Common Scams Section

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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Cracking- That's a new one - I was wondering when the first of the Brexit scare scams would be coming in!
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by van ordinaire »

& what exactly are the Japanese going to do with TV licence details?
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by MikeT »

van ordinaire wrote: 03 Dec 2018, 00:21 & what exactly are the Japanese going to do with TV licence details?


Make money of course. Data is currency.
Why do you think companies are data-mining the s**t out of us every minute of the day? People gladly hand over their email (or worse) and we're always being offered bribes to continue updating them or giving away even more.

Ad-revenues alone are mind-boggling due to the targeted advertising it provides, for instance.
I just saw a video from a youtuber showing how his regular $5-700 daily earnings leapfrogged to over $17,000 due to just one of his broadcasts going viral.

For the outright criminal, it also opens doors to scamming and outright theft, hence this thread.
TV licensing details will of course require some payment information and that's the opening they're hoping for, I would have thought.
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by van ordinaire »

Obviously the Japanese know more about our TV licences than I, because all I would've thought they'd get was name & address (a matter of public record) & a serial number.

BUT don't get me started on data harvesting - if only we had protection legislation that safeguarded the subject of the data, rather than the holder.
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by MikeT »

A sophisticated gumtree scam exposed.

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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by CitroJim »

MikeT wrote: 08 Dec 2018, 06:35 A sophisticated gumtree scam exposed.




They've practically nicked the parkrun logo there :evil:
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by Gibbo2286 »

They don't really need to get too sophisticated, the old scams still work.

The new Esther Rantzen consumer programme this week had a couple crying over the Campervan on Ebay trick, they'd paid five grand (I think) for a camper unseen and took a very long trip to collect it...…………….it wasn't there, surprise surprise. :(
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by bobins »

Raising its head on eBay at the moment is a resurrection of a previous scam. It's either a case where a seller's account has been hacked (you lot do change your passwords and make them hard to guess, don't you....... ? :wink: ), or a new account is set up. They're selling a whole range of vehicles : ordinary cars, classics, caravans, tractors, motorbikes, boats, etc, on one account - all with prices between about £3,000 and around £10,000..... and some of them are even French vehicles ! An HY turns up regularly. The descriptions are all roughly the same and go something along the lines of "Paperwork all in order, selling for a friend, I'm off on holiday tomorrow so you need to email my friend at xxxxx@xxx.com, get in quick before it goes, you can buy it for £xxxxxx if you contact them". It's a very easy scam to detect though - they get greedy and end up listing 2000 - 3000 vehicles of various descriptions all within about 45 minutes with a total value somehwere north of £9,000,000. You just need to click on 'View sellers other items' and then use a bit of common sense.... i.e. if you had more than £9,000,000 worth of vehicles to sell, would you get a mate to sell them on eBay ? :roll:
I'd imagine the scam is intended to run along the lines of - you contact seller privately via the provided dodgy email link, they con you into sending either a deposit or full amount via bank transfer, then that's the last you hear of either them or the vehicle. As always - buyer beware !!
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by sparksie »

xantiagreen wrote: 30 Oct 2018, 08:55
... I've had another idiot on another free to sell app ask me why I have covered my reg, is it because it has been involved in any illegal activities and is it a cut 'n' shut, i gave up and blocked him.

Just thought i'd pass on the info for others to be wary of, has anyone else been targeted by Ann.


Hi

Just a note to give you another perspective on this part of your tale.
I'm often asked to "check out" cars that are advertised on Gumtree, or similar sites.
A rule of thumb I have always found useful is, if the reg is deliberately obscured, walk away.
Don't even make contact with the seller.
9 times out of 10, obstructing the reg is done to prevent any background checks being done before actually seeing the car.
I can't think of a legit reason to conceal what is, after all, in the public domain anyway.
If you ever park, or drive, in a public place, you are exposing the car reg to potential low-lifes, who may perfectly legally photograph and/or video it for whatever nefarious purposes they may have in mind. Allowing potential customers to do a background check before calling is a sign of faith in your car and hardly increases the risk significantly.
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by sparksie »

As I may have mentioned in a few threads, my laptop was stolen last Easter.
I immediately changed all my passwords and unwittingly locked myself out of a few sites, in the process.
Time passed and life went on, until a few weeks ago, when i started getting emails from myself, quoting my correct email password from last April, now well out of date, advising me that I had been recorded viewing salacious web sites, using the (non-existent!) camera on my device and demanding payment of bitcoin to avoid all my contacts receiving pictures of me linked to the sites I was supposedly viewing.
I provided copies of these to the authorities, before deleting them.
Never pay by bitcoin, unless you know exactly who you're paying, because there's no way to trace a bitcoin wallet owner.
Lately, I'm getting a lot of emails from on-line pharmacies, telling me my --adware link removed-- order is ready for dispatch, or even that my payment has been processed, with a link to my "invoice". Never click anything in an email unless you know exactly where it came from.
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by bobins »

There's a BBC video article about exactly that scam - an awful lot of people have been affected by it.
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by sparksie »

Yup, that's the one.
Didn't know it was so widespread, nor that I could check if it had happened by a means other than hacking my stolen machine
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by bobins »

If you've ever been signed up to Linkedin then that may be where the password hack originated as there's quite a few people out there reckon that's where their passwords were from. Of course, many other companies have been hacked in the past so all the hacked passwords may have come from an amalgam of sites.
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others:-
'96 Jeep Cherokee Limited - the "donor"
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'97 Jeep Cherokee Limited - the red one
'99 Cadillac Seville STS
'96 Cadillac Eldorado ETC
& numerous what might be described as abandoned projects!
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by van ordinaire »

I still don't understand these e-mails advising that a - non-existant - order has been dispatched. Just what does the sender (hope to) achieve?
Citroens:-
'81 2CV Club :cry:
'05 C15 :!:
'97 Xantia Exclusive estate [-o<
others:-
Jeep XJ Cherokees x 3 :?
'96 Cadillac Eldorado
'99 Cadillac STS :|
& the numerous "abandoned projects" #-o
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Re: Common Scams Section

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

It may be that, in responding to such an e-mail, the scammer can then 'farm' the header details (and so on) to gain more information about you (and your system, possibly allowing them to hack in). Just in responding you have let them know it is a live account.
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