Online Fraud

[Hen-Gen]

I’m getting sick of the endless ruses used to try and get you to impart personal information or to hack into your account. These attempts are either online or by phone. They’re usually pretty basic and easily recognised but I don’t really want to live my life in a constant fog of suspicion.
I’ve just notified a reputable clothing company that their company name is being used to attempt fraudulent activity.
I’ve just closed my Paypal account in order to prevent theft. When I try to open a new one they require a mobile phone number which I do not possess. I need a Paypal account to use eBay.
Bring back cheques, I say.

 

[bigyetiman]

Bring back trading with goods, I am good for beetroot how many beetroot per lamb chop ?
We have been plagued with calls from various numbers telling us we have won a big prize on the lottery and they need our bank details to pay the money in. Quite amazing as neither of us do the lottery. OH answered one and told the man she needed his details as her financial adviser dealt with all her money matters, he swore at her and hung up.
Another one doing the rounds is your Bosch washing machine warranty is up and you need to renew over the phone.

 

[dianefairhall]

I've been having lots of 'your Paypal account has been suspended' scams via email this last week. I just forward them to [email protected] and delete them. Then I check by logging into my account direct.

Clever of your OH, BYM - I wouldn't have thought of that!

 

[Icemaiden]

My stepdad's had a letter from Bakker (apparently they sell plants & a range of overpriced tat, according to their catalogues). They say that he's overpaid on an order & want his bank details in order to repay him. I'm inclined to tell them to post him a cheque. What do you think?

 

[bigyetiman]

Ask them to send you a miniature windmill as a refund, or a barrowload of tulips that should leave them speechless

 

[dinosaw]

I don't know if you don't have a mobile out of principle or because of poor coverage up there HenGen but they are useful as added security for anything you are doing online. I had a PayPal problem where they suspended my account due to suspicious activity and now I have added one time passcode verification to my login which is sent by text to my mobile, same with amazon. Just adds another layer of security in case they hack your password.

Tons of PayPal and amazon phishing emails out there at the moment. I have heard of there is quite a bit of fraud involving the government bounce back loans going on too. Apparently they were carrying out minimal checks and people are taking out these business loans in other peoples names, setting up new companies to claim the money or, and this is much harder to detect, using the money to fund their own personal lifestyle.

 

[Margaid]

I get more by 'phone than email - had one this morning to say my (non-existent) Amazon Prime account would be renewed at £79.99 if I didn't press 1. I pressed the red button instead and then dialled 1572 which allowed me to "divert" that number so it won't ring on my phone. Don't knwo if that works with all landline providers - I'm with Plusnet.

 

[LadyA]

I get more by 'phone than email - had one this morning to say my (non-existent) Amazon Prime account would be renewed at £79.99 if I didn't press 1. I pressed the red button instead and then dialled 1572 which allowed me to "divert" that number so it won't ring on my phone. Don't knwo if that works with all landline providers - I'm with Plusnet.

At work this morning, my client had the same call. It was an electronic voice, not a real person.

Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk

 

[Hen-Gen]

I don't know if you don't have a mobile out of principle or because of poor coverage up there HenGen but they are useful as added security for anything you are doing online. I had a PayPal problem where they suspended my account due to suspicious activity and now I have added one time passcode verification to my login which is sent by text to my mobile, same with amazon. Just adds another layer of security in case they hack your password.

I don’t think many folk have appreciated that you can receive a text on a landline. The message is spoken to you in a monotone, mechanical voice.

 

[rick]

There is something very funny about text messages on landline. About 15 years ago one of Dylan's schoolmates sent a text that came through something like (in typical machine speech): "...you have received an SMS message - the message says; You Smell! To save the message... To play it again..."

 

[Marigold]

Another Trading Standards warning;

 

[rick]

That's awful! Even the leaflet warning you about it could be priming for a bogus Royal Mail Fraud No. !
I suppose the only sure way of dealing with it is to only ever phone a number like that from a PAYG mobile with £5 credit? - or look up the fraud office number online but anyone who would think of that isn't the target.

 

[Marigold]

Or check out the crime stoppers link by finding it independently and then typing it in, not clicking the link?

 

[rick]

Yes. That link doesn't look to worrying - they usually put a prefix on it to make a bogus site (like http:/ www . bogus / crimestoppers-uk .org/...) but its always best to go to the front door. Another annoying one is from the search engines - I recently was having to get a Land Registry document and had to scroll a long way down the search results before actually finding the link to the .gov site. The first one I followed wanted about £40 for a title deed (alarm bells ringing!), Its £3 direct.

 

[bigyetiman]

I had one yesterday from HM Tax and Revenue telling me I had gone into London on a date not specified therefore I had to pay £23.42 to the Home Office for breaking the congestion charge. No mention of the car reg or type. What a strange random amount. I suppose someone will click the link and they will grab their credit card details.
I just passed it onto the HM Tax and our local council councils fraud departments

 

[dianefairhall]

I had one yesterday from HM Tax and Revenue telling me I had gone into London on a date not specified therefore I had to pay £23.42 to the Home Office for breaking the congestion charge. No mention of the car reg or type. What a strange random amount. I suppose someone will click the link and they will grab their credit card details.
I just passed it onto the HM Tax and our local council councils fraud departments

I had a similar one purporting to come from "The Court of Justice" no details given. I was also threatened with the amount (can't remember) doubling if I didn't pay immediately. A bit transparent as I live in the Outer Hebrides, don't have a car and no driving licence either.

 

[dinosaw]

Clearly doing the rounds, they wanted 12.24 off me.

 

[dinosaw]

Having just looked into Marigolds PDS warning, that in itself is apparently a hoax. See below. (not Marigolds fault obviously).

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/news/hoax-email-from-pds-parcel-delivery-service

 

[Margaid]

Having just looked into Marigolds PDS warning, that in itself is apparently a hoax. See below. (not Marigolds fault obviously).

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/news/hoax-email-from-pds-parcel-delivery-service

Oops! Marigold got it from my "shared" post on FaceBook and I got it from my brother-in-law. At least it only tells you what to do if you get a card ...

I've had countless calls about my (non-existent) Amazon Prime Account and emails recently about failing to renew my non-existent TV licence. I can see the source of the emails so know it's not just an error on the part of the TV Licensing Authority.

I still think the phone call asking people to pay for a Covid-19 test is one of the worst. Oh ad my sister got caught out renewing her European Health card thing by the first website on the search engine looking just like the official site. She paid before she realised

 

[dinosaw]

Harmless compared to my brother-in-law's facebook posts, he's in Tucker Carlson fanboy mode at the moment which is pretty mild compared to some of usual stuff he posts..