Scams

[Jack]

Oh its that time again when the old scams come out. Here's my first warning, feel free to add any you hear of.

Postal Scam

Can you circulate this around especially as Christmas is fast approaching - it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize .

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.

Please advise family members/friends.

[Removed]

Oh its that time again when the old scams come out. Here's my first warning, feel free to add any you hear of.

Postal Scam

Can you circulate this around especially as Christmas is fast approaching - it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize .

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call.

Please advise family members/friends.

This is a hoax about a scam. Being doing the rounds for a few years. IIRC the max you can get charged for a call is £1.50 per min so if you put the phone down straight away you can't have been charged £15, that's if it is a real phone number or hasn't already been suspended. Plenty about it if you google it.

[GordonHFC]

The following is advice we received in my office after the initial warning was received

PrepayPlus, the phone-paid services regulator, is aware that a chain e-mail about an alleged postal scam is being circulated on the internet. The email refers to the Royal Mail, Trading Standards and ICSTIS (PhonepayPlus' former name).
PhonepayPlus appreciates that recipients of the email may want to find out more information about the alleged scam and has therefore issued the following statement:
The chain email refers to a service that was shut down by us in December 2005.
We subsequently fined the company that was operating the service, Studio Telecom (based in Belize), £10,000.
The service is NO LONGER running and has NOT been running since December 2005.
You do NOT need to contact us, or the Royal Mail, about this service as it was stopped almost three years ago.
If you receive a copy of the email warning you about the alleged scam, please do NOT forward it to others. Instead, please forward this statement from PhonepayPlus.
Please go to www.phonepayplus.org.uk/pdfs_news/ConsumerGuide.pdf for useful information about how to recognise phone-paid services and understand what they cost, and some simple tips to help you enjoy using services with confidence.
For more detailed information about our work, please visit www.phonepayplus.org.uk.

Hope this is of help.

[slingshot]

if i caught the lad posting through my door, god help him. Rip his heed off:agree:

[Jack]

This is a hoax about a scam. Being doing the rounds for a few years. IIRC the max you can get charged for a call is £1.50 per min so if you put the phone down straight away you can't have been charged £15, that's if it is a real phone number or hasn't already been suspended. Plenty about it if you google it.

While you're probably right the reason I OPd was to raise awareness at what will be a busy time for all of us and letting our guard slip. It will probably be a different card with a different number and company but the scam is the same. There will be someone out there who, if they don’t already have a plan in action, will be doing something very similar soon.

Guidance http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/pdfs_news/ConsumerGuide.pdf (http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/pdfs_news/ConsumerGuide.pdf)

I think you're right about the £1.50 max (PER MINUTE) in this country. However 809 is the Dominican Republic and could be easily confused, deliberately or otherwise, with 08 numbers here. For example when dialling from your mobile you drop the 0 from 0800 numbers. The Dominican Republic has no such maximum and little/no regulation.

Just be careful out there. :wink:

[alex plode]

A 'Heads Up' for those of us men who may be regular B & Q customers.
Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out
shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite
traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or
your friends. Here's how the scam works.


Two seriously good-looking 20-21 year-old girls come over to your car
as
you are packing your shopping into the boot. They both start wiping
your
windscreen with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out

of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look. When you thank
them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' and instead ask you for a ride
to another B & Q store or Homebase.


You agree and they get in the back seat. On the way, they start
undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts
crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.


I had my wallet stolen November 10th, 17th, twice on the 24th,
December 1st, 8th and very likely this coming weekend. So tell your
friends to be careful

[sleeping giant]

Any email thats asks you to pass it on to other folk is a hoax.

END OF:greengrin

[matty_f]

Any email thats asks you to pass it on to other folk is a hoax.

END OF:greengrin

:agree:

There was a marks and sparks vouchers scam that went round work and I can't believe the number of folk that got taken in by it.

It's all just chain-email scams. They do my head in. I never forward anything on like that.

[Danderhall Hibs]

:agree:

There was a marks and sparks vouchers scam that went round work and I can't believe the number of folk that got taken in by it.

It's all just chain-email scams. They do my head in. I never forward anything on like that.

M&S and Persimmon Homes. You are supposed to forward the email on to 10 (?) people and copy in [email protected] - M&S will the send you vouchers.

Why would they do that?! I think it's an attempt to clog up Persimmons server.

[matty_f]

M&S and Persimmon Homes. You are supposed to forward the email on to 10 (?) people and copy in [email protected] - M&S will the send you vouchers.

Why would they do that?! I think it's an attempt to clog up Persimmons server.

The persimmonhomes email address is a fake - when you copy it in the email address holder, who has nothing to do with persimmon homes, gets 10 legitimate email addresses to misuse for whatever purposes (fraud, identity theft etc, spamming etc).

Even just the premise behind that email is so poor - M&S are wanting to try viral advertising so rather than spending money on an advertising campaign in the traditional way, they (according to the email) will send out a few hundred quid's worth of vouchers to everyone that passes the email onto 10 or 20 folk, whatever it was.

If anyone actually stopped for a minute to think about the cost to M&S for doing this, then they'd realise that it would be significantly more cost effective to put tv ads on almost 24/7 for a couple of weeks.



All the scam emails are bollocks though - things like watching out for folk selling perfume at garages who'll actually get you to smell something that will knock you out so they can steal your car/purse. total urban myths.

[wpj]

:agree:

There was a marks and sparks vouchers scam that went round work and I can't believe the number of folk that got taken in by it.

It's all just chain-email scams. They do my head in. I never forward anything on like that.

Got that one as well.......about 4 times :brickwall

[Little Miss Perfect]

Got that one as well.......about 4 times :brickwall


So did i,then i got a warning from IT in work for passing it on :hilarious

[mim]

A 'Heads Up' for those of us men who may be regular B & Q customers.
Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out
shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite
traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or
your friends. Here's how the scam works.


Two seriously good-looking 20-21 year-old girls come over to your car
as
you are packing your shopping into the boot. They both start wiping
your
windscreen with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out

of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look. When you thank
them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' and instead ask you for a ride
to another B & Q store or Homebase.


You agree and they get in the back seat. On the way, they start
undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts
crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.


I had my wallet stolen November 10th, 17th, twice on the 24th,
December 1st, 8th and very likely this coming weekend. So tell your
friends to be careful

:thumbsup:

Nice one. :greengrin

I didn't realise that there were any Hearts supporters left who had retained a sense of humour. :wink:

[toaosi]

My wife got a text at about 12.15 this morning with a phone nunber to contact re a parcel that was needing collected by us. Needless to say it was deleted straight away.