To ask about all the scams out there at the moment?

[elfycat]

A thread to gather them and cast scorn (on the scammers, not the scammed as they're victims)

I think we'll be seeing a lot more of them as the financial situation worsens with Brexit/Covid etc. I've had several phishing type things on mail/SM etc etc over the last few weeks and then today I had an amusing one, which I'll put below, along with my rebuttal, as I'm sick of this shit.

My reply:

Well that’s as dodgy as fuck isn’t it?

You work for a bank and you want to split an inheritance. I think that goes against all banking rules. Also I wouldn’t be the next of kin, my father would be before me, and there are cousins from older branches of the family. Not that there’s a Paul ANYWHERE near my side of the family.

I think we both know this isn’t genuine. If it were there would be no need for secrets, and I always talk to my children about why things should be secret, and in this case it is obvious that you don’t want you little scam getting out. Tough – this is going on social media as a warning to others. A suggestion for you ‘Andrew’. Get a real job, maybe with a real bank, though probably not because somewhere down this rabbit hole of money you want to go... there’s a scammer.

Yours, with all due respect (ie none) Elfycat xxx

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Andrew Burridge probably not his real name so left there, and if it is... Andrew you need to proof read for spelling and grammar sweetie
Sent: 16 July 2020 18:24
To: 'lelfycat'
Subject: Re: hello;

Dear Elfycat,

How are you doing today?

I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you and benefit both of us. My full name is Andrew R Burridge. I am a British citizen currently working with NatWest Bank (Dept of Investment Banking Services) here in England. I have been working here for 15 years, and I have a good working record with my bank. With due respect, I would request that you keep the contents of this mail private. Kindly respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this email. I contacted you independently and no one is aware of this communication. As a matter of fact, it was roughly 11 years ago, being a personal accountant to late Engr. Paul Elfycat, a foreign contractor who has a financial portfolio of 9,545,500 (Nine million, Five hundred and Forty-five thousand, five hundred Great British Pounds) with indefinite interest in my bank. My late client was a chemical consultant contractor with Royal Dutch until his death in a fatal car accident while in France on sabbatical with his entire family. The accident, unfortunately, took the lives of the family members comprising of himself, his wife, and two kids in the summer of 2009. May their soul rest in perfect peace. He banked with us here at NatWest Bank and the money in his account has still not been claimed by anybody as there was no living will in place when he died. Since the death of my client, my bank and I have made several inquiries to his embassy in order to locate any of his extended family members or relatives but this has proven unsuccessful.

I came to know about you in my search for a person who shares the same last name as my late client. I employed the services of social professional network search solely for this purpose because I feel it would not have been the last wishes of my late client for his whole life work to be transferred to a government (Escheat) he had always complained of their unfavorable public monetary policies, taxes and so on while he was alive. My bank has issued me several notices to provide the next of kin or the account risk been es cheat within the next 10 official working days. The last notice for the claim came to my desk last week. I am contacting you to assist me in repatriating the funds left behind before they are declared unserviced by my bank. I hereby seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of my late client since you share and bear the same last name. As such, the proceeds of the account can be paid to you as soon as you contact my bank and apply for the funds to be released to you as the next of kin. If we can be of one accord, I see no reason why we would not succeed. We both have to act swiftly on this matter in other to beat the deadline es cheat date.

I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit, but on the other hand, you as a neutral personality would easily pass as the beneficiary with the rights to claim, I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you in a few days. I will simply inform our bank of the final closing of the file relating to the customer, and instruct them to release the deposit to you; with these two things: all is done. I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and me from breaching UK laws. I will attach my international Passport ID in my next mail for authenticity so we have equal ground to trust each other. If you are interested in my proposal I will send you more information, directing you on the further procedure of how we can claim the money in the account successfully. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences might be, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold, this is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients; do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord I shall have the pleasure of meeting you, after this task has been completed. The content of this mail should be treated with the utmost confidentiality and a quick response from you will be highly appreciated. However, if you are not interested in this proposal, please accept my apologies for sending you the message then kindly delete, I promised that you will never hear from me.

My proposal; I am prepared to place you in a position whereby an instruction is given to officially release the deposit to you as the closest surviving associate, and all etiquette shall be done in accordance with the rule of banking law, I certainly can guarantee you that, by the common law, the power of bequeathing is coeval with the first rudiments of the law, and this power has been extended to all. There is no ruling which prevents inheritance from being so exhausted by legacies as to render it unworthy of the heir's acceptance; basically all persons of sound mind are competent to bequeath and devise real and personal estate, excepting infants, with all this I would say we have the clear advantage to carry out a smooth and perfect operation whereby the paperwork shall be coordinated in such a way that your status as a sole beneficiary is confirmed. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you in half and nothing more. That is, I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them release the deposit to you; afterward, we share the proceeds in two equal parts.

Awaiting your response to this email for your cooperation.

Regards

never reply, it tells them its an active account

Exactly what Belowwreck said.
Often if you check the sender's address or to whom the mail has been sent you can see that a) the sender's address is nonsense and b) the mail has been sent to @any-email.domain
Frequently the e-mail addresses have been bought or sold. Get a good spam filter for your e-mail account. Never click on any links and never, ever reply.

As satisfying as it might be to send a reply telling them off, as others have said it confirms your account is active (they send the same email to hundreds and thousands of email addresses to see what sticks). They also most likely won’t feel any guilt or shame for what they’re doing by reading any replies, because they wouldn’t be doing it in the first place. Scams are a nightmare and it’s awful that so many vulnerable people get caught out by them, but unfortunately it’s best to just block and not engage.

One going round at the moment with an automated woman telling you she's from HMRC, and that you're under investigation for tax fraud and if you don't press 1, there'll be a warrant out for your arrest...

Why even reply to it, it’s not as if they are going to read your email and realise the error of their ways.

I am very puzzled by some flights to Russia that have been added into my google calendar by god knows whom! Never seen anything like it..!!

Many job scams out there too unfortunately, especially for jobs abroad with great salaries. You need to check the email addresses so carefully, some are very smart. If in doubt contact the company via their legitamite website to ask for more details. Anything that asks for money or details up front is a scam. Some are so smart even us good at spotting them can be taken in.

Another common one is when looking for a place to rent, seeing a nice place, enquiring about it, the owner comes back with a tragic tale about how it belonged to their son who has now died, there not around to show you the property, pay a deposit to view the property and if you choose not to proceed, they will give the money back.

I voted YABU because I can't believe you replied!

By doing that, you're inadvertently helping them to continue by way of acknowledging that you actually took time to read it and that it didn't get filtered to spam.

One going round at the moment with an automated woman telling you she's from HMRC, and that you're under investigation for tax fraud and if you don't press 1, there'll be a warrant out for your arrest... I’ve had that one twice but it’s a male voice and ends up with “if you fail to press 1 then the fraud case will be proceeded against you, and you will get arrested shortly.” “get arrested”?

Anything that seems too good to be true..... (wait for it ......) is!

Seriously, also be alert to pension scams. It's a convoluted subject at the best of times and scammers are trying to profit. Check out the Pensions Regulator/FCA ScamSmart info.

I replied previously to the above reply because this one had a proper looking email return address and I've signed up to (just realised why I got this) on ancestry.com and have been talking to people on a FB local group (my parents had a business in a village and someone was looking for photo negatives they thought the owner's son had 60 years ago of a pre-Beeching train line). So on the first instance it looked legit... then I got that spiel and they already knew I had an active account because I'd replied previously about a more related to the train search query.

I keep getting tax rebate offers - despite having been under the taxable threshold for the best part of a decade (student) until last year and I'm sure my accountant got it right for me.

*To the above email address.

Sorry it was before my first drink in the morning. Cup of Tea now in progress and I might be able to word soon.

Oh... and I've just applied for a trademark and there's all kinds of extra scams you get as you have to make details public (already had my first letter through that). It's going to be a fun summer.

Regular phone scams from nice - sounding people informing me that my appliance insurance is out of date. They say I can renew it over the phone. Unfortunately my elderly aunt did so - at a cost of £80 to insure a fifteen year old fridge. (Obvs never received the "paperwork").

A "current scams" thread or topic is a good idea - always worth a little checking. And please look out for the older people in society as they appear to be most vulnerable. Communication - being aware - is key

My parents nearly got scammed the other day. They're pretty savvy for 80yos, dad enjoys keeping the 'you have a virus on your computer' callers on the line for over half an hour - they call most days - and mum always phones people who email her attachments she's not expecting.

Mum got email from a very ill friend in her 90s, who wanted to send an iTunes gift card but didn't know how. So mum called me. I went and installed iTunes on my PC and called back.

Turned out the email asking for help sending a gift to her granddaughter wanted two physical cards to be bought, for $100 each, then scratch off the shiny bit to reveal the security code, and send that and the serial number of the voucher in an email.

At which point I went Awooga! Awooga! This is a scam!

Mum is now reminded that 'from' email addresses can be faked, and eventually understood the scam (though I got very tempted to get her to send me those same details from her John Lewis reward vouchers, before she finally got it...)

I have assured my parents there is never any need to buy anyone vouchers ever. Or use Western Union. (cousins in Africa in areas lacking bank accounts do need WU, but that's not my parents' problem).

They never bought over the internet until lockdown, but have had to now. I hope Waitrose's site doesn't get spoofed!

Also can I just rant that it's a huge pain if you actually have 'been in a car accident that's not your fault', because you end up hanging up on your actual legal assistance all the time and everything had to be done by snail mail. They said the police sell the records, but I'm not sure - more likely the first caller who got lucky and DH 'confirmed' details before realising they weren't our insurer.

I love the 'been in a car accident that's not your fault' scams. I always say that I have been in a few accidents recently, could they confirm which one they are talking about? Location? Date? ...

We often get a call from the "Visa and Mastercard department of your bank". Not V&M dept of Barclays, NatWest, HSBC - just a vague "your bank". Always a suspect foreign payment about to go through. And it's always the same amount every time!

I think I once legitimately won a holiday. I got the phone call, declined the offer of a holiday to a very confused woman and hung up. It was only afterwards I remembered buying a raffle ticket with a holiday prize...

But it was probably still only a 'free holiday' if you go and listen to hours of lectures on buying a time share. DH suggested we could give one of them a go as we're pretty good at saying no and not changing our minds. But I'd rather just pay for a holiday when and where I want to go.

Been contacted twice on the phone by "Amazon Prime" to confirm taking £79.99 from my account at the end of the month as a membership fee.
The 2nd time I pressed "1" as requested, and when the scammer came on the line blew a whistle loudly straight down the phone at them.
I hope they were wearing a headset.
Strangely they haven't contacted me again !

My parents had someone call telling them that there was a problem with their broadband - the actual physical router (claimed to be from BT). But they'd need them to check with a computer first. I took the call and got my laptop out and did all the checks they asked. Right up to the point where I'd be remotely handing over control of my computer to them. I pointed out that wasn't something advisable and they agreed.

So they then took me on another journey through random and ordinary checks of the wifi connection, until we came back to remote access, which I declined again. We started the third journey around. I figured that as long as they were on the phone to me I was blocking them from calling someone else. Eventually I got bored and when they asked for remote access for the third time told them that I just wasn't going to do that - ever.

My parents were worried that something was wrong so we called BT.

They're clever people, but are very worried about getting caught by a scam. We discussed that they can hold the line open when you think you're calling the real company to check - and should call me first to check the line is clear. If someone does get access to your computer you can hit the aeroplane button to cut of the wifi; or shut it down to stop them getting into your accounts.

I do hope karma is keeping an eye on these thieves.

I got the BT one the other day (we are with Virgin)
I said that I would just pass them over to my husband as he works in IT security for the British government so he would be able to understand what they needed us to do better than I would. They hung up

I have also had one from “Micrsosoft” who needed to check my internet settings. When I said no thanks he told me to “fuck off you fucking bitch”
I really think Microsoft need to train their staff better

Great thread and i wish these vampires get their comeuppance but I can’t believe you bothered replying OP! Not worth your time.

But it was probably still only a 'free holiday' if you go and listen to hours of lectures on buying a time share. DH suggested we could give one of them a go as we're pretty good at saying no and not changing our minds. But I'd rather just pay for a holiday when and where I want to go.

We’ve done 3 of the time share presentations and had holidays in Florida (free huge townhouse), Marriott Playa Andalusia in Marbella (massive apartment for £100) and in Turkey (beautiful apartment for £100).

Yes the presentations were awkward but no way was I saying yes to £20k min investment.

After 3 of these holidays the company are done with us and I doubt they’d let us do anymore

If you want to waste (hours and hours) a few minutes on YouTube, then search ‘Atomic Shrimp scam baiting’ - highly amusing. He also explains why it’s a good idea that people should not answer these emails.

Thought it was just me . Yesterday alone, I had at least three emails from 'Paypal' to tell me my account had been suspended. One from ASOS to say my order of a midi dress for £100 had been processed successfully to be sent to a foreign name miles away from me and I only had to click here, to cancel it.

I've also had HMRC one saying my tax rebate is ready and ... guess what? ... click here to get it. I'm on benefits !!!

Loads and loads of them and they're getting cleverer. Stay safe from scammers everyone

This Uber driver tried to save the passenger from falling for an IRS scam. The scammers did get $3k but the passenger was about to give them even more money.