A scam phone calls and emails discussion.

[dk1]

Doesn't work if it's a computer...

Probably not. Always worth it for fun though.

 

[pdeaves]

Probably not. Always worth it for fun though.

If you don't have a whistle, scream like you're being murdered...

 

[dk1]

If you don't have a whistle, scream like you're being murdered...

Yes that might work too in a way.

 

[najaB]

Blast a whistle down the phone. Loud as you can

Please don't. Despite the nature of the scams, the people actually on the phones are just trying to make a living. They don't deserve to be left with permanent hearing damage.

 

[dk1]

Please don't. Despite the nature of the scams, the people actually on the phones are just trying to make a living. They don't deserve to be left with permanent hearing damage.

I’m afraid if they are trying to scam money from the likes of pensioners I have very little sympathy.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Please don't. Despite the nature of the scams, the people actually on the phones are just trying to make a living. They don't deserve to be left with permanent hearing damage.

Anyone working as part of a criminal organisation still has to bear the blame that they are involved with. For example, when they approach people claiming they are from BT/Amazon etc, they know damn well that they are not employed by those companies.

 

[najaB]

I’m afraid if they are trying to scam money from the likes of pensioners I have very little sympathy.

The people on the phones receive very little of the money - little more than a minimum wage job. The people running the scams are the ones who deserve the worst possible treatment.

The people on the phones are treated as disposable in much the same way that a drug kingpin views the street pusher.

Deafening them by blowing a whistle down the phone won't stop the scammers, they'll just find some other desperate person to make the calls.

 

[swt_passenger]

Anyone working as part of a criminal organisation still has to bear the blame that they are involved with. For example, when they approach people claiming they are from BT/Amazon etc, they know damn well that they are not employed by those companies.

Well I’ve little or no sympathy either, but I suppose it’s possible some of them are gullible enough to believe they are working for a bona fide outsourcing company.

 

[najaB]

For example, when they approach people claiming they are from BT/Amazon etc, they know damn well that they are not employed by those companies.

The growth of outsourcing means that the majority of people making calls on behalf of Company X don't work for Company X. As an example, the BPO I worked for made or recieved calls on behalf of Tesco, Pizza Hut, BT, Orange, Barclays Bank, Blizzard, Home Choice and a few others I have forgotten.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Well I’ve little or no sympathy either, but I suppose it’s possible some of them are gullible enough to believe they are working for a bona fide outsourcing company.

The knowledge of the wording of the scripts they work from coupled with attempting to brow-beat the people they call when matters take a turn that contravenes their scripts show a certain amount of intelligence is required by such call-centre operatives.

 

[Ediswan]

Please don't. Despite the nature of the scams, the people actually on the phones are just trying to make a living. They don't deserve to be left with permanent hearing damage.

I would hope that the telephone headsets they are using are incapable of producing a sound loud enough to cause such damage.

 

[najaB]

I would hope that the telephone headsets they are using are incapable of producing a sound loud enough to cause such damage.

You would hope, but that is not necessarily the case. One of my colleagues in the call centre had to take several weeks off work when someone did this to her (the customer was in dispute with the client) - and that was in the UK where our equipment has to meet protection standards that probably don't exist in less-developed countries.

Fortunately, it is treated seriously and I believe the caller was charged with assault.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Here's one I got yesterday. I've never seen or heard of it before - it may have been discussed here, but I have only read a few posts on this thread.

Anyway, yesterday about noon, I got an email seemingly from an old contact - let's call him DennisSmith.

It was titled: Checking Availability - and had a short message asking me if I could do Dennis a favour.

I hadn't heard from Dennis for a year or more, but ok, it seemed plausible - so I replied I would if I could.

I then got some sob story about his nephew dying and he wanted to send a gift, but he couldn't do it right now online and he wondered if I could go into a Tesco store and buy two £50 gift vouchers. He would pay me back at the earliest opportunity.

I forget the details, but I was by now suspicious. It was then that I noticed that "Dennis" was using a gmail address - whereas before he had always used a yahoo address.

Exactly the same name otherwise.

At this point, I sent an email to the 'real' Dennis, saying that it looked like his email had been hacked and it was likely that his entire address book was being sent these kind of fake claims.

When I didn't get a reply after 30 minutes, I found his number and phoned 'real' Dennis to warn him. Alas, he didn't pick up, so I just left a message, explainin the problem.

I still haven't heard from the real Dennis, and fake Dennis is still asking if I can get round to Tesco to order the gift vouchers.

At 'only' £100, it's a plausible scam - I mean, it' snot like it's asking for or promising millions. I don't quite understand the full system, quite how the money gets to the scammer, but I'm not trying to find out. For those who fall for it, it's probably not worth trying to nail the scammer. I mean, how would anyone do it?

And I don't know if this is new scam or not. Just sending this on here as a warning.

 

[pdeaves]

Here's one I got yesterday. I've never seen or heard of it before - it may have been discussed here, but I have only read a few posts on this thread.

Anyway, yesterday about noon, I got an email seemingly from an old contact - let's call him DennisSmith.

It was titled: Checking Availability - and had a short message asking me if I could do Dennis a favour.

I hadn't heard from Dennis for a year or more, but ok, it seemed plausible - so I replied I would if I could.

I then got some sob story about his nephew dying and he wanted to send a gift, but he couldn't do it right now online and he wondered if I could go into a Tesco store and buy two £50 gift vouchers. He would pay me back at the earliest opportunity.

I forget the details, but I was by now suspicious. It was then that I noticed that "Dennis" was using a gmail address - whereas before he had always used a yahoo address.

Exactly the same name otherwise.

At this point, I sent an email to the 'real' Dennis, saying that it looked like his email had been hacked and it was likely that his entire address book was being sent these kind of fake claims.

When I didn't get a reply after 30 minutes, I found his number and phoned 'real' Dennis to warn him. Alas, he didn't pick up, so I just left a message, explainin the problem.

I still haven't heard from the real Dennis, and fake Dennis is still asking if I can get round to Tesco to order the gift vouchers.

At 'only' £100, it's a plausible scam - I mean, it' snot like it's asking for or promising millions. I don't quite understand the full system, quite how the money gets to the scammer, but I'm not trying to find out. For those who fall for it, it's probably not worth trying to nail the scammer. I mean, how would anyone do it?

And I don't know if this is new scam or not. Just sending this on here as a warning.

I would be very surprised if the 'real' Dennis' computer has been hacked. Rather, it will be someone who has yours and his addresses in their address book (so 'untraceable' to most normal users). That way, 'real' Dennis changes his password but that has no effect on the nefarious activities of others, and actual victim has no idea they are the victim (source of addresses). Someone more knowledgeable may be able to confirm.

 

[Gloster]

Here's one I got yesterday. I've never seen or heard of it before - it may have been discussed here, but I have only read a few posts on this thread.

Anyway, yesterday about noon, I got an email seemingly from an old contact - let's call him DennisSmith.

It was titled: Checking Availability - and had a short message asking me if I could do Dennis a favour.

I hadn't heard from Dennis for a year or more, but ok, it seemed plausible - so I replied I would if I could.

I then got some sob story about his nephew dying and he wanted to send a gift, but he couldn't do it right now online and he wondered if I could go into a Tesco store and buy two £50 gift vouchers. He would pay me back at the earliest opportunity.

I forget the details, but I was by now suspicious. It was then that I noticed that "Dennis" was using a gmail address - whereas before he had always used a yahoo address.

Exactly the same name otherwise.

At this point, I sent an email to the 'real' Dennis, saying that it looked like his email had been hacked and it was likely that his entire address book was being sent these kind of fake claims.

When I didn't get a reply after 30 minutes, I found his number and phoned 'real' Dennis to warn him. Alas, he didn't pick up, so I just left a message, explainin the problem.

I still haven't heard from the real Dennis, and fake Dennis is still asking if I can get round to Tesco to order the gift vouchers.

At 'only' £100, it's a plausible scam - I mean, it' snot like it's asking for or promising millions. I don't quite understand the full system, quite how the money gets to the scammer, but I'm not trying to find out. For those who fall for it, it's probably not worth trying to nail the scammer. I mean, how would anyone do it?

And I don't know if this is new scam or not. Just sending this on here as a warning.

That sounds a bit like the one I received and mentioned in #1,268. I can’t be definite as I just put mine straight in the bin.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I forget the details, but I was by now suspicious. It was then that I noticed that "Dennis" was using a gmail address - whereas before he had always used a yahoo address.

Exactly the same name otherwise.

In December 2016 Yahoo admitted that they had their entire database hacked into three years earlier and just about every single name on their system was harvested; this could be related to that. Shortly after the hacking incident I started getting obvious spam mails in the names of a lot of people who I knew had Yahoo mail addresses.

I still do... and every single one of them I forward to the official phishing reporting address. ( report@phishing.gov.uk )

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Yahoo has stated that, in August 2013, an unauthorised third party stole data associated with more than one billion user accounts. Yahoo believes that the breach is separate from the incident which impacted 500 million user accounts, disclosed in September this year. The stolen data reportedly included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and in some cases, encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers. There is no suggestion that payment card or bank account details were stolen.

 

[John Webb]

.....and fake Dennis is still asking if I can get round to Tesco to order the gift vouchers.

At 'only' £100, it's a plausible scam - I mean, it' snot like it's asking for or promising millions. I don't quite understand the full system, quite how the money gets to the scammer, but I'm not trying to find out. For those who fall for it, it's probably not worth trying to nail the scammer. I mean, how would anyone do it?

And I don't know if this is new scam or not. Just sending this on here as a warning.

You send the requested voucher to the scammer. The voucher is not marked in any way with the recipient's name and either the scammer spends it at Tesco, thus saving themselves £100, or asks Tesco for a refund.....

I've received similar requests in the past and have immediately permanently deleted such requests because I know friends and relatives of mine wouldn't ask me to carry out such a request.

 

[najaB]

I would be very surprised if the 'real' Dennis' computer has been hacked. Rather, it will be someone who has yours and his addresses in their address book (so 'untraceable' to most normal users). That way, 'real' Dennis changes his password but that has no effect on the nefarious activities of others, and actual victim has no idea they are the victim (source of addresses). Someone more knowledgeable may be able to confirm.

It's about 50/50 whether his email account has been compromised or not. The fact that it's a Gmail address rather than Yahoo! suggests not, however they would need to have access to his address book. They likely used a Gmail account so that he would continue to use his email, unaware of the scam unfolding.

This happened to my mother a year or so ago, in that case they did compromise her Hotmail account. I found out that Hotmail has a 'feature' (it's not a bug, honest) that means that if someone gets access to your account using a iOS device they will stay logged in even if you change the password and click the option to sign-out other sessions. It took about a week to eventually get them kicked out of her account.

In that case they set up a rule to auto-forward replies so that she didn't see anything in her inbox.

 

[70014IronDuke]

It's about 50/50 whether his email account has been compromised or not. The fact that it's a Gmail address rather than Yahoo! suggests not, however they would need to have access to his address book. They likely used a Gmail account so that he would continue to use his email, unaware of the scam unfolding.

Yes. But the point is, they must have got his email and into his address book to find my address before all this.

In December 2016 Yahoo admitted that they had their entire database hacked into three years earlier and just about every single name on their system was harvested; this could be related to that. Shortly after the hacking incident I started getting obvious spam mails in the names of a lot of people who I knew had Yahoo mail addresses.

I still do... and every single one of them I forward to the official phishing reporting address. ( report@phishing.gov.uk )

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www.ncsc.gov.uk

Thanks for this, and others who commented. I shall report it in the hope that it might do some good.

 

[najaB]

Yes. But the point is, they must have got his email and into his address book to find my address before all this.

Not necessarily. Well crafted malware can send a message to everyone in the address book without needing persistent access to the account.

 

[Lucan]

Here's one I got yesterday. I've never seen or heard of it before

A request to send money to an acquaintance in distress (to pay hospital fees abroad, to get home ect) is a well known scam, by email or phone (latter voiced by a "helper").

he wondered if I could go into a Tesco store and buy two £50 gift vouchers .... I don't quite understand the full system, quite how the money gets to the scammer

You buy the gift vouchers and then email the numbers to the scammer, or read them out over the phone. Apparently this allows them to take the money. This seems to be the scammers' favourite method of receiving your money these days. Staff at many larger places selling gift cards are now instructed to warn buyers of large value gift cards about scamming, especially if the buyer seems a bit senile.

The best thing in all cases of someone contacting you for money, or eg your "bank" warning you that you are being scammed, is to phone the person, their supposed hospital, or your bank, yourself using their usual or published contact details. In the case of a phone call, wait for a few minutes first because your call might go straight back to the scammer if they hang on.

 

[Gloster]

Also consider for a second or two why they are asking you? If they are a close enough friend or relative to be someone that they go to first, why didn’t I know about their situation already? If they aren’t so close, why are they asking me rather than someone closer?

 

[87 027]

And if you get a text claiming to be from someone you know saying they have lost their phone and borrowed someone else's to ask you to send money urgently to get them out of difficulties, if it's a plausible situation then the advice is to reply by asking a question a scammer won't know the answer to e.g. what colour is our dining room carpet, what is the name of Aunty Mary's dog etc.

 

[ABB125]

This definitely doesn't look suspicious at all...

Of course, the fact that I don't have any Apple devices on which to use Apple Pay helps me reach this conclusion!

 

[najaB]

This definitely doesn't look suspicious at all...
View attachment 119083
Of course, the fact that I don't have any Apple devices on which to use Apple Pay helps me reach this conclusion!

Seems legit to me.

 

[Purple Train]

I hardly ever conduct phone calls unless I'm travelling, so I don't answer anything unless I'm expecting it. I was, initially, worried if there may be consequences for simply answering the scam call, although I do find the prospect of thinking of word-play jokes on the scammers' script vaguely attractive...

 

[najaB]

I was, initially, worried if there may be consequences for simply answering the scam call...

Very few, other than wasted time.

 

[Purple Train]

Very few, other than wasted time.

Thanks for clarifying

 

[Silver Cobra]

I got a message yesterday claiming to be from Evri (the new name for Hermes), saying I needed to pay £1.45 to allow a package to be sent to my home address, and had a link to click to do this. I'm savvy enough to know this kind of thing has a 99% chance of being a scam, but I double-checked on Evri's website just to be certain. They state on their website that that they never ask for payments by text nor do they send messages where the sender appears as a phone number rather than Evri, which is what this came up as being sent from. Definitely a scam then, so a quick block and delete and done with

I seem to get a message every 1-2 months from someone claiming to be from either Evri, Royal Mail/Parcelforce, Amazon or any bank other than Barclays (I imagine sooner or later I'll get one from 'Barclays', but haven't so far).

 

[Typhoon]

I was, initially, worried if there may be consequences for simply answering the scam call

Very few, other than wasted time.

Theirs as well as yours. (The former is the upside, the latter the downside.)

I have no compunction about wasting their time. My last nuisance phone call started with the usual 'My name is Kenneth, I'm speaking from Merseyside care for the elderly (or something like that), how are you this morning', my response was that I wasn't feeling good as a close relative had had his life support turned off (that was true but not unexpected). His response was 'very good'. If you don't have the decency to listen to me then you don't deserve my time, I then explained (without swearing or shouting - or interruption) why I didn't think that the passing of a 46 year old was 'very good'. It may be a poorly paid job but at least try to do it fairly well. 'Kenneth' had the nerve to call back, I didn't answer, I might have been less polite.