Category: Scam email

May 20, 2019

HMRC Arrest Warrant Scam

Lots of scammers impersonate HMRC to call or text or email with messages about your needing to make instant payment against the amount you owe HMRC in unpaid taxes.

This new version of the scam involves automated calling systems, cloning of phone numbers and a call centre of criminals.

E.g. You receive an automated call (or maybe its recorded on your answer phone)

The message states that an arrest warrant had been issued under your name and you should press “1” to speak to the case officer or maybe the message directs you to call a specific number.

If you press or call the number you are put through to a call centre of scammers and you will be pressurised to make immediate payment to avoid being arrested.

The payment is likely to be iTunes vouchers. This may seem an odd choice, but once purchased – you just need to tell them the ID number for the vouchers and they can make use of them.

Obviously HMRC do not really accept payment in vouchers so this should warn any potential victims, but some people do pay up without thinking or checking.

The number is usually displayed on a person’s phone as 0300 2003300 – the official number of HMRC. On some phones, when the call comes through “HMRC” appears on their screen as if that is the genuine caller.

However, while the number appears to be a genuine it is in fact from fraudsters looking to trick unsuspecting victims out of their money.

Don’t assume anyone who has contacted you is who they say they are. If an email, phone call or text message asks you to make a payment, log in to an online account or offers you a deal, verify whether it’s real or just a clever scam.

How to Stay Safe Against These Scams

Recognise the signs – Genuine organisations, such as banks and HMRC, will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, password or bank details
Do not give out private information, reply to text messages, download attachments or click on links in emails you weren’t expecting
Forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and texts to 60599, or contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 to report any suspicious calls or use its online fraud reporting tool

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May 19, 2019

Stupidest Scam of the Week Mass Emailing

A scammer claiming to be Angela Oceargy using a Gmail account offers a guarantee her new method of sending millions of emails will get through to the targets.

She offers

10 million emails to USS addresses for $399 reduced from $699
7 million emails to Europe for $299 reduced from $599
25 million emails to the World for $499 reduced from $999

She says her method for delivery of the messages uses the Contact forms on people’s websites and solves the Capcha hence her messages will get through.

There is no software yet that can do this.

Then she claims she is not breaking GDPR rules.

But those rules are very clear that you cannot send solicited emails without permission from the addressee so that’s just another lie.

It is unfortunate that mass emailing is so cheap that scammers can send tens or hundreds of millions of their appalling messages at very little cost as even scams with a one in a million chance can be profitable.

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

May 18, 2019

Time-Wasters Update

Medical Sharing Healthcare want me to join their community that helps bear one another’s medical burdens. It claims to be a Christian organisation. That sounds very weird but the email address is inkcartridgehn9.bid which tells me it’s from a scammer, if I hadn’t guessed already.

One of a new breed of ‘familiar’ messages comes from a scammer claiming to be named ‘Robin Holt’ .These are familiar in the sense they try to look as if from within whatever company you work for. The title is ‘Please complete your assigned safety training’ and in the body of the message states that I only have 24 hours to complete this. There is a link to click of course. People tend to fall for these tricks when they are in a hurry and don’t read the message properly.

An email from Lea Jaffe addressed to someone who left the radio station 5 years ago. OOPS. The email only contains a link – no chance I would click that.

A message with the title “Love at first sight?” sounds like an advert for a dating website but is actually an advert for a survival tool. Then it goes on about about the sender fell in love with this unspecified tool. A typical scam email that goes on for pages and tells you nothing useful. All rubbish of course.

Scammers have been pushing the Law of Attraction for many years now and most people are totally sick of it. Some scammers continue to find new ways to try to tap back into that pool of gullible people. One such attempt is “Law of Attraction + Numerology = Breakthrough”. The message goes on about some people having more luck than others so it’s a confused and pointless message.

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May 13, 2019

The POWER For Women Scam

The message title is “You’ve Been Selected By POWER – Women Only Network”.

Selected to be scammed that is – but the message then says “Congratulations! You Have Been Recognised by P.O.W.E.R.”.

POWER is then defined as Professional Organisation of Women of Excellence Recognised.

Clearly the scammer wanted to use the word Power then had to invent a phrase where the initial letters make the word Power but the result is laughable.

The email continues abut how lucky you are to be chosen and how much women like working with other proactive innovative women, such as you.

There are many ways to target a specific audience with a scam and sometimes these things are targeted at women and use language taken from genuine women’s networking groups etc. to increase believability.

However, this one is a con and so are many others. If you do receive such a message, then check the authenticity of the organisation before replying.

The message was sent from the email address costsroofing.stream which is obviously not a networking group.

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May 12, 2019

Stupidest Scam of the Week Archangel Michael

Hundreds of millions of people around the world believe in Christianity and some of those believe in angels. This scam targets those people – especially those who don’t actually know anything about angels in the Bible.

The title of the message is “A Prayer That Delivers a Bouquet of Miracles”.

“Here’s some news from God.

Archangel Michael has unleashed a wondrous secret of abundance for only those who are bold enough to take the next step.

These precious sentences actually activate Archangel Michael to do your bidding”.

So, the scammer is offering magic words that make a genie grant your wishes but dressed up in Christian words.

This is just so pathetic.

Hopefully no-one will fall for this rubbish, but some are so desperate they might.

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May 11, 2019

Time-Wasters Update

Joseph Nauber offers a business loan or seed capital for my project and claims to be from Prime Financial Advisers – an investment brokerage firm. But his email address is abc@ jiniea.net which is obviously a made up email address not one for someone senior at a brokerage firm, plus he doesn’t even know my name.

Peter Walton’s message says that Donald Trump has just set in motion one of the most terrible events in human history – an event foretold 2,500 years old. Then he claims the documentary he can show you has been banned in most states. Typical scammer old testament rubbish aimed at conspiracy nuts and Christian extremists.

An advert for an “insane” invention that turns your slow Wi-Fi into a next generation high speed line. Its called WiFiBoost. But it’s just the same kit you can get in any gadget shop or large supermarket that lets you use the mains wiring in your home for sending wi-fi signals. Nothing special except a much higher price than elsewhere.

You too can ‘Trade Like a Pro’ according to the latest email from postmaster@ fabricaiphone.com. Discover a smarter and simpler way to trade using “our patented copy feature”. Nope – just the usual rubbish trying to cheat people already struggling in the financial markets.

“Avoid Bread! Except for this unique delicious bread”. An interesting opening line in this scam message, but uses the scammer trick of telling you something commonplace is bad for you and only this email contains the answer. It claims that bread has a hidden compound that makes it impossible for you to lose weight, but there is a magic bread perfected by her friend Kelly Herring over 10 years – click to find out. No thanks. I make my own Ninja warrior bread.

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