Spam email

[Stanley]

I often wonder what it does to the people running these things, especially the underpaid battery hens in the call centres. A desperate way to make a living.

[chinatyke]

Got an email today to say I was £11.95 behind with my TV licence payments. Nice try!

[Stanley]

I don't know what mine contain, if I don't recognise the sender I delete them.
I remember when My mate Daniel was working for the BBC he got mail one day from the IT gurus to say he had over 400 unread emails. He deleted all of them and never heard a thing about any of them. The IT people were not amused!

[plaques]

Automated phone message yesterday ' Her Majesty' Inland revenue are raising a court case against you. Please press 1 to talk to your case officer!

Put the phone down immediately. The question is. How do they know I'm an illegal Russian oligarch immigrant hiding in the backwaters of Colne?

[Tizer]

Well if they didn't know then they do now!

[Stanley]

If I am unlucky enough to pick up the phone for one of those messages I always put the receiver down immediately, don't even listen to it! If it's anything really important they will find a way to let you know.

[Tizer]

We received this scam/spam email message today. We view all our incoming messages in plain text by default and this (see below) is how it appeared to us. It had been marked up as spam by Plusnet so we knew to be wary of it. When I looked closely I saw that the email address domain was a giveaway: amazn, although the title and the From address both showed Amazon. When I looked at the message in full HTML (as most people would see it) it looked the same but in the phrase `Please Sign-in to your Amazon.co.uk account ' the word Sign-in was a hyperlink. Unfortunately there will be many people who will panic on seeing the message and immediately click the link.

Hello,
We need your help resolving an issue with your Amazon.co.uk account. Until you help us resolve this issue, we've temporarily limited what you can do with your account.

What's going on?

We've noticed some unusual activity on your Amazon.co.uk account and we're concerned about potential unauthorised account access.

What to do next

Please Sign-in to your Amazon.co.uk account and complete the steps to confirm your identity and your recent account activity. To help protect your account, your account will remain limited until you complete the necessary steps.

The security of your Amazon.co.uk account is a top priority for us and we want to work together to help protect it.

Yours sincerely,

Amazon.co.uk

[Stanley]

Nothing bad ever happened after ignoring an email!

[Big Kev]

20191105_093831.jpg

Hopefully no one on here is daft enough...

[Stanley]

I was once told that most con tricks require a greedy victim, someone who wants something for nothing. Things haven't changed have they!

[Stanley]

I have a suspicion I have had a PayPal scam. I didn't do any of the things the mail asked me to do but just as a precaution I have changed my password. Isn't it a bugger when you are subjected to insecurity like this. I hope the spammers rot in hell!

[Big Kev]

Not an email but a scam none the less. Bought a pair of football boots online, from a company called Pro Direct Soccer. The boots have been received OK but a check of the card transaction showed it as a 'continuous' payment, this would effectively allow the company to take the same payment again and again. I have raised it as a dispute with my bank who have put a block on any future payments.

Always check the small print on your transactions.

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

I did a google search on Pro Direct Soccer. One review site showed almost completely 5 star reviews, another showed almost completely 1 star reviews. Weird.

[Big Kev]

I reviewed them too, prior to buying. The actual purchase was faultless it was just the 'continuous' next to the transaction that rung alarm bells. This would have allowed them to take the payment again without my authorisation. It could have just been an error...

[Tizer]

I've never seen that when buying online, no wonder you were concerned. They'll try anything until they get told to stop.

[Stanley]

Kev, well done for spotting it.
Is there more spam in Foulridge than Barlick?

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on yet another cunning wheeze which has cost the victims a lot of money, in one case over £1million. It really is a jungle out there.

[Cathy]

This really confuses me, why would innocent people not involved in anything unusual or illegal , just hand their money over to people who request it at their door. The Police don’t knock on your door asking for money. Doesn’t their bank make enquires when large and unusual amounts start coming out of their account??

[Stanley]

These scammers are so plausible Cathy. I am as sceptical as anyone but I almost fell for a scam a couple of years ago, it was only the safety features of Firefox that saved me. Like you I find it unbelievable but the facts are clear, the scam works.
The good news is that about 65 of them have been arrested and some money recovered.

[Tizer]

Cathy, they're clever, they trick you in stages by sounding very official and warning you that they're police investigating fraud at your bank. They tell you someone working for the bank is responsible and has tried to get money from your account. They need you to help them catch this intruder. Slowly, step by step they draw you into their web of deceit, telling you to keep it all confidential and to act as they advise you to. Some prominent people have been scammed this way. One was even a former police commissioner.

[Cathy]

Mmm I can see that happening, but people have Withdrawal Limits on their accounts. I would hope that my bank would notice that something was very different and contact me. ( if I had that kind of money).

[Tizer]

The very large amounts wouldn't be withdrawals but would be transfers to another account which is then immediately emptied by the scammers and quickly distributed to other accounts overseas until it gets beyond trace. Another trick is to hack a solicitor's account and mimic it's email messages and get the money to buy a house sent to the wrong account. They're very clever and creative!

[Stanley]

Spammers are totally amoral and ruthless and cause havoc. End of!

[Big Kev]

There has been an inrease in the number of attempted scams related to COVID-19, this BBC News article highlights the most common. All a variation on previous scams...