Common Scams Section

[CitroJim]

That's really naughty Mick...

Steve, yes. all has to be very clearly displayed...

[NewcastleFalcon]

This is not a scam as such but I believe an attempt at 'extracting money with menaces' from the less careful motorists among us.

A few weeks ago I met my mate Bob for lunch at The Harvester in Garston. I drove into their side entrance and parked straight away and walked across to the veranda door. Bob's car was already in the car park so rather than wait to be attended to I went in search of him knowing he would be at a table. He was and I joined him for a very pleasant lunch. Afterwards I left and came home thinking no more about it.....

Mick, I recall you have "previous" with The Harvester and Car parking recounted in the Parking Tales and Hassles Thread for the one at Croxley Green on that occasion.

viewtopic.php?p=702270#p702270

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Quite right Neil, well remembered. I posted this one here because it is more about the response and attitude of Eurocarparks than the actual PCN.

[Hell Razor5543]

Recently I upgraded my mobile phone (I had to, as the battery on the old phone was increasing in girth). I am pleasantly surprised to find that, if the phone number calling me has been reported as a scam line, my new phone will automatically hang up once it gets the info on the incoming number (it has done this twice since I got it). Yes, it is a bit 'Big Brother' but in this case I approve.

[CitroJim]

Recently I upgraded my mobile phone (I had to, as the battery on the old phone was increasing in girth). I am pleasantly surprised to find that, if the phone number calling me has been reported as a scam line, my new phone will automatically hang up once it gets the info on the incoming number (it has done this twice since I got it). Yes, it is a bit 'Big Brother' but in this case I approve.

I too appreciate this little bit of useful functionality. Both my phones are so equipped and have been for several years. My level of spam calls is vanishingly low as a result and if any do get through I block/report.

[mickthemaverick]

I have a blocking app which is very good. I cannot remember the last time I had a spam call.on the mobile. We do get a fair few on the landline!

[myglaren]

Never had a spam call on a mobile and threw the landline phones out a dozen years since and have had the landline removed.

[mickthemaverick]

How many of you have had this one?

Screenshot

[CitroJim]

No, one of the lovely things about my gmail. I hardly ever see scammy emails. In fact, I can't think I ever have... My Hotmail does occasionally, but not gmail...

That's a very poor effort... Looks nothing like the DVLA might send...

[myglaren]

Had a similar one a while back. In the bin and flagged as spam.
Also a similar thing for the TV licence, a couple of days after it was paid (direct debit for both)
Since BT did a makeover of their email get a lot more spam. Too obviously services I would never use; off with their heads!

[CitroJim]

It always strikes me these scams, especially that 'DVLA' one, look very amateurish and crude. If I was was ever planning to be scammer I'd do all I could to look a lot more 'professional' in my attempts.

Still, whilst they look a bit like the work of a spotty youth hiding in his bedroom they are easy enough to spot - for the most part.

That DVLA one looks especially poor. It doesn't have the very well-known DVLA 'look' about it at all.

[GiveMeABreak]

Apple users should be aware of the latest 'MFA Bombing' attack.

It's where a user is suddenly spammed with official Apple password reset request notifications in quick succession.

This can sometimes result in a hundred or more requests - and you would have to say Don't Allow to all of them before you can use your device. If that fails, you may then get a call from 'Apple Support', which shows the correct telephone number (1-800-275-2273), but of course this has been 'spoofed' and is not from Apple as they never call custmers unless you have requested a call back support call.

It is believed that this mainly affects people with public profiles on social media, YouTubers and others that share their info on Social Media sites - but the breach seems to be from a 'People Data Labs' site that was hacked and this is where they are obtaining your phone number from which to call you pretending to be from Apple Support.

In 2019 two Security Researchers called Vinny Troia and Bob Diachenko first uncovered the PDL Data breach, and found that over a billion personal data records were easily accessible via an insecure server on the Dark Web. Part of the data in this breach was traced to People Data Labs of San Francisco (hence the acronym PDL), which is a data company that holds huge amounts of personal data for sale including more than a billion email addresses and phone numbers.

The vulnerability at present is with the Apple web page that allows a user to reset their password for the Apple ID account. The page uses CAPTCHA, which is supposed to prevent multiple requests being sent, but this seems to have been overcome somehow, allowing multiple reset requests to be sent out as per the picture above.

If you keep yourself to yourself and don't splatter all your details over the web, I suspect you won't get targeted, but it's better to be forewarned.

So unless you have specifically requested a password reset request yourself, do not click 'Allow' should you get any of these requests. The password reset notifications are of course officially from Apple, but not initiated by them, but from the hacker and don't answer any calls from Apple unless you are expecting one!

One of the best things you can do is to use a unique email for your AppleID that is not used anywhere else - that will prevent it from being obtained from any data breaches on any other website.

More details can be found here:

Recent ‘MFA Bombing’ Attacks Targeting Apple Users

[myglaren]

I've had this a couple of times but only had to pay £1:50 each time.

[Gibbo2286]

I think if the postman required me to pay a fiver for a letter I'd say "Take it back, I didn't send it or buy the dodgy stamp."

[momag46]

I’ve had the TV license scam, I now don’t have a TV license so they can do what they like now