30 ways to stop scams article discussion

vikingaero · 1 July 2015 at 8:35PM

Google is your friend to see if email addresses, telephone numbers and scam descriptions are genuine.

Emails: A lot of the time the same email address is used and will have been reported somewhere online.

Telephone numbers: Once again others will have reported spam/scam numbers. You can often see if google shows the number belonging to a genuine company who may have tried to call you. Mobile numbers can also be reported by the public.

Scam descriptions: Google what you think the scam is: "Microsoft calling me to remove a virus from my PC..." or "Colonel Sanders leaves me $700m in his will held by The Bank of Nigeria."

Scam emails are easy to ignore or place in your junk file. Persistent telephone calls are harder to deal with. My advice to those dealing with scam or spam calls is to change your attitude towards them. Don't get angry and politely decline. Then on the next call get even. Give false but believable details, false card numbers etc.On the third call, answer the call but mute the speaker and carry on with your home life. Finish the washing up and then replace the handset. For every call you take you are doing a public service in wasting a scammers time.

esuhl · 1 July 2015 at 10:15PM

There are 1,000s of ways scammers try to catch you out. Common methods include:
Fake psychics.

A fake psychic?! It's the genuine ones you've got to watch out for -- they can see you coming.

robatwork · 1 July 2015 at 10:28PM

Gotta also watch for the magicians who just use sleight of hand and not real magic, astrologers who just make it up a bit, and diviners, dowsers and seers. I'm looking at YOU Uri.

Cornucopia · 1 July 2015 at 10:43PM

I think it's a shame that MSE isn't taking a more campaigning line on this.

Scams seem to be more widespread than ever before, and it isn't just vulnerable people who fall for them (though it's sad when they do).

One of the issues is a weakness in the Law and in law enforcement. I appreciate that there can sometimes be a fairly narrow line between a scam and a legitimate business that is being badly run. However, from a consumer point of view, perhaps there is no need to distinguish between them at the early stages of enforcement?

Scams and other rogue trading are a nuisance to our society, and act to make people less likely to believe official communications that they receive. Obviously organisations like HMRC/Concentrix, the PPCs and BBC/TV Licensing have their own role in all of this in terms of telling the public things that aren't entirely true, or making demands that don't have any legal basis.

Martinp · 26 October 2015 at 9:21PM

I was phoned this morning by someone claiming to work for BT who said he had received error messages via my router telling him that my braodband had a virus and was not working properly. (as it happens it wasn't)
this seems similar to the "Windows error messages scam" where they take control of your computer to fix the problem.
He was very good. Got me running a windows tool that chaecks th ecomputer to identify & remove malicious software. Then took me t the BT site. He gave me a full name, telephone number in London & his job title.
Then onto another site - pcdoctor website (can't provide link - not allowed!)
This was about where I terminated the call as I had no wish to hand control of my PC ot an unknown third party. Apart from following the advice on forums such as this the best way to stop these scammers is make sure people know about it. (I contacted BT & told them about it - they confirmed that they do not make outbound calls of the type I described here)

enfield_freddy · 26 October 2015 at 10:29PM

you were correct to terminate the call , they (bt) have no way of knowing if you have a virus , if your machine is chucking out nasty emails all day and causing problems , they would just pull your plug

boo_star · 26 October 2015 at 10:40PM

enfield_freddy wrote: »

you were correct to terminate the call , they (bt) have no way of knowing if you have a virus , if your machine is chucking out nasty emails all day and causing problems , they would just pull your plug

Most ISPs block port 25 for exactly this reason, so they wouldn't need to pull the plug, the emails won't go anyway.

MoveOver · 3 June 2016 at 8:07AM

Stop Scam tip 7 My credit card Maximum was £500 and I needed to pay £1800. So I used my debit card. The business was criminal but my Bank (HSBC) did act on my behalf. After the money back cheque was bounced the Bank stepped in again and this time I got my money. Thank you HSBC.

MoveOver · 3 June 2016 at 8:18AM

When is an email genuine? My ISP sends monthly emails that link to my Bill. Their Emails are titled "Support".

Usually I check the source and it is genuine. Last time though it took me to a scam site. I cancelled immediately but to date I have received 87 more scam emails in one month from 3 sources.

I alerted my Bank and asked them to phone me if anyone requested payment of £100 or more. They refused to do that.

System · 3 June 2016 at 9:02PM

I work in retail and I often see customers' cards with a 4 digit number on it - either on a sticker on the sig strip. Its their PIN!

This is like leaving your front door unlocked.

You don't need to stick to the PIN that the bank randomly gave you, please change it to something you will remember and you don't have that number anywhere in your wallet - so no year of birth, no birthday etc.

30 ways to stop scams article discussion

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