SCAMMERS !

[ian16th]

I then asked him what he was doing 2nd week in September 1964 - no answer. I know exactly what he was doing for September to December that year

I was getting ready to leave Akrotiri, and return to UK to end my RAF career, and face up to the challenges of civilian life.

Were you at Lindholme playing with Hastings 'bombers'?

[CharlieOneSix]

.....I then asked him what he was doing 2nd week in September 1964 - no answer. I know exactly what he was doing for September to December that year

I know where I was - in the back of a ricketty ambulance being taken the 75 miles from Culdrose to the Royal Naval Hospital Stonehouse in Plymouth. Was there for many weeks with severe Glandular Fever plus complications and ended up being backcoursed from flying training as a result.

Re Scammers - during this pandemic I decided to let all calls through my TrueCall machine as government/council agencies were using a variety of 08 and normal STD codes. I normally program these to require the caller to press a specified keypad number. A lot of those agency callers seemed to think it was an answering machine and immediately hung up. No scam calls were attempted for a couple of months and then a couple came through. Within a week I was getting several scam or silent calls a day. These people must spread the word I think! Reprogrammed the TrueCall machine - bliss again!

[Pontius Navigator]

No, rapid reinforcement of the Far East, Wednesday night El Adem, Thursday lunch Khormaksar then sudden stop as they pondered what to do with us.

[Capetonian]

For most of us, a warning probably not necessary.

Never call a company on a number you've looked up on Google. There was a BBC Watchdog feature earlier explaining how easy it is for scammers to put up fake ads on Google and other search engines, Faecesbook etc. These are not verified, and anyone can get a VoiP number anywhere, and many people are scammed by fake insurance companies and so on.

My son had an email from an airline with whom he had a booking, asking him to ring their call centre 'in your country' and he was suspicious so he looked up the number on Google, found it went to an overseas call centre, and was even more suspicious. I suggested that he should only ever ring the number on the company's own website. As it happened, it was genuine.

[Pontius Navigator]

Cape, even the company's website can be fake.

I remember one Lloyds bank website, absolutely perfect. If you clicked and if the listed numbers they were perfect. Any of the links to different products were also perfect. The only fake bit was the one asking you to enter your details - not an https website.

[Wodrick]

It seems I have reserved plot #150, an apartment in Oregon, all I need to do is pay the deposit.

[CharlieOneSix]

I wonder about the belief that a https website is secure from scammers. My little weather website is https. It cost me nothing to change from http and it renews every three months also at no cost. I just had to make some small corrections to some scripts to make it https compliant.

[G-CPTN]

Nigerians.

[Capetonian]

In its internet crime report for 2019, the FBI said it had received more than 460,000 complaints of suspected cyber fraud, with losses of more than $3.5bn reported. More than $300m was recovered, it said.

However, many online fraudsters don't get caught and even fewer end up going to jail. Mr Donath says the cases are challenging because they happen overseas and tend to be quite sophisticated. "They're time-consuming, highly document-intensive, and in many federal criminal cases, you have the difficulty of walking a jury through a chronology of relevant facts," said the partner at law firm Clifford Chance.

If convicted, Mr Abbas and Mr Ponle could be locked up for up to 20 years.

That's the tip of the iceberg. Most victims don't report it.

How fraudsters used lockdown to lure Irish victims into boats and caravans scam
Websites offered to deliver products to Irish clients who were unable to go to UK due to travel restrictions
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-a ... -1.4298475

The article shows how scammers set up fake websites using the credentials of genuine companies who became innocent victims.
The one fake website mentioned is still on line : https://www.islandboats.co.uk/ - and it's an HTTPS.

[Pontius Navigator]

Caoer, it's been taken down now

[llondel]

Anyone can go get a LetsEncrypt certificate for their website, I have such things for mine. The only verification they do is confirm that I have control of the site itself, I could be anyone. It used to be verified identity but now it's just encryption of data transmission so people can't easily see what's being sent.

[Capetonian]

Bugger, I won't get the boat I ordered yesterday in the name of Señor Gardi Acivill in Mallorca. I was going to piss them around with fake money transfers, changing the order .....

[4mastacker]

I keep getting e-mails, supposedly from "Google" telling me I need to do a privacy check. Anyone know if these are legit as I am very wary of unsolicited stuff that says "Click here to proceed"?

[Capetonian]

I get them and although I take no action as I've already locked my security down as far as possible, I think they are genuine.

[OFSO]

No, they are legit. At least mine was. Worth doing when you see how many bona fide businesses have your address and permissions. Most were unnecessary and I cut'em off.

[Undried Plum]

They've called me several times, mostly when out of the house, as I usually am.

Doing the 0174 thing, I found it's a Saxmundham number.

An old chum lives there, so I made a mental to give him a call for a chat next time I've got an hour to spare.

One day I used my own phone notebook to recall his number, not the 0174 one. Wasn't him who had called, but we had a good blether anyway. After this Covid crap is over, he'll come up here, or I'll go down there, and we'll have a jolly time. His place is lovely. So is mine.

Today I got, and this time took, a call from that mystery number in Saxmundham. An IndoPak type voice, claiming to be HMRC, wanting me to first answer some "security questions".

I know Saxmundham. Lovely place. Not many Western Oriental Gentlemen or trans-ScottoSassan border HMRC offices there. Just lovely people, none of them Pakis or Hindibums and none of them Tax Inspectors. Funny how that triple co-incidence works, innit.

"**** and never call me again", was my hospitable response to the ****q.

If you see 01728 60451 on the screen of your phone, you now know who is calling.

[Pontius Navigator]

I once had a call from Boston Lincs, 01205, as we were 10 miles away and do business there I took the call. When I asked him where he was from he said Yorkshire.

Pillock. He had confused Boston and Boston Spa.

[Pontius Navigator]

UP, looking at your 01728 number reminded me I had a call on my mobile, 01764 145 198. There are enough similar numbers there. I know that if you are regularly tapping random numbers you actually start repeating your number.

[probes]

I got an offer - forgotten how many millions - for 'Covid stress' relief. Just baffling. Any trigger will do.

[jimtherev]

Had an offer only this evening from a Learned Advocate in Nigeria offering me $17.25M (or it could be B; I can't remember.)
So I said to Mrs Jim 'Someone wants us to have lots of money. Shall we have some?' and she said no.
So we won't