Is That Offer of Household Appliance Insurance Real?

Cold callers are pressuring people into taking out insurance on their growing list of household appliances.

Consumer magazine Which? found in a recent survey of its members that more than a quarter had received these cold calls.

Which? describe the contracts sold as containing “generic wording, giving little detail about what’s actually being paid for and casting doubt on what you’d get if you tried to use your appliance cover”.

Reputable companies will never call you out of the blue asking for payments, so you can guarantee that any cold calling company is bad news and should be avoided.

Some of the most frequently reported messages are:

Your TV / washing machine / boiler insurance is due to be renewed. You are asked to give your bank details and you might be told that you are eligible for a special deal because you have a no claims bonus
Your Sky box needs replaced. You’re asked to provide your bank details so that a new box can be sent out to you
A maintenance payment is due for your TV. The caller might say that court proceedings will be started against you if you don’t pay
You need to renew your plumbing or draining cover

The list is endless, so be aware and do not take at face value anything said by an unexpected caller, even if they know basic information such as your name.

If you want insurance on your appliances then do your research to see what is the best value and only look at companies with a track record of paying up when there is a problem.

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

December 22, 2021

Elsie’s Story of a Romance Scam

Elsie (in Chicago) fell victim to a romance scam – this is where the scammers get to know their victim online then gradually change the relationship to one of taking, until the victim comes to realise what’s happening and ends the relationship.

But, is it that easy to recognise that you’re being scammed?

Elsie lost her husband and didn’t find it easy to move on with her life.

But several years later she wanted to try so she joined Facebook to engage more with people.

She was approached online by Donald who was working on a project in Toronto. He needed to send some work meters in advance of his arrival in Chicago in coming weeks and asked if she would mind accepting a parcel delivery.

She agreed as long as long as it wouldn’t cost her anything.

She received a call telling her that the parcel had been delivery to the depot and she needed to pay $65 to have it released for delivery to her home.

Elsie didn’t like that and refused but after a long story about how common underpayments are, she relented and paid up.

Laster that day another call from the depot to tell her the package contained a lot of cash and did she know anything about this.

She didn’t but now had to pay a further $250 for the package to be released and it could only go to her as it was addressed to her.

She then called Donald and the story gets more complicated but you can see how the scammers are gradually putting more pressure on Elsie and trying to get more and more money by different pretexts.

Donald was supposedly then too sick to travel to Chicago but the package was essential, so he begged her to accept it.

Elsie ended up paying more under the threat of being involved in money laundering if she didn’t and the demands for money kept becoming larger and more insistent.

Elsie ended up stressed and seriously out of pocket before she stopped taking the calls.

Beware, because these romance scammers are very professional in how they operate and they know how to be convincing and even at times threatening.

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

December 20, 2021

Bitcoin Code Scam

An email titled “Ride the Wave of Bitcoin and Earn $13,000 in Exactly 24 Hours”.

Scammers seem to love Bitcoin, probably because you do see on the news occasionally that the value of Bitcoins has risen sharply. They do go down in value as well but that’s less newsworthy unless someone famous has lost money gambling on Bitcoin.

The email continues

“In the past 90 days, 3 people saw their lives change dramatically after investing in Bitcoin”

Doesn’t say whether their lives changed for the better or for the worse but you are supposed to assume it’s for the better.

Then the email explains a little

“The Bitcoin Code is a group reserved exclusively to people who jump at the chance that Bitcoin offers and have quietly amassed a fortune in doing so”

If it’s exclusive then why are millions of these emails sent out to random unknown people?

It’s just a standard scam – offer lots of money for no effort, but the only people who make money are the scammers.

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December 19, 2021

You Won’t Believe The Stupidity Of This Scam About BioPharmaceuticals

Businesses always like to receive messages about co-operation with other companies.

But many such emails are scams of course.

‘Mark’ says he is a research assistant in Research and Development at a leading BioPharmaceutical company in England. He is looking for a reliable business man/woman in my region to represent his company in sourcing the basic raw materials used in manufacture of high quality anti-viral vaccines and cancer treatments.

So, a leading company is asking random unknown people to become their agent in procuring raw materials.

There’s less chance of that being true than of a time-traveller on a skateboard appearing with an almanac of all sports results for the next 5 years.

The scammer must think they are in danger of frightening off any morons reading the message, so the next section tells you they have found a local dealer in raw materials who is much cheaper than the rest and I just need to contact that person.

The scammer doesn’t bother trying to concoct a convincing story of why they cannot talk with the dealer themselves or why any reputable company doesn’t have a whole department of professional procurement specialists doing this job already.

This a stupid scam designed to pick out very gullible people as no-one with more than 4 brain cells would respond to such a message.

The sender’s email address is ecxcelentfacts.com which is classed as a malicious website by the anti-malware companies.

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December 18, 2021

More of Those Terrible Time-Wasters

David Schmitt wants to offer me a business proposal. He’s looking for somewhere to invest his $500 million to ‘ignite my business venture’. Some scammers go for small more reasonable amounts of money but this scammer obviously dreams big. As usual with these messages, the reply email address is different from the sender’s email address and is a personal Gmail account. I wont be replying to such an obvious scam.

An email supposedly from a Sgt Conner but his email address is barbietap which does not match him. He asks if we got his previous email sent from raiiancomnner-ak47 which is obviously a silly email address and does not match his name. The message is in English then repeated in French. Why would anyone but a scammer send such rubbish? No reason. He’s a scammer.

Scammers use lots of methods to get people to watch their videos as they get paid per view. This latest one says that the sender wants to pay us to promote their videos on our website. There is a list of video clips on YouTube for us to watch to ensure they are suitable for our website. This is just lies by a scammer wanting to get people to watch whatever rubbish they are promoting. No chance.

Lead forensics companies offer to identify who’s accessing your website from their anonymous data. That isn’t illegal but people have every right to privacy and it is a disgrace that some people use technology to identify anonymous access just so they can send out their unwanted Marketing. Horrible.

“Nutritionists Got Insane After This Night Weight Loss Trick Was revealed” is the opening gambit by one scammer offering yet another magic trick for instant weight loss. This one claims you will lose 100% more weight during the night but doesn’t say what it’s compared to so is a meaningless claim. But then it’s just a simple scam looking for desperate people and of course there’s a video you have to watch supposedly before Big … takes it down. Pathetic.

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December 17, 2021

What is The New 159 Anti-Fraud Hotline?

Each year, hundred of millions of pounds are stolen from people by scammers pretending to be from their bank.

In late autumn 2021, a new 159 fraud hotline was created to counter the epidemic of online fraud connected to bank accounts.

On calling 159, the person is put through to their bank’s fraud prevention service who will take the information and deal with the problem.

Anyone who receives a call or message from somebody claiming to be from a trusted organisation and who suggests money should be transferred is being urged to hang up and call 159.

In 2020, criminal gangs stole over £470m by pretending to be the victim’s bank or other service provider.

Call 159 if:

Someone contacts you saying they’re from your bank – even if they do not appear to be suspicious
You receive a call asking you to transfer money or make a payment – even if it seems genuine
You receive a call about a financial matter and it seems suspicious

Remember, 159 will never call you.

Who is behind 159?

159 has been set up by banks and telephone companies who want to fight fraud. It’s a pilot scheme initially and the following banks are part of it: Barclays, Lloyds (including Halifax and Bank of Scotland), NatWest (including Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank), Santander, Starling Bank.

That covers over 70% of UK primary current account holders.

159 is a pilot scheme – the idea is to collect evidence to show that calling 159 helps fight fraud. Then hopefully, 159 can become available on all phones and for all banks.

The new service is being promoted by Stop Scams UK – a coalition of banking and technology companies.

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