Unwelcome text from nhs

kuepper

I've just had a text from NHS: You've been in close contact with a person who has contracted the Omicron variant. Please order a test kit via: nhs.uk-ordertestkits.com/nhs

How could the NHS know that? I had a hospital appointment 9 days ago but surely couldn't be that and none of my friends have it. What to do? I'm flying on holiday first for ages in the morning so this is worrying dilemma 

Martin_the_Unjust

Are you sure it’s from the NHS? because it sounds very much like a scam to me


https://www.devon.gov.uk/news/trading-standards-warning-over-nhs-test-and-trace-text-scam/

kuepper

Martin_the_Unjust said:

Are you sure it’s from the NHS? because it sounds very much like a scam to me


https://www.devon.gov.uk/news/trading-standards-warning-over-nhs-test-and-trace-text-scam/

Phew, that's a relief, it didn't register with me at all. Many thanks 

4justice2

Looks like a scam, similar site taken down earlier in the year

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/scam-pcr-text-messages-nhs-b1988024.html

Genuine NHS site unlikely to have ".com" in the web address

wonerme

It's definitely a scam.
When getting a message like this forward it to 7726 (free) to report it. 
A clue to the 'scam' is the address NHS.com should be NHS.gov if it's genuine, Better to ignore them  and call 119.

kuepper

Looks obvious now but didn't when I read it as soon as I'd woken up! My phone showed the sender as NHS-No Reply so that seemed convincing to a sleepy 73yo plus so many nhs services are outsourced to the private sector these days

Pollycat

So it's an unwelcome text from somebody pretending to be the NHS. 

Is there no end to these scammers' tactics?
If they employed as much effort to make money legally, they'd probably be very successful.

RogerBareford

wonerme said:

It's definitely a scam.
When getting a message like this forward it to 7726 (free) to report it. 
A clue to the 'scam' is the address NHS.com should be NHS.gov if it's genuine, Better to ignore them  and call 119.

That website posted by the op is not "NHS.com" in any form, this is something people get wrong a lot unfortunetly as they don't understand domain names and that's why scams like this work so well. The website is:

"uk-ordertestkits.com"

So it is certainly in no way assosiated with the NHS and doesn't even have NHS in the name.

the bit at the start "nhs." is just a subdomain on their website called "nhs" and the "/nhs" at the end is just a subdirectory so both are just parts of the website "uk-ordertestkits.com".

onashoestring

Definitely a scam as contact tracing ended 24 February. 

MalMonroe

kuepper said:

Looks obvious now but didn't when I read it as soon as I'd woken up! My phone showed the sender as NHS-No Reply so that seemed convincing to a sleepy 73yo plus so many nhs services are outsourced to the private sector these days

Please! It's nothing to do with your age. I'm 72 and I'm getting so frustrated whenever I see people blaming age for things - either their own age or someone else's. Sleepy, yes, perfectly acceptable. But it's not an age thing, anyone could be fooled for a little while. 

I'm glad you brought this to our attention but I know that when it came to the point of them asking me for money I'd have stopped. Nobody is getting their mitts on my pensions!! 

Hope you are having/have had a lovely holiday. Even at your age . . .  tee hee! Only joking     x

MrFlibble1

wonerme said:

It's definitely a scam.
When getting a message like this forward it to 7726 (free) to report it. 
A clue to the 'scam' is the address NHS.com should be NHS.gov if it's genuine, Better to ignore them  and call 119.

Minor correction: It wouldn't be ".gov", since that would indicate that it's from the US Government.

Something from the NHS would be ".nhs.uk" or ".gov.uk".