Phishing expedition

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Just to flag up to others , earlier tonight I received a text message , allegedly from HMRC , informing me that I was due a tax rebate of a couple of hundred pounds and to click on the link , then complete the form to process the refunds.

The very message was obviously dodgy since this is just not the way tax refunds are processed ( past experience is they come in the form of a cheque through the post ) , and secondly the link just didn't look genuine .

Out of curiosity , I followed the link ( nothing confidential kept on my computer for them to steal ) and it was a good rendition of a HMRC web page , with their logos , fonts etc etc

It went on to ask my name , address , date of birth , driving licence no , bank details , sort code , account no , card no , CCV no , mothers maiden name , etc etc etc

Needless to say I did NOT provide any details .

Instead , I went to the genuine HMRC website , and followed their link to report such things , this took me to a government cyber crime site , where I answered some questions , none of which involved giving any personal details - this was done on a different machine to the one I followed the link on .
 
My business e-mail address has clearly been sold around the world judging by the number of phishing e-mails I get. I've had them from HMRC, paypal and every bank you can think of many times over. I usually get 5 or 6 every week and they go automatically to the junk folder where I delete them. I did report the first "tax rebate" and HMRC said they would never communicate by e-mail.
 
Had one today from HSBC supposedly

Apparently there had been some unusual activity on my online banking
Therefore they wanted me to 'secure' it by logging in via there link... which s blatantly a fake

I do worry that if say my grandad got such a message he would believe it... people don't want to go out and work for a living what kind of life do you lead by scamming people out of their money FFS
 
I've had both the text and emails; more frequently the emails. - Each time I forward them to the phishing email address at HMRC because I figure that if people don't report them nobody will ever investigate and prosecute.

Fraud is still fraud if it's by email.
 
Never bother me. Not since I married, Princess Umbongo in an on-line ceremony. In her pictures she is beautiful (we will meet just as soon as my bank transfer my money to her account). She and her father - KIng Umbongo - have taught me to laugh at people who fall for these Phishing Scams and how I can protect myself and have the company of a beautiful woman.
 
Never bother me. Not since I married, Princess Umbongo in an on-line ceremony. In her pictures she is beautiful (we will meet just as soon as my bank transfer my money to her account). She and her father - KIng Umbongo - have taught me to laugh at people who fall for these Phishing Scams and how I can protect myself and have the company of a beautiful woman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYj5o4kQsXs
 
A scam works for two reasons. It is either based on greed or fear. Greed when for the massive 30% return on your investment or fear that your savings are going to be stolen. Ironically, the real greed is their greed for your money, and you will lose all your money if you trust those offering to protect you.

The only defence against a scam is common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and if you are at risk of losing all your savings, the bank would probably take measures to protect you before you even knew the money was at risk.

We are all suspectable to being scammed, but by how much? I've lost money to dodgy schemes, but the money I lost was a mere pittance compared to some. When someone gives everything they have got to a scammer, we have to question their competence in handling money. After all, a stranger tells you to transfer all your life savings to an account you don't have control over and you do it without question, simply because they say that they are someone you can trust.

Some scams are so blatantly obvious. For example, the bank will ring you up and tell you that you need to withdraw all your money and take it home and that a courier will pick it up from your address and transfer it to a safe location. This one positively rings of deceit yet people still fall for this scam.

No one can protect themselves from losing the odd tenner here and there, but to lose everything is beyond belief. How some people can be naive enough to give everything away is beyond me.

Mind you, I suppose once you reach a certain age, you can become more trusting than you should. After all, we hear of cowboy builders that fleech the elderly of all their savings charging them the Earth for replacing a roof that had nothing wrong with it in the first place.

Trust should be earned, and not freely given, as some will take advantage of it.
 
I've had both the text and emails; more frequently the emails. - Each time I forward them to the phishing email address at HMRC because I figure that if people don't report them nobody will ever investigate and prosecute.


There are too many and they are very costly to investigate. Scam and fraud reports made by the public go into a giant database that detectives can tap into if and when the need arises, but most fraud of this type is not actively investigated (unlike terrorism-related online activity, which does get investigated). Unfortunately criminals are well aware of this.
 
You will note from my earlier post, that my Father in Law to be is the King Umbongo. His daughter - Foo Foo, my wife is adamant that you should not fall for these scams and is offering (just through me) to help you eliminate any financial woes.

I have this morning checked with the Fraud Office who have verified my wife's family position and status. They seemed to know them by their first names, given that they asked if this was indeed "Foo King Umbongo again?"
 

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