Beware scams

[S-Westerly]

Almost got scammed today. As I am retrieving my bike tomorrow decided I'd update my Tom Tom  GPS. Went on line with my lap top and was on what I thought was the correct website. Ended up having a long discussion and started getting twitchy when the guy on the phone (with an Indian accent) said he would have to access my laptop remotely and  if there were any problems with my device it would cost £100 to fix. At that point I said I'd buy a new one instead whereupon he immediately killed the phone connection. The horse having well and truly bolted by that point I did a bit of research and apparently  the  web is full of product support scammers.

Something to be aware of if you are ever looking for tech support.  Even Microsoft suffers from it according to their website. 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by S-Westerly

[Tiggie]

They are everywhere nowadays in so many different forms. Texts, Emails, Phone calls. 

Thanks for the heads up on this one, its new to me at least 

[Guest Swagman]

There are scammers for everything you do these days, a nice cyanide capsule for each of them would work great.

[dynax]

16 minutes ago, Swagman said:

There are scammers for everything you do these days, a nice cyanide capsule for each of them would work great.

 

I have heard that some species of pirahna are in decline to a shortage of food

Edited December 7, 2020 by dynax

[husoi]

16 minutes ago, Swagman said:

There are scammers for everything you do these days, a nice cyanide capsule for each of them would work great.

Have you check the price for the pils?????

just kill them with a wooden spoon...

a sloooooow and painful dead 

[Bender]

The wife nearly paid for visa's a few year back, did some googling and yup was a scam, was a lookie likey Canadian government website.

[S-Westerly]

9 minutes ago, husoi said:

Have you check the price for the pils?????

just kill them with a wooden spoon...

a sloooooow and painful dead 

I think the old Turkish  punishment of impalement  is probably about right.

[Marino]

I receive 10 or more calls where machine telling me I did not report and pay my tax and will be prosecuted if don’t call that number.

I am not tax payer as I spend more that 6 months outside the country. I regularly report my days and complete my tax papers as well I payed voluntary contributions to nhs and pension founds.

worst thing is that I have reported that number to Tax and revenue office, but calls are still coming 6 months later.

[husoi]

I'm still awaiting for my $34m my Nigerian friend is supposed to send me. 

[Tiggie]

@husoi pm me your bank details and I'll see what went wrong 

[husoi]

Just now, Tiggie said:

@husoi pm me your bank details and I'll see what went wrong 

[manxie49]

Another one doing the rounds again is calls, supposedly from BT, saying your computer has a virus and is sending a large number of spam emails.  They try to get you go online, download and run some software to remove the virus.  The software however gives them full access and control over your PC.  They sound really convincing on the phone and I could see how some people may get sucked in by them.

[husoi]

4 minutes ago, manxie49 said:

Another one doing the rounds again is calls, supposedly from BT, saying your computer has a virus and is sending a large number of spam emails.  They try to get you go online, download and run some software to remove the virus.  The software however gives them full access and control over your PC.  They sound really convincing on the phone and I could see how some people may get sucked in by them.

If I ever get one of those I'll say that I've already gave Limsip to it  the pc will be fine in a couple days.

[onesea]

When it comes to scams I think its a case of if you have not been caught out WHEN will you get caught out.  Might not be in a big way but there are so many and they are so numerous, you might have to change a few passwords,,  Eventually you are going to get bit.

Even if its not caught out and you have actually been caught, speeding parking or whatever and don't respond thinking it is a scam...
 

[Mickly]

In the last week I’ve had the ‘Amazon Prime Subscription is expiring we’re going to take £49:99 out of your account unless you press 1 “ ... I don’t have Amazon Prime ( in my own name ), The “Your BT Internet has been compromised, press 1 to talk to our security team”  ... WTF is that supposed to mean? also I’m not with BT.

But I can see how people get scammed coz the first time Mrs Mickly got the calls she got very anxious & wanted to know why I was “so dismissive it could be true”

[Tiggie]

My sister-in-law got scammed a few years ago when a pop-up ad covered her entire laptop screen not allowing her to get out of it (I'm sure there is a few keyboard shortcuts that would of worked but she wouldn't of known about them)

The ad had said she had a virus and to ring the number on screen. She paid the £40(!!!!) over the phone during which she was told they had managed to access her laptop and removed the virus. Now she just had to hold the power button down for 10 seconds and then when she rebooted the machine all would be fine 

[Bender]

24 minutes ago, Tiggie said:

My sister-in-law got scammed a few years ago when a pop-up ad covered her entire laptop screen not allowing her to get out of it (I'm sure there is a few keyboard shortcuts that would of worked but she wouldn't of known about them)

The ad had said she had a virus and to ring the number on screen. She paid the £40(!!!!) over the phone during which she was told they had managed to access her laptop and removed the virus. Now she just had to hold the power button down for 10 seconds and then when she rebooted the machine all would be fine 

In-laws got had by similar, luckily they called before handing over anything, took 5mins to get rid of it but you can see how easy it is.

[bonio]

Nearly got stung myself a couple of days. The message was from a friend's hacked account, and seemed quite plausible, and came at a time when I knew they'd been trying to get hold of me but hadn't been able...

[Marino]

3 hours ago, husoi said:

I'm still awaiting for my $34m my Nigerian friend is supposed to send me. 

Your Nigerian friend is now my fiend

[learningtofly]

I've had attempts recently in the name of Microsoft (online), Amazon (telephone), HMRC (telephone) and Hoka (online). I stupidly allowed myself to be taken in by the Hoka example but luckily my bank were already on the case.

[Mickly]

Got this, it was displayed on my on-line bank account.

[Six30]

Beware of Forums trying to scam under the pretence of a forum upgrades.....im sorry but any one that falls for  shite like this deserves all they get ....... erm hang on a minute !!!

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Most recent slightly convincing one I had was an email from DPD saying they had tried to deliver a parcel but my address was incomplete. Follow the link to arrange redelivery. It looked genuine enough. But I’m naturally suspicious of anyone asking me for any details and the usual click on the email address revealed a gobbledygook address that screamed scam. 
 

My favourite was the person who rang up to discuss our charity donation. They had me on the phone for a lot longer than the usual chancer because they very smoothly told me it had been agreed it back in March and they were just doing a follow up to make sure we were happy to continue. It’s entirely feasible one of us would have agreed to make a charity donation and not mentioned it.
I chatted about the charity with this conman spouting forth in a convincing and knowledgeable way for a good 3 or 4 minutes, he seemed to have a broad outline of what we did and knew his spiel well. 
I suddenly had that prickly feeling you get when the uglyness of suspicion waves over you. Feeling a bit sh*tty for being doubting tom of his worthy cause (but needs must) I asked who it was that had authorised the donation. They said oh it came from top, your director and then gave me my name! They obviously mistook us for a much larger business, did their research and were going in for a decent sized kill.
I said ok this is a scam isn’t it?  No no no no. Yeh it is and you’re very good but its never gonna fly here, if you have some sort of sap list would you be good enough to remove us from it, you’d be saving yourself and other scammers a lot time. Yeh ok. Thanks bye. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Slowlycatchymonkey

[Bender]

Did anyone fall for the forum software update scam, apparently it's run by some drug trafficker in Spain and some dodgy geeza from Hull, was very convincing apparently.

[skyrider]

28 minutes ago, Bender said:

Did anyone fall for the forum software update scam, apparently it's run by some drug trafficker in Spain and some dodgy geeza from Hull, was very convincing apparently.

i seem to remember getting relieved off £20 for that one 

Edited December 7, 2020 by skyrider