Thought I'd share my experience having just been the subject of an attempted elaborate scam involving call purporting to come from High Court Enforcement officer confirming his arrival at your address to collect CCJ judgement.
After initial shock and explaining you have no idea what it is all about and violently challenging the right to turn up and demand payment, you are told he believes you and not to worry because the Courts will overturn the judgement when they see the claim was fraudulent. He is sympathetic realising you have been the victim of a scam and even offers to help you to make a counterclaim. You just have to pay the amount first to stop it being publicly recorded by the Court and impacting your credit record.
They are incredibly skillful in giving plausible answers to the obvious questions you will ask such as proof of who they are and how come no claim has ever been made for any money from a claimant or the Courts and why haven't I received a single notification from the Court.
I didn't make any payment, but I would not believe I could be so slow in realising I was being scammed and felt an idiot that I had gone along with it to the extent of agreeing I would pay the amount and show evidence to him when he arrived in an hour's time. I now know how easy it is to be conned by an expert con man.
It was only when i looked at the documents I demanded to see and emailed to me, that I suddenly woke up. The account name of a payment to the Court is hardly going to be called "M.M.L.". Nor do you make a counterclaim after the Court has passed judgement.
The scam works by keeping the victim in a state of confusion where nothing actually makes sense. Rational thought is temporarily suspended and the sympathetic con man's instructions sound a plausible way to end the nightmare you suddenly find yourself in.
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I admit I was initially taken in by their Open Reach phone call, press 1 for faults, 2 for setup and so on. But I after the first few words with the scammer I realised I talking to someone who was talking nonsense.
He asked asked me if I had aPC, tablet or phone. When I told him I’ve got an iPad he told me “the device is too small, have you got a pc?” It was obvious what was happening so I played along pretending to start up my laptop. He basically was trying to get access to the registry.
I played stupid, told him I didn’t know what buttons he was talking about, rung off, they rung back, he was telling me to push keys together which I told him I was having trouble with as I haven’t got enough fingers. Then he kept asking what was on my screen, I told it’s something but haven’t a clue because I can’t read computers.
He never gave up until I told him he was trying and failing to scam me.
Every time I get a call or an email I laugh it off as thankfully I’m quick to spot this sort of thing but it’s always followed by a cold shiver at the thought of my grandparents getting the same call. Some of these scams are just so convincing and I can easily see people swallowing them.
I’ve now got into the routine of forwarding on almost every email I get or texting my grandad about every call I get, just to try to steer him clear of the latest scheme.
My default position is to start by thinking everyone and everything is a scammer/scam, even if somebody calls to read the gas and leccy.
i got one not long ago via text and voice message saying i had missed a tax bill and hmrc were going to come and arrest me in 48 hours then follow ups. Not arrested yet and it was a couple of months back.
on the phone i usually string them along for a while then tell them what i really think.
the last one actually talked back to me after i gave him a verbal bashing about being a scummy ****** who was out to rip off the old and less aware. He claimed he was a nice guy who went to church but needed the money for his family! I carried on my verbal bashing till he hung up.
I simply never answer a call from a number I don't know and assume that if it's something important they will leave a message. If I get more than 2 calls from the same unknown number without a message being left I add it to my list of blocked numbers.
- just watch the Kapersky real time cyber crime map to see how much is happening.
- also go on ‘haveibeenpwned’ to check if your email has ever been compromised.
The presentation included the chap showing an email he knocked up with a 30min search of a colleague of mine where he had gone on his Facebook, found it locked except saying who his wife was, gone on hers and found where they had been on holiday, date and venue married at, kids ages/names etc. Then gone on Linkedin and got the blokes CV/education etc then onto 192.com to get his address. Built up a complete picture of the bloke and drafted a, not surprisingly, very plausible email about a missed student loan payment with a link to click on - just to illustrate how easy it is for someone to target a specific person.