Scam warning...

[Doug71]

I had to rescue my mother the other night as she had got sucked in by one of the scam O2 calls.

They claim to be from O2 offering a discount on your tariff for being a good customer etc. They ask you to read back the one time passcode that they send to confirm it's you, thing is they have just requested a password reset on your O2 account. O2 send the code to your phone for you to reset your password which you then read out to the scammers giving them access to your account, they can then change details on your account and order new phones to be delivered etc.

My mother is normally good with these things but she fell for this one, luckily I walked in while she was on the call and managed to sort it out.

 

[ian33a]

When we had a land line we also had a TrueCall phone interceptor and it worked really well. In our new place we decided to use mobiles instead.

Having had a number of quite intimidating nuisance calls on my mobile I now block any call where the number is witheld. This gets rid of quite a lot of scams, including those nuisance calls. If I am expecting a call from a doctor or the police I turn the feature off momentarily.

I nearly got caught out a few years ago by the TV licencing scam email. It was at a time just after my mum died and I wasn't in a great place. Luckily, my wife realised what was happening before it was too late as the person who called me was very convincing.

These days I am naturally suspicious of cold callers - what seems too good to be true almost certainly is.

 

[philalliband]

You'd think Microsoft could set their operating systems such that when fraudulent activity was reported to them they could shut them down, destroying all the data they have. They can easily follow the trail back to the originators just as easily as they fill our computers with cookies and other tracking software and watch what we do.

Pete

Totally uneducated assumption

 

[alan895]

Go check the guy on youtube that sorts scammers right out! wipes there drives and all sorts had many jailed also.

I've spent many evenings watching those types of videos, very satisfying to see scammers panic when they realise what's happening to them.

 

[aet1]

Totally uneducated assumption

On this forum we try to be polite. Educating us with your knowledge of these things is a much better comment that will be a benefit to those who are not so well informed.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Totally uneducated assumption

Totally rude response.

 

[Inspector]

I am uneducated in computers and folks I appreciate being defended but I don't take much offence to the post given that he/she/it has been a member for three years and only just risen to comment today. It would have been better if the first post was a contribution to a woodworking related subject rather than something in the off topic section of the forum but not everyone does that.

Pete

 

[mwinfrance]

Penguins are your friends.

re the phone scammers, I tell them in 4 languages that they "have reached a Europol fraud detection office" and can they "please stay on the line".
They never do..we only get one or two scam calls per year now

 

[MikeK]

On this forum we try to be polite. Educating us with your knowledge of these things is a much better comment that will be a benefit to those who are not so well informed.

Based on the posting history, I think the earliest we should expect a reply will be sometime in 2026.

 

[TRITON]

Years ago my roommate and I were drinking and a girl called wanting to sell restaurant coupon books for a couple hundred bucks.

I used to sell those cold calling round restaurants, it was soul destroying work. The forerunner to the nectar points and other cashback schemes you get now.

 

[Inspector]

I used to sell those cold calling round restaurants, it was soul destroying work. The forerunner to the nectar points and other cashback schemes you get now.

I'm sorry if I have damaged some of your soul, however after spending 4 summer months living in hotels and eating the food in the little town's 4 or 5 fast food and restaurant establishments where all the food begins to taste the same, the last thing we wanted was to eat out. Besides the coupon books covered a fifty mile radius and by the time you worked out the money saved eating when the coupons were valid (not on the weekends or holidays) along with all the other useless coupons (dry cleaning etc) you were usually out of pocket or at best even. I know the person at the other end was trying to make a buck but calling a couple mischievous young men that were well on their way to a good hangover......well you could have predicted the out come.

Pete

Removed a redundant word to make the sentence coherent.

 

[ey_tony]

I don't trust anything telephone related with regard accounts etc and the caller has to convince me that they are who they say they are or the phone goes down immediately.
I rarely use Facebook and have only a few Facebook-friends including those who I've stayed in touch with since graduating from my university science degree as a mature student in the 1980s and even then it's only the occasional chat.
Recently however someone I know locally appeared to send me a message to which I replied but something about the style of writing and message content just didn't seem correct as this friend whom I've known for many years along with his other family members, while a great guy to know and no disrespect to him, he is not exactly the brightest person I know when it comes to academic accomplishment and the messages were neither his style of writing nor the vocabulary he would use which got me thinking.

He kept asking was I aware of the Covid financial benefits assistance that I could claim and insisting why I should apply as he had allegedly done and got goodness knows how much in this benefit, strangely in dollars. I'd not heard of it so after much insistence from him each time we exchanged messages, I looked at the link he gave me and it was an American site link so I asked why the Americans would give me money?

They just kept saying I was entitled to it and asking why haven't I applied and they would even help me as it was available to all US and Canadian citizens.
Eventually I thought I'd ask a question that really only very few people would ever know including my friend and myself. I can remember advising them on his choice of a car over 30 years ago and I knew the exact model he chose so I casually asked the message-sender to remind me what their first car was again...strangely not another word from them for the past three weeks..

Clearly my friend's Facebook account must have been hacked and some form of scam is taking place. I suspect that he mustn't be aware of it so when i learn his new address I'll pop around to let him know as I don't want to let whoever has hacked his account know that I know. It does show that social media accounts can be hacked and that scammers are everywhere.

 

[Dabop]

I don't trust anything telephone related with regard accounts etc and the caller has to convince me that they are who they say they are or the phone goes down immediately.
I rarely use Facebook and have only a few Facebook-friends including those who I've stayed in touch with since graduating from my university science degree as a mature student in the 1980s and even then it's only the occasional chat.
Recently however someone I know locally appeared to send me a message to which I replied but something about the style of writing and message content just didn't seem correct as this friend whom I've known for many years along with his other family members, while a great guy to know and no disrespect to him, he is not exactly the brightest person I know when it comes to academic accomplishment and the messages were neither his style of writing nor the vocabulary he would use which got me thinking.

He kept asking was I aware of the Covid financial benefits assistance that I could claim and insisting why I should apply as he had allegedly done and got goodness knows how much in this benefit, strangely in dollars. I'd not heard of it so after much insistence from him each time we exchanged messages, I looked at the link he gave me and it was an American site link so I asked why the Americans would give me money?

They just kept saying I was entitled to it and asking why haven't I applied and they would even help me as it was available to all US and Canadian citizens.
Eventually I thought I'd ask a question that really only very few people would ever know including my friend and myself. I can remember advising them on his choice of a car over 30 years ago and I knew the exact model he chose so I casually asked the message-sender to remind me what their first car was again...strangely not another word from them for the past three weeks..

Clearly my friend's Facebook account must have been hacked and some form of scam is taking place. I suspect that he mustn't be aware of it so when i learn his new address I'll pop around to let him know as I don't want to let whoever has hacked his account know that I know. It does show that social media accounts can be hacked and that scammers are everywhere.

It is actually quite common on FB, the scammers don't hack the original account, but set up a copied new account (same photos, same posts, everything), and then try and scam friends/followers of the original account...
I know four personal friends who have had this done to them over the last year (like I said, its very common)- the unluckiest scammer tried it on with me- when the real account owner was sitting next to me in the back yard having a BBQ LOL...
DOH.....

 

[Bingy man]

Today I received a Radom message from this Jenny who I don’t know and I’ve never heard of. As for crypto currency I have enough problems keeping hold of my actual currency after paying bills and other household expenses and of course the new tool police that insist I need a new router or track saw every time I have a few quid spare so I thought it best to block this unknown person and stay safe .

 

[Bingy man]

Today I received a Radom message from this Jenny who I don’t know and I’ve never heard of. As for crypto currency I have enough problems keeping hold of my actual currency after paying bills and other household expenses and of course the new tool police that insist I need a new router or track saw every time I have a few quid spare so I thought it best to block this unknown person and stay safe .

Sorry forgot the message

 

[treeturner123]

I'm really disappointed that I don't get nearly as many calls re my 'Car Accident'.

It could be because every time I do get one, I tell the caller it must have been really bad as I can't remember a thing; can they remind me where it was and which hospital I was taken to??

Phil

 

[Recky33]

I'm really disappointed that I don't get nearly as many calls re my 'Car Accident'.

It could be because every time I do get one, I tell the caller it must have been really bad as I can't remember a thing; can they remind me where it was and which hospital I was taken to??

Phil

I tend to go the opposite way and give great details of the incident, ending with how sorry I was about all the dead people

 

[bansobaby]

Totally uneducated assumption

That's a bit unnecessary

 

[bansobaby]

I am uneducated in computers and folks I appreciate being defended but I don't take much offence to the post given that he/she/it has been a member for three years and only just risen to comment today. It would have been better if the first post was a contribution to a woodworking related subject rather than something in the off topic section of the forum but not everyone does that.

Pete

Good point....

 

[JAW911]

I am trying to buy a bare unit Bosch GKF 12v hand router. Searches on Google produced results around £140 except for two at £74.99. Hello I thought, that sounds like a scam but one of them is near me and has a website with the unit shown at that price. I did a street view in the address and could see the shop and its landline number (the website only has a mobile). I called and the landline doesn’t exist (!) so I called the mobile. The guy answered and said he doesn’t sell Bosch but he has Makita. I said that the Bosch is on his website which surprised him as he doesn’t have a website! Phew that was close as I was going to order one last night……