FFS scammers everywhere

[Coatscoatscoast]

In the last three weeks I’ve had a number of calls from ‘Tesco mobile’ offering me a reduction on bills but then asking for my security details. Persistently calling back saying ‘we’ve been cut off’ and me saying ‘no, I hung up on you’.

A call from ‘Amazon’ telling me there has been a suspicious transaction on my account and sending me a ‘blocking’ code that they then asked me to read down the phone - it was actually the one time passcode to log into my account. I strung that one along for a while and she ended up shouting at me down the phone that my account had been compromised - ‘I responded yes, probably by you!’

And just now had someone trying to pull a fast one on Vinted.

Lucky for me I am pretty savvy and they don’t get anywhere with me. The only reason I give them the time of day is because while they’re bothering me they’re not bothering someone else but FFS. AIBU in wanting to go off grid sometime?? I appreciate the irony of posting on the internet about this btw. My phone number is obviously ‘out there’ now. Bastards

Could you set up some sort of 'safe' phrase (something ridiculous so not obvious) that your family have to say or include in a text, so you know it's them?

I had one phone me years ago to enquire about my recent car accident. I said ooh yes, it was awful, I died. She carried on talking and then there was a pause, and then she just hung up on me. Rude.

I also had one just this week asking about my Sky TV account. I have genuinely never had a Sky account in my life. I don't actually think she believed me but I was telling the truth.

Did you respond 'you are a mind-reader too!'?

That is bloody weird. Would it be worth contacting someone in cyber security to ask how they are doing this?
I would be tempted to get a new phone and phone number! (But given you don't know how they did it, that may not help....😱)

@Icequeen01
@LovelyCarrott

We have one of these landline phones. It has a list of ‘safe’ numbers from our mobile phone contact list. Calls from any other number are intercepted and the caller is required to identify themselves, then I am asked to accept or reject the call. Hospitals/Doctors/other ‘official bodies’ expect and cooperate with these phones and either identify themselves or leave a voice message. Since getting this phone some years ago, I have only received two ‘cold sales’ calls, and NO scam calls or messages on my landline, instead of the several a day before that. Worth every penny it cost. I know that the scam callers still try, because the phone gives a very short ring then stops, but no messages are left. Would throughly recommend for your vulnerable family members.

https://store.ee.co.uk/products/bt-premium-phone---one-handset-090630-D93R.html?ql=7B0J-7B0P-8TC0-8TC3-B02K-B02M-BY4H-BY4J-BY4K-D93J-D93L-D93M-D93N-D93R-D93T-D93X-D9R5-D9R6-D9R7-D9R8-D9R9-D9RB-FK7W-FK7X-G4Z9-G6D2-G6D3-G9YX-GB1L-GMBY-GMC0-GMC1-GMC2-H3N9-H9HZ&src=3

Scammers have become highly sophisticated in personalizing their phishing attacks to make them seem credible. In your case, the messages about speeding fines, parking violations, and missed deliveries all seem to align disturbingly well with your recent movements and expectations. This makes it harder to immediately dismiss them as scams.
Possible Explanations:

• GPS/Location Data Access: It's possible your phone's GPS or location tracking services are sharing data with apps that could be vulnerable to breaches. If your phone or a third-party app has been compromised or allowed to share location data too freely, scammers could access this information and use it to target you with messages based on your recent locations.
• Data Leaks or Breaches: Sometimes, scammers buy data from compromised systems or databases that include details about your travel, purchases, or online activity. In your case, it could be that these scammers have gained access to general information about your travels or purchases.
• Spyware or App Permissions: Certain apps may be tracking more than you realize. For example, an app you installed for a specific purpose might have broad permissions, including access to your location or text messages. Over time, this data could be leaked or sold without your knowledge.

I got a ‘Hi mum, save this number’ message last week.

My DC are 3.5 and almost 2, so I was doubtful 😂 but I totally see how some of these scams are believable if they get the ‘right’ person. It’s stooping unbelievably low to try and catch people off guard without a care for what it does to them.

I'm sick of getting the 'hello mum' (and once 'hello dad'!)

I tend to string them along for a while until i get bored

I was rushing around one morning,trying to get the kids to school,me to college and the phone went (it just so happened to be april 1st)

They claimed to be EDF and I was due a rebate on my electric

'Pull the other one mate,it has a set of hairy testicles hanging off it' then hung up-they rang back

It was genuine-rebate of over £200 (which came in very handy as a skint single mum)

About a year ago,my phone went

'It tax office,you owe £1,500 and you pay it now or police come to arrest you in 15 minutes'

I laughed and hung up

Bang on 15 minutes later,there was a heavy banging on the door

I almost had kittens,I remember creeping along the hallway shaking with fear

It was the new postie with my parcels...

A while ago I read that some people were being traffiked to work in these scam centres. It's just awful. I do therefore try to treat them a bit better than I used to and at least be polite and pleasant to them. This is just one article - there are loads of sources though

https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/human_trafficking_for_cyber_scam/

I also string them along so they can’t be scamming someone else. Asking if their family are ashamed of what they do for a living usually means they put the phone down on me. I did once say something about I was sorry if it was hard for them to get another job, being genuinely sympathetic and got shouted at for being patronising. I hope I keep my wits about me with the less obvious ones. Seems difficult to avoid these days. I also sometimes tell them that not everyone is rich in my country and that people have been cheated, lost money and become homeless. I’ve lived in low income countries and a lot of people seem to think everyone lived in enormous houses etc Probably doesn’t do any good.

My teenage DD gets the hello Mom texts. She thinks it’s hilarious.
I’ve had a couple who have rang me back to tell me to fuck off, when I told them they were a scammer.
I keep getting Sky no idea if legit, but don’t do cold calls. Once had someone from Sky tell my Direct Debit didn’t go through. I told him I’d paid and he could just cut off my Sky ! I told him I don’t care( they also said to call Sky yourself and I will then call you back)! I put phone down and called my house phone and it was still engaged!
So I picked phone back up and told them to fuck off!
Also still waiting for HMRC and police to arrest me.

My Tesco scammer call showed the genuine Tesco CS number, but he couldn't answer my security questions. He was most confused when I said I just need to ask a few security questions, but ma'am (dead giveaway) I don't have those answers. No shit!

Thank you so much for this. Someone else mentioned to me recently that they thought there was a phone to cut out scammers but didn't have any info. This is really helpful. I'm going to look into this for my mum.

That is weird. Could somebody be tracking your device through a find my phone app/service. I've never used such on my android devices so not sure how it works. I keep my location switched off and deny all apps access to it. I bet some shifty Google shit is getting round it though.

The parcel scam messages, I get whenever I have actually ordered something. Majority Evri, occasionally Amazon. It's every time from ebay and sometimes Amazon. These texts are going to an old brick phone that I keep going for this sort of crap and two factor authentication stuff. I ONLY get them the day before or morning a delivery is due. I think there's possibly a breach at Evri, ebay, Amazon or all three. It's always a random mobile number sending these texts. Are you supposed to believe Evri is running logistics from a PAYG mobile they sent the work experience kid down to Argos for.

The tragedy is, not everyone is tech savvy or firing on all cylinders. My husband is only early fifties and an engineer by trade but, being a late adopter of modern tech, he is quite gullible. The machinery he deals with is massive and complex but is 90% mechanical, little computerisation so he's never been forced to use smartphones and such. He sees things pop up and panics, starts pressing shit without thinking. He has no idea what goes on. I have to keep most of our money in my account, just in case. That's not foolproof because if mine gets breached, we're screwed. I'm much more careful but I'm not going to even pretend I'm infallible. It is scary just how quick the scammers can clean you out.

The amount of them is irritating. Tiresome. I nearly got caught out by one lost phone text from ds years ago, so now play them for a bit, also joking that they are probably a scammer soonish, eventually asking them to tell me things that only ds1 would know, before blocking them.

I don't get phone scams very much but are plagued with scam emails telling me how I've won the Nigerian lottery, how to make my penis harder etc etc.
I can get up to 50 of these every day, usually in blocks of 5. I've tried blocking them which works for a while but then new ones start appearing.

Any advice on how to get rid permanently. Some people I've spoken to never get them.

We have a family group that the kids use to contact me and anything outside this channel would raise alarms. My concern isn't so much the 'hi mum' frauds, but rather the other more sophisticated scams delivered by other methods than the phone. I have a lot of contacts out in the world and I fear that someone pretending to be someone else or my bank could catch me on a day when I was distracted by other stuff and not thinking clearly. I had the Evri one the other day and it was only because I was out and somewhere I couldn't check my messages that stopped me from answering that one. By the time I got home I had time to sit and think (and the parcel had been delivered), but busy and trying to do a million things at once? I might just have fallen for it.

I get quite a few . One from visa ( which came up as unknown number. I was expecting a call from my local council that I was told would show that way or I wouldn't have picked it up) saying someone was trying to access my visa card account . Apparently someone had just tried to take " more than £600"
Earlier I had paid a bill for £625. So felt a bit uneasy. I would add that I had just suffered a bereavement and was ill myself with covid so was not very alert. The women became quite abusive . I reported to my bank. It was a scam.
I was recently in contact with my energy supplier. For days I was called by a number that came up as Scottish Power . Called them,it's a scam. But is it a coincidence?
Looked at car related items for a gift. Then received car related emails ...speeding fines etc.
Constantly emailed re false Royal Mail delivery charges and also that 72 people have reported my email and i need to send money to some security firm.
Oh and all my photos will disappear if I don't ( they haven't)
There are many others . Scumbags

Just a word of warning that there are still some NHS holdouts who insist on withholding their number and not leaving messages. I've not yet heard of anything urgent being missed as a result.

Devastated HMRC are on their way to arrest me for fraud and unpaid taxes.. .apparently I can stop them by pressing 1 to pay my outstanding bill and fines of £4055 pounds or set up a payment plan.

Oh and i find from my emails that a psychic has had a vision about me and I should phone her (on a premium rate number) so I can find out my future... according to her I may be able to take action to change things as long as I act now otherwise things will go ahead as she saw them. I'm not sure what my prophesised future is.. perhaps it's to do with the HMRC problem?

I still have a landline for DM to contact me on.
Got a call from another landline number this week.
Some bloke from Microsoft department apparently. I replied in French, stating I couldn't understand him and didn't he speak French? He continued in English so I continued in French.
He then told me I was a "fucking retard" and "fucking insane". I replied in English in a similar vein and hung up.
He rang back in another number. He started chanting "pussy, pussy, pussy" down the phone at me. So I used the whistle that we keep for particularly nasty scammers.
After that, the landline rang every 3 or 4 minutes from a dazzling array of different phone numbers around the world. Am guessing he was a bit pissed off.
Haven't had another scam call this week so far.

Are they there yet or are you still free ?
I used to get calls about funeral plans around the time I reached retirement age but was still working.
Usually they were very nice and chatty( of course they were) but one just launched into " where do you expect to be when you die" odd. I replied " underneath a lifeguard on a Caribbean beach"
I don't get the them now . They must have assumed that I'm long gone.

I've been waiting 18 months for them to come and arrest me. I wish they'd get a move on, I need to know if it's worth my while planning a weekend away in December or not.

They've still not turned up - shame really I've got hobnobs in the biscuit tin for them (real ones bought with squirrelled way fraudulent funds) and I'm helpfully at home all day with what I am beginning to think is covid so they'd have no trouble tracking me down - and I'm bored too!!