Christmas Scams To Be Wary Of

The festive season is a busy time of year for scammers of all kinds as people plan to buy more products and services and the market for gifts reaches its peak.

Add in Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the pre- Christmas sales and the Boxing Day sales and you have an explosion of buying that the scammers want a share of.

Fake Shops

Scammers set up fake website shops offering whatever products are most popular. They usually copy the sales text and pictures from genuine websites to make their site look real, but if you buy then you’re unlikely to get anything and you will lose the money. Often they sell your credit card details to other scammers.

Always make sure you‘re on a genuine company website before buying anything.

Phishing Scam

There are any number of ways scammers will use to try to get your confidential information, including fake shops as above, fake text messages claiming to be from your bank, fake warnings where you have to click a link to login., but the link takes you to a specially prepared webpage that imitates your bank or whoever the scammers claim to be. The page is just to get your details.

The link may say it’s what you expect (e.g. Marks and Spencer/discounts) but it will be a fake page shop designed to get your confidential information.

Beware of these scams and don’t click a link unless you are sure it is safe.

Charity Scams.

Many people give more to charity at Christmas and the scammers go into overdrive with fake charity sites, fake charity emails and social media posts. They tug at your heartstrings in an attempt to get money.

They may claim celebrity endorsement or official recognition or anything to make themselves believable.

Scammers may pose as representatives of charitable organizations that are real (or merely sound real). At this time of year, their emotionally-charged appeals are more likely to strike “pay dirt” with normally careful people.

The scams may involve nationally recognized charities aiding well-known causes, or local groups handling problems closer to home.

If you want to donate to charity then donate in person or go to the correct website directly – do not click on links in messages.

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December 1, 2021

A Breakdown by Age of Scam Victims

Scammers hit people of all ages, usually with the same scams but some scams are targeted at specific age ranges e.g. retirement scams.

This graph shows the number of percentage of reports to Scamwatch by age group.

The age group 65+ shows the greatest prevalence of scams but that may just be that there are more people in that age group than the others.

Men and women tend to fall for slightly different scams, but there is little difference in the numbers reporting scams overall.

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

November 29, 2021

Fake Job Offers

An email arrived from apply.a4lfw3lno45 @cosineuk.aptrack.co which is a meaningless email address.

They – whoever they are, wish to offer me a job.

“Good day!

We considered your resume to be very attractive and we thought the vacant position in our company could be interesting for you.”

OK, so who are they and what’s the job?

“Our firm specializes in online services in the matter of business administration.

We cooperate with different countries and currently we have many clients in yours region.

Due to this fact, we need to increase the number of our destination representatives’ regular staff.

Part-time and full-time employment are both currently important.

We offer a flat wage from $1500 up to $7000 per month.”

Well, $1500 per month sounds pitiful but $7,000 per month sounds rather better.

This is all far too vague to be true.

They want me to click on a link – don’t think I’ll do that.
After all, anyone who makes job offers to people they don’t know and have never met is extremely dodgy.

The link is actually to newcoin.net which is the not the correct web address for an online service in business admin.

Their email doesn’t even name the company or the person who sent the email – not very friendly people but then they are criminals.

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November 28, 2021

Stupidest Spam of the Week Woodworking Workshop

Over the last five years or so, there have been huge numbers of email spam messages about woodworking – everything from how to make millions from wood, to make your own workshop, to offers of 10,000 woodwork plans, to get rid of your furniture and make your own better quality stuff etc.

Clearly, in society there is a demand for professional carpenters and it probably pays well for those who are very skilled at the work.

There is also room for many people to DIY and gain the pleasure of achieving something with wood.

But it is a craft and idiots cannot expect to become top carpenters overnight, whatever the scams emails claim.

A latest set of emails about woodworking claim ‘Setup a shop even if you’ve no money, no space and no tools’.

It shows a video clip you are supposed to watch that contains the answers, but the cover picture on the video shows a large well equipped workshop.

Doesn’t really match the title claim of no space, no money and no tools needed.

Similar emails claim the woodwork plans mean you can become an expert without any training – just follow the instructions.

That is obviously a recipe for disaster.

Does the scammer care about setting up people to fail?

No, of course not. He just wants his money.

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November 27, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

An email from Allen Yan arrives from a Korean email address but he claims to be working in a Chinese company in Fuijan, China. So, he must be a very confused person i.e. a scammer at a Chinese company would never use a Korean email address. The message asks us to quote best prices for his order and I should open the attached invoice to see the items. This scammer seems as dumb as dog muck as wants a quote against an order but the attachment is labelled as an invoice. However, the attached file is actually a web page (invoice.html) so no-one with any sense would open it.

The EU Business Register scam is back in abundance as large numbers of these scam messages are sent out. It’s a simple scam – offering you the chance to update your business entry in the EU business register free of charge. But, the scam is in the small print which says that by returning the form with your details you are agreeing to a 3 year contract at 995 Euros per year and thereafter to automatic renewals of the contract at the same price. It is quite evil and will not stand up in court, but they threaten people who don’t pay and presumably some give in.

Another email message about an email account that was made up by scammers. They send these stupid messages claiming the mailbox is full and we are supposed to click to update the account. But the email address they are sending to is fake so it’s not a real problem. Simply yet more phishing emails.

At the radio station, we get a lot of the fake invoice scam emails. Typically these claim we owe some hundreds of dollars and need to open the attachment for details or to click the link to see the invoice. This latest one from ‘Tabitha’ claims we owe $69,760 – certainly the highest amount claimed by a scammer this year. Perhaps she is greedy or stupid or believes that higher amounts are more likely to be paid. Whatever her reason she wont get anything from us.

Louise Stewart keeps emailing to say we owe various amounts – usually about $200 even though her business address on the email is in Sussex. She wants us to open the attached ‘invoice’ which no doubt is loaded with malware. Pathetic scammer.

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November 26, 2021

Mumsnet On The Fight Back Against Scammers

A survey by Mumsnet showed that nearly half of answering the surveyed are worried about becoming a victim of fraud and ninety percent are not confident they can identify criminal tactics like vishing (making phone calls claiming to be from a reputable company but really seeking confidential information) and smishing (same as vishing but by text message).

More than a third of mums say they are approached up to SIX TIMES PER WEEK by individuals trying to get personal information from them. These approaches are by telephone, email and text messages.

To help tackle the problem, Mumsnet and the “Take Five to Stop Fraud” campaign – a national campaign that offers advice to help consumers prevent financial fraud – have teamed up to help parents confidently challenge criminals out to obtain personal information.

Well Known Scams

Here are some examples of well-known scams you should be aware of (according to Mumsnet):-

An email from HMRC offering a refund
A call from your bank about fraud asking you to move your money to a safe account
An email from a foreign prince offering untold riches if money is transferred to them now
A message from WhatsApp asking you to input financial information in order to continue to use the service
A call from a broadband provider to say the internet connection is running slow and their engineer can ‘fix’ the problem by taking control of your computer
An email from Amazon asking you to disclose personal information to reactivate your account
A text message offering money off at a supermarket if a link in the message is clicked on
A call from a builder or contractor asking for money to be paid directly to a new bank account
An email from your utility provider offering a refund
A student loans company email stating loans have been suspended due to incomplete student information

Take the time to stop and think before handing over personal information and certainly before paying online for anything.

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