SCAM National Lottery

Not yet!

You are lucky, I'm still waiting patiently to be arrested for non-payment of income tax. The nice man from 'HMRC' said I could avoid arrest if I paid him over the phone there and then ?

I’m waiting too calistemon. If I disappear you’ll know I’ve been banged up.

was a scam, not 'TheNational Lottery ' though.!

Oh I’m waiting for my parcel…..just need to send them all my details first ?

Apparently I have been involved in an accident that wasn't my fault.

I told them that unfortunately I didn't survive

And my bank is about to close my accounts due to suspected fraud activity - rather worrying when the message came from a bank I don't hold any accounts with!!

I’m in Durham and had a similar call from a local 0191 number offering special arrangements to join the Postcode Lottery. I always reply that I don’t gamble and hang up.

I’m waiting to hear back from a Brazilian clergyman who wishes to send me 60 million English dollars as I am his dear friend and he knows he can trust a good Christian like me.

You're so fortunate, Bluebelle! What do you have that the rest of us don't?
???

I had exact same phone call last year. She was very polite until I told her, not in a million years was she having my bank details.

I have an email from no less than Christine LeGrand informing me that she had discovered my name and email address while investigating bank fraud in no lesser place than Nigeria. She personally has assured me that she will return my money as soon as she gets my bank details.

Perhaps the Brazilian clergyman and Christine would like my email details?!

Calistemon

You're so fortunate, Bluebelle! What do you have that the rest of us don't?
???

Did you mean me Calistemon?

I have a stainless character, a clear conscience and a new religious friend in Brazil. ???

Do you think they know anything about the unusual activity on my Amazon account?

On Thursday I had a call from an Asian man telling me I had a problem on my Microsoft computer due to hackers and I would have to give him access so he could sort it out. We had a few minutes of polite conversation before I told him I didn't have a Microsoft computer but worked on a Mainframe! and said he was naughty for calling me, he said "Madam I am not naughty" I then ended the call.

Well I won’t get any emails as according to this morning’s phone call my internet is faulty - so if you don’t see this posting you know why!

Sapphire - she chatted in a relaxed friendly way. Alarm bells didn’t ring even faintly until the free entries offer sounded too good to be true.

Where do they get our details from? She knew my address apart from the house number as well, obviously, as my phone number. Glad we both didn’t sign up!!

Apparently I committed a speeding offence! The caller was quite flummoxed when I literally GUFFAWED I knew it was fake because I don't even drive!

I had an email from Freeman’s catalogue yesterday, telling me that the paypal payment I made for an iPad had failed. It provided a link for me to log in to paypal and reissue the payment. I didn’t order an iPad and I don’t have a Freeman’s account. When I reported the email to paypal they advised that if I had clicked on the link in the email to open my paypal account, the fraudsters would have stolen the information contained in it. You have to be on your guard all the time these days.

Elrel

Sapphire - she chatted in a relaxed friendly way. Alarm bells didn’t ring even faintly until the free entries offer sounded too good to be true.

Where do they get our details from? She knew my address apart from the house number as well, obviously, as my phone number. Glad we both didn’t sign up!!

There’s an app that companies use to trace your address from the route of the phone call. I had to contact Hive about a heating problem. The engineer was fixing the boiler at the time and told me that the Hive customer services were based in Fiji - the adviser knew exactly where my call was coming from without me saying a word. Fraudsters use automatic diallers and if they have the tracing app they know the basics of your location as soon as you answer the phone. Scary.

There’s a. YouTube channel in which the host plays scammers at their own game and keeps them hanging on for ages while he supposedly looks for credit cards for payment, and then deliberately ‘mishears’ them and gives all kinds of wrong information. Eventually he tells them he knows it’s a scam and some of the reactions are hilarious. Recommended viewing if you’re feeling down.

These examples are amusing to read in hindsight but sadly so many people are still taken in by these kind of scams. It’s very useful to have threads like this so thanks Elrel and all other posters who have contributed. There’s always new scams out there and they get more devious all the time.