The House Repair Scam

The email claims to be from Housing Disrepair Alerts and the message title is “Discover if you’re eligible to claim for poor housing conditions“.

That makes it sound like a potential lifeline for people in homes with serious problems to be fixed.

But it isn’t – the email goes on about forcing your landlord to fix the problems and about claiming thousands of pounds in compensation.

Are the emails from local government? No.

They are from what appears to be a company collecting contact details for Marketing purposes and will presumably be sold to anyone wanting the contact details for people in poor housing.

The sender’s email address is cucejul.com which is just an email service so doesn’t identify the sender.

The email asks you to fill in details so they can assess your claim.

Not recommended.

If you have problems with your housing – talk to the council or the landlord directly and don’t trust anyone sending out unsolicited emails whatever they promise.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

January 2, 2022

Stupidest Spam of the Week Blackout

This is another conspiracy theory gone mad for the sake of getting people to watch a dumb video clip.

The email is titled “Scientists are warning of incoming total blackout”.

It then says that CIA director James Woolsey claims that over 228 millions American will be dead by election day.

It is true that there are occasional area blackouts of the electricity supply in America and some countries have experienced a total blackout for short periods.

Given enough days without mains electricity some people are likely to die, in hospitals, from the cold (central heating needs electrical control), from water that isn’t fully cleaned etc.

But, there is no case for millions dying in a blackout unless it becomes permanent which is never going to happen.

Blackouts are caused by faulty wiring, circuit overloads etc. and are easily fixed.

The whole idea is just ludicrous and only intended to frighten people.

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January 1, 2022

The Time-Wasters of 2021

There seems to be an endless supply of spam messages from companies you have no interest in trying to sell you things you don’t want.

Lists of contact details sell for around $100 per million email addresses or phone numbers from the better spam suppliers and as little as $2 per million from the worst suppliers who simply make-up email addresses e.g. for bt.com email address you can guess alice.jones @bt.com or john.connor @bt.com etc. and sell these to unsuspecting stupid spammers.

Any reputable company you deal with will let you unsubscribe from their messages and leave you alone but there are so many disreputable organisations who don’t care whether you ever agreed to such messages in the first place.

The most common subjects for spam and scam messages in 2020 included:-

Fake Covid passes
Fake Covid tests
Fake Covid PPE and similar
Fake Covid loans
Phishing scams where the scammer tries to get your login and password by pretending to be from a trusted source e.g. your bank
419 scams – the ones where you are promised an inheritance or a package waiting for you at an airport or someone wanting to share their millions with you for no good reason
Cures for diabetes, cancer, eyesight problems, arthritis etc.
Magic weight loss with no effort and no dieting needed
Fake invoices, fake payments, fake demands for payment

Take care never to click on links in unsolicited emails or to respond to emails from someone you don’t know.

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December 31, 2021

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

More than half of all medicines bought online are fake
Side effects can include heart attacks, strokes and death.
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.

Do leave a comment on this post – click on the post title then scroll down to leave your comment.

December 30, 2021

Why do people call then say nothing or put the phone down?

This happens to everyone very occasionally – usually someone dialled a wrong number and realised and put the phone down or didn’t recognise the voice answering your phone and realised their mistake and put the phone down.

But, this can be a regular occurrence and then the reasons are more concerning.

Automated Calling Systems

A lot of marketing companies and scammers use automated diallers that call people in turn on a list. To maximise use of their staff, they set the diallers to call numerous people at the same time in the hope that at least some will answer the phone and those get put through to operatives.

However, this method also means many people will get silent calls when all operatives are already on the line to other people.

The law changed some years ago to outlaw this practice and most companies comply, but criminals don’t.

The law on automated calls is quite strict. They must not make an automated marketing call – that is, a call made by an automated dialling system that plays a recorded message – unless the person has specifically consented to receive this type of call from you. General consent for marketing, or even consent for live calls, is not enough – it must specifically cover automated calls.

All automated calls must include their name and a contact address or freephone number. They must also allow their number (or an alternative contact number) to be displayed to the person receiving the call.

Any message left by an automated system must specify the name of the calling company and give a number you can call to opt out of further calls.

If the automated message does not contain these, then assume it’s a scam and block the number.

Internet Calls

Internet-based calling technology, also known as Voice Over Internet Protcol (VoIP), is used by millions of consumers globally to make phone calls free or cheaply every year.

But it’s also used by scammers as it’s cheaper than phone calls and it makes it easy for the criminals to hide or fake (this is called spoofing) the number they are calling from. For this reason, do not trust what shows as the callers number.

Most silent calls nowadays come from these computer calling systems overseas.

Telephone Preference Service

See https://fightback.ninja/the-telephone-preference-service/ for more details on TPS

At present, landline customers can request to have nuisance calls blocked by registering on the Telephone Preference Service. The free opt out service allows you to record your preference on the official register and not receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls.

Companies (including charities) who choose not to check and then subsequently call a number on the register can be fined up to £6,500 for each registered number they call.

Makers of repeated abandoned and/or silent calls can be reported to Ofcom which has powers including fining the caller up to £2 million.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

December 29, 2021

How to Check A Used Vehicle Before Buying

The starting point is to consider the level of guarantee that you need with a used car. If you need expert assurance that the vehicle is safe and has no serious hidden problems then a main dealer garage would be a good choice, whereas if you are willing to take a risk to get a lower price then buying from a private seller or a car auction may be your choice.

Independent garages, private sellers, eBAY etc all have their advantages and disadvantages for you to consider.

Before you see the vehicle

Ask the seller for the registration number, make and model and MOT test number
Check the details match those of the registration on the DVLA website at gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla
Check the MOT status and history for the vehicle at gov.uk/check-mot-history
Check if the vehicle has been recalled due to a serious safety issue at gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall

When you go to see the vehicle

Ask to see the V5C vehicle registration certificate (‘log book’). Make sure it has a ‘DVL’ watermark and make sure the details in the log book match the details you’ve been given.
Check the vehicle identification number and engine number if possible, to ensure they match the details in the log book.

These checks do not guarantee any vehicle is safe but they do give some peace of mind and will help you avoid the worst scams and other problems.

The government website at www.gov.uk/checks-when-buying-a-used-car gives detailed advice on what to check and how to get the necessary information when looking to buy a used car.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.