Phishing scam

[crosslandkelly]

Along with Nigerian Princes, The United Nations and the FBI to name a few, all wanting to send me or reunite me with millions of dollars, this new (to me) scam turned up in my inbox.
Lets be careful out there folks.

 

[Janne]

I love the length of the customer number.
Customers all across the known universe, and beyond.......

 

[Fadcode]

Just out of interest, the items you have retracted, where they actually your name, etc, I often wander where these scammers get their information from to actually target people, I mean how do they know you have a car?, have you recently renewed your car tax over the Internet.?
Might be interesting to know as it would be a warning to others.I personally do not trust the internet at all, and I ask How I can log onto the likes of Ebay with my google facebook et al, credentials, are they all sharing our information.I always use a VPN nowadays which gives my location somewhere in Sweden.

 

[Toddy]

That causes grief for forums like this one though. If your locations don't match, you can find yourself on StopForumSpam's list.

Sorry to hear about your fraud attack crosslandkelly. Himself very nearly ended up thousands out of pocket because the scammer purporting to be our bank was so incredibly plausible. I'm a suspicious creature about anyone online or by telephone telling me we have to shift money, "now" though.

The spineless greedy sleekit wee creeps are out there. Take care, and I hope none of you are ever taken to the cleaners by the thieves.

M

 

[Janne]

Toddy, can you see where I am ?

 

[crosslandkelly]

Toddy, can you see where I am ?

Standing naked drink in hand next to your cocktail cabinet.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Just out of interest, the items you have retracted, where they actually your name, etc, I often wander where these scammers get their information from to actually target people, I mean how do they know you have a car?, have you recently renewed your car tax over the Internet.?
Might be interesting to know as it would be a warning to others.I personally do not trust the internet at all, and I ask How I can log onto the likes of Ebay with my google facebook et al, credentials, are they all sharing our information.I always use a VPN nowadays which gives my location somewhere in Sweden.

It was my email address, I usually get these emails after I've replied to genuine sites.

 

[crosslandkelly]

That causes grief for forums like this one though. If your locations don't match, you can find yourself on StopForumSpam's list.

Sorry to hear about your fraud attack crosslandkelly. Himself very nearly ended up thousands out of pocket because the scammer purporting to be our bank was so incredibly plausible. I'm a suspicious creature about anyone online or by telephone telling me we have to shift money, "now" though.

The spineless greedy sleekit wee creeps are out there. Take care, and I hope none of you are ever taken to the cleaners by the thieves.

M

Most of the time you just have to look at the email address they use. Legit companies never ask for bank details by mail or phone.

 

[Fadcode]

I am always of the opinion that a lot of the information comes from a legitimate source, such as a few years ago I had my phone with BT, and despite being ex-directory I constantly got phoney scam like calls from the Far East, coincidentally that's where BT had their call centre' it's the same with email addresses, I have false one which I use for unknown sites who ask for one, and I keep my main one for trusted sites only, even without giving my email address out they still fill up with crap, this is why I don't use the like of Facebook, Instagram etc.they just seem so connected together, and seeing that their income comes from adverts, it's obvious they want your details.

 

[daveO]

Just out of interest, the items you have retracted, where they actually your name, etc, I often wander where these scammers get their information from to actually target people, I mean how do they know you have a car?, have you recently renewed your car tax over the Internet.

There are websites that allow you to check if your personal details have been stolen in any major hacking events. I checked and my details were stolen off a major website apparently. I've had spammers using the info to try and blackmail me. They had part of one of my passwords and told me they had got it through a keylogger virus on my computer and had videoed me watching porn on my webcam and had access to all my contacts on Facebook. They wanted bitcoins or they would send the video to all my Facebook contacts. Tha password was worrying but I don't have a webcam and don't use Facebook so they gave themselves away there. I imagine it looks scary to some people though.

 

[Fadcode]

I'm not sure about some sites checking to see if your details have been hacked, as they would need to know what your details are, unless you mean they will scan your pic/tablet etc for malicious software.
I do think it is important to stay anonymous as possible, and it amazes me that people on the likes of Facebook and the like , are more than willing to share their information with all and sundry.
The other thing is they would have to be standing behind you to video you looking at anything.

 

[Nice65]

I am always of the opinion that a lot of the information comes from a legitimate source, such as a few years ago I had my phone with BT, and despite being ex-directory I constantly got phoney scam like calls from the Far East, coincidentally that's where BT had their call centre' it's the same with email addresses, I have false one which I use for unknown sites who ask for one, and I keep my main one for trusted sites only, even without giving my email address out they still fill up with crap, this is why I don't use the like of Facebook, Instagram etc.they just seem so connected together, and seeing that their income comes from adverts, it's obvious they want your details.

I don’t use my landline for anything, never have done. I’ve checked with BT and they claim they don’t contact by phone to ask for payments and account changes. The number has never been used on sales websites, never been used to make calls, but I get a couple of calls a week telling me I’m about to lose my broadband service if I don’t pay my bill, or I need to make account changes, or my account may have been compromised. These are always calls from a Far East company, I can often hear them talking amongst themselves while waiting for the first multi dialled number to pick up. So, I agree, there’s possibly something corrupt occurring with BT as they’re the only company that actually know my landline number.

On my mobile I used to use an app called Truecaller to alert me to spam calls. It was very effective and allowed me to add any spam caller numbers to their database. Problem was, it put my number and details into a searchable database.

https://www.quora.com/Is-Truecaller-stealing-our-private-data

Not only that, but Truecaller was hacked, giving thousands of phone numbers and details to the highest bidder. Truecaller collects not only your data, required on sign up, but all the numbers in your contacts too. All in the name and good will of protecting you from spam, phishing, etc.

https://alvistor.com/2018/remove-yo...-or-use-proper-privacy-settings/#.XJq2uUmnyhA

Be careful out there folks, I was self employed for many years, but not for the last 10 or so and still get calls about business mobile deals, specialist insurance, fleet vehicle deals etc etc. I’ve had this mobile number for years, it was my first ever mobile number so I kept it. Somewhere, my details are stored and connected to this number....and still being sold.

 

[Woody girl]

This sort of thing is why I never do anything on line. I have no Facebook in instagram or anything like that. If I cannot find a phone number and address for a company I wish to buy from = no custom. I still use cheques. Am ex directory and only give my mobile number to friends I trust.. I have a great way to deal with phone scammers. My emergency whistle full blast down the phone. The line goes dead and they never phone back.!
Letters are returned to sender with not known at this address written on it.. Dare I say it not had a thing for some years now. It seems to work.

 

[Nice65]

You do know that every cheque has your bank account number, sort code, and name on it?

I generally don’t use a whistle, but if I’m feeling mischievous I’ll ask them to hold for a moment. A very long moment.

 

[Woody girl]

You do know that every cheque has your bank account number, sort code, and name on it?

I generally don’t use a whistle, but if I’m feeling mischievous I’ll ask them to hold for a moment. A very long moment.

Yes I used to put the phone down next to the radio and leave it. Or pretend I didn't speak English. That was fun! As long as they are on the phone waiting for you to come back to them they won't be scamming someone else.
Cheques may have my number on but they don't have my bank pass code. As I don't bank online they can't get it.security question answers bear no reality to actual facts so no matter how much research someone does into my life they will never get the right answers! You gotta be trickier than the tricksters!

 

[petrochemicals]

Some people have passwords from allsorts hacked. There's a website

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

There is a scam they try to blackmail you for porn by telling you your password. Some people actually pay, quite short of any actual specific times dates or websites. They say

" I hacked your computer, quite an interesting choice you have"

Which is a complete fabrication, my college have a porn blocker on.

 

[Woody girl]

I don't have or use a computer. I think they'd have a hard job pulling that one on me!
Many many years ago someone rang to say there was a problem with my Internet. I just laughed and said yes there is... I don't have any ...and put the phone down.

 

[mousey]

The best one [funniest] I've seen is a co worker got an e-mailing stating he was dead, and all his possessions were being given away along with an unspecified large sum of money he didn't know he had . If it was in fact the case he was still alive, could he please get in touch to claim his belongings, proof of living status was bank account info

Some e-mails can be quite convincing - but I always look at the e-mail address they are coming from, in this example "mail@no2id.net" doesn't look legitimate for the DVLA.

I'm getting a lot recently telling me my TV licence has expired and unless I pay x amount they will have no choice but to cancel my licence and hand over to debt collectors! - I haven't had a TV since I left uni and the email addresses end in .jp [japan] so either BBC is handing over to the Japanese for TV licence control, the BBC are using VPN [wouldn't surprise me] or it's a scam.

I'm of the opinion that if it is legitimate then they'll contact back with some proper evidence of authenticity, so just ignore them.

 

[Sundowner]

You do know that every cheque has your bank account number, sort code, and name on it?

I generally don’t use a whistle, but if I’m feeling mischievous I’ll ask them to hold for a moment. A very long moment.

The longest i managed these callers "on hold" was 38 minutes
I pretended to be old and frail and didnt know anything about the internet, all the while thanking them for their kind offer to sort out my faulty internet connection. I could hear him whispering to his "superior" that i didnt know what i was doing on the computer. Was a really hilarious waste of time for me !!!

 

[Keith_Beef]

Some people have passwords from allsorts hacked. There's a website

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

There is a scam they try to blackmail you for porn by telling you your password. Some people actually pay, quite short of any actual specific times dates or websites. They say

" I hacked your computer, quite an interesting choice you have"

Which is a complete fabrication, my college have a porn blocker on.

This is a good service to use.

When I was over in the UK visiting my mother, she told me she had received the same thread, and showed me the message. It went into quite some detail about a vulnerability in home modem/routers that the scammer claimed to have used. It also showed the password she used for her email account...

I used that haveIbeenPwned site and found that she had used the same password for some merchant site which had been attacked and that is how her email address and password had been obtained by the scammer.

The lesson is: do not use the same password for your email account as for any other account.

A while ago, while living in the US, I had an internet connection through my phone company that allowed me to have up to five email addresses at a time, in addition to my main address. So I created an address by just tapping random letters on the keyboard. Within 48 hours I had spam arriving at that address.

I could be really cynical, and think that the internet and telephone companies are selling or otherwise leaking our addresses and phone numbers to the scammers, or I could be more charitable and think that the scammers are algorithmically generating addresses and phone numbers and then bulk email programs and autodiallers are testing them