The scam tells recipients they are "eligible to apply for your vaccine" with a link to a bogus NHS website, trading standards officers have warned.
That, in turn, asks for personal information and - crucially - bank details "for verification".
Definitely, just the bit “NHS is performing selections...” gives it away immediately IMHO.do you think it is a scam? if you think it is it probably is.
Does the wording or sentence structure seem "odd". Do you think the NHS would write to you in such a manner? Would the NHS use an indian website? Do you think the NHS would be sending you an email from a hotmail account?
This winter's flu vaccination came as a text from the GP practice. I had to activate a print link to get a printed letter to take along. A more recent text told me to be patient and wait to be notified about a COVID vaccination.As far as I'm aware, the NHS will only contact you regarding a vaccine via post or a phone call from your GP. I may be wrong though as I've not paid much attention to the specifics.
-Peter
Ah OK - thanks.This winter's flu vaccination came as a text from the GP practice. I had to activate a print link to get a printed letter to take along. A more recent text told me to be patient and wait to be notified about a COVID vaccination.
I have heard of a scam whereby on accepting a vaccine “invitation” the applicant is asked to pay an up-front fee which the scammer says the NHS will subsequently refund. I agree with the advice above to steer clear...what do they get, is it a ask for a PIN number or something? I haven't gone into the link to find out what happens.
Criminals are using the COVID-19 vaccine as a way to target the public by tricking them into handing over cash or financial details.
These resources can be used when communicating with citizens to raise awareness of the scams and to encourage people to be alert.
I suspect it's a multi-step scam. More than likely the people who respond will get an appointment date that 's a few weeks out, then there will be a we've had some cancellations, send us a few £££ to bump them up the queue.Never heard of Coronavirus spam, I mean what is the outcome, what do they get, is it a ask for a PIN number or something?
[Re: the Indian scamming industry]
Not so readily. There are several factors that make India a particularly favourable base for phone scamming.
1) Outside of the West, India has an exceptionally high proportion of good, or at least passable, speakers of English from whom to recruit scam centre agents.
2) India has a large legitimate call centre industry already, and the scam industry is a spin-off. Both my previous phone provider (BT) and ISP had Indian call centres. Many scammers are their ex-employees, and received training for dealing with Western customers that way. Some scammers work at legitimate call centres for a while specifically for this training. I had a conversation with a scammer who claimed to be from BT, and he showed a surprisingly deep knowledge of the UK phone system.
3) A side effect from (2) is that an Indian accent is actually an advantage. When I used to phone BT that my line was down (a regular occurence) I was always answered by their Indian call centre. People might be more suspicious of a Chinese, East European, American, African or even a British accent in these circumstances. I guess that is why African scammers (known in scam-baiting circles as "The Lads from Lagos") tend to use email, at least for first contact.
4) India has a high level of IT expertise. Whereas in the West, such expertise has attracted a stigma of nerdiness and social failure, in India it is an admired accomplishment.
5) The legal situation, as I have mentioned.
Needless to say the sender was blocked and email deleted.Hello Customer,
We’ve renewal issue to your mothly subscription. Please update your account information by Fri, January 29, 2021 to avoid disconnecting of service access.
Imроrtаnt: Failure to complete the correct account information in a period of 3 business days might result in a termination of services. Thank you for making this matter a priority.
Most of the phonecalls I get from scammers are "You've been in a car accident recently". It's been several years since I;ve been involved in a accident so they try all sorts of questions when I say no. "Well maybe it was a family member?" results in me saying either "That's a really leading question isn;t it?" or "You're really fishing for information now aren't you?". They never seem to have an anser for that.The best thing is never respond to anything that is suspect, especially phone calls.
These scammers are getting better at vocal interactions with their targets and able to adopt the tactics of phoney mediums and fortune tellers by the use of leading questions. All lntended to give the illusion of authenticity and get the target to drop their guard and reveal information.
Unfortunately I've never answered one of those because I've always wanted to say something like "Ah, okay. Well I hit my head so I don't really remember anything about it - can you fill me in?" then see what they say about that. If they persist, let them go on for a bit and then go with "Oh, wait. I just remembered - I don't drive."Most of the phonecalls I get from scammers are "You've been in a car accident recently". It's been several years since I;ve been involved in a accident so they try all sorts of questions when I say no. "Well maybe it was a family member?" results in me saying either "That's a really leading question isn;t it?" or "You're really fishing for information now aren't you?". They never seem to have an anser for that.
I had another instance of the fake Parcelforce email yesterday. I opened it as I had ordered something that was being shipped by them.
I wonder if anybody has failed to read to the bit asking for money and phoned their local depot to complain about the driver not ringing the doorbell?
I also ignored a couple of calls yesterday that came from overseas numbers. This morning I didn't have my glasses on and was expecting a call so answered without checking and found myself talking to "Alice from technical support".
And what sort of technical support did Alice claim you needed? Had your IP address been compromised? Or has your computer been sending some strange and worrying errors and warnings to the Microsoft server? Alice clearly lives in a wonderland of cunning and selfish peopleI also ignored a couple of calls yesterday that came from overseas numbers. This morning I didn't have my glasses on and was expecting a call so answered without checking and found myself talking to "Alice from technical support".
I might have been tempted to ask her if she wanted to come and help me "keep warm"............I had another instance of the fake Parcelforce email yesterday. I opened it as I had ordered something that was being shipped by them.
I wonder if anybody has failed to read to the bit asking for money and phoned their local depot to complain about the driver not ringing the doorbell?
I also ignored a couple of calls yesterday that came from overseas numbers. This morning I didn't have my glasses on and was expecting a call so answered without checking and found myself talking to "Alice from technical support".
The mail was sent to you from:
* Credit and Collections Dept <[email protected]>
The subject line of the mail received was:
* [-SPAM-] Ocean Freight Payment Notification Of 02_01_2021
The mail was sent to you from:
* MSC MEDITERRANEAN SHIPPING COMPANY (USA) INC. <[email protected]>
The subject line of the mail received was:
* [-SPAM-] Ocean Freight overdue invoice Of 01_27_2021
MSC exist all right https://www.msc.com/usa?lang=en-gbI've just had a second Email, after one last week, (which I assume itself is genuine and has actually from them) from my Email provider, saying I've had an Email quarantined due to having a banned file extension attached or a virus contained within. As I don't particularly want to risk getting this virus I'm not going to release it to find out what's in it, but given the information it sounds like they are trying to get me to pay some non-existent bill, so I'm not sure why they would put a virus into an Email like that rather than making it something people were more likely to open!
The previous Email was similar, but from a different address on the same domain and regarding an overdue invoice.
I am unsure if MSC is a real company, it may conduct legitimate shipping activities and is just being used by scammers.
With most providers you can view email in quarantine without actually releasing the attachments.As I don't particularly want to risk getting this virus I'm not going to release it to find out what's in it...
It tells me to reply back to their quarantine address with some lines of text (as provided), to release the Email, sounds like it's a full release at that point, so I don't want to take the risk with it.With most providers you can view email in quarantine without actually releasing the attachments.
My gut feel - phone as in #386.It tells me to reply back to their quarantine address with some lines of text (as provided), to release the Email, sounds like it's a full release at that point, so I don't want to take the risk with it.