Is this a scam

ArthurDent I am going to have a look at tellows and see what I can find out, we get a lot of odd phone calls and we are ex directory !

MaggieP that e mail scam has just happened to my friend, who warned me just in time.

Another scam we heard about from NZ friends very recently and then the same day we received spoof e mails. We were pre warned but friends were not and got a viral worm, not sure quite what it does but:
Any e mail sent to you from a friend, which just has in larger type or blue colour saying ". Click here to view my photos/videos
Then nothing else.
DON'T open, your friends addresses have been "got at"
This has happened more than once to us and other friends and family.

Yesterday I got a automated call. It was the same call like Annikas.
First I was very scared, but I didn't accept the call. I called my whole family and everything was ok.
When I googled the phone number and found this forum and www.tellows.co.uk/ which seems to be a very helpful site to find out who is calling. It also helps you to find out the origin of the phone call.

There is also a spam thing that looks like a friend recommending something..
"try this" and then a link.
NEVER click.

Annika, we had e mails from relatives and friends saying they needed urgent help as stuck abroad, no money to pay hotel bills, hotel manager holding them "hostage" until payment arrives etc etc.
These were all spoofs and e mail addresses had been obviously borrowed.
So beware that one too.
When we contacted our family and friends they were not abroad and they then may need to change their e mail address and database.

phoenix The undelivered parcel one was fixed in 2005 and the people doing it fined. but the emails about it are still circulating, particularly around Christmas when people get anxious about parcels. The post office refers anyone asking about it to a site which explains it all.

How tedious that they are still calling. it is probably a blooming machine.

I think that one I linked to sounds a bit dodgy actually - given the comments on Facebook! www.facebook.com/pages/08000MumDad-Reverse-Charge-Calls-To-Mobiles/152238444815449

That's a scam.

I'd bet my bottom dollar!

Just had a 4th call. The number comes up as with held. You dont get to speak to anyone its an automated voice the call goes something like this..
A member of your family needs you to accept a reverse charge call ,( this is where a name is added but its hard to be sure what name it is as it sounds muffled) Elsa needs to speak to you urgently, press the hash key...... its at that stage where I have hung up.
We have no Elsa in our family the only Elsa I know was the lion in Born Free !

Just googled and found this service (which sounds quite good actually) www.08000mumdad.co.uk/HowDoesItWork.aspx

On that one the caller has to record his or her name which is relayed to the person being called.

Gosh it is a long time since I took a reverse charged call, but didn't they used to tell you the name of the person who was calling? Are there actually telephone operators still in existence???

hmm bit difficult this one!! as I have had two phonecalls over the yrs both from my daughter and being asked to accept the call..although they didnt say it was an emergency and I did accpet the calls which were genuine.and it ws my daughter rining me ...I remember they did cost me a certain amount of money that ws pretty high....but they were not scam phone calls they were genuine.......

Thank you for the warning Annika. They get very clever with it, don't they?!

My daughter fell for the one telling her she had won a prize but had to ring a premium rate number, which kept her on line for at least ten minutes. She had won a prize - a ball point pen.

Sounds like one to me, if you had returned the call, my bet is that it would have been a premium rate number registered in Belize.

There was a similar one a while back about undelivered parcels, I will dig it out when I am in the office (it wasn't the usual UPS/DHL email one)