Current scams

Getting a phone that lets you block certain callers, or monitors them before allowing the calls, seems to help a lot. It's not foolproof though as the scammers generate false calling numbers but we get very few these days.👍🏻

Never happened to me SB, I never choose anything I don’t understand. PayPal are now a freestanding enterprise. If you have ongoing problems-drop them. I had the same with Amazon failing to deliver on time as promised & getting damaged goods then they agreed a refund that never materialised so I’ve cancelled my AmPri account. Sorted.

It certainly pays to be suspicious but the other side of the coin is that it can scare some people into believing something is a scam when it's genuine. On Watchdog the other night they mentioned about deliveries via DPD and emails asking you to pay for redirection. Margaret had arranged a M&S hamper to be delivered to her sister in Southampton. Up pops an email from DPD which went into junk and she immediately remembered the Watchdog programme. I have Norton on all my machines which I am pretty confident in so I decided to click on the link. Low and behold all it was telling us was that the parcel would be delivered the following day with all the correct details. It probably went into junk on Margaret's laptop because she rarely buys from other than JL or Amazon. 

I think Rocky mentioned this up thread. If you get emails that seem to be from someone you have regular bills from or your bank. If genuine they will always be addressed to you by name, not dear customer or dear email name. Something you can do to check is the press the reply button and see to what email address your are being directed to. More often than not it will have a foreign country designation at the end of the email.  

This is always a good topic to discuss as it might just make some think twice.

David

The user and all related content has been Deleted User

More fool them, I say.

We had an email saying that our PayPal account was outstanding....very strange as we don't have a PayPal account. I did report it to PayPal who deployed that they would investigate.

Someone tried the parcel delivery scam on us last week. Fake note through letter box saying couriers had tried to deliver a parcel, contact this number etc........ We gave it the dog, who shredded it😂

Just before Christmas I was browsing on a Tesco groceries website.  Seamlessly, I was moved to another page. Which had 12 red pressy boxes and had to open one.  Wow, won an iPhone 11, and had to pay £1.50 towards postage.  So I did it!  Daft, I know, but I thought I was still on a Tesco website.  Then, I got another offer for an Apple Mac, an iPad  and an iPhone.  Warning bells jangled, and I then spotted that the address in the browser had changed.  Exited the website immediately.  Getting the deduction on my debit account, I found the email address of the Company, emailed a complaint to them, and the £1.50 was refunded.

BUT - last week I got a message on my phone from my bank, saying the debit card had been blocked because of a suspicious transaction for £47.99.  Went through the procedure and card cancelled with a new one to be sent.   Got this card (with different last four digits) on 31/12/2020, and used it same day in ATM to validate it.   On 01/01/2021 I got message from my bank to say card again blocked due to suspicious £47.99 attempted transaction.

Going back to my bank, when I asked how this could happen I was told that the mystery Company would have contacted VISA, who would have given them my card details with the new 16-figure number.  And this to a Company who I do not recognise and with whom I have never had contact.

So, despite my jumping through hoops when using my account on line, VISA have driven a coach-and-horses through the security.  My good relative is advising me again and says that VISA have broken General Data Protection Rules (GDPR).  She has also given me the VISA Customer Services phone. Number and advised me to tell them that I wish to take the matter to the Ombudsman. Which VISA cannot prevent. Sh e says I do not have to wait for response from my bank to my complaints to them - it being my finances that are under threat and I am perfectly entitled to pursue my interests in the matter.  So Visa will be getting a phone call on coming Monday.

I think that arises from an abuse of what is termed a ‘stored credential’. For example, card details stored by a merchant to process a future payment e.g. card payment taken as deposit pending settlement of final account sometime in the future. 

iPhone 11 normally retailing at upwards of £600 for £1.50 was a bit of a red flag!

feeling very neglected....never get any of these scams, perhaps its because I spent many years in telecoms/IT and learnt over the years never to click on links that look remotely suspicious, unsubcribe from all those emails from the likes of Cotton Traders with their £100 competitions and i always use the view pane on my emails so i can see what is in the text before opening, oh! and ensure your phone does not log onto any BT broadband other than your own which it could quite easily do if you are a BT user