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Scams: telephone, email, texts 2022

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wam said:
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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update/resubscribe = give us your bank details. Not to the AV vendors, to the scammers. Address details would be extra icing on the cake.

Even if you only pay them the requested amount, say £50, think about one email written, 1 million deliveries at the push of a button, 1 % hit rate. PROFIT. Then do it again the next day.

Also, the odd spelling mistake is often deliberate, as is the subtly not quite correct English, (and odd typeface mikejee). Scammers don't want to waste time with people who are paying attention.

Andrew.
 
Eric Gibson said:
I

I used to use the deliberate mistake to see if my window posters and adverts were being read,

An upside down poster or a mis-spelled word would always bring in the person who couldn't resist telling you how stupid you are. :)
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I love the grammar police, so easy to grab their attention.

Interestingly, mapmakers would introduce a deliberate error too. It was a way of detecting copyright breaches
 
Morturn said:
I love the grammar police, so easy to grab their attention.

Interestingly, mapmakers would introduce a deliberate error too. It was a way of detecting copyright breaches
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I have just remembered many years ago an old friend who was at what was then Aston commercial college saying he had published a set of statistical tables and had introduced one slight error at the last decimal point on one page, for the same reason
 
This morning's effort, a pretty convincing Tesco £1000 voucher prize, "You are in the last three in the competition to win a £1000 Tesco voucher, fill in your details below."
 
Recently got a call from a guy pretending to be the first direct bank safety service. Was telling me about suspicious activity or something
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
Also, the odd spelling mistake is often deliberate, as is the subtly not quite correct English, (and odd typeface mikejee). Scammers don't want to waste time with people who are paying attention.

Andrew.
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Odd spelling mistakes can be part of a different kind of game. If you've ever been passed something on FaceBook that either has a couple of odd spelling mistakes or is just an image and asked to share it there's a trick to it. It's possible to search for odd phrases or images on google. So if someone wants to find out what idiots will circulate just about anything, they search for either the phrase or the image and they can find out who shared it and where. That way they can spam a lot more people simply by sharing whatever they want with the people who share it to the places where they want it to go.
 
We had the same eloquent young sounding man call 5 times saying our house was old and it had come up on their 'list' to qualify for a quote for improvements and we would have noticed the browny beige material used in the past. He didn't say where or what for. Or what list or how we came to be on it. My partner kept repeating she didn't have time to speak to him and so I did the same. Every time I get one of these now I check the number and it says they have been ringing lots of people. We also got one at 9am then lunch time where no one replied.
 
We normally let all calls go to answer machine, unless it is in our phone contact list, and has a different ring. A while ago I was expecting a parcel, and around here in the sticks the addressing is rather lax. So I was expecting a "where are you" call from the delivery driver. This time I picked the phone up and a chap launched into a spiel about someone was in my area to do with home improvements, and could he make an appointment. Usual trick, I interrupted in English, which is usually good enough. This chap dropped straight into English mid sentence.

****!! they are getting better.

Next time I will try Mandarin, that way neither of us will have a clue.

Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
We normally let all calls go to answer machine, unless it is in our phone contact list, and has a different ring. A while ago I was expecting a parcel, and around here in the sticks the addressing is rather lax. So I was expecting a "where are you" call from the delivery driver. This time I picked the phone up and a chap launched into a spiel about someone was in my area to do with home improvements, and could he make an appointment. Usual trick, I interrupted in English, which is usually good enough. This chap dropped straight into English mid sentence.

****!! they are getting better.

Next time I will try Mandarin, that way neither of us will have a clue.

Andrew.
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Sometimes to my partner's disgust, she thinks probably correctly, to be on line with them as shorter time as possible and still remain polite, I break into the 'language' of the sadistic clown in the League Of Gentleman, as chirpy Chris the scammer called again today, "haa laa Chras haw a ya ta daa? ya ma warf na.! " I checked the number it has had over 700 complaints this week and comes from Southampton.
 
Malwarebytes has blocked access to Barclaycard this morning, says it's 'compromised' got the email saying my statement was ready but can't log in, can log into my current account ok but can't even get to Barclaycard from there.
 
I use Malwarebytes Scan Only, not continuous protection just a weekly scan. Recently they gave me a 15 day trial of continuous protection even though I had not ticked any boxes to agree to it. I wasn't particularly interested but let them waste their time giving me 15 days free. After a few days they blocked a website with PUP messages when I knew the website was safe. When they blocked another I forced an end to the free trial and had no more false blocks.
 
Eric Gibson said:
Malwarebytes has blocked access to Barclaycard this morning, says it's 'compromised' got the email saying my statement was ready but can't log in, can log into my current account ok but can't even get to Barclaycard from there.
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The Barclays Banks have all closed by us. We have lost lots of banks and building societies and Post offices. sometimes when I open the mac it wont let me look till I confirm I am me. Then it sends a message to my phone to confirm I am me.sometimes it instructs me ti do nothing if I am me or sometimes I have to say it is me Bizarre.
 
Interesting scam I read about today. Using Alexa to hack itself :(. Basically uses Alexa to talk to itself and issue commands, including unlocking doors, ordering stuff etc. I have put a link to the article, because they put it much better than I can.

arstechnica.com

Attackers can force Amazon Echos to hack themselves with self-issued commands

Popular “smart” device follows commands issued by its own speaker. What could go wrong?
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

Might be a bit of a read, some bits can probably be skimmed. Doesn't need a login to read. Watch out if you read the comments, language can get a bit hairy.

Andrew.
 
A good reason, if you are a lazy sod and not capable of doing anything yourself, not to use these devices
 
I don't have a good DAB radio signal where I live so I bought an Alexa Echo Dot which is perfect as a radio with remarkably good sound considering it is a 3.5" sphere.

I use it mainly as a radio and it listens for it's 'wake word' which is Alexa. Amazon says that the 'wake word' is the only thing it listens for. My Alexa is close to my desk PC and last night I had a discussion with someone on Zoom about tide times at a UK harbour and various other facts about tides. Today I had this email from Amazon ... note the second item.
20220306_132124941_iOS.jpg
So for a test to see if it listens without the wake word, today I pretended I had to urgently look after someone's pet rabbit and had a long discussion about rabbits - their food - do they eat lettuce - did I need a hutch - do they drink water from bowls - do they bite - etc etc ...

It will be interesting to see if I get an email from Amazon suggesting I ask Alexa about rabbits ... ;)
 
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oldMohawk said:
I pretended I had to urgently look after someone's pet rabbit and had a long discussion about rabbits
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Alexa server 1 "oldMohawk was talking about rabbits today".
Alexa server 2 "Yes, send him the adverts from the rabbit database".
Server 1 "But I only heard a one sided conversation".
Server 2 "Scrub the rabbit stuff".
Server 1 "But what do I send him ?".
Server 2 "No idea, try that REBEL GIRLS podcast".
Server 1 "Computer error, divide by zero, infinite loop !!".
Server 2 "Exterminate -- Exterminate".
Server 1 " --------".
oldMohawk "(chuckle) One down".

Andrew.
 
Nico said:
It's scares me as the grandchildren have one. But my bedridden friend had a pre Alexa which helped her and it was free.
It puts us off answering the phone early in the morning or when we having lunch.
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I have friends who use Alexa all the time, especially for timing cooking. I have labeled my digital push-button timer 'Alexa' to 'keep up'. I don't like the idea of a listening device in the house unless one could be assured that the interpretation of sounds is purely local, not sent 'to the cloud' in which case everything could be monitored.
I'm not sure too that encouraging children to say "Alexa, [do]!" is a good idea, it creates a digital slave, rather than a digital assistant, "Alexa, please [do]!", habits that may roll-over to how they treat other people.
Alexa Mk. 2: "Alexa, how do you spell Kiev today?" Alexa: "What is the magic word?"
 
mw0njm. said:
www.cnet.com

Samsung's warning: Our Smart TVs record your living room chatter

Technically Incorrect: Samsung's small print says that its Smart TV's voice recognition system will not only capture your private conversations, but also pass them onto third parties.
www.cnet.com www.cnet.com
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I read a while ago about smart TVs looking for neighbours unsecured WiFi if you didn't connect to your own, and even having buried SIM cards to connect to mobile. Maybe scaremongering, maybe it happens but people feel safe if they deliberately don't connect to their own WiFi.

Andrew.
 
Computer generates phone numbers and dials then if you answer you get the "push to speak to...." and they transfer you to scam central. When you pick up to a dead line your number is marked as active and passed to the scam team.

Three things I use for security and touch wood have not had a security issue on any of my machines at home for getting on twenty years.

1. Windows own virus/security checker. It got a bad rep years ago but its now as good as any paid software, certainly for home users

2. Lastpass password manager. This stores all your passwords and will autofill when you log on to some sites. It only saves a password if you give permission. The free computer version can be installed on any number of different PCs but if you want to use it on your phone as well you pay a small subscription. https://lastpass.com/misc_download2...ismhV5M287ji7zaKa6kaAmbaEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds Well worth using and its extremely secure.

3. Malwarebytes. The free version works very well but you have to manually hit scan button so I use the paid version and it sits in the background ready to pounce. Like all software it will from time to time give a 'false positive' to a site but you can tell it to go the the site anyway. Generally they spot this and resolve the flagging issue in no time.

If I remember correctly it was a fella named Alan Soloman who came out with the first really effective anti virus package back in the 90s. In an interview years later he said he regretted using the word 'virus' because it panicked people when in fact 99 times out of 100 the 'virus' is a minor intrusion but people blow things out all proportion
 
I have a BT4600 (other makes may be just as good) and have not heard a single scam call since I installed it in 2021. Callers not on my contact list have to announce who the are. The phone does not ring until callers announce.

Scammers never announce so they hang up and I don't hear anything - - I don't even know they tried to call.

Setting up the phone is a bit fiddly but the above mentioned Announce is the default - it just needs all contacts to be saved to the contacts list. Contacts do not have to announce.
 
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