More on scams…

Following my post yesterday about the suspicious call my husband (Mark) had about promoting his website one of my regular readers, Alan Jones, sent me an informative email.

Because we are all busy people and can sometimes get caught out in the stress of the moment I asked Alan if I could share his insights with you. Sometimes we just need to be reminded …here’s Alan’s thoughts:

“I’ve got experience in detecting scams / phishing matters (being a co-ordinator for police homewatch / trading standards for our area) and also having had (nice) timeshare abroad, but now there are so-o-o many scams running you wouldn’t believe, including so called ‘solicitors’ in Spain & other locations – who dupe unsuspecting members of the UK & public elsewhere.

Your husband’s experience sound so much like yet another I’m afraid. Trouble is it’s so hard to catch these criminals because they hide their tracks so well (like using an internet cafe in Spain so you can’t find the exact sender / or using trojans in PC’s around the world so police can’t do an audit trail (as software keeps mutating into different identities) etc.

Also one of many other tricks to be wary of is that they pretend to be a genuine (say bank official) caller and give you part of your (correct) bank / or card number just to prove who they are …it’s just that they don’t have all of it, and they’re just trying anything to get your full credit card number…. if you (and so many do) fall for it (under a plausible guise of something you’re connected with) …then within minutes (never mind weeks) your account has been raided and vast sums removed / charged to your card etc… they then cover their tracks and quickly disappear. (I described this in an earlier post Telephone Scam).

You only find out weeks later when your statement arrives, and they’re long gone – and the credit card company has to pay out vast sums back into your a/c

We had this a while back where somehow they got hold of (I gather maybe via criminal internet sites) our Business Bank Account no. – and started charging for all sorts of stuff (like luxury dresses in USA?? – I’m a single male, we deal with Professional Audio / Events, UK based) – these were somewhere across America in our case?? VISA said it was a complete fraud (as it had happened on many other accounts) and we eventually got refunded – but your case sounds so much like a scam – and you called back and got no reply??? Major Alarm bells ringing!!!

My advice :-

Try and get any information / contact details from them, say you’ll call them back later – and call police / trading standards! Do Not, under any circumstances, give them any card / a/c number’s etc.

As you say, if your husband really wants to do stuff with Google Ad Words = go via a reputable supplier = one that You phone, not someone who phones you! (Goes for anything really!)

It is worth remembering the old adage (which we all know, but sometimes forget in the heat of the deal) ‘if it seems too good to be true – it probably is!’”

Alan Jones

The guy who phoned Mark has not called back – yet. Somehow I don’t think he will, but if he does then I’ll take Alan’s advice and record the conversation to hand over to the police.

And one final thought…

Did you see the Real Hustle on TV a week or so back?

This particular hustle was at an attended car park (in London I think).

The conman, wearing a reflective waistcoat, waited until the real attendant went off for a break and then stepped onto the site. He greeted the next person who drove in and asked for the keys to park the vehicle up – which the driver handed over. After seeing the car parked up the driver left (without getting the keys back).

The driver’s keyring had car and house keys on it. Plus - and this is the scary bit that made me stop and think - there was a portable Sat Nav in the car. The conman simply set the Sat Nav to the ‘home’ address and drove off to break into the house… he knew the owner wasn’t home because he’d got the car!

It had not occurred to me that setting your home address in your Sat Nav is effectively inviting burglars into your home if your Sat Nav is stolen.

Personally I wouldn’t leave my car keys like that – in fact when I have my car serviced at my local garage (and I’ve known the guys there for nigh on 20 years) I always take my house keys off the ring. Not because I don’t trust them… I just don’t know who else is likely to have access in the garage.

And needless to say, I’ve now changed my Sat Nav so it doesn’t show my home address any more!

OK – that’s enough from me on personal and home security. Back to normal next week, I promise!