SCAMS - Report them here!

[Oma]

This morning I had a call supposed to be from Amazon saying someone in California has purchased a iPhone and I pad from my Amazon account ,
So I played along with it for a while , he said his name was Clifford ( in a very strong Indian accent)
He then said Amazon had sent me a security code by text and to check my messages and give him the secure code.
Sure enough a text with the code.
At this point I told him I don't have a Amazon account and that I knew he Was a scammer,
Well he tried all ways to persuade me he was genuinely from Amazon ,
All the while me just saying over and over your a scammer,
This went on for a good 5 minutes till he eventually got sick and hung up.

Well while I was keeping him on the phone he was leaving someone else alone ,
I managed to waste some of his time 😁

[Daisy]

Oma, the awful thing is so many people fall for these scams and the scammers are getting ever more devious. Well done on sorting Clifford out and keeping him from other calls for a while.

[Lizzie48]

Oma, it is very rare that I get them, then I ignore them if I do.

[Oma]

I get notifications that it's scam calls and usually just block them but I thought I would have a bit of fun this morning 😁
He has rang back twice since , well I assume it was the same call centre just with different phone numbers,
I just blocked them.

[Plantaholic]

Great Oma, that’s how to deal with them.

[Gemini]

Well done Oma! Sometimes I do that, or leave the phone off the hook for a bit until they realise they are talking to no one and eventually end the call

Sadly people do get taken in though. My friend T who was far from stupid was taken in to the tune of a couple of hundred pounds once when he thought he was paying Microsoft to correct a genuine problem.

[WeeGranny]

Another scam doing the rounds is the one inviting you to apply for the winter fuel allowance! That is an automatic payment and you don’t need to apply for it, but the message is very convincing!

[Oma]

We have had that one WG
We had to warn MIL not to reply to it.

[Plantaholic]

Wee Granny, Must watch out for that one.

[Daisy]

WeeGranny, I've had that one too. It was very convincing, apart from the fact I hadn't heard the winter fuel allowance needed to be applied for. What initially alerted me was the American spelling of finalised and the odd-looking website address.

[Gemini]

We have to be on the ball don't we? These scammers are too clever.

[Lizzie48]

I have just reported a scam to my bank,I eceived a mail, it really did look like it was from the bank then I saw the mail address of the sender, plus the fact I never receive mails from the bank, so, I found the address to report the scam, made a screenshot and reported it, I have just received a mail from the fraude team of the bank thanking me and explaining what they do, they block that mail address etc etc and add it to the long list of scam mails!!! You have to be so alert!

[Oma]

We once received a phone call from the fraud team at our bank ,
B said I will ring my bank on another phone to check,
They were happy for him to do that ,
When he rang our bank it was intact their fraud team but they were pleased B had been vigilant and rang them using a different phone ,
They said if possible
Never just hang up and ring the bank on that phone as the scammers intercept the call.

[Gemini]

Well done Lizzie and B.

They were discussing the winter fuel payment one on TV the other day.

[Gemini]

GIFT CARD SCAM

I heard THIS on the radio the other day. A lady telling us how her elderly father had been scammed out of huge amount of money. He has had a stroke and his judgement wasn't what it was although he thought it was.
They had persuaded him to travel to various places and purchase gift cards costing many thousands of pounds.

The gift card scam is one they often use. A friend supposedly asks you for help. They need gift cards, usually for a sick friend, and for some reason they can't do it, so they ask would you and they will pay you back, of course.

Last week OH showed me an email she had supposedly from someone at golf. She had a short email, asking was she about , to which she replied Yes, then a second email asked if OH could buy an Amazon gift card. For another friend whose mother was dying of ovarian cancer. Her credit card wasn't being accepted so would OH buy and it, and she would be paid back.

To get the first email wasn't so surprising to OH, she runs the Thursday Roll Up and organise a few trips and meals so people from the golf club do contact her. An email is strange way however, a phone call or text would be more usual.
This lady is not a friend of OH, so when she read the second email she knew that no way would she be asking such a thing of her. When she showed me I confirmed it was a common scam.

These people are evil and prey on peoples sympathy and emotions.
I told OH to notice that her name wasn't used in the email ,and that in the To section her email address wasn't right. People don't always notice these things, and it is easy to see how some poor people get swindled.

If we ever get a communication of this type and are in any doubt, we should contact that person by some other means.
I advised OH to inform this lady so she could change her email password etc.