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Scams: telephone, email, texts 2022

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Vivienne14

Vivienne14

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As part of the smooth running of the forum, it is our policy that a moderator will set up certain recurring threads in the General Discussion section at the start of each new year. This section has been set up in accordance with those forum maintenance arrangements.

A previous, now closed, thread is here

Scams: Telephone, email, texts, other 2021

This thread is a moderator generated thread. It is open for posts covering the period 1 January until 31 December. When the period ends, a moderator will close this thread then open a new thread on the subject for the following year. We look forward to your contributions. The Admin Team
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Yes, they've started already. I had a lengthy conversation with a 'supervisor' on the line that claims to be from Microsoft saying they know my computer was "Being used by scammers" (!) - I said they can't get in to use it and pretended not to understand what he was saying about technology. That was 20 minutes of his life he won't get back! If its anything to do with loft insulation, boiler renewal, double glazing, replacement soffits (what the hell are soffits anyway?) I tell them to contact my landlord. (You can do that even if you own your house - they aren't interested if they can't deal with you directly!) Another trick to try is let the phone ring 5 times before answering it - scammers dial multiple numbers then disconnect once one answers. Not failsafe, but often saves your bother. On mobiles, check the number calling - if it doesnt begin with "0" or "+44" its from outside of the UK. You can check where from on this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_telephone_prefixes_by_country
 
I recently received an email supposedly sent from a VOLVO garage in Scotland. The sender demanded I send $1800 to a Bitcoin account or they would email pornographic pictures and videos of myself to everyone in my email address book.

I usually don't pay too much attention to these scam emails but what was different about this one was that to prove they had access to my account, they showed a password that I had used in the past. A couple of days later my email provider blocked my account due to 'suspicious activity'. I have now had to create a new email address and change passwords on all my accounts.

Be careful when receiving suspicious emails. Don't click on any links, don't click on the email address.
I'd had my old email address for over forty years so I suppose a new one is a sensible move.

I am still waiting for the porn pics and videos to materialise.
 
There have been a number of significant data breaches in recent years. The data from these breaches has been widely shared amongst the scammers who are now trying to extort money from people.

Here is a good site to check if your data has been breached. Just enter your email address and this site will tell you which sites have had data breaches. You can also check passwords too.

Its always good practice to use a different password for each site you visit and take extra care when opening emails with attachment or link.
 
I have worked in places with very strict password policies. The shortest was 15 days. To log on the the computer, required your latest password, which had to be changed within the time period. So many characters, numbers, upper/lower case etc. It couldn't be one you had used before, and if you forgot, it was off to the relevant department in person to be given a new one that lasted one hour max, so you could log in and change it again. Painful, and over the top for home use, but some simple subset of this might be worth considering.
Also remember, you may think you have nothing on your computer worth stealing, but you can't make that decision about those in your address book contents. A lot of scams are social engineering, not raw hacks.
Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
I have worked in places with very strict password policies. The shortest was 15 days. To log on the the computer, required your latest password, which had to be changed within the time period. So many characters, numbers, upper/lower case etc. It couldn't be one you had used before, and if you forgot, it was off to the relevant department in person to be given a new one that lasted one hour max, so you could log in and change it again. Painful, and over the top for home use, but some simple subset of this might be worth considering.
Also remember, you may think you have nothing on your computer worth stealing, but you can't make that decision about those in your address book contents. A lot of scams are social engineering, not raw hacks.
Andrew.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your info.
I am very concerned with the amount of information about us that is in the public domain.
I have found it quite easy to build a profile of an individual by trawling media sites.
A name here, an email address there, age on another site, d.o.b, home address, telephone number.
All this is out there.
 
If anyone remembers the 'Nigerian Prince' and similar email scams from around 2000 onward, there is an old web site to look at. It is no longer maintained, but has been left available to read through because it is just text. It is a series of email threads for several scams where the author sets out to deliberately wind up the perpetrators. It is a rabbit hole of a site, email threads can be more than 130 emails long, but gets hilarious in places. Pick a scam from the list and keep clicking next. Author uses 2 colours to identify himself and 'them'.

https://www.whatsthebloodypoint.com

Sorry about the slight expletive in the name, but it won't work without it ;)

Andrew.
 
Things to remember if you get the call from fake Microsoft/BTInternet/Virgin.
Microsoft doesn't usually take your phone number on registration and, if you've bought your computer second hand you wouldn't have registered anyway. You can irritate them for a while with the bit about "Where did you get this number". Many people use tablets or smartphones to get on the internet nowadays - go to that and have fun when they try to tell you where the "Windows" button is.
Some years ago the US courts decided that Microsoft kept too much personal information about its customers. In theory, if Microsoft was to call you they'd be liable for prosecution and you'd be due for compensation.
 
Bob Johnson said:
Thanks for your info.
I am very concerned with the amount of information about us that is in the public domain.
I have found it quite easy to build a profile of an individual by trawling media sites.
A name here, an email address there, age on another site, d.o.b, home address, telephone number.
All this is out there.
Click to expand...
Bob, I share the same feelings! As I signed on this morning my protective software told me that it had blocked 167 potential intruders in the past 7 days. The problem in the US and I expect elsewhere is that the scammers are not prosecuted and most times not even a slap on the wrist! There is no motivation to stop. Unfortunately it is insestual. The phone companies get paid for line use and usually have lobbyists working against us in the government.
 
Richard Dye said:
Bob, I share the same feelings! As I signed on this morning my protective software told me that it had blocked 167 potential intruders in the past 7 days. The problem in the US and I expect elsewhere is that the scammers are not prosecuted and most times not even a slap on the wrist! There is no motivation to stop. Unfortunately it is insestual. The phone companies get paid for line use and usually have lobbyists working against us in the government.
Click to expand...
There is a well know scam buster called Jim Browning who regularly passes information to governments about scammers he has exposed. Quite often his information is ignored.
 
One thing that doesn't help is the ability of modern phone systems, by design, to 'spoof' numbers. Imagine an organisation with several agents, could be doctors practice, insurance office, call centre. Each person has their own number, but the system will massage this so you only see the switchboard number whoever calls. Expand this over the modern internet connected phone system, and the number that just called you from your home town code could easily be in India, or name that country. That is one of the reasons scammers like to steal contact lists, they can spoof one of your friends numbers to call you, you are much more likely to pick up a call from a friend. Plus contact lists contain real verified numbers, that saves making numbers up that actually work. The same thing can be done with email addresses, they just need your passwords, (please, it really matters, Password1 is not good enough for anything) whereas phones don't.
This could be fixed by the phone operators, but as Richard says above, they get paid for the call anyway.

Andrew.
 
The likelihood of the average home user getting their computer hacked is relatively quite low. Hackers tend to target companies etc. However, the home user is quite vulnerable to attacks via email. Emails can deliver a whole hose of malware, spyware and ransomware, so do be careful of links or attachments from unknown sources.

There is some quite good advice for people dealing with scam or spam emails here.
 
A heads up for an interesting scam that needs your mobile. Some parking meters have a pay by mobile feature. Just scan the QR code and pay. Scammers are making stickers with their own code. You can guess the rest. Apparently they hide behind ‘short URL’ addresses making it hard to see who you are actually paying at the time.
Andrew.
 
Had an iMessage today, in French. "PayPal: Following a change in the law requiring strong authentication, your account has been suspended until this is done". Followed by a convenient link to a .com address. This sent from a French mobile number. Yeah right, straight there. Am I that stupid ? (Answers on a postcard to ...).
Andrew.
 
On spotting fake emails. If you get an email that you don't think is legit from a company take a look at the email address that's sending it. Depending on where you get your email or how you see them on your computer, you may have to move the cursor over the senders name or something like that. If the email address doesn't end with the internet address of the company that's supposed to be sending it, it's definitely a fake. More obviously, if you haven't given that company that email address, it's almost as bad.
 
the amount of items that have not arrived from a online site e**y that i was told have been sent and must be lost by the po is OTT now. they get your dosh straight away,but reclaiming it is another thing, grrrrr
 
Sorry you've had trouble with that site, Pete. It's a good idea to check the customer satisfaction rating of whoever you're buying from. I do that and thankfully haven't had any trouble for years. A good rating should be at least close to 100%.
 
Lloyd said:
Yes, they've started already. I had a lengthy conversation with a 'supervisor' on the line that claims to be from Microsoft saying they know my computer was "Being used by scammers" (!) - I said they can't get in to use it and pretended not to understand what he was saying about technology. That was 20 minutes of his life he won't get back! If its anything to do with loft insulation, boiler renewal, double glazing, replacement soffits (what the hell are soffits anyway?) I tell them to contact my landlord. (You can do that even if you own your house - they aren't interested if they can't deal with you directly!) Another trick to try is let the phone ring 5 times before answering it - scammers dial multiple numbers then disconnect once one answers. Not failsafe, but often saves your bother. On mobiles, check the number calling - if it doesnt begin with "0" or "+44" its from outside of the UK. You can check where from on this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_telephone_prefixes_by_country
Click to expand...
Beat you my record is 37 minutes, it was a cold wet windy day, I had nothing better to do, I just love these calls. AC Chunky.
 
Ray T said:
Sorry you've had trouble with that site, Pete. It's a good idea to check the customer satisfaction rating of whoever you're buying from. I do that and thankfully haven't had any trouble for years. A good rating should be at least close to 100%.
Click to expand...
thanks.i do look now at the feedback of the sellers now.
 
In the last week I've had a run of e-mails asking me to update/resubscribe to various computer security programs. For some reason, they are getting through the usual spam filter. Although the Anti-virus programs exist, the senders (as evidenced by their addresses) are not connected to them. I do not know what the scam is - it could just be an address collector - but I know it is a scam.
 
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