The complete report is here:

    https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/...ds/2021/07/VC-annual-report-2020-21-FINAL.pdf
     

Share This Page