SCAMMERS !

[ian16th]

Rx'd a very ambitious one in my e-mail today!

What might be in a 6.6MB file, I ain't going to find out.

[Pontius Navigator]

Looking at the base url, indosat.net.id, my browser flagged up that scammers may be trying to steal my data.

Then the webmail address is .co.za whereas Switzerland is CH.

How can people be so dumb as to not read the addresses?

[Capetonian]

How can people believe that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve would be writing to them from a Yahoo/Hotmail type address?
But they do!

Almost on cue :

https://mol.im/a/6754243

[Capetonian]

I had one of those 'have you got debts of more than £6000, if so press 1' calls the other day. Normally it doesn't work but this time I got a callback (0203 930 3559) and after giving them a number of silly answers and a bit of lip, I asked for details of the 'government debt scheme' which they claim to manage, and was told they are FCA regulated. When I asked for their registration number the woman said she couldn't give me that, and when I told her I'd recorded the conversation, she said 'that's illegal' and hung up.

I suppose I've blown my chances of any more calls!

On the other hand I have this idiot to play with :

From: James Galton [mailto:mgalton1@gmail.com]
Sent: 03 March 2019 01:43 PM
To: to you,mgalton1@gmail.com
Subject: Rooms availability

Good Morning,

I will like to make reservation for 4 guests coming to your city between the 18th May to 28th May 2019. 2 rooms will be needed for double occupancy per room for a total of 4 persons.

Check-in 18th May 2019
Check-out 28th May 2019

Please send me the total cost for 2 double rooms for 10 nights. R15,000 will be paid as deposit and the balance will be completed on arrival.

If yes, please provide with with the following:

(1) PHONE NUMBERS
(2)Type of credit card accepted

(Should there be no available rooms in the above mentioned dates,Please kindly inform me of the availability for 10 days in the month of may,2019).

James Galton

Ingleswood,CA

Hello

We can offer rooms as requested for 10 nights.

Cost for a double room is ZAR 7000 per night.

Total amount due = ZAR140,000

We can accept payment with any Visa or Mastercard branded credit card, other than those issued in Nigeria.

In order for us to hold booking, we require full details of guests, and a rectum/versum copy of the credit card, card holder's passport, and government issued proof of address.

Deposit of 25% (ZAR 35,000) on booking and balance due 30 days before arrival.

Thank you

[G-CPTN]

I received a telephone call from Australia - when I wasn't at home.
My assumption was it was 'spam' with a spoofed number - but it just might have been genuine or mis-dialled.
The call was made at noon GMT ostensibly from Central East Region (0061288598874) - wherever that is - which I reckon would be during their night?

I don't intend to call the number.

[Hydromet]

G-CPTN, theoretically, that number is in NSW, but those numbers starting with 88 after the area codes often seem to crop up as spam calls. Don't know why.

[llondel]

In the UK it is not illegal to record calls for your own use. You're not supposed to put them on social media, but when dealing with obnoxious bureaucrats making up rules to suit themselves it's useful to have a record of what they claim. You record the call and then sit and make a written transcript of the recording. You can then quote bits of the transcript freely, knowing that you've got proof. Under some circumstances the recording can be admitted to court as evidence (usually if the judge agrees).

[Flintstone]

I once surreptitiously recorded my disciplinary hearing (kangaroo court) at the southern european offices of a company I worked for over a decade ago. Even though I was on a UK contract and they had an office there I knew they were going to fire me on the spot for something I had no part in. Not that they cared, they wanted payback for the ex-DFO, a friend of mine, having fired a few of their shower-of-***** friends. I knew it was illegal but hey, they weren't going to play by the rules either so.....fukkem.

I got them on tape admitting that they were just firing me as tit-for-tat, that the 'statements' they'd elicited from hotel staff had been obtained under duress and that said statements were self contradictory and farcical. They also agreed that in the company's formative years they had forged our flight/duty records. I told them I was one foot out the door anyway and would be gone in a couple of months. But...nahhhhhh, they wanted their petty victory so fired me.

Their so-called transcript of the proceedings of course left out all the juicy bits. Mine however, being typed up from the recording, didn't. They bought me a very nice sports car.

[ExSp33db1rd]

Don't believe it is illegal to record providing you advise the other party, as do most Financial Insitutions under the pretence of using it for training ? yeah ! Right !

[Hydromet]

Don't believe it is illegal to record providing you advise the other party, as do most Financial Insitutions under the pretence of using it for training ? yeah ! Right !

When they tell me that "This call may be recorded for training purposes" I assume they are giving me permission.

In Australia, it is legal to record a phone conversation if the other party is aware that it is being recorded. For face-to-face conversations, it is legal as long as one of the parties is aware - i.e. you may not surreptitiously record a conversation in which you are not a participant.

[Pontius Navigator]

We had a nosey neighbour, always ringing. One day she rang to tell us our daughter's TV was on in her bedroom. As a strict god botherer she didn't approve but assumed that as it was a school day it had been left on by mistake.quick put down daughter is of school ill.

Another time, fed up,I told her out was being recorded. She calmed down, then offered to take daughters to Sunday school. Line of least resistance. At least it out them off church for ever.

[Capetonian]

There must be a lot of 'girls' who end up sitting in a hotel alone in a room ....... I get the same email at least twice a days, always a different name and photo. This one's photo is, shall we say somewhat more 'revealing' than the others!

I suppose there are lonely old tossers who fall for this *****.

Hey. What are you doing now? For example, I sit in a hotel alone in a room and write you this letter. My name is Daina.
You are probably surprised that I am writing you a letter, because I myself did not expect that I would get to know you.
I came to your city for a few weeks to my aunt who has been living here for 7 years. But I did not stop at her so as not to interfere with her and her life. I stayed in a hotel.
I have been here for several days and am already fascinated by the beauty of this city.
I walk, photograph beautiful places, it is a pity that I do it alone, since my aunt works a lot and she has her own family and I don’t want to disturb them.
And I have to walk alone in your city. Do you want to walk with me?
Last night when I was at the hotel, we became so bored and sad that I decided to go to a marriage agency for quick meetings.
They gave me your contact. I will send my real photo with this letter.
If you are certainly not against it, I would like to communicate with you through the web camera first and if we like each other, then you could meet in the evening and then spend the night in my hotel room.
The site where you can chat with us through the web camera. Registration on the site is completely free.
So you can follow the link and register on the site without any problems.
After registering in the search menu, enter my ID346578 and you will immediately find me there, I will always be online.
If you do not succeed in finding me there, then you write your ID to my mail and I will find you on the site.
I hope that you will answer me and entertain a beautiful girl.
I look forward to your letter.
See you.

[Pontius Navigator]

Smooth talking gal, bet you couldn't wait

[Flintstone]

There must be a lot of 'girls' who end up sitting in a hotel alone in a room

C'mon, let me have the email address. I'm bored.

[Capetonian]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... rison.html

A long article/exposé in today's Wail about the 'call centre' in India from which many of the scam 'HMRC' calls originate. I am amazed with the publicity that this has had, that people still fall for these fraudsters.

I love keeping them on the line, pretending not to understand them because they have funny accents, which always annoys them, specially when you patronise them with statements such as : "I realise that English might not be your first language", or "I appreciate that you didn't have such a good education as I did" and you can hear them struggling to keep control.

At then end I usually tell them I've recorded the call for use on a BBC programme about scammers.

[Pontius Navigator]

I am amazed with the publicity that this has had, that people still fall for these fraudsters.

Not really, you only have to look at your fellow man. Some of the ignorance displayed on quiz shows by seemingly bright people, let alone the thickos.

A smart woman on one show was asked:

"If you go due South from Land's End which is the first country you will come to."

She was given 4 choices, France, Spain, Portugal or Morocco.

After asking the host, and given virtually one of the two likely answers she plumped for one of the two improbable ones as she had been there.

*no cheating looking at a map please.

Many people don't read papers. They miss the anti-scam programmes while they update their farcebook lives.

[Capetonian]

that type of question can be quite confusing. I think most people would instinctively say France but I suspect it's Spain.

I'm sure there are also people who would say 'America'!

[Pontius Navigator]

Cape, she said Morocco. At least she didn't say Portugal.

[OFSO]

You don't reach anywhere, according to the maps in the OFSO household which don't waste ink showing insignificant beneath-our-British-contempt countries such as Spain. (Remember when the world atlas was all red ?)

[Capetonian]

I am baiting a scammer in Ghana who keeps phoning me and running out of credit on his prepaid cellphone. He's begging for money, and I told him that Ghana was well run until the NRs too kit over and now they're begging from the evil white colonialists.

Anyway for the first time for a long time I swore at one of these frigging scam ambulance chasers. Call seemed to be from a Canterbury number, so I answered, and then this cockney bint says :
"Oh' allo sir, I go' information that you was in a accident wot wasn't your fault"
Normally I waste their time with silly answers, but I was in the middle of something and was so annoyed I just told her to F off, not something I normally do. Wasting their time is far more satisfying for me and annoying for them.