Category: Warning

Fake Emergency Help Messages

For some time, people have been receiving fake emergency text messages from scammers.

Often, the message seems to be from a friend and claims the sender is in an emergency situation and desperately needs money to get home or to pay hospital bills or to pay hotel bills etc. Usually the sender claims to have been mugged or their hotel room robbed or their phone has been stolen so they have had to borrow one etc.

It’s always an emergency and only you can help.

Most people have learned that these scams happen and will either ignore such a message or attempt to verify it rather than simply sending out money.

Here’s an example of an email version of this scam, where the scammer has taken the trouble to learn the name of a family member (probably from social media).

I’m hoping you get this on time as i’m writing with a troubled heart i knew it was a long shot and i should have thought of all this sooner,i couldn’t inform everyone Hannah has been diagnosed with advance liver cancer. We have been going through a lot with the Chemo it’s been very challenging for us so we both decided to get away from this saddening times just the two of us we are in Istanbul, Turkey everything was fine until on our way back to the hotel we were attacked and robbed all cash, credit card and mobile phones were stolen.

 We are working with the local authorities providing details for investigation this process might take days due to some paper works, I’ve also made contact with my bank in order to block our cards also it would take 3-5 working days to process funds into my account which i can’t access from here, the bad news is our flight will be leaving very soon but I am having problems with the hotel bills. I need your help i am sorry if i got you at the wrong time but could you please loan me some money  I’ll appreciate whatsoever you can give if you can’t help with everything and I promise to make the refund once I get back home safely.

If you receive an emergency message from someone you know, asking for money – do verify it’s real before sending money.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

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Emergency Help Messages – Real or Fake?

For some time, people have been receiving fake emergency text messages from scammers.

The message seems to be from a friend and claims the sender is an emergency situation and desperately needs money to get home or to pay hospital bills or to pay hotel bills etc. Usually the sender claims to have been mugged or their hotel room robbed or similar, their phone has been stolen so they have had to borrow one etc.

It’s always an emergency and only you can help.

Most people have learned that these scams happen and will either ignore such a message or attempt to verify it rather than simply sending out money.

This case is the same kind of message but by email.

The email is from someone I know but he is not a close friend and he would have dozens of people he’d turn to in an emergency before turning to me.

I’m hoping you get this on time as i’m writing with a troubled heart i knew it was a long shot and i should have thought of all this sooner,i couldn’t inform everyone Hannah has been diagnosed with advance liver cancer. I’m still trying to digest this very bad news whether with the will to live or not we have been going through a lot with the Chemo it’s been very challenging for us so we both decided to get away from this saddening times just the two of us we are in Istanbul, Turkey everything was fine until on our way back to the hotel we were attacked and robbed all cash, credit card and mobile phones were stolen.

They had a knife poking my neck for two minutes i was scared and felt the deepest fear I’ve never felt before, we took precautions to ensure our safety and we are working with the local authorities providing details for investigation this process might take days due to some paper works, I’ve also made contact with my bank in order to block our cards also it would take 3-5 working days to process funds into my account which i can’t access from here, the bad news is our flight will be leaving very soon but I am having problems with the hotel bills. I need your help i am sorry if i got you at the wrong time but could you please loan me some money  I’ll appreciate whatsoever you can give if you can’t help with everything and I promise to make the refund once I get back home safely.

An obvious scam and hopefully no-one who received it will send any money.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

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Illegal Medicine Websites

There are countless Internet sites selling drugs and medicines, without prescription, that should only be available with a Doctor’s guidance and prescription.

The reasons people buy medicines from Internet sites can be just about saving money but can also be about anonymity, fear of approaching a doctor, ignorance of the dangers involved and so on.

There is a government campaign called #fakemeds with a website at https://fakemeds.campaign.gov.uk/

You can use this to check if a website you are thinking of buying from is registered to sell medicines and you can report suspected fake medicines and suppliers.

In 2016, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) seized more than 4.6 million fake medical products and closed thousands of websites selling medicines illegally. Many potentially dangerous products seized by the MHRA had not tested for safety and in some cases were found stored in dirty, rat-infested warehouses and garden sheds.

The three key messages are

  1. More than half of all medicines bought online are fake
  2. Side effects can include heart attacks, strokes and death.
  3. Buying from dodgy websites also increases the risk of being ripped off through credit card fraud or having your identity stolen.

The #fakemeds campaign is run by MHRA and a recent study in co-operation with Slimming World shows:-

  • One in three slimmers have tried slimming pills purchased online.
  • 77% were enticed by promises of rapid weight loss, more than half were attracted to being able to order discreetly and 44% ordered online because they didn’t want to speak to a GP or pharmacist.
  • 63% suffered unpleasant side effects after taking slimming pills bought online. These side effects included diarrhoea, bleeding, blurred vision and heart problems. Worryingly, four out of five didn’t report these side effects to anyone.
  • Four out of 10 respondents said they had used the slimming pills knowing there were health risks, with more than 62% doing so because they were ‘desperate to lose weight’.

Be careful buying medicine online and if you should get a prescription for the product then do speak to your doctor and do not risk your health on cheap dodgy products.

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Are Directory Submission Facilities Worth the Effort?

Online directories used to be a good way to find items of interest on the Internet. But since the search engines became highly efficient, online directories have not been needed for general searching.  Search engines are the starting point for most users of the World Wide Web and directories are out of favour.

There are online services that will submit your website listing to hundreds or even thousands of online directories and they make it sound as if it’s the best way to get your website noticed.  But search engines pay little attention to directories and few people use them and directories don’t feature much in recommended search engine optimisation for your website, so the value is questionable.

Free and Paid Listings

While most online directories all offer a free listing option, they will try to upsell you to a paid option – this is generally a range packages available for a monthly fee. For example $25 might get you a listing with a logo and a website link, whereas $50 might guarantee you an entry in the top half of their search results page.

A free, basic listing can be useful just for the sake of another return link to your website, but it’s difficult to justify paying for an entry unless it’s a niche directory that is still much used by people searching in that niche.  This true for some trade directories that list for example architects or plumbers.

If your entry in a business directory is to your profile on the directory then this is unlikely to help your position in the main search engines as only the secondary link is to your website.

A paid listing will give you more visibility on the directory but probably be no better for the main search engines.

Maybe you know good reasons why business directory listings are worth paying for?

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HMRC Warning of Tax Threat Calls

Scammers target vulnerable and elderly in cold call tax voucher fraud, warns HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

HMRC say that scammers call the victims and impersonate an HMRC member of staff.

“They tell them that they owe large amounts of tax which they can only pay off through digital vouchers and gift cards, including those used for Apple’s iTunes Store”.

Victims are then told to go to a local shop, buy these vouchers and then read out the redemption code to the scammer who has kept them on the phone the whole time.

The conmen then sell on the codes or purchase high-value products, at the victim’s expense. The scammers use vouchers because they are easy to sell on and hard to trace once used. The idea that HMRC demand people pay by vouchers is quite ludicrous and should show the caller to be a scammer.

HMRC says the scammers frequently use intimidation to get what they want, threatening to seize the victim’s property or involve the police.

The vast majority of the victims are aged over 65 and of those who fell for the scam, the financial loss averaged £1,150 each.

As these scammers often prey on vulnerable people. HMRC urge people with elderly relatives to warn them about this scam and remind them that they should never trust anyone who phones them out of the blue and demands they pay a tax bill.

If you suspect that you or a vulnerable or elderly relative has been the victim of this scam or a similar one, you should report it immediately to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

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