Spam calls

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civvie
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Spam calls

Post by civvie »

I have often thought how to respond to spam calls trying to get my bank details, years ago while at our place in France I got a call on the house phone from Microsoft saying I have something on my computer. The guy went straight into English although we are in the French phone book and not French. Anyway played him on a while when he asked me to log on to the internet I had to tell him that I would have to pop down to McDonalds to use their internet connection as we are out in the country and didn't have broadband, and I knew he was trying to scam me and I had managed to waste his time, I don't know why but the phone went dead !
Now all the latest on these calls I have often thought maybe we play along and give them false personal details, including banking details so they would waste their time trying to extract money out of banks that don't exist. Its more fun then just putting the phone down.
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Re: Spam calls

Post by GiveMeABreak »

This is a global issue and they have been trying to crack down heavily on the Indian scammers who operate these 'Microsoft' technical support 'scamquiries'. Australia has been successful in getting a load shut down in the past couple of years, but the safest thing to do is not to say anything and block the number.

Nobody from your Bank, BT or elsewhere calls you about your account.

It's bad enough trying to protect yourself without the scammers. I recently have had some individuals trying to take over my account from one of the Credit Cards I hold. Somehow they knew my account number (that I didn't even know) and used this to ring up the company to get my mobile number changed which they succeeded in doing!

The first I knew about it, was when I logged in to my account online and didn't get the One Time Passcode despite several attempts, then my account was locked out. Long story short, Debenhams Fraud team (Newday) asked me if I had called then from a certain number and whether I had asked to have my number changed, so which I obviously said I did not know that number and no I hadn't. They had intercepted it and locked my account down.

I went in and changed my mobile back and asked them for a new card. The silly pillocks sent me a new card - wait for it, with the exact same credit card number! How utterly useless - how do these people get these jobs? I said, that was a waste of time, they needed to change my account number. I asked them how anyone could change my telephone number first without additional measures and whoever had done this ought to be sacked.

Anyway, it's been 2 months now waiting for the investigation to be solved and I've heard nothing, so am going to call them on Monday to give them my last 2 pence worth and close the account, which is pretty much not needed since Debenhams went to the wall.

So anyone with a Newday Credit card who provide multiple brands of high street and other credit cards, be wary of their lack of security when it comes to your account. I suspect my details may have been part of the 2017 hack of Debenhams Flowers where customer details were obtained... Also be very careful which online retailers you choose to purchase from as some of these have very weak security arrangements in place and I strongly advise you never to save your card details with a retailer as that is asking for trouble.

Zooplus is another company that I know have lax security as a card used there was used to by a fish pump and a coffee machine.... All these were refunded immediately without question and I am pleased to say that the enhanced security now coming into force should cut a lot of this out, where additional checks are needed to deliver goods elsewhere and 2 factor authentication for online shopping is now becoming more prevalent.
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Re: Spam calls

Post by civvie »

My partner was checking her credit card account a few days ago and found a couple of entries for uber, she has never used them. Phoned up Braclaycard and they managed to cancel the transaction for her. She also asked for the contactless part of her card to be disabled as this could have been a means they managed to get her card number, they said that was not possible.
I had a couple of those wallets issued by Metro bank that's supposed to block those signals , she has now slipped her cards in them.
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Re: Spam calls

Post by GiveMeABreak »

It's another reason why I use Apple Pay and not my Debit or Credit card contactless facility. Apple Pay once setup on your iPhone or Apple Watch doesn't use any of your personal details, nor does it transmit any of your card details for the transaction which is why it is so secure and useless to anyone who may attempt to intercept it.

The idiots at my bank weren't going to send me a new debit card as they said I never used it! When I asked the guy if he missed the training course on Apple Pay as that this is my preferred method of payment as it's more secure than using my band cards, he sounded totally embarrassed and apologised. I also told him just how did he expect me to make payments to my online accounts without a Debit Card? Where do they get these people who probably have half a dozen degrees and not an ounce of common sense :roll:
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Re: Spam calls

Post by myglaren »

Had what I suspect is a spam email, purporting to be from Ofgem:
Claim your bill rebate
Ofgem <info@globalskyward.com>
To: Thingy thingy@btinternet.com;
23/08/22 09:49
1
Dear thingy you are eligible to receive a bill rebate

Dear thingy


Starting today the Government has announced an energy bill rebate scheme

This includes:

A £200 discount on their energy bill this Autumn for domestic electricity customers.


A £500 non-repayable Council Tax Rebate payment for all households that are liable for Council Tax.


How do I apply for energy bill rebate?

You can get your rebate via Ofgem portal by clicking the button below:


Claim your rebate now »



Setup a direct debit: If you have already received your £500 rebate, you are not required to complete this form.

You have to apply for energy bill rebate before September 2020
Seems odd to me that it isn't my energy supplier that originated this, also the email address looks seriously dodgy.
globalskyward is a Canadian company.
Anyone else had anything similar?
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Re: Spam calls

Post by myglaren »

It appears that is is indeed a scam.
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Re: Spam calls

Post by moizeau »

If you have a link in an email you can hover over it (NOT clicking) and on Outlook at least, it shows the redirection address in the bottom lh corner to give you an idea. Always log on via the official website, never using links in mails.
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Re: Spam calls

Post by mickthemaverick »

Yes Steve. I had that yesterday, deleted it without even readimg the preview! :-D
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Re: Spam calls

Post by Gibbo2286 »

mickthemaverick wrote: 23 Aug 2022, 15:12 Yes Steve. I had that yesterday, deleted it without even readimg the preview! :-D
I had one last night, a man called and said I'm Mick from SCS (I misheard), :-D thought for a minute someone wanted to sell me a sofa. It was you 'Mick from FCF'.
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Re: Spam calls

Post by myglaren »

:mrgreen:
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Re: Spam calls

Post by Ross_K »

The scam callers from Indian call centers all follow a similar script (Amazon Prime renewal is a common one at the moment). The objectives are to get your card details including CVV number, or failing that, to get you to download some remote control software like TeamViewer or Anydesk so they can "guide" you through logging into your online banking and cancelling the fictitious renewal payment.

An interesting tactic they use is a Caller ID which is a few digits out from your number. Say if your number is 07773 123456, you might get a call from 07773 123463. I guess they do this to make the number seem more trustworthy?

As for the energy rebate emails, when was the last time the government actually contacted you out of the blue to say they're giving away money? :rofl2:

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Re: Spam calls

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

I recall, years ago, getting one of the standard calls relating to the recent accident I had. They could not have timed it any better. I was watching a car action film, and there was a large crash due to occur any moment now. When they asked for the circumstances of the accident I explained that the other car had lost control and then I screamed "Oh, no! Not again!" while turning up the volume. As the film crash occurred I made a few gurgling noises, and hung up. The funny thing is I never heard from them since!
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Re: Spam calls

Post by myglaren »

The Register
Massive amounts of private data – including more than 300,000 biometric digital fingerprints used by five mobile banking apps – have been put at risk of theft due to hard-coded Amazon Web Services credentials, according to security researchers.

Symantec's Threat Hunter Team said it discovered 1,859 publicly available apps, both Android and iOS, containing baked-in AWS credentials. That means if someone were to look inside the apps, they would have found the credentials in the code, and could potentially have used that to access the apps' backend Amazon-hosted servers and steal users' data. The vast majority (98 percent) were iOS apps.
Just as I was contemplating putting banking on my 'phone.
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Re: Spam calls

Post by Ross_K »

myglaren wrote: 02 Sep 2022, 12:59 Just as I was contemplating putting banking on my 'phone.
Hardcoding backend credentials into a banking app is a beginner's mistake, or plain lazy.

By the way, you can find interesting things with an AWS bucket explorer

https://buckets.grayhatwarfare.com/
Last edited by myglaren on 02 Sep 2022, 13:11, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Fixed link
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