Current Scams...

[kaytie 11]

50 minutes ago, Lex Luthor said:

Until the situation is got under control, I view it as my responsibility to do what I personally can to protect others, when I can.

 

This not only takes the form of informing others of scams but also keeping the scummmers (not a spelling mistake!) on my telephone line as long as possible, as while they are on the phone to me, they are not scamming someone vulnerable. 

 

My current record is 3 hours and 5 minutes, I had set my target as 3 hours but could not resist 'a grand finale', resulting in my Nigerian cousin, screaming down the phone, 'You Mother ******!' when he realised that HE was the one who had been had. 

 

It also was amazing fun for me and my house guest (he was doubled over for most of the conversation and had to leave the room on more than one occasion, as he had to laugh out loud and didn't want the scammer to hear him) as I put the scammer on speaker phone. 

 

One of the most enjoyable elements of the call, was when I insisted on spelling everything out, as he had been doing, when I simply could not follow him 😉, using place names.  He would say, 'H for Holland', I think my favourite was 'H for Heeley Bottom'.  The grand finale, when he thought he was finally getting my email address, well.... I'll let you guess at what I spelled out but it involved, words starting with 'Frecheville', and 'Birley Carr'!  It was great to hear his utter incredulity and frustration but it would have been even better to have been able to see his face.

That sounds like fun!   I have been known, when I have the time, to lead them on a wild goose chase ... My favourite being to put on a "faka Italiana accenta"  interspersed with a few genuine Italian phrases and claim not to understand, getting them to repeat everything several times until usually they give up and hang up.  Never managed that length of time though....Respect!

[Lex Luthor 10]

23 hours ago, kaytie said:

That sounds like fun!   I have been known, when I have the time, to lead them on a wild goose chase ... My favourite being to put on a "faka Italiana accenta"  interspersed with a few genuine Italian phrases and claim not to understand, getting them to repeat everything several times until usually they give up and hang up.  Never managed that length of time though....Respect!

Oh good one 😁👍. Might try a new identity next time.

[Lex Luthor 10]

23 hours ago, alchresearch said:

I speak really quietly so they have to ramp up the volume at their end, then blow a whistle down the phone.

Good idea.

 

I've also thought of putting them on hold with some music in the background but I'm not sure what.  Maybe a song with a strong message.  Any ideas, anyone?

[catmiss 12]

It’s the automated scam calls that get me. I regularly get the broadband service from termination calls (none naming my provider), Amazon Prime charge and bank fraud notification which all ask me to ‘press 1’ to resolve the issue. I don’t answer numbers I don’t recognise but get them on voicemail 

[Cycleracer 10]

I usually get scammers ring my landline and in fact if my home number does ring the chances are it's a scammer.

I only have a landline for my broadband and only because it's essential but I would get rid of it if technology run broadband without a landline.

I rarely use my phone to ring out and always use my mobile

[kay1 13]

Just had a call from my bank "no name of bank" to inform me that £600 has been withdrawn and credited to an overseas bank account and to press 1 to stop transaction,  and I suppose they want bank details to stop it

[Guest makapaka]

On 13/02/2020 at 08:44, Lex Luthor said:

Until the situation is got under control, I view it as my responsibility to do what I personally can to protect others, when I can.

 

This not only takes the form of informing others of scams but also keeping the scummmers (not a spelling mistake!) on my telephone line as long as possible, as while they are on the phone to me, they are not scamming someone vulnerable. 

 

My current record is 3 hours and 5 minutes, I had set my target as 3 hours but could not resist 'a grand finale', resulting in my Nigerian cousin, screaming down the phone, 'You Mother ******!' when he realised that HE was the one who had been had. 

 

It also was amazing fun for me and my house guest (he was doubled over for most of the conversation and had to leave the room on more than one occasion, as he had to laugh out loud and didn't want the scammer to hear him) as I put the scammer on speaker phone. 

 

One of the most enjoyable elements of the call, was when I insisted on spelling everything out, as he had been doing, when I simply could not follow him 😉, using place names.  He would say, 'H for Holland', I think my favourite was 'H for Heeley Bottom'.  The grand finale, when he thought he was finally getting my email address, well.... I'll let you guess at what I spelled out but it involved, words starting with 'Frecheville', and 'Birley Carr'!  It was great to hear his utter incredulity and frustration but it would have been even better to have been able to see his face.

Me and my mate did stuff like this regular in the past when you used to get cold telephone calls to buy stuff.

 

”we’re ringing about an offer we’ve got on conservatory’s”

 

”you’re in luck - my mate who’s the owner of the property was only talking about A new conservatory this morning - I’ll just go and get him”

 

”excellent thank you”

 

”are you still there? He’s on his way down now to talk to you” x 10 at least until they realised you’d had em on. 

[Lex Luthor 10]

On 19/02/2020 at 00:02, makapaka said:

Me and my mate did stuff like this regular in the past when you used to get cold telephone calls to buy stuff.

 

”we’re ringing about an offer we’ve got on conservatory’s”

 

”you’re in luck - my mate who’s the owner of the property was only talking about A new conservatory this morning - I’ll just go and get him”

 

”excellent thank you”

 

”are you still there? He’s on his way down now to talk to you” x 10 at least until they realised you’d had em on. 

Love it!  😁

[alandrea0 16]

Here's another scam to be aware of when advertising on Gumtree, Facebook and paying by Paypal...

My daughter recently advertised a fridge freezer for £100. She had a email from someone saying they wanted to buy it for their cousin, but she couldn't collect it as she was disabled in a wheelchair.  The buyer asked if she could arrange for it to be collected by a courier but the courier wanted £300 to collect and deliver. 

The woman said she would pay £400 into my daughters paypal account..£100 for fridge and £300 for courier, and then requested my daughter to send the £300 to the courier via paypal. 

we noticed something strange!!! The couriers paypal email address looked like a private email address, also the said payment from buyer would not clear in my daughters paypal account UNTIL she had paid the £300 to the courier...

When my daughter queried this with buyer via email and requested a telephone number to discuss the purchase and delivery, the buyer said she was DEAF.. LOL

 

We realised it was a definite scam to get £300 from my daughter and no one would turn up for the appliance...

 

WATCH OUT for this new scam when trying to sell items and paying via Paypal...

 

 

[redruby 279]

On 17/02/2020 at 08:02, Cycleracer said:

I usually get scammers ring my landline and in fact if my home number does ring the chances are it's a scammer.

I only have a landline for my broadband and only because it's essential but I would get rid of it if technology run broadband without a landline.

I rarely use my phone to ring out and always use my mobile

Same here, and the ringer on the landline is permanently turned off so scammers can waste their time to call as much as they want. 

I very rarely get cold calls on my mobile but if I do it’s easy enough to block their number. 

 

[pattricia 574]

On 18/02/2020 at 16:23, kay1 said:

Just had a call from my bank "no name of bank" to inform me that £600 has been withdrawn and credited to an overseas bank account and to press 1 to stop transaction,  and I suppose they want bank details to stop it

I had this same call yesterday. Also one saying they were BT and were calling about my broadband, I replied by saying what someone on this thread had suggested which was “ This call is being recorded by the fraud agency “  The caller dropped the phone like a red hot brick ! 

[Padders 2,840]

2 hours ago, pattricia said:

I had this same call yesterday. Also one saying they were BT and were calling about my broadband, I replied by saying what someone on this thread had suggested which was “ This call is being recorded by the fraud agency “  The caller dropped the phone like a red hot brick ! 

Me too,

Recorded message in the morning, £600 pounds taken from your account 6mins ago..

Afternoon same message £600 taken from your account 6mins ago..

I take not one blind bit of notice, but plenty of people fall for these scams.