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Scamming Recognition
This article arose from the receipt by a local lady of a letter which informed her that she had won thousands on a National Lottery. The fact that she had not entered the lottery, particularly as it appeared to be Spanish, made it doubly curious. Fortunately, the lady concerned knew about this kind of scamming activity, did not respond to it, but did report it to local Trading Standards officers. As the letter originated abroad, it is unlikely that they can do much about it immediately, unless there are better contacts now in this area of crime.
However, in an attempt to raise awareness of this kind of thing, this article describes my own experiences.
1. Card Fraud. A couple of years ago,we were at a B&Q and our Mastercard was refused. We paid with another card (useful to have a second for occasional back-up) and on arrival home found a 'phone message to call the Fraud Dept of Mastercard. On doing so, we were told that our card had been stopped because two transactions had been carried out on it for £2000 each, a couple of hundred miles away. On confirming that these were fraudulent, we found that the cash was quite quickly reimbursed and we received new cards. We believe that our card details were stolen when we ordered something online from a somewhat obscure firm. So..Hints,etc:
a) Observe all the usual precautions when using your card. For outlines of these, your bank/building society (B/BS) almost certainly has a page or two on its website.
b) If your card does get stopped, it is inconvenient and nerve-wracking until you find out what has gone wrong. When once your B/BS fraud dept. is on to it, you will almost certainly get your money back quite quickly.
c) When shopping online, be a bit more aware of the provenance of the firm you are dealing with. If I have a choice, I will always go with i) a well-known firm ii) one which gives its address and a landline phone number iii) I alwyas leave to the end - or rarely deal with - anybody who gives only a mobile number.
d) If you have a second card ask the issuer to limit the credit to, say, £250, if they are willing. Use it for online purchases, so that if details are stolen it limits what the baddie can get away with. It also means your main card is always active.
2. Postal Fraud. The example mentioned above, which set all this off, has variations. Apart from the Spanish Lottery, others have been noted from Canada and Holland and there may be other forms which offer you fantastic deals on all sorts of mechandise. They are fairly rare but need to be watched for. Hint:
If you have no knowledge of the origin, if it offers you cash, if it is covered by the modern adage (MA) "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is",
i) if a prepaid return envelope is enclosed, put all the sent paperwork in it and post it back anonymously. ii) If there is no prepaid envelope, shred/bin it.
3.Online Fraud
Emails.
Spam. Messages marked by your Anti-Virus programme as spam should be checked but ONLY by the Sender and/or Subject - in other words, don't open the message unless you recognise the Sender at least. I regularly, if not frequently, have quite legitimate messages marked as spam, so I check all Senders and Subjects, just to be sure.Then:
Delete 'em. Don't forget to empty occasionally your Deleted or Trash folder.(It doesn't happen automatically in OE)
Phishing. These are emails which attempt to get you to reveal financial information such as B/BS account numbers, passwords, etc. with a view to raiding your finances.The latest version of this is the "Secure Message". Some banks and BSocs.do actually have secure message systems for contacting their customers. Scammers will now send an authentic-looking email which says there is a secure message waiting for you and give you a link to access it. Do not click on the link. If it purports to come from your very own bank/BSoc., check wi them by some other method - either 'phone or go to their genuine website and link back via it.
i) A friendly letter explaining that the sender has the opportunity to collect legitimately (he says) a large amount of money, a small percentage of which he will give you, if you provide your bank account as a facility. This is a classic MA type (see above). Delete it!
ii) You receive an email which has B/BS logos, B/BS phrases and links and look altogether quite legitimate - except that the language may be a bit fractured: this is a good give-away. Most of the time you will spot these anyway, because you do not have an account with them. Even if you have one, your B/BS would NEVER ask you to give financial confidentialities online. SO
a) do not reply to the email or click on any link which it gives. Clicking on a link in it MAY drop a piece of 'malware' onto your hard-drive. This may at best simply spy on you, watching what sites you are accessing online, but could do other damage.
b) Click the Forward button and forward it to the Fraud Section of the appropriate body. I have the addresses now in my Addresss Book for quick access and reproduce below some of the ones I have found (they are not live; you have to paste them into New Contact for each).
customerservices@abbey.com
ihaveseenascam@co-operativeban
security@hbosplc.com Halifax Bank
emailscams@lloydstsb.co.uk
phishing@nationwide.co.uk
phishing@natwest.co.uk
phishing@rbs.co.uk Royal Bank of Scotland
c) After forwarding it, delete the copies in your In and Sent folders.
eBay. These emails go probably to only those with eBay accounts and look totally legitimate. They usually invite you to submit deatils to somebody selling something. Immediate instinct is to click on the Reply button to say there has been a mistake. That's the mistake! Check the legitimacy as follows: look at the very top line near the topmost edge of the message . It will say something like "This message has been sent to....." If it gives your account ID, because you have an account, be cautious as it could still be an attempted scam. If, however, it shows your email address, it is definitely a scam. Forward it to spoof@ebay.co.uk, then delete as usual. Do not click any links on the page.
Round Robins. "Every time you click on this and pass it to fifty of your friends, a poor African will be cured of cancer"....etc. Check on a site such as Hoax Slayer home page.
Virus Warnings. Don't just forward it to all your friends! Check on a site such as Norton Hoaxes webpage. If it's a hoax, delete it; if not, then you can forward it.
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