Current Scams...

[Rollypolly]

On 22/03/2021 at 15:48, RollingJ said:

The 'Lloyds'  in that spam was supposedly the bank, not the chemist chain, and it is doing the rounds - next week they might change it to 'Natwest', but it will still be spam.

 

Yes Rolling J, you're probably right. I  assumed it was from the chemist as I'd just been there. The email was in fact very similar to the one I was sent from the chemist to say my prescription was ready. 

[cressida]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56496203

 

People waiting for parcels to arrive have been given a fresh warning about a scam that claims payment is required for a package to be delivered.

Social media is awash with talk about the con, which involves a text message being sent that claims a parcel is awaiting delivery by Royal Mail.

Trading standards officers say people must not click on a link which connects to a copycat website run by fraudsters.

Royal Mail said it would never send a text message of this kind.

How it works

The text, claiming to be from Royal Mail arrives out of the blue and claims that "your Royal Mail parcel is awaiting delivery. Please confirm the settlement of 1.99 (GBP) on the following link".

The message then links to a website mocked up to look like an official Royal Mail site. The page requests personal and payment details, which scammers may use to steal someone's identity, or use to target them with other scams.

Royal Mail said it would not use such texts - unless specifically requested - and would use a grey card instead to tell people if any fee was required.

It warned the public about a similar email scam in February, and it appears that the fraudsters' campaign is evolving.

Edited March 23, 2021 by cressida

[RollingJ]

@cressida, it must be me, but if I got one of these texts, I wouldn't even bother reading it, even if I was expecting a parcel. Unless, of course I had ordered something from a supplier who specifically said they were sending it by RM , with that service - otherwise, how or why would the mail service know what my mobile number was?

[cressida]

I check now as to which carrier is delivering because the routine is always the same - due to Covid most knock on the door and leave the package in the porch,  

[iansheff]

A woman's story of how she was conned by the Royal Mail scam.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-mail-scam-common-signs-b1821820.html

[Henny101]

On 26/02/2020 at 19:30, kay1 said:

6.30am this morning got a withheld number on my bedroom phone (which does not have caller id) So in future I will have to make sure that I take receiver off when I go to bed.

This happens to me, too. Thanks to technology, I finally learned to use the Bedtime mode on my mobile phone. 

[alandrea0]

There is no end to scammers using different techniques to get your personal details.

 

Another scam going the rounds is:

An email claiming to be from Dyson is promising ‘prizes’ as part of a fake loyalty program; but Dyson has confirmed it has nothing to do with the communication.

The email from ‘Dyson V10’ congratulates the receiver on their selection to ‘participate in our loyalty program!’ – and encourages them to click a link.

 

WATCH OUT.....

[alandrea0]

I am averaging at least 1 scam attempt every week, it as now become one of the most lucrative ways of getting money without being caught.

You would have thought that by now email and phone companies would have come up with systems where all scam emails and text messages could be blocked.

Watch out for scam HSBC text saying that there as been attempt to login to my account..

[RollingJ]

@alandrea0I'm sure I've said this before, but 99.9% of spam emails, text messages and phone calls originate from overseas 'farms' where the administration is either rather lax so they don't control their communications infrastructure the same way we do here in the UK.

 

Email you can control yourself, by setting filters on your email client - again, ISPs already filter a lot of the obvious, but the con-artists are adept at changing things like subject headers, originating servers, &c when these filters hit them.

 

The text message explosion is a relatively new one, but as these -usually - originate, like many of the phone calls, on the Indian sub-continent, the UK authorities have to go through official channels to ask the originating countries to act, and this is a slow process - we are talking the 'civil services' here, and we all know they still act as though we are still in the late 19th century, not even the 20th.

 

I don't bank with HSBC, and my bank only communicates via my banking app, or very rarely, snail mail, so I wouldn't fall for that.

[Mr Allen]

The current scam, is scalpers selling the new Xbox and PS5 on eBay for overly inflated prices because nowhere legit has any stock!