SCAMS - Report them here!

[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.

[Lizzie48]

Gem, I have read about those card schemes, some are giving so much money out on them, under threat.

[Nanto2girls]

I heard about the gift card scams.

One lady went to Currys,to ask if they could stop selling gift cards to her elderley father.
The manager spoke to her and told her he knew what was happening.
He told her that he had actually spoken to her father,tried to explain to him it was a scam.
Sadly, the father didn't listen.

[Oma]

I often watch on YouTube the people who stop scammers , there was one who wanted a old lady to get all the money she had in the house she said she had $75.000 and put it in-between the pages of two books put it in a bag and a courier would pick it up and they would deposit it safely in her bank account for her,
Luckily the old lady was a actress and was part of the team catching these people,

They get very abusive when they are caught out.