Scams

That's such an old one that I'm surprised they still expect people to fall for it - but apparently they do and they do.

I have just had one supposedly from Fedex about an undelivered packet....with a bank draft in....from Nigeria....I didn't open the attachments or click anything...

Fedex seem to be aware of these scams, but I can't find anywhere to forward it to.

I joined 'Linked in' some years ago and now keep getting messages supposedly from them. Whether I clicked on 'unsubscribe' or the message, it switched to a Canadian on-line pharmacy selling medication guaranteed to maintain my erection (I'm female). Similar from Amazon a few months ago. Amazon asked customers to send the false messages back to them so they could track down the sender and stop it. The banks don't seem bothered. Surprise.

After the false posting on Facebook I mentioned earlier I then received an e-mail supposedly from same friend whose name was falsely used then, asking me to sign a petition to stop French islanders using puppies and kittens as shark bait.

I deleted e-mail on the basis that it felt like a scam.

Surely people wouldn't do that

I've had another scam email claiming to be from the FBI. If I forward my bank details, they will reimburse the £7,000 American dollars due to me, including interest, that are part of the proceeds of money recovered from fraud when several UK conveyancers invested mortgage monies illegally. My name was on the list! Astonishing!

Greatnan That really is illogical from the Airlines point of view. Hundreds of people every year must book flights with a credit card foreign to the countries they are flying to and from. World air travel would collapse if you couldn't do that.

glammanana
Does your email facility enable you to "lable" an email as "junk" so any others from the same source will automatically go to the junk email folder. I have done this with a few it seems possible with Hotmail.

I had a slight problem yesterday. I had booked my flights to NZ for next February using a UK travel agent, making sure they were members of ATOL. I used my French credit card to pay. I got an e-mail asking me to send them a copy of my passport and also of both sides of my credit card. Naturally, I replied that I would never send either online and I had never been asked to do this in all the many flights I take each year.
They replied very courteously that it was because I was using a non-UK card to book a flight from the UK in case of money laundering. How would that work - I can't imagine some master criminal getting rid of just over one thousand pounds and having to take a flight to Auckland.
I told them I had consulted my bank and ATOL and they were both adamant that this was not a normal request. They then agreed to issue the tickets with just the normal information and they arrived by e-mail this morning.
I am extremely careful with my financial information!

The golden rule is never to respond to any email requesting financial info no matter how genuine it looks. Always log out, look out the relevant organisation's phone number online or in your paper records and check with them. Nine times out of ten, no, ninety nine times out of a hundred it is a scam.

I find those 'friend asking help from abroad' emails particularly unconvincing, the language of the emails plus often, the country they are supposedly emailing from, not to mention just having returned from seeing the sender when the mail arrived or not having seen them in years as they are merest acquaintances and do not even feature on my contacts list.

Best regards Inland Rvenue!!! lol LOL... yaaaaaa right!!!

Watch out for the latest email scam. Here's one I've just received and deleted. As a pensioner on a fixed income, I know I am not due a refund, and certainly not at this time of year. The mail bears an Inland Revenue logo, but I have never, ever had an email from them. They always write.

Tax Refund Confirmation

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you are
eligible to receive a tax refund of 468.50 GBP. Please submit the tax refund request and
click here by having your tax refund sent to your bank account in due time

Please Click "Get Started" to have your tax refund sent to your bank account, your tax
refund will be sent to your bank account in due time take your time to go through the bank
we have on our list

Get Started

Note : A refund can be delayed a variety of reasons, for example submitting invalid records
or applying after deadline.

Best Regards

HM Revenue & Customs  
 

Annobel I was just going to say that. Usually, in small print, it says "text stop" and you need to do that. Never, ever, respond!

And never reply to a dodgy text. It will be charged to your account - and then some!

Just thought of something else - NEVER reply to a suspicious email through the link in the email itself, if you need to reply - close the email (preferably delete it) and then go through the website or reply with a brand new email

greatnan and anyone else who gets messages like that on your mobile, I found that I was actually being charged to receive these messages. Vodafone told me to send one reply stating "STOP" and hit the reply button. If you have a smartphone you can install an app called Airpush Permanent Opt-out which should stop any more coming in

Same here. You must have something like that, glamma - have a root around!

Once I mark an email as spam, gmail automatically puts subsequent emails from the same sender into my spam box.

glamma Is it not possible to block the address it is coming from on your browser? i blocked a lot of senders when I used Outlook Express. Firefox can block messages or automatically delete them, and I am sure other browsers can. It should be under " message filters" probably in the tools menu.

That's awful, glamma! Can't you get your service provider to do something about it?

I have been plagued by spam e-mails from a Canadian Pharmacy for the past few months and when I go to unsubscribe it comes up as a suspect site and not to visit so I cannot stop the messages.I just clear the in box every am but some morning there are up to 40/50 spam e-mails waiting for me.

They usually go into myjunk mailbox so I just mark them as phishing scams but I do get an occassional one in my inbox and do the same. There are so many of these and text messages too but we just have to ignore them and especially anyone phoning with a way to make money! If it looks too good to be true it is!

I got a message to my mobile phone (nobody knows its number, not even me as I use it for outgoing calls only). Apparently, their records show that I could be due nearly £3,000 for mis-sold insurance. I have never been naive enough to fall for the insurance scam in the first place, so it was obviously just a blanket scam.

These scammers will be most upset once the realise that they are trying it on with us lot of clued up GNers

Yes jeni I would report to service provider .

If your service provider has a facility for reporting spam, you can do that.

I've just had the 'stranded on holiday ' email from someone whose name is faintly familiar but I can't place!
What do people do about these? Do you report them to anyone?