Spam email

[Stanley]

Mail purporting to come from Talktalk this morning. If I don't fill in a form giving details and updating my account the service will end. Really?
Guess what I did with it....

[Marilyn]

Hubby was listening to the radio this morning, whilst he worked, and was alerted to yet another scam.
Someone contacts you by phone to say they are the police and have become aware some-one is trying to steal your identity. You are told you will be contacted later in the day by an officer who will go through things with you. In the meantime, if you have any queries at all ring “this number”.
People who have rung the number find out they are ringing a real police station.
Later in the day the scammer rings you back, wanting to check personal details etc.

( be careful).

[Stanley]

There are some ruthless nasty people out there Maz making a quick buck out of people's insecurities. Despicable!

[Tizer]

Maz, wouldn't the real police station tell them it's a scam?

[Stanley]

Does anyone remember the early innocent days of spam when people used to get messages that their phone was about to explode and had to be immersed in a bucket of water?

[Tizer]

Some people would believe that now and shove their smartphone into a bucket of water (Thinks....perhaps I'll start a conspiracy theory based on that and get people off their phones!).

[Marilyn]

Tiz...if it is the phone number of your local station...perhaps they don’t have time to connect dots. We live coastal/rural. I can imagine they may think you a nutter if you ring them with weird theories.

[plaques]

Just received an e-mail supposedly from TalkTalk asking to up date your details. Uses the identical TalkTalk page layout with a link taking you to another TalkTalk entry format page all legitimate on the face of it until you examine the original message URL. and then see its from .... @nike.com.

Your account is scheduled for termination due to out of date information.

To stop this, please click the link below to go to your 'My Account' and update your details immediately.

If you have already completed these steps, please ignore this email.


Dead easy to fall for.

[Whyperion]

Maz, wouldn't the real police station tell them it's a scam?

The London police stations tended to have the numbers ending 1212, but they have been not so much deleted but rationalised onto the non emergency police number, allocated an area depending on where they think you are calling from, placed in a queue, with info on hold as to reporting crimes online web page, etc, or even visit a police station (not easy in covid days).

[Stanley]

That's the phishing phone message I was getting Ken.

[Big Kev]

Screenshot_20210105-190344_Metal Pro.jpg

Latest scam doing the rounds...
Asking for bank and card details to verify an address and to take payment for a covid vaccine.

[Big Kev]

Screenshot_20210105-190551_Metal Pro.jpg

Further info relating to the scam.

[Gloria]

Mine was contact text from the NHS which we get often, it advised me to contact my surgery to make an appointment, did that, booked in for Saturday. Simple.

[Big Kev]

Mine was contact text from the NHS which we get often, it advised me to contact my surgery to make an appointment, did that, booked in for Saturday. Simple.

That's the official way, sadly there will be some who fall for the scam.

[Tizer]

We're suddenly getting a lot of spam calls on our landline. We're only answering when the phone shows a number or name we recognise. The numbers are usually international or `Not Known' or a strange series of digits that doesn't look like a normal phone number. None leave a message on the answering service.

[PanBiker]

Peter do you not have Call Guard or a similar service from your provider?

[Tizer]

These are never the same number and therefore black listing numbers isn't any help. The scammers change their numbers all the time. We usually have no trouble but suddenly there has been a lot in quick succession. Now it seems to have eased off again. I think the scammers keep finding new ways to scam BT and it lasts for a few days until BT can cure the specific problem.

[Big Kev]

The 'shield' I have with my phone service only directly connects numbers on my 'safe' list. Everyone else has to go through a filtering process and announce who they are, only then does my phone actually ring and I listen to their recorded announcement. I then have the option to accept the call once, add it to my safe list or block it. I don't currently have any blocked numbers as anything unwanted hasn't got past the call filtering yet.

[Stanley]

HMRC contacted me this morning to say I owe tax on income.

[Tizer]

Kev, I was talking about my BT landline - are you referring to the same or your mobile phone?
With your filtering what happens if you get a recorded call from track & trace?

[Big Kev]

Kev, I was talking about my BT landline - are you referring to the same or your mobile phone?
With your filtering what happens if you get a recorded call from track & trace?

It's my landline. No idea about a recorded call from track and trace, I've never had a recorded call through from anyone to be honest.
Not sure I'd get a recorded call, from track and trace anyway, I only left my mobile number at restaurants but that was months ago.

[PanBiker]

Mine operates the same but we also have voice mail on the line. Not sure which side of the filtering that operates, having said that we only seem to get messages from folk we have already authorised. I use my mobile number for lots of "official" departments now and tend to get text notification rather than calls.

[Stanley]

Not actual spam but worthy of note. Just got a Xmas email from a friend dated 22 Dec 2020.

[Tizer]

This looks like a good use of AI technology!...
`Kitboga: How AI is helping me waste scammers’ time' LINK

[Stanley]

More power to his elbow I say!