Tag: scam

May 7, 2016

Latest Time-Wasters

So, what rubbish emails and calls have there been to Brooklands Radio station in the last few days?

We received a series of emails that are bounce back messages as the email address was in error i.e. the email address they were sent to doesn’t exist or is over limit. How did this happen? We didn’t send the emails. Some scammer ‘spoofed’ our email address and sent out the messages. Spoofing means to make an email look like it came from someone else. This is very difficult to stop.

2. A message in French saying someone had left us a voice message on a site named kjiji. – Just a scam.

3. A message from Amazon saying our order has been dispatched, with a zip file to open. Yet another stupid scam message.

4. A message from a debt collection agency offering to collect our outstanding debts – we’re a volunteer organisation. No debts. But they didn’t bother to check of course, just fill the Internet with spam messages.

5. An email titled ‘The Quickest Way to Obtain Funds Generated From the Internet” from a Mackenzie Cremor (that’s a great fake name). The email is just a series of links to random websites. It looks like this spam is intended to tell if the email address is Live i.e. if they don’t get back an error message then they know it’s a real email address. Time-Wasters.

These people just waste our time and clog up the Internet with rubbish.

May 2, 2016

The Bank Account Reactivation Scam

The email is titled ‘Reactivate Your Online Banking’ and looks to be from NatWest.

It’s well laid out and looks plausible but it’s a scam.

How do I know it’s a scam – I don’t have an account with NatWest, but even if I did I know that banks never never send out messages with click here to access your account or to login or to reactivate your account. Therefore it’s a scam. Also, although the email address says its from NatWest – the actual email address that sent it is “senderodelamor.com” – i.e. not NatWest bank.

The email explains that to reactivate your account you need your customer number which is made up of your date of birth followed by the four digit number they gave you when you set-up the account. They also tell you to have your online banking password ready.

And there’s a link to click to reactivate your account.

That link will take you to a screen where you can input the supposed customer number.

Clearly they are trying to get your date of birth and that 4 digit number they want is of course your PIN number.

With those two pieces of information and your name which they already have they’ll be able to empty your bank account.

The bottom part of the email is clearly copied from a real NatWest bank email or from the website – to make it look genuine. But it isn’t.

Don’t click.

April 30, 2016

More Time-Wasters

So, what rubbish emails and calls have there been to Brooklands Radio station in the last few days?

A mailshot by a company in property refurbishment. Irelevant to us, but an understandable mistake as it’s not obvious to the sender whether we own our building or just rent.

An idiot who keeps sending us emails about fuel cards for our staff. There’s no unsubscribe button on the email which means she is unprofessional and she keeps sending these emails despite being told we don’t have vehicles.

A basement waterproofing company sending special offers. Could be genuine but the company has a .xyz domain name which usually means an organisation that doesn’t fit the normal .com .co,.uk .org etc. classification. Plus the second half of the email is hundreds of random words which means the sender is trying to avoid being classed as spam. Therefore it must be spam.

A scam email about losing weight. Obviously a scam as the link in the email is actually about home equity and the email address is a .website domain – not used by proper businesses.

A finance company offering asset finance. We’re a volunteer organisation. No loans, but they didn’t bother to check what kind of an organisation we are – just sent out the blind mailshot.

These people just waste our time and clog up the Internet with rubbish.

April 25, 2016

The Missed Call Scam

The Missed call scam is where someone calls you but stops the call too quickly for you to get to the phone. In these cases, some people will call the number back to see who it was and that’s where the scam starts.

The number you call may be a premium rate line or redirected without your knowledge to a premium rate line which can charge up to £4 per minute. Beware of numbers starting with 09 – premium rate.

The call will be answered by an answering machine telling you that you’ve won a prize or any other story just to keep you on the line ticking up the minutes that you will be charged.

There is also a text message version of this scam.

You get a text message from an unknown number but with a friendly tone.

e.g Hi it’s Tony, I’m back in the area and thought we should meet up. Texting or phoning a reply will be charged at premium rate.

Remember, it you don’t recognise the caller then think before returning a call or message and if the number starts with 09 then that’s going to cost up £4 per minute.

Don’t be caught up in this.

April 11, 2016

The African Policeman Scam

This is an email from Inspector Roger Manfold and it’s supposedly about Financial Crime Fighting.

It starts

My name is Inspector Roger Manfold and I have a suspect by name Mr George Paul Kickliter of the United States.

It goes on in really badly translated English to tell a story about the man’s business being closed down and money remaining in an account and a shipping carton of documents.

The government of Ghana require a final fee then the money and goods belong to you (meaning – the recipient of the email).

He wants you to contact his office with proof of identity

It gives the inspectors address and a mobile phone number for contact.

So, there’s two lines of scam going on here.

They want your identity information – that’s very saleable
They want you to pay a processing fee for release of the money and documents.

Obviously there is no money or documents – just a scammer waiting to take your money.

Never reply to these sorts of emails from overseas.

February 22, 2016

The Bill to be Paid Scam

All businesses and many individuals get these scam emails.

The emails are made to look as if from a reputable company sending you a bill for some product or service you have received. The bill is usually a file attachment. Maybe a .doc file or ,zip or .exe or .php. Do not open any of these as they can contain viruses.

The scam relies on businesses processing the bill as if it was genuine and only realising when too late that it wasn’t for a genuine product or service received.

With individuals they rely on people opening the attached file or clicking on the link. The attachment may contain a virus that will infect your PC or the link may take you to a bogus website designed to steal your identity or financial information.

How do you tell if the email is genuine or a scam?

The simple answer is if you are not expecting such a bill then assume it is fake and delete the email. Do not open the attachment to see what it is – especially if it is a .zip file or .exe file or .php link

These scams only work if people don’t pay attention – don’t be caught out.