Current Scams...

[RollingJ 2,040]

4 minutes ago, taxman said:

British Gas reminded me yesterday to pay my bill or there would be consequences. If I ignored their email it would cost me £50+ quid to recieve a letter and if they needed to come round to my house it would cost me several hundred quid.

 

Obviously I paid at once, giving them my bank account number and sort code, the name of my first pet, first school and mother's maiden name.

 

It then dawned on me we don't have British Gas....

😀

[blackydog 40]

Alert from SYP

 

Good afternoon,

South Yorkshire Police has issued a warning to local residents about cyber criminals who are trying to trick victims into believing they have been filmed on their computer watching porn, then demanding payment.

The force has received 15 reports of a similar nature in the past week, with the victims being told the "footage" will be sent to all their contacts if they do not pay a fine in Bitcoin.

In some cases, the fraudsters make the threats seem even more believable by sending their message from what appears to be the victim's own email account, and revealing the password.

The emails claim the victim has been filmed on their computer watching porn and demand payment of up to $3,000 in Bitcoin.

Scams like this are known as 'sextortion', which is the practice of extorting money from somebody by threatening to reveal evidence of their sexual activity. Whether or not the victim realises this is a scam, the email can be very unsettling to receive - especially when the criminals seem to know your password, are demanding high payments and have given a strict deadline. Thankfully, none of the people who have reported this scam to us has lost any money.

Action Fraud - the national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre - suspects the fraudsters may have gained victims' passwords from an old data breach. If you have had an email like this I'd recommend you change your password as soon as possible to ensure you are secure.

If you have received this email or a similar one, you can report the email to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040 or visiting https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-phishing

[DT Ralge 10]

A recent scam I was alerted to involved a very convincing-looking letter from the Govt. (it wasn’t) that asked for all your business details to register/apply for employee furlough payments.  

[Waldo 96]

Just got a text from HMRC, all citizens are eligible for a tax relief! Just have to click the completely dodgy .it link.

 

Think I’ll pass, thanks.

[steved32 55]

This morning I received a text inviting me to log on to a BT photo/video message.  It purported to be from my brother.

 

It wasn't!

[GOLDEN OLDIE 15]

I'm getting emails, it seems, from BT. The account update has an email address of a Robert Garrett at the top and the Failure to log in one has @betcable.com at the top. I seem to be in danger of losing my Internet connections if I don't follow the instructions which include a glaring spelling mistake!

Have deleted them!!!!

[RiffRaff 10]

New one - to me, anyway - this afternoon.

Supposedly from O2 to two different mobiles, advising they couldn't effect the latest payment.

Two different source numbers, both linked to https://o2.uk.bill926.com/?o2=2

 

Naughty boys!

[whiteowl 54]

5 hours ago, RiffRaff said:

New one - to me, anyway - this afternoon.

Supposedly from O2 to two different mobiles, advising they couldn't effect the latest payment.

Two different source numbers, both linked to https://o2.uk.bill926.com/?o2=2

 

Naughty boys!

Fairly sure O2 don't use the bill926.com domain 😂

 

Obviously, if unsure about an email/text you've received, don't do anything with it - if you're concerned it's legit, log onto your account as you normally would, there will be a message on there if it's genuine.

You can also check the link they are trying to send you to, it's the first bit before the .com or .co.uk (etc) - in the above example it's bill926.com. Forget the o2.uk bit, it's the last part before the .com that's the important part.

 

Sorry if that's obvious to some people, but it might help others

 

Stay safe

[DT Ralge 10]

With any of these scam emails, you can forward them to the National Fraud Investigation Bureau:

 

[email protected]

 

They, presumably, get inundated with stuff and many of the scams emanate from overseas domains (and I’m not sure whether they would do anything with them) but in the UK they can’t do anything about anything if they don’t know about it. 

[max 13]

My latest response to random 'phone calls is to ask for the supervisor because I need to know how they got hold of the number it being an MOD classified one. Silence after that.

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

Besides the FIB and Action Fraud services, there's newish HMG 'Coronavirus' fraud report service- [email protected].

It seems quite efficient.

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by Jeffrey Shaw

[pintor 32]

I keep getting @mail about my pay pal, which I never use, saying open this in one drive, from  josgandosyo, any ideas?