SCAMMERS !

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OFSO
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SCAMMERS !

#1 Post by OFSO » Sun Aug 23, 2015 3:28 pm

Transcript of a phone conversation:

Last Thursday phone rings here. Lady speaking with upper class accent.

"Can I speak to Ms (---) please"

Me: "Who are you ?"

"We are (name of firm, slightly posh name) and we have information for her about her pension".

Me: "Are you affiliated to the UK Pensions department or the UK Government ?"

"We have to know some details about her before we can send this information as it's rather a lot".

Me: "Are you working for the UK Government, or are you subcontracted to the UK Government ?"

"We are providing expatriates in receipt of a pension with updated pension information".

Me: "Well, we only deal directly with government agencies"...... and I put the phone down. They haven't called back.

Note that (a) they had her phone number in Spain and (b) they knew or assumed from her age she is in receipt of a UK pension.

Obviously someone has (again) been selling information to private firms.....

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#2 Post by Tom Joad » Sun Aug 23, 2015 6:42 pm

Would not be surprised if it was the UK Pension agency, seems like no personal data is secure these days. May be worthwhile asking what their policy is on sharing data.

Tom

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#3 Post by OFSO » Sun Aug 23, 2015 8:08 pm

I suspect their policy follows the general lines that no private information will be disclosed to third parties except: where required by law to regulatory authorities, to third part service providers, agents and sub-contractors, to debt collection agencies, to credit reference and fraud prevention agencies, to other companies that provide benefits or services, as part of statistics or aggregated data shared with third parties, and where permitted by law....

Phew ! For a minute there I thought my data was no longer being kept confidential.... ;)

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#4 Post by angels » Sun Aug 23, 2015 8:54 pm

As I've said before, there is no such thing as confidentiality when it comes to computers. I just assume everything I put on a computer will be/can be used by all sorts of third parties, legally or not.
All generalisations are false, including this one.

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#5 Post by fin » Mon Aug 24, 2015 10:09 pm

Capetonian, please join us.
Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#6 Post by angels » Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:36 pm

I had an e-mail from Mrs Michelle Obama in the White House today.

She wants to give me 20 million dollars she's nicked from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Granted, it's going to cost me 185 dollars to get my mitts on it but that's nothing compared with the riches I will have. I must say though, I didn't realise she had relatives in Benin.... :o
All generalisations are false, including this one.

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#7 Post by Alisoncc » Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:24 pm

angels wrote:As I've said before, there is no such thing as confidentiality when it comes to computers. I just assume everything I put on a computer will be/can be used by all sorts of third parties, legally or not.


Reminds me of an incident not long before I retired. Working as accountant/IT officer for a legal centre. Principal solicitor, all of a fluster, barges into my office after having deleted a folder full of very important emails relating to a pending tribunal hearing. "Help" says she, "I need to recover them somehow".

15 mins later let her know that everything was back where they should be, and I had checked that all contents were intact. Next case work meeting she really gets stuck into me after the realisation sank in that I had access to everything and I mean everything that happened in the centre. :?

Suspect things have changed a bit, but in the mid 1980's whilst working for a supplier of database compression and encryption utilities, I was handed a tape by an engineer with a major Australian bank that contained the personal records of their entire client base. He wanted us to investigate some minor glitches that occurred when encrypting it. Just stuck it on the back seat of my car and it sat there for a few weeks after I forgot it. It's a simple fact of life IT people have access to everything and I mean everything that happens on computers in their charge.

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Sent from my PDP11/05 running RSX-11D via an ASR33 (TTY)

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#8 Post by angels » Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:52 am

While I was in Asia there was an IT employee for Reuters in Honkers who wanted two weeks off, but his boss would only give him the one.

So the next Saturday, he potters off to a few major banks, shows his ID to the sleepy staff and says, "I need access to your mainframe to make some adjustments to your HK stock exchange feed." No worries mate.

The next Monday, right on the opening bell, all the banks he had visited suddenly lose their IT connections to the outside world. He had put in electronic time bombs to go off at 0900. He got four years.

The interesting thing was, it took a while for the story to surface as everyone was thinking there but for the grace of god go I. He did no hacking, he didn't have to. He was given access to the mainframes!
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Re: SCAMMERS !

#9 Post by Happy SLF » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:19 pm

Four years seems a tad harsh to me, but what about the people who just let him walk in and "do stuff"to their computers?
Surely they would have been expecting authorisation from above to let anyone touch their computers?

The son of a friend of SWMBO's is quite an intelligent lad in his early 40's with his own business but he is far too trusting.
Well he was but not so much now as believe it or not he fell for the "phone call from Microsoft" trick. Luckily he suddenly
acted and stopped any damage but it was a very very close run thing and caused him some anguish.

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Wossat?

#10 Post by probes » Fri Sep 04, 2015 8:45 am

I am writing you this email to make reservations for me and my wife at your hotel.
Arrival day : 11/09/2015
Departure day: 30/09/2015
Number Of Gusts: 2 Adult
Kindly send the total quotation so as to forward my card for the full payment only.
Thanks
Mr XXX

Is that a scam to get a reply? Needless to say, we have no hotel. (and I X-ed the name, in case it's just a misunderstanding, but it is there).
The 'number of gusts' sounds funny :)

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#11 Post by sprintman » Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:01 am

During my time up at 'The House' I had to fix an access failure on a Decmate WPS used in the National Party leaders office. On replacing the HDD board I found I had the complete election strategy and campaign launch speech. Always wondered what I could have done with it...

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#12 Post by angels » Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:26 am

Nervous - Apologies for the late reply, I hadn't noticed your observation.

Quite a few people were shocked at the sentence he got, but quite a few weren't. It was in the lead up to the handover to China and Hong Kong was battling to keep the Asian headquarters of companies. Many were off to Singapore. The last thing the HK authorities wanted was an impression that it was a hackers' paradise.

As you say, the most embarrassing aspect was the success the guy had just asking people to give him access. Every place he went to, without exception, let him into the system (IIRC it was about 7/8 banks). One actually gave him the code (so to speak), rather than saying 'turn your back and I'll log you in'.

The sentence was meant to be a deterrent. He had pleaded guilty so a lot of stuff never emerged in evidence.
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Re: SCAMMERS !

#13 Post by ian16th » Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:13 pm

I Rx'd an SMS/Text message referring me to:

http://rsa-mmm.net/

Hmmm 30% a month, must be good!
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Re: SCAMMERS !

#14 Post by Tom Joad » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:48 am

Wow they have a 'calculator of happiness ' on that sites.

Capetonian

Re: SCAMMERS !

#15 Post by Capetonian » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:51 am

Re: SCAMMERS !
Capetonian, please join us.

Thank you, I'm here!

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#16 Post by Pinky the pilot » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:57 am

Yeah, well ok Capetonian; Would you please be so kind as to edjumacate, elucidate and entertain us once again as to your scammer baiting antics?? ^:)^

Struth but that used to make me laugh!!! :D
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Re: SCAMMERS !

#17 Post by Sisemen » Sat Sep 05, 2015 1:52 pm

Capetonians last post on the scammers thread in t'other place was cut off in its prime and we never heard what the outcome of that particular baiting was.

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#18 Post by 500N » Sat Sep 05, 2015 2:09 pm

Yes, baiting phone "scammers" or relentless cold callers is very good fun as well.
They can get quite "shirty" in the end.

My GF suffered for quite a while from one persistent cold caller / scammer
who would never take "no" and stop calling for an answer.

Capetonian

Re: SCAMMERS !

#19 Post by Capetonian » Sat Sep 05, 2015 2:58 pm

My current efforts are aimed at the 'fake passport' scammers who are mostly in Cameroon. My 'persona' is an 82 year old Polish lady called Karolina Grodszinska whose English is very limited and whose grasp of anything post 1950 is even more limited. she doesn't know what 'scanning' is, or what Western Union and Moneygram are, so she gets bank account details which they very reluctantly give when they see the fish wriggling off the line .......... BINGO.

I do not know take photo with phone. I have Nokia.
Phone is for talking, camera is for photo.
To send photo I need address I send with KURIER.
I hope it clear
K.

I do not understand.
What do you mean snap it with my phone?
What is snap?
K.


I get emails like this :
Good evening,
the information you just gave is correct and accurate. but you will also need to sign on a white ***** of pepper scan it and send it to us along side with passport seize photo.
we are waiting for your reply

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Re: SCAMMERS !

#20 Post by probes » Sat Sep 05, 2015 4:11 pm

Capetonian wrote: My 'persona' is an 82 year old Polish lady called Karolina Grodszinska...
:ymapplause: :ymapplause: Where for God's sake do you get your personages? @-)

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