Arseholes are getting better at it - scam alert

[DrinkFeckArseGirls]

I knew it had to be scam but the website is so good I had to double check! Can imagine someone not that good with the internet (hopefully less and less of those as time goes by) totally falling for it.

If someone didn’t know you didn’t have to apply for it, they could be fooled.

That's been going around everywhere

People need to learn to Google first before doing anything they're told to do in a text, an email or via phone.

The giveaway here is that the web address doesn't contain gov.

Texts from the government don't come from a random mobile number. They come from something like HM GOV UK

I know all of that but someone’s elderly family member might not know. A few months ago when the Royal Mail texts started circulating it was in the papers that both a student and a pensioner got scammed (among others).

If you know all of that why did you click the link

Thanks for letting me know

Oh I've had two of them. The +44 gives it away straight away.

Yeah there was a thread on here about that a week or so ago when loads of people piled on the OP for assuming it was real - but I agree with you, the page it links to is really well done. We have a lot of anti scam training in work and that avoids all of them - a url that makes sense on the context and isn't just a list of dodgy numbers, no obvious misspellings, the main .gov.uk page is replicated exactly (although if you try any of the links they don't work which was another giveaway)....plus the fact that text messages (apparently) from the govt used to be rare but now people are used to getting info that way- covid alerts, government gateway log in messages etc.

Similarly 3 years ago a text from the government about giving you free money would be an automatic eyeroll "yeah like that would ever happen" - except with furlough, people being paid to self isolated and now the energy rebate it is the new normal!

People are being smug because they might have picked up on this one but I completely agree with you OP, it's concerning that scams are getting more and more sophisticated and harder to immediately identify and I have a lot of sympathy with people who aren't as technically minded who get caught.

This. Why did you even go to the website?

Thank you OP, I appreciate you alerting us. I’m often distracted and tired when looking at emails and could get caught out because I’m not properly focused.

Is this what we do now when someone alerts us to a scam? Rudely tell them they should have known better?

FFS. Don't click links! Even just to check! It means the scammers know they've got a 'live' one.

That's not what's happened. People have given her things to look out for and she said she already knew. If I was posting about a scam and wanted to alert people, I'd point out what to look out for if I knew myself.

Yes, it was to alert people, perhaps not even to be alert for themselves but their parents/ grandparents. At no point I said I believed it was real, just the the website is so good in mimicking the gov one.

On this occasion I decided it was OK to click the link, a dangerous thing would be giving them your details no need for panicky”!!!”

OP just so you're aware if you click the link they'll know the numbers active and you'll get more scam texts and calls

girlmom21 The very first word of my OP were “I knew it had to be a scam”.

I also reported it to 7726.

I’ve just told my mum who is in her 70’s not to respond to any text she gets with links in it and to speak to me first.

also told her not to give details over the phone, to hang up and then phone the bank from the different phone that they rang so either house or mobile,

You can also get malware installed on your phone from clicking on a link. It's less likely with an iPhone but still possible. It's really not recommended.

Even if the website looks real, the link itself has scam written all over it.

The link most likely contained malware which depending on the device you used could have been installed and will now be hoovering up your data.