OFCOM is the UK regulator for Television, radio and video sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services and the broadcast frequencies.

A spam text is any Marketing text message sent to your mobile phone where you have not previously given them permission to send the texts and it is illegal for anyone to send you these unsolicited text messages without that permission.

If there is an existing customer relationship between you and the sender, the business can send you text messages about similar products and services, as long as you are given the ability to opt out of receiving such messages.

This law does not cover messages sent to business numbers, so there’s less you can do to stop spam texts to your business.

STOP

If you receive a text message from a sender you are familiar with, or from a shortcode (usually 5 digits long but can be up to 8), reply ‘STOP’ to the sender and that should be last such message.

However, if the text is from someone you don’t recognise then replying with any kind of message might be seen as an invitation to them to keep sending messages to you whether you want them, or not.

Instead, you can report the text to your network operator – forward the text to 7726 (it spells out spam on the keyboard).

Complaining to Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

Making a complaint is simple. You can do it online, by phone or by post, and it is a quick process.

The ICO has powers to investigate any suspected breaches of the regulations, and take enforcement action against any organisation breaching the rules.

You can complain to the ICO as follows:

Phone the helpline on 0303 123 1113

through the ICO website at https://ico.org.uk/

by post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

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

May 18, 2021

How to Identify a Scam

If you come across a scam – a strange text message from someone you knew years ago or an email about a fortune waiting for you or an official letter you’re not sure about or you wonder if that holiday offer too good to be true – how do you identify whether it’s a scam or not.

If it is a scam, then how does that work and what you should you do if you’ve been scammed or someone tried to con you?

The website at https://identify.fightbackonline.org has the answer for you.

It offers a list of descriptions of scams and you select the one that is the closest match to the one you’ve come across.

It then tells you about how the scam operates and what you should do and can offer further help if needed or a list of recommended experts and more.

Give it a try https://identify.fightbackonline.org

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

May 17, 2021

The Business Email Money Transfer Scam

Your business administrator or accounting staff receive an email from the Chief Executive or Accounts Manager or a company Director asking for funds to be transferred immediately.

Maybe this is common practice in your company and you have procedures to make this safe, but otherwise it could well be a scam.

How the Scam Works

The scammer needs to know the name and email address of the Chief Executive. This is commonly available on the company website, Companies House records, press releases etc.
Next, the scammer needs to know the email address of someone in accounts at the company. They may phone and ask who to send bills to by email or again the information may well be on the company website. Sometimes they look for contact details for the Accounts boss.
Now they can send in an email addressed to the person in accounts and try to make it look as if it came from the CEO. The email will ask for money to be transferred to a new account and it must be done urgently.
If the company is unsuspecting then they may transfer the money as requested and only find out later that it was a scam.
The scammer will try to make the message look as if it’s from the Boss. Sometimes this is sophisticated spoofing so the message does really appear to be from the boss’s email address but usually the scammers aren’t that clever and simply put the name.
So the email will something like From: Fred Bloggs (17368092 @yandex.com) where Fred Blogs is the name of the boss and 17368092 @yandex.com is the actual email address
The money is transferred as instructed but it goes to the scammer.

This scam has been widely publicised as some companies have lost a lot of money this way. But hopefully all companies now check on any such transfer rather than blindly following the email instruction.

Sometimes these scam messages are easy to spot.

e.g. a recent one addressed to fsmith @… looked valid but the email started with Dear Fsmith which gave the game away that it was computer generated and hence fake.

Another one contained the line “We need you to send £41,000 to a beneficiary today”.

Scammers use words such as “beneficiary” to try to make it fit any circumstance but in practice this has the opposite effect as no commercial business calls its suppliers “beneficiaries”.

Most companies have a standard email format e.g. [firstname]_[lastname]@… Or [initial][surname]@… which can make it easier for scammers to guess email addresses once they know a few for the company.

Don’t make it easy for scammers and do have procedures in place to prevent this kind of scam.

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

May 16, 2021

Stupidest Spam of the Week Virus Warning

Scammers love warning people that their computers have been attacked by malware or viruses or ransomware or anything else that sounds dangerous.

This latest such attempt is a mix-up of several different scams and seemingly a misunderstanding by the scammer of what to put in the email template.

It gives a Reply To address which is for Sainsbury’s bank.

Then the ‘To’ address is an obviously a random made-up one – yourmon18943218889@…

The title of the email is meant to be the name of a well-known virus and ‘Virus detected- DANGER’ but the scammer didn’t understand that and put the start of the email address in place of the virus name.

The body of the message is randomly multi coloured which looks like a child arranged it and has words with spaces in the middle – a technique used by scammers to prevent text scanners recognising the message is a scam.

It is supposed to be a warning that our Norton Anti-virus has expired and we are in danger. But the specified expiry date is actually in the future so another mistake.

Pathetic.

May 15, 2021

Time-Wasters Update

“Eco Industries” Copy TT and New Purchase Order email arrived. It says they have been able to remit $62,507.89 and they await shipment of the goods. This sounds impressive and important but is a simple scam. The attached document is not a purchase order but an ‘rar’ file. Scammers use these when trying to evade malware scanners. Just a nasty malware email to be deleted.

A message from Laurence Maurice who uses a Gmail address but claims to be a businessman. He’s selling Thaw King which is some kind of device for rapidly thawing frozen food. That’s just weird. Thawing frozen food is not exactly a major problem for most people – leave the item out of the freezer and it will thaw or put it somewhere warm e.g. in the sunlight or in an oven on very low. He signed off the email by adding our own company name as if he worked for us, which he certainly doesn’t. Seems to be a confused scammer or maybe just an idiot.

A very nasty person calling herself Katerina Briggs from an SEO company in Bangladesh asks us to add some links about cannabis products to our website. If we don’t then she has a list of threats to do with damaging our reputation. Whoever wrote the email must be a very sick individual.

Kala Anderson tells me she is a business broker and marketeer and wants me to manage her clients investments, so I should get back to her for further information. As she doesn’t even know my name and has sent the email to a generic business email address, it is a very obvious scam.

Wowee! I’ve won an online sweepstake that I hadn’t even entered. I’ve won a brand new Dyson vacuum cleaner. I just need to confirm my acceptance of the prize. Then there’s a second page which says ‘You have been chosen to participate in our loyalty program for free. It only takes a minute to receive this fantastic prize’. A simple scam trying to get you to fill in your personal details supposedly to get your prize but there is no prize and once the scammer has your details, they will go on suckers lists for circulation to other scammers and also likely to be sold to identity thieves.

Do click on the Facebook or Twitter icons on top right to follow Fight Back Ninja.

May 14, 2021

Which? Launches Scam Alerts

Which? is the UK’s consumer champion, carrying out research into goods and services and providing expert recommendations, campaigning for consumer rights and more.

Now, Which? has launched a free scam alerts to notify people about the emerging scams, how to avoid them and the steps to take if you’ve lost money.

Those registered will receive regular warnings and examples of scams, plus tips on how to spot scams and how they can be reported.

Which? also give advice on how you can get your money back if you’ve been affected by a scam.

Which? is a highly trusted organisation, used by a very large number of people, so this new service can potentially be of benefit to millions of people.

Which? tips to help you avoid being scammed

Legitimate organisations never ask you for your bank details or payments out of the blue.
Never give cold callers your personal information – including address, date of birth, financial information etc.
Banks will never call you to ask you to transfer your money into another bank account, claiming that your account security is at risk.
Scammers will often want to push you to rush a decision and not take the time needed to think it through. So, always stop and think.
If something seems odd, take a moment out to think it through. Check the details and ask a friend or relative for their opinion or find a way to verify or disprove their story.