[Finance] ******** The Scam Thread *********

[Zeberdi]

Rather nasty email popped up in my Junk folder today.

Heard some stories of young people falling for this one. Nasty angle.

"Hello,

I'm contacting you regarding an urgent matter that demands your immediate attention.
You have an opportunity to address this situation, but prompt action is essential.

I have installed advanced spyware, referred to as Candid, on your devices.
This spyware gives me full access to all your online activities-your webcam, messages, emails,
and call logs! Compatible with Android, iOS, and Windows, I've been monitoring you for months. Find out how!

Over this period, I've captured several images and videos of you involved in explicit activities. Given the sensitive nature of these recordings,
it's understandable that you wouldn't want them shared with friends, family, or colleagues.

Here's what you can expect if you choose not to comply: I will share these pics and videos with everyone in your contact list via WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, email, etc.
This exposure could have serious repercussions for both your personal and professional life.
To avoid this, you need to take action immediately.

Please transfer $999 USD to my cryptocurrency wallet (btc) address provided below: bc1qw6y5ce2n6mwep83qd33c7tnfzjxy6g5dpcx0au

Once I verify the payment, I will delete all compromising photos and videos and remove the spyware from your devices.
My only interest is financial gain; if that weren't the case, I would have already shared the videos and images.

You have precisely 48 hours from the moment you read this email to complete the payment.
If you're unsure about how to use cryptocurrency, simply search for "crypto exchange" to find helpful instructions.

Critical Notices:

Avoid contacting the authorities. If I detect any police involvement, I will release the videos immediately.
Additionally, do not try to reset or destroy your devices-I already possess compromising information about you.

Keep in mind that cryptocurrency transactions are anonymous, making it impossible to trace me through the wallet address.

Take action now to prevent irreversible consequences."

Return email to sender stating “TL;DR”

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Great call today from 'British Gas' telling me I can save money and to book a visit.

At first I think it is real and tell them I look on Money Supermarket. I'm ignored and asked if I prefer morning or afternoon. The voice them asks another question and I say 'You're not listening are you ?'. I'm then asked for details and ask 'Do you prefer Vegemite or Marmite ?'

The call is clearly and data mining exercise by a scam group

See post #476
I say to all cold-callers now; "before we continue, what day is it today?"

Now, any 2-bob call centre fool could answer that simple question. If they don't , I just put phone down (without disconnecting the call) ...

 

[Fungus]

Had an oldie but a goodie today. The email seems to have gone to all of our local U3A group, allegedly from one of the organiser, so probably a few confused recipients…

”Hello
Sorry to bother you, I would like to have a word with you
Can we talk through email for some few minutes ?
I am unable to speak over the phone due to serious throat pain caused by laryngitis.
Happy Christmas
Love Anne and Jon”

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Over the last week I have had three separate requests for a payment from Pay-pal, something I’ve never seen before. They are all in $ amounts and all from people I’ve never heard of.

i have a PayPal account which I haven’t used for a while, and there is nothing in it anyway, but…….

 

[slartibartfast]

Pretty safe to assume that just about anybody that rings a landline nowadays is a scammer

My elderly mother is a scammer?? Well, ... the dark horse !! ;-)

 

[A mex eyecan]

Had an oldie but a goodie today. The email seems to have gone to all of our local U3A group, allegedly from one of the organiser, so probably a few confused recipients…

”Hello
Sorry to bother you, I would like to have a word with you
Can we talk through email for some few minutes ?
I am unable to speak over the phone due to serious throat pain caused by laryngitis.
Happy Christmas
Love Anne and Jon”

well, give credit where it’s due, they are instructing you to Love Anne and John be they known to you or not

 

[Eeyore]

I had one this week. Well, sadly not.

It was a tax bill for £500. I came off the email and went to my account. It was real.

Oh, I so wish it had been a scam.

 

[Fungus]

well, give credit where it’s due, they are instructing you to Love Anne and John be they known to you or not

I do know Anne and Jon, and see them regularly, but it still seemed suspicious. Turns out, they were loving a lot of other people too!

The return address was their genuine email address, so I suppose the scammer had hacked their account somehow. I was tempted to play along, but that would probably just have added to the endless spam I get anyway.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

well, give credit where it’s due, they are instructing you to Love Anne and John be they known to you or not

I got an identical email a few days ago, and I don’t know a couple called Anne and Jon.

 

[Bozza]

Whilst eating dinner last night I caught a notification on my phone from Depop. It said the items I'd listed were getting likes.

I opened the app and it showed I had three active listings - a Cartier watch and two Loewe bags. Needless to say these weren't mine - I only opened the account to buy a pair of running shoes about a year back.

I immediately marked the items as sold, changed my password and turned on 2FA for the app.

Presumably the intent was to sell the non-existent items, collect the payments and then leave me on the hook.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Return email to sender stating “TL;DR”

Or you could have referred it to m'learned friend @Tom Hark Preston Park

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

I’ve had to deal with a fairly simple, but complex chain of events for my mum.

Yesterday I got a call to say her bank had blocked her because of fraud. They wanted to send her a text and her to go to local branch with ID to get this resolved. She then mentions she’s not had a mobile signal for 24 hours so can’t get the code. She’s also been getting PayPal emails but they were disappearing from her inbox by the time she went to open them.

It appears her email + common password (with some variations) were in haveibeenpwned database tied to her email and PayPal. It looks like they made a handful of transactions , the bank flagged as suspicious and blocked it. PayPal were good and also helped block the transactions and increase security to include WhatsApp notifications.

It looks like she was sim swapped with Lebara and having been on calls with them I can see how, there was a real lack of security - and if you had access to an email + PayPal you could pass the check. They initially seemed good but despite being told they’d put a block in place, will investigate and look to move the number back to her sim we just got an email that suggests the fraudster has initiated a PAC request to move the number to another provider. Waiting game now but reading other horror stories about Lebara I’m not holding my breath.

Definitely highlighted importance of password management either with iCloud native or 1password or similar. Also worth checking for data leaks on haveibeenpwned for older relatives periodically.

We have seen a spate of sim swaps fraud attempts on one of our customer books at work.

This normally follows a compromised personal email account.

My advice would be to add an additional multi factor code (via mobile operator) to the pin. For example if someone got lucky and identified my mobile operator and tried a SS they would need an additional code for the transfer to work

 

[Bodian]

Not a scam on me, but a scam on the local authority.

I have sent this to Stagecoach:

I got on this bus at xxxxxx and clearly stated my journey was to yyyyyyy. The bus ticket I purchased states that the journey was to zzzzzzz, some 25 miles further on.

The fare was the Government subsidised £2 capped fare. I understand your company are subsidised to the amount of the difference between the £2 cap and the fare it would have been without the cap.

To enter an incorrect destination, one that is 25 miles further on, seems to me to result in your company being able to claim a higher amount from the government than you are entitled to. This is surely wrong.

The two passengers who got on the bus behind me ALSO had tickets issued to zzzzzz, when they were also going to yyyyyyyy - so this was not an accident.

Please investigate.

The response:

Hi Bodian,

We’ve looked into your query and here’s what you need to know:

What we've done:
Hello Bodian

Thank you for reaching out about the destination showing incorrectly on your ticket. I was sorry to hear this happened.

I have made the depot aware of this so they can check if there had been a ticket machine fault as normally travel from xxxxxx to zzzzz would be deemed to be 2 journeys (1 to aaaaaa, 1 aaaaaa to zzzzzz). They can also address any ticketing training requirements with the driver should it be found there was no machine fault.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Best Wishes
Julie

What you need to do:

Thank you

Stagecoach Customer Service Team

 

[PascalGroß Tips]

Not a scam on me, but a scam on the local authority.

I have sent this to Stagecoach:

I got on this bus at xxxxxx and clearly stated my journey was to yyyyyyy. The bus ticket I purchased states that the journey was to zzzzzzz, some 25 miles further on.

The fare was the Government subsidised £2 capped fare. I understand your company are subsidised to the amount of the difference between the £2 cap and the fare it would have been without the cap.

To enter an incorrect destination, one that is 25 miles further on, seems to me to result in your company being able to claim a higher amount from the government than you are entitled to. This is surely wrong.

The two passengers who got on the bus behind me ALSO had tickets issued to zzzzzz, when they were also going to yyyyyyyy - so this was not an accident.

Please investigate.

I actually reported this issue via a Government fraud reporting process - last year I think. This was also due to destinations on Stagecoach 700 destinations I was making often being further on than the journey I was making.

I wasn't expecting anything back - but a few months later, I did actually get a very good response. it essentially said that the destination on the ticket wasn't important for the £2 capped fare and what bus companies can claim. They said that there was an agreed calculation based on number of journeys - or something like that (I haven't got the email any more). But they confirmed that the destination on the ticket didn't affect the subsidy bus companies could claim.

 

[Bodian]

I actually reported this issue via a Government fraud reporting process - last year I think. This was also due to destinations on Stagecoach 700 destinations I was making often being further on than the journey I was making.

I wasn't expecting anything back - but a few months late, I did actually get a very good response. it essentially said that the destination on the ticket wasn't important for the £2 capped fare and what bus companies can claim. They said that there was an agreed calculation based on number of journeys - or something like that (I haven't got the email any more). But they confirmed that the destination on the ticket didn't affect the subsidy bus companies could claim.

Cheers. Interesting that Stagecoach didn't just say that to me then!

 

[PascalGroß Tips]

Cheers. Interesting that Stagecoach didn't just say that to me then!

Agreed. I contacted Stagecoach first via social media and got a very wishy washy response, hence my email thinking I was dobbing them in as I was suspicious they were pulling a fast one.

 

[Albion my Albion]

Over the last week I have had three separate requests for a payment from Pay-pal, something I’ve never seen before. They are all in $ amounts and all from people I’ve never heard of.

i have a PayPal account which I haven’t used for a while, and there is nothing in it anyway, but…….

Let's just say that group isn't your Pal so Pay no attention.

 

[Boroseagull]

A bit of a fight back in Nigeria according to a report in The Times today.

Hundreds arrested over Nigerian crypto-romance scams

African accomplices were allegedly recruited by the foreign kingpins to work in a luxury block used as a hub for online romance and cryptocurrency scams

www.thetimes.com

 

[Official Old Man]

I had my debit card scimmed (or whatever it's called) whilst away for a weekend.
Now, I'm very very carefull about these things so never EVER let my card out of my sight. I believe it was at a council car park where you have to use your phone to pay. Scanned the QR code, after checking it wasn't a sticker but a genuine code, and put in all my details as you do.
That night my banking app sent a message to call the bank, this is 100% secure, and at no time did the guy on the phone ask me any questions othere than "we presume the iphone order wasn't you". Card blocked, new card sent out.
Panicking though I checked my bank and the car park fee was paid. Strange.

 

[A mex eyecan]

I had my debit card scimmed (or whatever it's called) whilst away for a weekend.
Now, I'm very very carefull about these things so never EVER let my card out of my sight. I believe it was at a council car park where you have to use your phone to pay. Scanned the QR code, after checking it wasn't a sticker but a genuine code, and put in all my details as you do.
That night my banking app sent a message to call the bank, this is 100% secure, and at no time did the guy on the phone ask me any questions othere than "we presume the iphone order wasn't you". Card blocked, new card sent out.
Panicking though I checked my bank and the car park fee was paid. Strange.

I’d rather not use QR codes now, in fact wherever its possible I’ve gone back to using coins in car park machines. Yup, I’m an old luddite but scan this, click that, etc all starts to seem a little less than safe now.