TFL 5% savings account scam

masonic

Something a little different in the ever changing world of savings account scams, this time apparently Transport for London has become a bank!

It goes on to give a long list of service availability information and planned disruption to give an air of legitimacy.

The email address I received this at suggests a data breach where email addresses used with TFL have been harvested. The campaign went out via MailChimp, so the links in the email have been obfuscated, but the plain text version points to the newly registered domain tfl-uk.com, which is clearly a scam site replete with a contact form to get your name added to their 'suckers' list.

Abuse reports about to be made to both MailChimp and Squarespace, so hopefully they will act quickly.

dcs34

masonic said:

It goes on to give a long list of service availability information and planned disruption to give an air of legitimacy.

As if TfL would announce such things in advance! 

Make sure you raise it with TfL too, particularly if you think they're the source of the mailing list.

jaypers

Seriously would love to see really bad things happen to the scumbags who are behind this sort of thing. Makes my blood boil. 

Exodi

I will never understand this. They are willing to purchase a domain, design and host a website, create (or copy) an official looking email, upload a mailing list and send out these emails... but absolutely draw the line at ever getting the text proof-read by an English speaker. These scams make hundreds of thousands of pounds, you can get text checked on Fiverr for peanuts... (you could even slightly vary the text so it isn't obvious to the freelancer that it's for a scam).

These scams are easy to identify because of obvious mistakes like "there never been" and "ensure your saving are" or vague words without any real meaning:

Transport for London are offering the public a 5% Fixed rate return to become more sustainable

Why would branching into financial products make TfL more sustainable?

I wish there was some justice for things like this, but in reality when this website (eventually) does get shut down, the scammers will be working on the next ready to go live the next day.

EssexHebridean

Report it to report@phishing.gov.uk as well. 

mebu60

Exodi said:

I will never understand this. They are willing to purchase a domain, design and host a website, create (or copy) an official looking email, upload a mailing list and send out these emails... but absolutely draw the line at ever getting the text proof-read by an English speaker. These scams make hundreds of thousands of pounds, you can get text checked on Fiverr for peanuts... (you could even slightly vary the text so it isn't obvious to the freelancer that it's for a scam).

These scams are easy to identify because of obvious mistakes like "there never been" and "ensure your saving are" or vague words without any real meaning:

Transport for London are offering the public a 5% Fixed rate return to become more sustainable

Why would branching into financial products make TfL more sustainable?

I wish there was some justice for things like this, but in reality when this website (eventually) does get shut down, the scammers will be working on the next ready to go live the next day.

Maybe the proofreaders are trying to do us a favour!! 

Voyager2002

Exodi said:

I will never understand this. They are willing to purchase a domain, design and host a website, create (or copy) an official looking email, upload a mailing list and send out these emails... but absolutely draw the line at ever getting the text proof-read by an English speaker. These scams make hundreds of thousands of pounds, you can get text checked on Fiverr for peanuts... (you could even slightly vary the text so it isn't obvious to the freelancer that it's for a scam).

These scams are easy to identify because of obvious mistakes like "there never been" and "ensure your saving are" or vague words without any real meaning:

The obvious mistakes are deliberate. The scammers know that they are not going to get any money from the people who notice these mistakes, and so they are confident that any enquiries they receive are from those who are going to prove gullible.

Exodi

Voyager2002 said:

Exodi said:

I will never understand this. They are willing to purchase a domain, design and host a website, create (or copy) an official looking email, upload a mailing list and send out these emails... but absolutely draw the line at ever getting the text proof-read by an English speaker. These scams make hundreds of thousands of pounds, you can get text checked on Fiverr for peanuts... (you could even slightly vary the text so it isn't obvious to the freelancer that it's for a scam).

These scams are easy to identify because of obvious mistakes like "there never been" and "ensure your saving are" or vague words without any real meaning:

The obvious mistakes are deliberate. The scammers know that they are not going to get any money from the people who notice these mistakes, and so they are confident that any enquiries they receive are from those who are going to prove gullible.

I had always assumed this to be an old wives' tale but I guess it could be true?

I see the website has been taken down now.

masonic

Squarespace have acted commendably. They let me know they pulled the website within a couple of hours of me contacting them.

Exodi

masonic said:

Squarespace have acted commendably. They let me know they pulled the website within a couple of hours of me contacting them.

Not all heroes wear capes - a job well done @masonic!

Sensory

Exodi said:

Voyager2002 said:

Exodi said:

I will never understand this. They are willing to purchase a domain, design and host a website, create (or copy) an official looking email, upload a mailing list and send out these emails... but absolutely draw the line at ever getting the text proof-read by an English speaker. These scams make hundreds of thousands of pounds, you can get text checked on Fiverr for peanuts... (you could even slightly vary the text so it isn't obvious to the freelancer that it's for a scam).

These scams are easy to identify because of obvious mistakes like "there never been" and "ensure your saving are" or vague words without any real meaning:

The obvious mistakes are deliberate. The scammers know that they are not going to get any money from the people who notice these mistakes, and so they are confident that any enquiries they receive are from those who are going to prove gullible.

I had always assumed this to be an old wives' tale but I guess it could be true?

I see the website has been taken down now.

It’s logically plausible. Perhaps the near-guaranteed hits they receive from the gullible in a few short hours actually outweighs the drawback of those obvious mistakes increasing the likelihood of being reported sooner. High risk, high reward.