👮 Scam phone calls and texts

[Garacesh]

A lot of them have separate technicians, and the people placing the calls just pass victims on, so it wouldn't surprise me if some people are hired under false pretences and don't know they are involved in a scam.

 

There was a lot of talk about this a while back, and the consensus was that that some call centres did indeed tell customers employees that they were Microsoft et al, and they did believe they were doing genuine work. So some phone drones were being taken for a ride, and probably taking some of the fall too.

 

Not a huge percentage, though. The vast majority of scam call centres are 100% dedicated to the grift, or just legit call centres with folks pulling malicious ghost shifts.

 

Best way to hazard a guess (as if it matters, in the grand scheme of things..) is does the phone drone connect to your PC, then pass you on? Probably knows about it. Do they pass you on and the new guy connects? Might be pretending to be legit. Also might just be transferring you just so it seems more legit. You can never truly know for sure. But then again this kind of practice is so widespread in places like New Delhi and Kolkata that I do wonder how much the average Joe knows about it, and whether a regular Joe Public would be wary enough to see the signs that this tech/phone job isn't legit? (Or are they so desperate for cash they don't care, I have no idea what India's economy is like)

Edited July 19, 2021 by Garacesh

[bald_pig]

If someone says "Let me connect with Teamviewer" they know EXACTLY what they're doing.

 

I never said that was the case here, did I?

[paulkerton]

but when I insisted he said he could prove it beyond doubt

all I had to do was

Start Google Chrome

then type in TeamViewer

In the context of what we are talking about... Then yes, this guy is a scammer who knew exactly what he was attempting.

This is why I find Manchester United being shirt sponsored by TeamViewer this year hilarious, because most UK ISPs just block it outright now, due to it's close association with scammers.

[Garacesh]

I thought TeamViewer were doing pretty good with anti-scam warnings etc?

I can't remember the names of softwares I've seen crop up in Kitboga streams/Jim Browning videos/etc but it's usually never TeamViewer.

[mikeprice]

I must say (OK - I don;t have to but I will) that this is the first time I have been asked to download teamviewer for ages

 

LogMeIn was common several years ago

 

and a couple of others I hadn't heard of but when I searched for them instead of downloading them it was clear they did the same thing

[Davit2005]

Got my fourth Royal Mail scam yesterday.

 

Text as below

 

Royal Mail: Your parcel has an unpaid shipping fee of £2.99. To pay this NOW please visit: "https://royal.mail-delivery-gb11890.com

 

From an isolated virtual machine on an isolated network on a 4G dongle I looked up this web address but could not find any info and the page was not viewable

The https address pointed to 101.99.93.10 and this domain seemed to be a sub directory on this server.

 

The certificate had subject alternative names such as below (I've enclosed them in quotes so they should not be clickable)

"mail-delivery-gb11890.com"

"cpanel.mail-delivery-gb11890.com"

"cpcalendars.mail-delivery-gb11890.com"

"cpcontacts.mail-delivery-gb11890.com"

"mail.mail-delivery-gb11890.com"

"webdisk.mail-delivery-gb11890.com"

"webmail.mail-delivery-gb11890.com"

"www.mail-delivery-gb11890.com"

 

The certificate was also only valid for 3 months.

 

Reported to Royal Mail scam service

Edited July 29, 2021 by Davit2005

[mikeprice]

I changed my mobile a few months ago - from a Virgin Contract to Vodafone PAYG because it hardly ever gets used as a phone!

 

Then Vodafone changed the way their PAYG works and also stopped using something that increased my signal indoors - which was the main reason for using them

SO I swapped again to ASDA - which also uses Vodafone - but the way it works is better for me

 

 

Anyway - getting to the point - since I swapped I haven;t had a single scam phone call or text

Still had a few on the landline but none on the mobile - in spite of having the same number!!

 

 

I was starting to wonder what was going on - after all I assume the scammer just have a list of phone numbers along with some data saying how likely it is to be answered and how likely they are to get a 'good' result

 

so if you keep the same number then the calls should still arrive???

 

 

Anyway - this morning it turns out the Hermes have tried to deliver something - and will try again tomorrow if I pay the admin fee

Huh - no chance

 

Anyone else switched providers and noticed a change to the number of scams???

[mikeprice]

Sooo

 

2nd scam phone call in a week

 

Or maybe not

If it actually turns out that I really HAVE won £500,000 on the US National Lottery I hearby promise to donate at least £100,000 to a charity caring for amphibians with an unusually high knowledge of IT!

 

Why exactly the US National lottery gives out prizes in an exactt number of pounds I guess will remain a mystery!

[Davit2005]

National Insurance number scam 07495 077957 .

 

I didn't really pay that much attention to it but never pressed number one to speak to a representative.

 

Think this is one of the first I've had on my mobile.

[Davit2005]

Judging by the scam bait videos I have seen the techs very much know they are scamming. I find it hard to believe that someone goes into services and pick out services which have been disabled, run tree commands then paste in carp or go to netstat and lie about the results unless scamming someone or do not know what you are talking about.

[mikeprice]

Judging by the scam bait videos I have seen the techs very much know they are scamming. I find it hard to believe that someone goes into services and pick out services which have been disabled, run tree commands then paste in carp or go to netstat and lie about the results unless scamming someone or do not know what you are talking about.

 

Yup - when it reaches that point they know what they are doing

 

But at a lower level I had had suspicions that the initial person MIGHT just not realise

e.g. one of the times I have let them talk for a while they asked me to go into event log

clearly it showed a lot of warnings and fatals

the person on the phone said this showed how bad the infection was and how important it was that I did what they said and they could sort it all out

It was the next person that started talking high pressure garbage ending with instruction to run TeamViewer (or something similar) and let them log in

 

Other people have given a suspicion in the same way - one person actually rang me back because he seemed so convinced that he could help me out of my terrible financial problems - why bother once I had called him out as a scammer????

[Garacesh]

I dunno, I'm not convinced. Think about how IT literate the average person is. How many of our users panic just because a normal run-of-the-mill error message has a big scary word in it?

 

It would be pretty easy to tell a not-very-IT-literate person that stopped services are bad and they should all be running.

The same with netstat, tell someone there should only be one established connection (I dunno, say, between the pc and the router?) and it would be pretty easy to believe.

 

The whole running-tree-and-typing lol virus found giv munnee plox is a dead giveaway though. And I do reckon most of them know what's going on. But still, not so cut-and-dry.

Edited August 6, 2021 by Garacesh

[Davit2005]

I dunno, I'm not convinced. Think about how IT literate the average person is. How many of our users panic just because a normal run-of-the-mill error message has a big scary word in it?

 

It would be pretty easy to tell a not-very-IT-literate person that stopped services are bad and they should all be running.

The same with netstat, tell someone there should only be one established connection (I dunno, say, between the pc and the router?) and it would be pretty easy to believe.

 

The whole running-tree-and-typing lol virus found giv munnee plox is a dead giveaway though. And I do reckon most of them know what's going on. But still, not so cut-and-dry.

 

I have no doubt that the scammers know they are scamming though. Mind you I've worked with dev people in the past that when I've asked them to try and connect to a server using telnet they have said it still doesn't work, when pushed for an error they say command not found, lol.

[6Foot2]

Just now: From: 0191 8210008

 

Ignoring this message will constitute an attempt to avoid a court judgement against you, and your national insurance number will be suspended. To talk to an operator...

 

Reported as spam.

[mikeprice]

Just now: From: 0191 8210008

 

 

 

Reported as spam.

 

But if they suspend my NI number does that mean I no longer have to pay any tax????

 

I could even close down all my accounts in the Cayman Islands!!!!

(in case the Inland Revenue are watching - that was a joke

just to be clear

in any case I have spent all my money on sheds!!!!!)

[elsiegee40]

But if they suspend my NI number does that mean I no longer have to pay any tax????

 

 

Probably means you lose your pension which might make future shed purchases difficult

[6Foot2]

But if they suspend my NI number does that mean I no longer have to pay any tax????

 

I could even close down all my accounts in the Cayman Islands!!!!

(in case the Inland Revenue are watching - that was a joke

just to be clear

in any case I have spent all my money on sheds!!!!!)

 

The Inland Revenue may still be interested if you are trying to corner the market in sheds and thereby make a huge profit!

 

Link: After flour and loo rolls, Britons face a startling new shortage ... Sheds [The Telegraph]

 

Full story behind Telegraph paywall.

 

Back on topic...

 

Quick!

 

[Davit2005]

Also had a call about NI number being used fraudulently this morning. Could be arrested, oh no.

 

This is the second in a week so they are ramping up by the looks of it.

[mikeprice]

Had a strange one this morning

 

phone rang so I answered - normal 019xxxxxxxx type number

 

silence for a second followed by a slight click - clearly a call centre

then someone said -

"Hello this is Amazon Prime - how can I help you"

 

weird

 

first thought was that the automated message system had gone wrong and it had just passed me through rather than waiting for me to press 1 or whatever

 

but I have had a thought

It could be a way of sorting out people who get confused easily - if you act as though they rang you and they get confused then you probably have a susceptible and/og gullible person - hence a more likely victim

 

dunno

anyone else had something like that?

[MartinT]

This is the second in a week so they are ramping up by the looks of it.

 

Don't you guys block the number each time you get a spam call?

 

I do mine with a flourish and extreme prejudice.

[mikeprice]

Don't you guys block the number each time you get a spam call?

 

I do mine with a flourish and extreme prejudice.

 

I don't bother - they always come from different numbers

[paulkerton]

Don't you guys block the number each time you get a spam call?

 

I do mine with a flourish and extreme prejudice.

 

A lot of the numbers are genuine numbers that they're spoofing, so I don't bother.

But saying that, any mobile number that's similar to mine, I won't answer anyway. Same with most numbers to be honest. If it's that important they can leave me a message and I'll call them back.

[elsiegee40]

A lot of the numbers are genuine numbers that they're spoofing, so I don't bother.

But saying that, any mobile number that's similar to mine, I won't answer anyway. Same with most numbers to be honest. If it's that important they can leave me a message and I'll call them back.

 

I never answer my mobile or landline unless I recognise the number. It’s not worth the annoyance. Anyone who wants me will leave a message.

 

My sister got one of these TrueCall devices after being plagued by scam callers on her landline day and night.

 

https://www.truecall.co.uk/

[Davit2005]

Don't you guys block the number each time you get a spam call?

 

I do mine with a flourish and extreme prejudice.

 

Same here I jus don't bother as they jus change them, however if I get a number on my mobile I do not recognise I never speak first.

 

I run 3cx at home and any numbers not added to a list goes straight to an answer phone.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Davit2005

[jmak]

The one that in seeing a lot of at the minute is texts with inviting you to get a proof of covid vaccination. Texts with a vaguely plausible URL to click.

 

Scum.