Common Scams Section

[Gibbo2286]

I just had a similar thing, I did a look up on a phone on reverselookup.com site, 55p, did the job fine.
At the start of Jan I got an email from Barclays saying 'suspicious activity' , a charge of £29.99 and asking me to confirm,
I told them I hadn't authorised it, they said it would show on my statement but they would also show a refund which they did.
The trap was in the small print.

[CitroJim]

Oh gosh Steve, that's not good

In future, just get a scanner and install RawThreapee on your laptop... The software is free and will do the job a treat. See my latest post in POTD for an example

[myglaren]

That was lifted from another forum and not my experience.
I've put it in forum quotes to make that more obvious.

[CitroJim]

That was lifted from another forum and not my experience.
I've put it in forum quotes to make that more obvious.

Thank goodness for that Steve... You had me worried there...

[Richard_C]

I got a call on my mobile phone yesterday, recorded voice claimed to be from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise. Obvious scam, it's not been HER Majesty since the fateful Truss handshake in 2022.

[mickthemaverick]

I recieved this pathetically constructed email today. How on earth does anyone fall for this sort of thing?

Screenshot of my Junk folder

[CitroJim]

How on earth does anyone fall for this sort of thing?

With great ease Mick. The general population, despite what they like to believe, are far from tech-savvy and nowhere near qualified enough to be safe online. The Internet is the 21st Century Wild West. Most just don't have a clue.

And if it looks vaguely official - as yours does - and/or it looks appealing and offers something tasty the majority will fall for it hook, line and sinker

I know that only too well from conversations and interactions with my extensive circle of friends...

[myglaren]

Also applicable to the AI thread.

[mickthemaverick]

I received this email this morning which had three attachments. Needless to say after screenshotting it I reported and deleted it without any buttons or attachments being touched!!

Compiled screenshot of the email.

[myglaren]

I still get lots on my default account that I hardly use these days. Mostly to say my cloud access has fallen in arrears and all images will be deleted. I don't have a cloud account.
A lot from McAffee for expired antivirus stuff. Haven't used them in decades.
But the worst is BT (not) saying I owe them money and I will be chopped off at the pockets if I don't pay up forthwith. BT are on direct debit. Another saying I have several viruses. No I haven't!
The problem with the BT ones are some concerning fibre broadband that has just been installed in the street where previously it was to the box a hundred yards away. I am eligible for the free upgrade to ninety zillion megawhatsits but I am not opening any of them. I block the user address and also block the domain but they persist.
My next door neighbour works for BT (well, EE as it now appears to be).

[mickthemaverick]

I think the thing that worries me most is that a, sadly too high, proportion of the receivers will simply click the green button and end up who knows where? All this type of general ignorance of the tech world is yet another reason for my idea of having to pass an IT test to get an internet connection. Yes I know that ship has sailed! For those of us with the necessary education it would not be a great inconvenience but it may well help to save a lot of people from themselves!!