A scam phone calls and emails discussion.

[Acey]

Recieved a message from EBay ( supposedly ) stating "We take product safety very seriously. We’re reaching out to you because an item you purchased may have been recalled or pose a safety hazard. We recommend that you stop using this product. If you have questions about the item(s), please reach out to the seller or the manufacturer. Item details are listed below" no item listed but there was with a link to reply. As the only two things Iv'e bought recently are an Iron Maiden dvd and a tin of paint,as I would't presume either to be particularly dangerous, I wonder if this was some kind of scam ,no mention what the item is ,any thoughts ?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Recieved a message from EBay ( supposedly ) stating "We take product safety very seriously. We’re reaching out to you because an item you purchased may have been recalled or pose a safety hazard. We recommend that you stop using this product. If you have questions about the item(s), please reach out to the seller or the manufacturer. Item details are listed below" no item listed but there was with a link to reply. As the only two things Iv'e bought recently are an Iron Maiden dvd and a tin of paint,as I would't presume either to be particularly dangerous, I wonder if this was some kind of scam ,no mention what the item is ,any thoughts ?

Definite scam.

 

[Bald Rick]

I've had a couple In the last 2 or 3 months supposedly from mobile phone companies, checking to see if I meet the criteria to have a one third discount on my contract. The first one was ended by them when I said I was on pay as you go, the second went something like this....

'I'm calling from Tesco Mobile to see if you're eligible for a 33% discount on your contract.'

Me. No your not.

Them. No, we're not what?

Me. Calling from Tesco Mobile. If you was, you would know that I'm not a customer.

The line went dead.

I love phones from mobile phone companies (usually non-scam to be fair!) offering me new contracts at reduced prices. I let them give their opening spiel, usually they say we guarantee to beat the deal I am on. I am completely traight with them, say I am ery interested, and then mention that I personally pay nothing for my phone and therefore to beat the deal they will need to pay me money every month. About one in three of the callers still keep going after that!

 

[aftv]

Had this one today.
Several things of note.
1) I'm not even old enough to receive a winter fuel payment.
2) the spelling and grammar is appalling.

Alt text: a screenshot of a scam text message purporting to be HM Government offering me support with my energy bills.

 

[EyeKay]

Had this one today.
Several things of note.
1) I'm not even old enough to receive a winter fuel payment.
2) the spelling and grammar is appalling.

Alt text: a screenshot of a scam text message purporting to be HM Government offering me support with my energy bills.

Interesting dialling code for a UK government text as well

 

[najaB]

Interesting dialling code for a UK government text as well

Italian mobile, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[aftv]

Interesting dialling code for a UK government text as well

I was going to mention that.

Italian mobile, if I'm not mistaken.

today i learnt.

 

[Bevan Price]

This was only because their original antiquated PABX systems had no facility to provide a central number, so Withheld their number. As time progressed, people became suspicious of Number Unavailable calls and didn't answer. As the new systems went in, NHS Trusts usually presented an local(ish) number as an identifier, but if called would either identify the trust and/or say they would call back.

The automated appointment reminder calls (in my area at least) asks if it is me and to confirm enter my birth year as 4 digits. If you pass this, it moves on to reminding you of your appointment date and time, asking for 1 if you'll attend and 2 if you won't. I was quite impressed!

I had a letter from NHS advising me of an expected telephone consultation appointment, and it included a message stating that the call might appear to come from an unrecognised number.

Unfortunately, workmen at their nearby connection manhole/telegraph post managed to accidentally "sabotage" my connection and I never received any calls for several days.

 

[75A]

Had this one today.
Several things of note.
1) I'm not even old enough to receive a winter fuel payment.
2) the spelling and grammar is appalling.

Alt text: a screenshot of a scam text message purporting to be HM Government offering me support with my energy bills.

I had the same one today and just like aftv I'm not old enough.

 

[najaB]

I had the same one today and just like aftv I'm not old enough.

I had similar, and I'm more than a decade away from qualifying.

First one started with a "UK home office Notice For You". The second one came from a +385 (Croatia) dialling code and ended with the similar "Thank you for you support of the Uk Government".

 

[davews]

Had this one today.
Several things of note.
1) I'm not even old enough to receive a winter fuel payment.
2) the spelling and grammar is appalling.

Alt text: a screenshot of a scam text message purporting to be HM Government offering me support with my energy bills.

Had this exact one just after I had finished doing a few things with my online banking on the desktop then the mobile dings, quite scary. But with all the typos and gibberish it was obviously a scam.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Had this one today.
Several things of note.
1) I'm not even old enough to receive a winter fuel payment.
2) the spelling and grammar is appalling.

Alt text: a screenshot of a scam text message purporting to be HM Government offering me support with my energy bills.

Was curious and typed out the link, unfortunately for me, but good for potential victims, it seems the URL has been reported and terminated.

Hoped there might be a comically misspelled Google form.

 

[John Webb]

Beginning of October (post #1972) I commented that I'd only had 12 unwanted calls on my landline in September compared with 30 or so in several of the previous months.
October has seen only 6 such calls - have the telecom companies managed to find some way of blocking the majority of these calls?

 

[nanstallon]

I'm never sure whether you should even speak - can the scammer do anything with voice recognition?

My phone says which number is calling, and if I don't recognise it I quietly put the phone down so that they waste some time talking. If it was a genuine call, they would have left a message.

 

[Amos]

Beginning of October (post #1972) I commented that I'd only had 12 unwanted calls on my landline in September compared with 30 or so in several of the previous months.
October has seen only 6 such calls - have the telecom companies managed to find some way of blocking the majority of these calls?

I have also noticed a vast drop in the number of spam emails I receive.

 

[Hadlow Road]

Beginning of October (post #1972) I commented that I'd only had 12 unwanted calls on my landline in September compared with 30 or so in several of the previous months.
October has seen only 6 such calls - have the telecom companies managed to find some way of blocking the majority of these calls?

They’ve been told to sort out the problem. At last they are doing so.

Previously we had always had the impression that they were not too fussed, because each call that was a answered (by person or machine) generated income.

An overdue step forward.

 

[Howardh]

Beginning of October (post #1972) I commented that I'd only had 12 unwanted calls on my landline in September compared with 30 or so in several of the previous months.
October has seen only 6 such calls - have the telecom companies managed to find some way of blocking the majority of these calls?

Used to have lots, many a day, but years ago installed answerphone and rarely answer directly and clearly my number is worth zilch to them, so now it's maybe twice a week (loft insulation/new boiler) and the regular once-a-week call from "my bank" explaining there's been fraud. They try three times and give up.

When I do answer (usually because I want to mind them up) some occasionally ask for Mr H and I ask "which one?" and they give my dad's name - I reply (honestly) he dies in 2018, why do you want to speak to him now? It's just marketing spam and they've somehow got his name from a list (all his affairs have been sorted).

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'm never sure whether you should even speak - can the scammer do anything with voice recognition?

Answer in a Dalek voice...?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I will be glad on Wednesday after the US election is over. Absolutely sick of political calls I have been bombarded with.

 

[3141]

I've recently had some very convincing emails allegedly from the RAC, Screwfix, and one other organisation that I can't remember. They look very much like the organisation they say they are from, and they offer an excellent free gift if I will complete a short survey. I filled in the survey from the RAC one, but I began to get suspicious when it then wanted me to pay a small delivery charge. I'd got as far as putting in my debit card number, but I hadn't submitted it. Nonetheless I phoned the bank and they cancelled the card and have sent me a new one. Several more of the same offer began to arrive over the next few days. Hovering the cursor over the sender's email address showed differing names of origin. I phoned the RAC and told them about it. I now delete these things as soon as I see them. They are a much higher quality than the ones from Evri and Royal Mail about packages which they weren't able to deliver, and so on.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I've recently had some very convincing emails allegedly from the RAC, Screwfix, and one other organisation that I can't remember. They look very much like the organisation they say they are from, and they offer an excellent free gift if I will complete a short survey. I filled in the survey from the RAC one, but I began to get suspicious when it then wanted me to pay a small delivery charge. I'd got as far as putting in my debit card number, but I hadn't submitted it. Nonetheless I phoned the bank and they cancelled the card and have sent me a new one. Several more of the same offer began to arrive over the next few days. Hovering the cursor over the sender's email address showed differing names of origin. I phoned the RAC and told them about it. I now delete these things as soon as I see them. They are a much higher quality than the ones from Evri and Royal Mail about packages which they weren't able to deliver, and so on.

I've had about 50 like that in the past year.

They all get forwarded to the Action Fraud phishing reporting address.

 

[bleeder4]

I'm never sure whether you should even speak - can the scammer do anything with voice recognition?

My phone says which number is calling, and if I don't recognise it I quietly put the phone down so that they waste some time talking. If it was a genuine call, they would have left a message.

I occasionally test this when I receive calls from unknown numbers. It seems from my experience that the automatic number dialling software they use doesn't detect that the call has been answered until I actually say something. So if I get a call from an unknown number I will answer it, but say nothing. If it is a genuine call made by a human their normal reaction after the call being answered but having several seconds of silence would be to say "Hello?".

But if it is automatic dialler call it seems not to connect it to an actual person until something is said, so if I remain silent then the other end remains silent. After several seconds of not hearing anything I then put the phone down.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Watching the TV breakfast news this morning, the matter of the Interpol conference was mention in relation to people smuggling. No mention made of attempts world-wide against the scamming industry. I wonder why?

 

[PeterC]

Somebody who has my card and contact details saved has been hacked (Amazon?). The fraudsters had the card details in Apple pay. Made a purchase that they knew would generate a confirmation text and immediately called saying that they were from the fraud department.

Not one I had come across the use of thebank's own fraud prevention to give an appearance of being genuine. The giveaway was when we got to the setting up of a "temporary account".

Basically they told me everything that they had done but from the viewpoint of the fraud protection team with genuine texts confirming it.

 

[Halwynd]

If anyone who uses Apple Pay ever needs to cancel a payment card, always confirm with the bank that they have cancelled the Apple Pay token, otherwise, whilst your physical card can no longer be used, fraudsters who have managed to put the card details into an Apple Wallet can carry on spending from your account until the token expires.

Google is similar, but the token renews more often. Fraud teams are well aware of this, but branch staff are sometimes unaware of the full process.

 

[PeterC]

If anyone who uses Apple Pay ever needs to cancel a payment card, always confirm with the bank that they have cancelled the Apple Pay token, otherwise, whilst your physical card can no longer be used, fraudsters who have managed to put the card details into an Apple Wallet can carry on spending from your account until the token expires.

Google is similar, but the token renews more often. Fraud teams are well aware of this, but branch staff are sometimes unaware of the full process.

I have never used either and didn't know how they worked until my prospective fraudsters told me in an effort to sound more convincing.

 

[westv]

Do the people that call claiming I am on a "database" for loft insulation really think I am that stupid?

 

[swt_passenger]

Do the people that call claiming I am on a "database" for loft insulation really think I am that stupid?

My last ‘loft insulation’ scammer claimed he was calling to follow up his colleague’s previous call. I asked him what part of “f%#k off” did his colleague misunderstand...

 

[najaB]

Variation on the Winter Fuel payments scam - SMS from 07480 781363:

Fill in your application information in full and detail and you will receive this allowance within 7 working days. Please be sure to complete your application before November 7, 2024. This winter allowance is the last round in 2024.
https://rebrand . ly/[URL removed]
May you have a wonderful and warm winter.

Reported as spam, naturally.

 

[Jon_jpwh]

Variation on the Winter Fuel payments scam - SMS from 07480 781363:

Reported as spam, naturally.

I got one of those. Received yesterday and telling me that I had to complete my application before November 7, which was - yesterday!