Scam emails, phone calls, etc.

[Old Grumpy]

I was scammed when down loading a car parking app. The car park had been converted to online payment only. After I'd registered on what I thought was the genuine site a further registration page appeared, I thought it odd but as I was using the phone in bright sunlight everything looked the same as the car park app however almost immediately a lurid game screen appeared so I shut down the phone and called Natwest but couldn't get through. A few minutes later Natwest Card Services messaged me to say that my card was suspended and would I verify three transactions by simply texting Y or N to verify or deny them. Two of the transactions seemed wrong so I texted N. About an hour later I got home and after much searching found the card fraud line. After the usual endless number entering I got through to someone who immediately asked me to enter the number I had entered 10 seconds before , apparently it wasn't showing on his machine. I then learnt that the scammers had charged me £59.99 and on looking at my emails I found a confirmatory email saying that I would be charged the same amount monthly as I had signed up for something called Themax. Natwest stopped the transaction but told me that if they unlocked my card it was likely that Themax would present the charge again and because I had signed up with them, inadvertenly or not, it was up to me to contact them and cancel the subscription. I thought this unreasonable but rang off and went to the Themax website which offered instant refund and cancellation by clicking on a link, needless to say it didn't work and there was no way of contacting them. However I emailed the address they had written from and two days later got an email saying that my refund would be processed but I wasn't reassured and my card remained suspended.
I phoned Card Services again and this time spoke to someone who was interested in helping. The upshot was that I cancelled my card and had to wait 4 days for a new one.
I was told that my experience was commonplace and that amongst other tricks, scammers visit car parks and paste their numbers and details over legitimate notices which could be what had happened to me.
I emailed East Suffolk County Councils Parking Tsar to let him know what had happened but two weeks on haven't heard a pip.

Car parking apps are an outrage. I'm sick of turning up at car parks which can only use their chosen app or perhaps coins (I hardly ever have change these days). All car park providers should be obliged to have payment machines at which you can use credit/debit card.

[antongould]

I wonder if anyone has experienced anything like this ……

In early April I noticed on my bank statement a payment of £60 to Amazon …… now while Lady Gould buys container loads of stuff from Amazon she always bends the credit card. We checked our Amazon online account …. No £60 purchase …. So we rang the bank ….. you have to contact Amazon they said ….. Amazon confirmed no order and indeed that they had received no £60 payment from us.
Back to the bank where I had to wait in a 30 minute queue to talk to the Fraud Department ….. after a mass of questions they suddenly said “Yes it look suspicious we will refund it to you tomorrow, which they did, but would not answer my questions as to where the £60 had gone … to a scammer or to swell the vaults of Lloyds Bank. They changed my debit card and told me to change my online password which I did.
Yesterday my daughter who uses our Amazon account was in touch to say exactly the same thing had happened to her and again without much of a fight and less of an explanation her bank were refunding it.

Unless the scammers have set up something that looks like Amazon’s payments receiving software I don’t see how it all works …. ?????

[Serial_Apologist]

I wonder if anyone has experienced anything like this ……

In early April I noticed on my bank statement a payment of £60 to Amazon …… now while Lady Gould buys container loads of stuff from Amazon she always bends the credit card. We checked our Amazon online account …. No £60 purchase …. So we rang the bank ….. you have to contact Amazon they said ….. Amazon confirmed no order and indeed that they had received no £60 payment from us.
Back to the bank where I had to wait in a 30 minute queue to talk to the Fraud Department ….. after a mass of questions they suddenly said “Yes it look suspicious we will refund it to you tomorrow, which they did, but would not answer my questions as to where the £60 had gone … to a scammer or to swell the vaults of Lloyds Bank. They changed my debit card and told me to change my online password which I did.
Yesterday my daughter who uses our Amazon account was in touch to say exactly the same thing had happened to her and again without much of a fight and less of an explanation her bank were refunding it.

Unless the scammers have set up something that looks like Amazon’s payments receiving software I don’t see how it all works …. ?????

You really do seem to be going through it with various online problematics sorters at the moment, Anton. As for me, I've been having difficulties (read impossibilities) in re-applying to Smarty as my mobile provider. The usual online form refuses my password and email address, both of them clearly displayed on the log on form, Three online messaging sessions with one of their "helpers" got us nowhere - in the end (which has proved not quite the end) he just suggested I share the problem by posting the error message, which I don't actually know how (or to whom) to do; now the same guy emails me every other day to say hey, I haven't been hearing from you for some time, and Smarty keeps sending reminders to re-apply, with the same blocked form. A friend asks why do I bother, given I don't use my mobile phone, but I would like to be able to "just in case" (I'm mown down riding my bike by a passing electric scooter), but the guy from the council who gave me one lesson on how to hasn't been back to me with a follow-up date for Lesson 2 - I think he either must have given up on me, or can't get through now that I am out of time, as they say.

[antongould]

You really do seem to be going through it with various online problematics sorters at the moment, Anton. As for me, I've been having difficulties (read impossibilities) in re-applying to Smarty as my mobile provider. The usual online form refuses my password and email address, both of them clearly displayed on the log on form, Three online messaging sessions with one of their "helpers" got us nowhere - in the end (which has proved not quite the end) he just suggested I share the problem by posting the error message, which I don't actually know how (or to whom) to do; now the same guy emails me every other day to say hey, I haven't been hearing from you for some time, and Smarty keeps sending reminders to re-apply, with the same blocked form. A friend asks why do I bother, given I don't use my mobile phone, but I would like to be able to "just in case" (I'm mown down riding my bike by a passing electric scooter), but the guy from the council who gave me one lesson on how to hasn't been back to me with a follow-up date for Lesson 2 - I think he either must have given up on me, or can't get through now that I am out of time, as they say.

I know the feeling s_a - having worked with computers for more than 30 years some of the blips I find are, to me at least, inexplicable ….the sad thing is when you contact the help desk they often have no sensible explanation …..

[french frank]

I know the feeling s_a - having worked with computers for more than 30 years some of the blips I find are, to me at least, inexplicable ….the sad thing is when you contact the help desk they often have no sensible explanation …..

This had similarities with the problem I described earlier. In short I was charged three times for an Amazon purchase, twice on my Lloyds card, of which I assumed one was wrong when I reported it to Lloyds. A few weeks later I got my Post Office credit card statement and it was on that too. I realised belatedly that BOTH the Lloyds ones were wrong because 99.9% of the time I only use my PO card for online purchases. The only clue I had was that I did for one holiday (mistakenly) use my Lloyds card with booking.com.

I had difficulty trying to explain on the phone to the Lloyds Fraud Squad that one purchase was fraudulent, but the second one was authorised (which in the event it wasn't). At the point that I realised my Lloyds card was never used with Amazon, I threw in the towel.

[Maclintick]

Is it just me or is there an alarming upsurge in scamming or phishing texts. I've reported 3 to report@phishing.gov.uk in the last week. Here they are -- I've substituted blank links for the scammers' ones...for obvious reasons !

"GOVUK: We have identified you as eligible for a discounted energy bill under the Energy Bill Support Scheme.
You can apply here: link withheld by me" -- Of course I didn't click on the scammers' link, which will no doubt ask to supply bank details...

"Apple: Your Apple Pay has been suspended due to suspicious activity, please visit:
http://spurious Apple-type link for more options." Again, obviously a fake text as I've never used or even registered for Apple Pay...

“PO: Sorry we missed you yesterday at 7:54 AM. Please book a re-delivery date for your parcel here: https://link to fake PO depot .com Nothing in the post for me at present...so again a fake txt.

[french frank]

This morning (while I was busy having my house surveyed for energy efficiency) I had a phone call (automated) from VISA. They were checking on two unusual payments: had I paid £A to B and £X to Y? If No press 1, for more imformation press 2. Being involved with the 3-hour survey (I'd been issued with a tablet to see what the camera was displaying and was taking notes) I was distracted and pressed 1. I was connected (not unusually) to an agent with a barely comprehensible accent who asked how he could help. At which point the red light started flashing, and I asked how I knew he was from VISA, mumble mumble, should he get my cards blocked? I said No and put the phone down. I checked my account and no such payments had been made.

When I thought about it, my bank issued the card and they would have contacted me, not VISA. It seems that there are various VISA/Mastercard scams at the moment.

[antongould]

This morning (while I was busy having my house surveyed for energy efficiency) I had a phone call (automated) from VISA. They were checking on two unusual payments: had I paid £A to B and £X to Y? If No press 1, for more imformation press 2. Being involved with the 3-hour survey (I'd been issued with a tablet to see what the camera was displaying and was taking notes) I was distracted and pressed 1. I was connected (not unusually) to an agent with a barely comprehensible accent who asked how he could help. At which point the red light started flashing, and I asked how I knew he was from VISA, mumble mumble, should he get my cards blocked? I said No and put the phone down. I checked my account and no such payments had been made.

When I thought about it, my bank issued the card and they would have contacted me, not VISA. It seems that there are various VISA/Mastercard scams at the moment.

i get at least one of these every day usually around 09:10 ……..

[french frank]

i get at least one of these every day usually around 09:10 ……..

Well, at least you know what to expect! I wonder if it's the same scammer every morning or a lot of different ones.

[antongould]

Well, at least you know what to expect! I wonder if it's the same scammer every morning or a lot of different ones.

i think it’s the same one Miss AI

[eighthobstruction]

Lots more scams in my junk mail than usual....many more....

[Nick Armstrong]

Lots more scams in my junk mail than usual....many more....

I was thinking of posting exactly the same thing.

It occurred to me they must think that in the pre-Christmas frenzy, people are going to be more blindly inclined to click on “failed deliveries” etc etc

[Petrushka]

I was thinking of posting exactly the same thing.

It occurred to me they must think that in the pre-Christmas frenzy, people are going to be more blindly inclined to click on “failed deliveries” etc etc

Yes, this has been a feature every pre-Christmas for some years. It's difficult enough keeping track of all the online deliveries at this time of year so it pays to be ultra vigilant in checking your emails.

[oddoneout]

I was thinking of posting exactly the same thing.

It occurred to me they must think that in the pre-Christmas frenzy, people are going to be more blindly inclined to click on “failed deliveries” etc etc

Not just think - they know. Many folk don't pay that much attention to their online shopping habits at the best of times but when, as you say the Christmas frenzy kicks in as well, then basic common sense departs.

[smittims]

I think it highly unlikely VISA or anyone would telephone an individual person to query a payment , any more than Microsoft would telephone someone to say they had detected error messages from their computer. The nearest I came to that was when I gave someone a cheque and his bank telephoned me, asking me to confirm that I knew about it. I thought that very considerate of them .