New sophisticated fraud scam

[raleighnut]

I've got the 'perfect' answer to scam calls like that "well I'm in town a bit later so I'll pop into the branch to discuss this with my account manager" they generally hang up at this point.
Our phone number is on one of the lists that makes the rounds, a common one we get is "This is British Telecom, we think someone is using your internet connection" Well 2 things we have unlimited internet access so it ain't costing us a bean and 2 there hasn't been a company called 'British Telecom' for decades, they're BT...........remember the Maureen Lipmann adverts. add in the fact that BT would never call anyone, they wait for you to call them if there's a problem.

 

[Alex321]

No, it hasn't worked with landlines either for several years.

Since 2014 in fact.

 

[Alex321]

There was a retired schoolteacher who fell for this one locally and she got cleared out of her savings. It was a lot of money like 80K or something like that. The bank said that she should have known better etc, it was a well known scam. The bank tried to stop her initially from transferring the money but she did it anyway despite warnings from them. Then she wanted her money back. The bank refused. After a LOT of hassle and this going on the T.V she was reimbursed. I felt sorry for the bank in this instance because they were telling her it was a scam and she ignored them.
She went on t.v saying that she was starting with Alzheimer's or something.

My bank tried to stop me from transferring money to my granddaughter's account at the weekend, claiming there was a high probability it was a scam.

I phoned her to double check that the account details she had texted me were correct.

 

[markemark]

My bank tried to stop me from transferring money to my granddaughter's account at the weekend, claiming there was a high probability it was a scam.

I phoned her to double check that the account details she had texted me were correct.

Yep. Imagine a world where they actually prevented it. Banks have a duty to notify but not prevent.

 

[Mike_P]

Banks will flag anything odd by sending a message to you look at their app IME. Had some fraudster ring me apparently on a local number which immediately rang an alarm as not being the bank and then incredibly they tried on a mobile number.

 

[Profpointy]

I've heard of that one from years back, but I think it only works with landlines and more and more people just use mobile

Agree. I don't think it works like that these days, but the original story may well have been valid

 

[classic33]

And my point is that it is blindingly obvious. Someone rang you up stating they were from a bank and asking you for information. That is about as obvious as it gets. If you found it more believable because of her accent then I would strongly recommend you spend a little time protecting yourself in the future by reading up on common tactics. Basing your fraud detection on accents and line quality is, sorry to say, extremely naïve.

When working in the back office of one bank in 2001-2001, this scam was known then. There's nowt new about it.

We always said to customers that if they didn't trust the call to them, hang up and call either the telephone number on the letter, or the telephone number on their card, if they had one on the account.*
Some accounts were purely online, others had no cards on them. I still have the staff fraud office number on my handset.

All access to an account was marked by the system, time, date and who. Available to the fraud office in almost real time. Making any false calls stand out due to no account access/activity showing.

*The other option given was to take the letter into any branch. Issuing office of the letter is in a code amongst the reference number.

 

[Profpointy]

And my point is that it is blindingly obvious. Someone rang you up stating they were from a bank and asking you for information. That is about as obvious as it gets. If you found it more believable because of her accent then I would strongly recommend you spend a little time protecting yourself in the future by reading up on common tactics. Basing your fraud detection on accents and line quality is, sorry to say, extremely naïve.

However a bank, and an internet supplier, phoned me up expecting me to confirm
my identity. When declined to do so the person on the phone seemed unable to grasp why this might be an issue. Both were seemingly genuine calls, but ffs, what are they playing at?

 

[FrankCrank]

Whilst recently back there, my mum went fibre optic, which also meant having a new landline number, and a clean sheet with regard to scam callers. Hassle is letting all family/friends know the new number.

 

[Aescott]

On the other hand…….

My wife placed an order with Ocado for food delivery. However, as she is the secondary card holder, all communication comes to me as the primary cardholder (not that it would have made much difference). I got up on the morning of the delivery to see a text from John Lewis Card Services saying that they had spotted a potentially fraudulent transaction - reply Y if OK. I did so - but as the text had been sent at 00.01 and this was now 06.50, when my wife went to check the order, it had been cancelled and she lost the slot.

I understand the need for vigilance, but as she’s used Ocado on a number of occasions in the past, I don’t know why this transaction was flagged.

 

[Cycleops]

Maybe it's better they are over cautious than the other way around @Aescott ?

 

[Aescott]

Maybe it's better they are over cautious than the other way around @Aescott ?

Maybe…. But it cost us the delivery slot, and it was a retailer that we’d used previously, and the delivery was going to the normal address.

It was a minor inconvenience, but irritating. Made slightly more so by the fact that I had spotted two fraudulent transactions on the secondary card a few months previously and the fraud team hadn’t.

First world problems, I suppose.

 

[Cycleops]

Better losing a delivery slot than a few grand

 

[Dave7]

Years ago, when the Nigerian Prince scam started a guy in my town fell for it and they cleaned his bank account out completely.

 

[Aescott]

Better losing a delivery slot than a few grand

Agreed. Although the few times there have been attempted fraudulent transactions on my card, the credit card company reimbursed us without much ado.