Yet Another Scam

[jeffbroadslover]

We've just had a phone call to tell us that the breakdown insurance we have for our washing machine has expired and that they could renew it if my wife gave them her bank account details over the phone !!!!!!!!!

They said that they were ringing from Domestic & General but when my wife said that our insurance was not due to expire they promptly put the phone down.

My wife rang D & G and was told that this would be reported to their fraud department and praised my wife for not giving any information

Jeff

[Bytheriver]

A elderly vulnerable friend had four different companies covering some of their appliances and TV. When I intercepted one of the renewing calls they demanded £100 to cancel "as per the contract". Then tried ringing back to try to catch the person alone We had to install a blocking phone to stop it.When the direct debits were cancelled the only one who made contact in writing was Domestic & General who simply said sorry to loose you!

The alleged TV repairer had never done a successful repair was still being paid though they had purchased a new set, having not realised the so called contract was specific to the original set.

In one set of paperwork it even said "This is not an insurance policy and this company is not regulated"

Almost £100 a month down the drain!

Be warned - if you do decide to have items covered stick to the manufactures offer only

Another friend did get a new washing machine from D & G after a fix failed & the engineer had travelled 150 miles to try and was reluctant to make the journey again as it was in the two week period after initial fix requiring the same sub contractor to attend.(and firm words with the "resolutions department")

 

 

[DaylightGate]

It must be that time of year. I have just had a message on my mobile from EE saying that there was trouble processing my bill payment and requires updating by using the link in the message. It didn't seem right so I phone EE direct and the confirmed that they never use attached links for information.

Seems that we all need to be wary nowadays.

[ranworthbreeze]

My advice would be only use your phone as a phone for calls/text and never anything regarding banking/accounts or bills.

Sometimes being a Luddite does have its benefits.

Regards

Alan  

[BroadAmbition]

Got home safely.

Listening to land-line voice messages quite a few, one particular potential client left a message but no contact number - She will be disappointed then.

Apparently there are now TWO warrants out for my arrest issued by HMRC.  I'm supposed to 'Press One' on the keypad to speak to a case officer.  Obviously it's a very weak and unconvincing scam, however, does anyone know what happens if I had of pressed 'One' ?

Griff

[quo vadis]

20 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

Got home safely.

Listening to land-line voice messages quite a few, one particular potential client left a message but no contact number - She will be disappointed then.

Apparently there are now TWO warrants out for my arrest issued by HMRC.  I'm supposed to 'Press One' on the keypad to speak to a case officer.  Obviously it's a very weak and unconvincing scam, however, does anyone know what happens if I had of pressed 'One' ?

Griff

you would not be any richer

[D46]

19 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

Got home safely.

Listening to land-line voice messages quite a few, one particular potential client left a message but no contact number - She will be disappointed then.

Apparently there are now TWO warrants out for my arrest issued by HMRC.  I'm supposed to 'Press One' on the keypad to speak to a case officer.  Obviously it's a very weak and unconvincing scam, however, does anyone know what happens if I had of pressed 'One' ?

Griff

Red flag no 1 , only one arrest warrant would be issued .

Red flag no 2,  arrest warrants are not issued by HMRC but by a court .

Red flag no 3 , HMRC are highly unlikely to know about any warrant and certainly have no jurisdiction in it's enforcement .

[Malanka]

HMRC has specific powers of arrest for HMRC offences and these cannot be used for non- HMRC offences, for example, robbery. Arrests are made only by officers who have been trained and authorised to use the power. At any time HMRC has approximately 1,500 officers with the power of arrest.
 

Basically in the UK HMRC can do or take whatever they want whenever they want, issue arbitrary fines and sequester money as they please. Court orders not required. 
 

probably a scam as they don’t require arrest warrants in the first place. 

[BroadAmbition]

I get and agree with the above. But what I want to know is, what would have happened if I had pressed ‘One’ ?

Griff

[D46]

31 minutes ago, BroadAmbition said:

I get and agree with the above. But what I want to know is, what would have happened if I had pressed ‘One’ ?

Griff

At a Guess a series of questions regarding personal information in an atempt to hack your identity , I had this around 7-8 months ago though I wasn't invited to press one the scam has the same detail .

They were in that instance after bank account numbers , UTR number , national insurance number etc etc etc none of which they got , interestingly the number they called from was actually an HMRC phone number ! Read into that what you will .

[grendel]

maybe connected to a premium rate number that costs hundreds per minute.

[MauriceMynah]

3 hours ago, grendel said:

maybe connected to a premium rate number that costs hundreds per minute.

Yep, that's my take on it too. You switch over to it being your call, on an expensive premium rate number for half an hour or more while they "sort it out". then you can have the expenses you might have incurred plus a small amount of compensation credited to your account. Just as long as you give them the details. Double whammy.

[Regulo]

8 hours ago, D46 said:

They were in that instance after bank account numbers , UTR number , national insurance number etc etc etc none of which they got , interestingly the number they called from was actually an HMRC phone number ! Read into that what you will .

"Problem being that these calls are generated from a VOIP (voice over internet phone) and you can spoof any number you wish. The phone companies can do nothing about it. as most of them hide behind a VPN (Virtual Phone Network) there is no way to track them that way either."

Quoted from FairTmiddlin's reply to a previous topic on scams.

[addicted]

The call purporting to be from amazon that I posted about a couple of months ago asked me to press a number which I stupidly did,  resulted in nothing. This scam was reported  in my local paper and apparently pressing the key resulted in someone trying to get your bank details etc, This did not happen to me all I got was a man assuring me that all would be sorted if I just filled in the form he would raise for me online but he didn't ask for my e mail address and terminated the call still assuring me all would be well. I've received all my phone bills and nothing untoward was on them.  I've just  had a recorded call this  morning purporting to be from BT telling me my   internet and phone line were going to be terminated, I didn't listen any further as  I'm not with BT anyway not that  I would have taken any notice.

 

 

Carole

[Markw]

On 17/01/2020 at 11:31, DaylightGate said:

It must be that time of year. I have just had a message on my mobile from EE saying that there was trouble processing my bill payment and requires updating by using the link in the message. It didn't seem right so I phone EE direct and the confirmed that they never use attached links for information.

Seems that we all need to be wary nowadays.

Had exactly this just last week - as always, i never click on any links - either on phone or within emails - went & checked my EE account just to put my mind at rest - all fine of course.  It just really annoys me - the whole scam thing these days. 

[grendel]

the problem is there are still genuine companies out there using 'up to date technology' and sending emails out asking you to fill in their questionnaire online, when will they learn that this is exactly the way the scammers operate.

[Chelsea14Ian]

Had one this morning, automated telling me about my PayPal account. That's all I needed put the phone down.

[BroadAmbition]

Got another one, this time txt to my phone supposedly from EE (I do have an EE account)  stating they could not collect my payment, I clicked on the link and it took me to a very convincing 'EE Site' The sit wanted my email address and passowrd which didn't input.   I rang EE they confirmed it as a scam and could I forward it onto them along with the number that the scam came from which I did of course

Griff

[Chelsea14Ian]

Marina  had one the other day. From they said TV licence saying they could  not collect payment.Could she give her sort code.Thats where the mistake was.Of course she didn't. I hate these low lifes.

[vanessan]

The more we talk about these scams, and particularly about all the various ones there are now, the more people will get to know of them and hopefully not get caught out. I had another of the Amazon Prime ones last week, they just don’t give up! 

[webntweb]

Last week: Your PC has been hacked (I use a Mac); Amazon Prime (twice) and TV licensing.

Keep using BTs blocking number but they still come through on different numbers.

[addicted]

We've had a few of the silent calls lately usually first thing in the morning.

 

 

Carole

[Chelsea14Ian]

Get perhaps about six odd of those.Shame these people  cant use there knowledge  properly on getting  a real job.Instead of trying to rip us off.

[grendel]

Mine last week was an amazon notification that I had logged in from a new device, click the link to view devices, that one nearly caught me as i was viewing on my tablet where I cant hover over the originating email sender to display the address, when I did view it on the pc it was clearly not an amazon originating email, and the link wasnt to amazon when I hovered over it either.

[vanessan]

16 minutes ago, grendel said:

Mine last week was an amazon notification that I had logged in from a new device, click the link to view devices, that one nearly caught me as i was viewing on my tablet where I cant hover over the originating email sender to display the address, when I did view it on the pc it was clearly not an amazon originating email, and the link wasnt to amazon when I hovered over it either.

I think that shows how sophisticated these scams are becoming.