Scams

If you get a spam call from one of those foreign-sounding phone-farms, try just asking them "Does your mother know what you do for a living ?" - elicits some wonderfully apoplectic responses

Typically the payment method allows the money to be withdrawn after you have parted with the item. To add even more they sometimes send more funds for you to pay the courier. So you loose the item and the cash you paid the courier. Variations been going on for years even before the internet.

Robert.

This is a first for me a +93 prefix (Afghanistan) looks like the Taliban are getting desperate

H

My version is "Why don't you get a real job - instead of being a boil on the backside of humanity?".

These days though I mostly just hang up (minimum hassle path) - that's if I actually answer the phone in the first place.

Edited By Peter Greene on 31/08/2023 19:09:56

First email this morning from Royal mail, 'You have a parcel pemding'. No I have not, click!

Dave -

Some way back... I think the phone contract offer was a genuine sales attempt, not a con, but hardly credible when it would have cost twice my normal payments!

Interesting though, that the chit-chat with 'Angel' might have been part of the process all along. I'd not thought of that - but they'd still not have sold me anything, and perhaps three tries without success was their limit.

'

Most recent e-mail was a variant on the "need help to transfer a million dollars" nonsense. This time the liars claimed inviting me to join them in being middle-men exploiting the rarity and cost to the farmer of some vaccine or other for cattle. Reported it to both phishing.gov.uk and phishing [at] BT.

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Most recent letter was a genuine legal "scam" . NatWest inviting my home insurance renewal: all of £100 more than the same last year with no changes to the property and contract. About 33% increase for no adjustments, no claims and them doing nothing costing £100 to do. ]

I will be querying that, and am tempted to point out that we all know that insurance premiums simply establish a fund from which a paid claim is really a loan repaid by increased premiums to the insurer's profit....

Pick up the phone answer the call & say nothing. If the caller says hello is that ???? ok. If the line goes dead it's a scam. Job done. Happens often with me but never a problem using the above method.

Steve.

Not necessarily so.

1) Some calls are silent anyway, and if left will close after perhaps 30 seconds.

2) Others will start speaking almost immediately, but are recordings; often of a woman speaking (reading) impeccable English. Try to speak back over it. A live caller will hesitate or otherwise react to the interruption, a recording carries imperturbably on.

3) Live callers, either criminals or cold-salespeople, giving a friendly personal greeting though depending on their location and own language might mispronounce your name. E.g., mine usually as "Gra-ham" with both 'a' hard. Sometimes these callers pause before speaking for some reason, but background sounds may show it is live.

Typical among these are the claims to be from 'The Windows Corporation' or even 'Microsoft', telling you your computer has been hacked or has reported a fault. My usual reply: "I know you are not and it has not" The caller bangs his phone down very promptly when he realises you know he is a liar. The bank-fraud calls are similar.

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Unexpected 'phone calls are easy to ignore if your 'phone displays the calling number or name, but many (like mine) do not. Also, the number may look like a British one (starting 01xxx) but be from abroad by a sort of parasitism or relay method that the telephone companies claim impossible to stop. Meaning they can't be bothered to try.

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Another live call that seems a recent development is from firms trying to sell you home insulation based on some "survey" supposedly already existing, or by opportunity as "our surveyors are in your area" - a variant on the old "the offer ends today" ruse. These callers tend to become very defensive, possibly aggressive, when you try to ask the survey company identity, and if you persist they hang up abruptly.

they are getting a bit more cute as some of my scam calls are from a local exchange according to the caller display. I suppose you are more likely to answer if it looks local. the supposed insulation people won't take no for an answer even when you are downright rude!!

... not OK for me. I never identify myself until I know the identity of the caller - and not then either for spam/scam calls.

(Basic politeness demands that a caller identify him/herself before asking any question whatsoever. If they don't/won't do that, then ....).

Edited By Peter Greene on 11/09/2023 15:46:31

NG2 wrote" .......... the number may look like a British one (starting 01xxx) but be from abroad by a sort of parasitism or relay method that the telephone companies claim impossible to stop. Meaning they can't be bothered to try. "

As the frequency of incoming scam calls increases, I don't always have time to do this but reporting to the "Who called me?" website is always worthwhile.
**LINK**

As if we needed proof, the incessant reporting of scam calls is shown live.

The explanation for NG's justified anger is given on their 'site:-
"Why do I get so many calls with local phone numbers from overseas?
They are using a feature called 'presentation number' that has been in telephone exchanges for decades. Essentially, you can dial from number X and arrange that number Y is shown instead to caller id, call return, and the various other network services."
So claims that this is "impossible to stop" by the telcos seems cr*p.

Here in Canada, positive steps have been taken to combat this - and wow! does it ever make no difference. Presumably because no-one has really gone after the telcos. Publishing a set of rules makes for good publicity but useless without dropping the other shoe.

for the first time in My life I had an Irish Traveler (no disrespect to the Irish) stop in. He wanted to tarmac My drive. His truck had a badge on the side that had "road crew" on it. No other company or county name on it. Thank the internet as that was the only way I knew what it was.

FIL had His barn roof painted and it washed off the first rain. He supplied the paint and carefully watched but some how things got switched.

You really do need to be vigilant these days. On Monday, a guy turns up at a place with a work crew and got all ready to do a bunch of yard work, on over grown tress etc. The lady said , no I don't want you doing the work, and also said that I have no money to pay you, if you choose to ignore me. They packed up so much quicker than they unpacked and off they went. We reported them. They have been going around doing the scam and many have fallen for their rouse.

I had one last week called my cell number. I asked where did they get my number from, and then click.

The scammers are relentless and are doing a very good job of copying a legitimate agency , like the drivers licencing , or the tax department, and the only clue is in a very slight font change in the name or the return address somewhere is not quite what it really should be. But if you are not really sure of what these really should be, and just look at the first part of the return address, can be easily deceived.

At our company where I work, they do test emails etc, and on average 20 to 30 people fail to spot the spam test account, and either pay the bill or enter enough details to make some sort of vulnerability for the the next attempt. To be fair, they get so many a day, and are under the pump in processing payments, or approving payments, that these things can really happen. And that is what the scammers rely on. The few percent who they catch out.

Now it is at the point where people do not return phone numbers that they do not know, or in some cases will not answer a call from an unknown phone number. It has gotten so bad, that with some, unless a text is sent with a reference friend in the message, they will not answer the phone. Its a real pain to say in the least.

The phone companies are 100% complicit in the scams, and yet they still sit by and do nothing about it. They only time that the phone companies block a scam number is when they have been threatened it seems. But they will bill your account, and pay the scammers then plead innocent. I once called out my phone provider over it, and they did refund my money lost, that they paid to the scammers on my behalf. So I did not pay them directly, the phone company will pay them, then that amount is added or deducted from my account. As my phone was a prepay account, it put my account into the arrears and my phone stopped making calls etc.

I have not been able to stop the scam calls coming, but do have an extensive scam list of blocked numbers.

If you have caller-display on your phone it's worth googling the number displayed - a lot of them are known to be spam etc.

My landline has a very simple, free, and effective method of screening me from unwanted calls. If the caller's number is not in my "white list" they are asked to state their identity, which is recorded before ringing my phone. When I answer, the recording is played and I'm given three options; press "1" to receive the call and place the number in my white list, "2" to receive the call but not put it in my white list, and "3" to reject the call.

I can't remember the last dubious call I've had.

Keep an eye out for the latest E Mail scam

tells you that your TV licence direct debit has failed and therefore asks you to press a link and update your

payment details.

Nice try, the E Mail has the usual errors including the fact we are on BST and then says GMT time.!!

Keep safe

That'd be an easy one for me to head off. I have no television and have just reminded the TVLA of the fact!

Rather like a string of posts allegedly security warnings from the Bank of Santander, all oddly titled just with a "." (full-stop) - a bank with which I have never had any dealings. Not had one lately so perhaps the liars have twigged I keep blocking and reporting them.

Not exactly a scam but has anyone tried ringing SAGA Services lately. I tried all day yesterday in 1/2 hour stretches and couldn't get past iritating music. I am advised that I have to report a pacemaker fitting that I had on Tuesday

Roy

SAGA, what a. Rang to tell them that the property insurance they were trying to renew wasn't acceptable and yes, 15mins of music, when answered and the other end told, double last years price was a joke for exactly the same cover and we'd had this argument last year. "Hang on,I'll transfer you" Phone went down after another 15mins.

Regards Ian.