Scams

[johnnydun]

Got an automated call yesterday saying that HMRC are investigating me for tax evasion and there is a warrant out for my arrest.

If I pressed 1, it would cancel the warrant and I can discuss the issue.

Thank f**k they gave me the heads up. I will let you all know what the weather is like in Cuba.

Edited January 31, 2021 by johnnydun

[tamthebam]

22 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

Got an automated call yesterday saying that HMRC are investigating me for tax invasion and there is a warrant out for my arrest.

If I pressed 1, it would cancel the warrant and I can discuss the issue.

Thank f**k they gave me the heads up. I will let you all know what the weather is like in Cuba.

Tax invasion- tbf that's even worse than tax evasion

[johnnydun]

3 minutes ago, tamthebam said:

Tax invasion- tbf that's even worse than tax evasion

Haha! What a tool I am.

[welshbairn]

13 hours ago, BFTD said:

Some people seem to have trouble parsing URLs. There'll be plenty of older folk who wouldn't realise that it's the 'blocked-request' bit that's important there.

I'm getting my mum onto the internet soon. I think I'll be telling her not to click on anything without asking me.

I'm old, please explain. When I get an unauthorised transaction warning text from RBS it describes it and asks me to click y or n to say whether it was legit. First time I got one I phoned the RBS fraud dept to ask if it was from them and was reassured. No doubt the scammers will soon be mimicking that too, but it's unlikely they'll have the details of the transaction. 

[BFTD]

3 hours ago, welshbairn said:

I'm old, please explain. When I get an unauthorised transaction warning text from RBS it describes it and asks me to click y or n to say whether it was legit. First time I got one I phoned the RBS fraud dept to ask if it was from them and was reassured. No doubt the scammers will soon be mimicking that too, but it's unlikely they'll have the details of the transaction. 

Oh, I get that shit all the time, usually pretending to be a Netflix subscription or the purchase of an iPhone. Click here to confirm or deny this was your purchase/give us your login details so we can empty your account. Presumably they're relying on the outrage of people thinking they've been scammed to lure them into actually being scammed.

I was just meaning that, before clicking on anything in an email, people should check the hover text to see whether it links to the correct domain; bankofscotland.co.uk, for example. Some folk still have trouble with that, though, and might think bankofscotland.couk.co.uk still looks legit, whereas they're connecting a web server called 'bankofscotland' on some dodgy Russian network called couk.co.uk.

(I've no idea what couk.co.uk is, BTW, so apologies to them if they're wondering why they're suddenly getting hits from P&B)

[Sergeant Wilson]

3 hours ago, johnnydun said:

Got an automated call yesterday saying that HMRC are investigating me for tax evasion and there is a warrant out for my arrest.

 

Are you a representative of Glasgow Rangers, press 1.

For all other enquiries, press 2.

[tamthebam]

I've just had a phone call offering an extension on the warranty of the washing machine I don't have.

That's nice of the cnuts.

[Raidernation]

Always click on the senders email address. Number of scam emails I receive purportedly coming from companies I actually deal with trying to address some “account issue” and instead of a genuine “chase.com” address it’s something like “carecatchu.bbgt.com” or something equally as spurious.

[maicoman]

 

The house phone rings this morning Wife looks at the number and it is a Beith number so she picks it up and there is a old man on the line He asks her did some one phone his number a hour a go from our landline in Beith  She said no He told her that he got a phone call from "the bank" telling him that he had a couple of suspicious transactions He said he was very aware of these scams and put the phone down He was very apologetic about having to phone her to double check Wife put it on facebook and someone told her that the scammers now have the technology to get a local number to come up on peoples phones when they phone them

 

 

 

[MazzyStar]

Capitalism 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

15 minutes ago, maicoman said:

 

The house phone rings this morning Wife looks at the number and it is a Beith number so she picks it up and there is a old man on the line He asks her did some one phone his number a hour a go from our landline in Beith  She said no He told her that he got a phone call from "the bank" telling him that he had a couple of suspicious transactions He said he was very aware of these scams and put the phone down He was very apologetic about having to phone her to double check Wife put it on facebook and someone told her that the scammers now have the technology to get a local number to come up on peoples phones when they phone them

 

 

 

Yes numbers can be spoofed very easily and is something that happens quite a lot. 
 

Also, please for the love of f**k can people stop sending money to people on facebook market place for things, almost every single hour there is a scam on it, concert tickets for gigs popular with the younger folks are the biggest earners. One gig at a Glasgow venue had something like 500 people attend with fake tickets. 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Had the pleasure of reading this last night: How I Fell for an Amazon Scam Call and Handed Over $50,000 (thecut.com)

It's worth reading the whole thing but I'll post some choice excerpts and let you decide how Machiavellian this scheme was

Quote

Still, how could I have been such easy prey? Scam victims tend to be single, lonely, and economically insecure with low financial literacy. I am none of those things. I’m closer to the opposite. I’m a journalist who had a weekly column in the “Business” section of the New York Times. I’ve written a personal-finance column for this magazine for the past seven years.

Quote

A polite woman with a vague accent told me she was calling from Amazon customer service to check some unusual activity on my account. The call was being recorded for quality assurance. Had I recently spent $8,000 on MacBooks and iPads?

I had not. I checked my Amazon account. My order history showed diapers and groceries, no iPads. The woman, who said her name was Krista, told me the purchases had been made under my business account. “I don’t have a business account,” I said. “Hmm,” she said. “Our system shows that you have two.”

Quote

Then Krista explained that Amazon had been having a lot of problems with identity theft and false accounts lately. It had become so pervasive that the company was working with a liaison at the Federal Trade Commission and was referring defrauded customers to him. Could she connect me?

“Um, sure?” I said.

Krista transferred the call to a man who identified himself as Calvin Mitchell. He said he was an investigator with the FTC, gave me his badge number, and had me write down his direct phone line in case I needed to contact him again.

Quote

He told me that 22 bank accounts, nine vehicles, and four properties were registered to my name. The bank accounts had wired more than $3 million overseas, mostly to Jamaica and Iraq.

Quote

He texted me a drug-bust photo of bags of pills and money stacked on a table. He told me that there were warrants out for my arrest in Maryland and Texas and that I was being charged with cybercrimes, money laundering, and drug trafficking.

Quote

Calvin told me to listen carefully. “The first thing you must do is not tell anyone what is going on. Everyone around you is a suspect.”

I almost laughed. I told him I was quite sure that my husband, who works for an affordable-housing nonprofit and makes meticulous spreadsheets for our child-care expenses, was not a secret drug smuggler. “I believe you, but even so, your communications are probably under surveillance,” Calvin said. “You cannot talk to him about this.”

Quote

I admitted that I had texted my husband. “You must reassure him that everything is fine,” Michael said. “In many cases like this, we have to investigate the spouse as well, and the less he knows, the less he is implicated. From now on, you have to follow protocol if you want us to help you.”

Quote

“If you talk to an attorney, I cannot help you anymore,” Michael said sternly. “You will be considered noncooperative. Your home will be raided, and your assets will be seized. You may be arrested. It’s your choice.”

Quote

“Okay,” he said. “You need to go to the bank and get that cash out now. You cannot tell them what it is for. In one of my last cases, the identity thief was someone who worked at the bank.”

Quote

“I’ll need to see your colleague’s badge,” I said. “I’m not just going to give $50,000 of my money to someone I don’t know.”

“Undercover agents don’t carry badges,” he said, as if I’d asked the CIA to bring me a Happy Meal. “They’re undercover. Remember, you are probably being watched. The criminals cannot know that a CIA agent is there.”

 

[Barry Ferguson's Hat]

For anyone looking to get into it, old people can be an easy yet lucrative target. 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

16 minutes ago, Barry Ferguson's Hat said:

For anyone looking to get into it, old people can be an easy yet lucrative target. 

Theres a lot of money in old false teeth tbf.

[Peil]

Oh no, what will I do?

[Richey Edwards]

1 minute ago, Peil said:

Oh no, what will I do?

Thank you for trusting us.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

Im with O2, and every so often get a text (that is legit) about resetting a pin/password. Then a phone call from all over the shop, claiming to be able to get a 40% discount if I confirm my pin with them.

First time I got one I was a bit confused (because the text looked legit but the call clearly wasnt) - read the text down to the end and it said O2 will never call you for this pin. Called the scammer a p***k and hung up & blocked him, but every few weeks some con artist chances it again.

Edit: actually i think o2 send 2/3 different texts for whatever the scammers are trying, took a skim before i clocked the warning.

Im not even sure what they can do if you fall for it, but i suppose phone numbers are really important now with e.g. authentication texts and calls so thats their angle somewhere. Change the number on your o2 account and try to access other sensitive/lucrative accounts?

Edited February 16 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Molotov]

2 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Had the pleasure of reading this last night: How I Fell for an Amazon Scam Call and Handed Over $50,000 (thecut.com)

It's worth reading the whole thing but I'll post some choice excerpts and let you decide how Machiavellian this scheme was

 

This just seems like a clickbait story by a journalist. 

One giveaway is ….

“Can I just come to your office and sort this out in person?” I said. “It’s getting late, and I need to take my son trick-or-treating soon.”

 

[parsforlife]

1 hour ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Im with O2, and every so often get a text (that is legit) about resetting a pin/password. Then a phone call from all over the shop, claiming to be able to get a 40% discount if I confirm my pin with them.

First time I got one I was a bit confused (because the text looked legit but the call clearly wasnt) - read the text down to the end and it said O2 will never call you for this pin. Called the scammer a p***k and hung up & blocked him, but every few weeks some con artist chances it again.

Edit: actually i think o2 send 2/3 different texts for whatever the scammers are trying, took a skim before i clocked the warning.

Im not even sure what they can do if you fall for it, but i suppose phone numbers are really important now with e.g. authentication texts and calls so thats their angle somewhere. Change the number on your o2 account and try to access other sensitive/lucrative accounts?

The scam works cos they do a ‘i forgot my password’ on a O2 account, that triggers a legitimate text which the scammer call you to try get the details, if they get the pin there into your account, can change the address and start ordering phones which they can sell on

[RuMoore]

I had a scam caller phoning up and asking about shite like maintenance issues, damp etc and if I had complained to the local authority, I just said yes to see where this would lead to and the person said to send images on WhatsApp to them and they'd get me compensation, what's aw that about?