Reports of frauds, deceptions and scams keep appearing, weekly even daily, on
major news channels and newspapers. Some of these frauds seem just too big and remote to be of immediate, direct relevance to our daily lives. But, we will eventually pay for the consequences and damages, in taxes, costs of goods and services, regulations, copy-cats etc.

I hope we can collect, in one thread, frauds and scams, reported or heard. We must become more aware and more educated to guard against frauds and scams
which impact upon the health, well being, and wealth of ourselves and our families.

Well, I certainly wouldn't provide any information that might arouse someone into patronising me :-)

From the little of what I've read, I shudder to think some people have profited and Custom and Excise costed every salary earners in the UK a few percentages/pennies on the income tax. Could the failed investigation had been a well-planned insider job ??? Must try to get the full Panorama transcript.

I had sold the car on ebay but the winning bidder failed to contact me despite repeated emails and phone calls which went unanswered. After a week he finally answered his phone and said that he had not looked at his email because he was going to Australia the next day for 4 weeks and he would pay for the car when he got back!! You can imagine how pleasant and polite my answer to him was?

davspeed :-(

This links through to quite a professional-looking site (since it's a copy of an existing site), although note the link address does not match the text. Of course eventually one is required to type in the PIN number as well as the credit card number.


Dear ********,

Daily Monitoring of your visa credit card and debit is the only way to protect potential identity theft in progress.
After so much identity theft in progress towards the Visa Institution we are proud to present the new Anti-Theft
service called (Verified by Visa).
This is a unique service that uses personal passwords or identity information to help protect Visa card numbers against
unauthorized use Visa Financial Institution now requires to all Visa members to Enroll in this service.

Our goal is to lower and eliminate the fraud against our Visa Members!
Please take 2 minutes and click on the link below to protect your Visa card right now
with Verify by Visa Protection Plan, and avoid any penalty or suspension actions against you.

https://usa.visa.com/personal/security/vbv/index.html

After we review all the information that you have submitted we will send you an e-mail notification within 48-72 hours.


Notification Department
----------------------

This email is for your information, and does not require a response.

Not yet but has good potential for scams, frauds and phishing. There are very little we can do and probably need to do, but it is good to be aware. Like all systems the biggest weakness is human integrity. In case of computer systems, we have to remember that IT staff, whether in the UK or otherwise, will probably have accesses to personal data for non-medical reasons. Making a complete mockery of data protection act and any "promises" made by governments or managements. Think about umbrella excuses of debugging, maintenance, data for testing, data security checking, backups (onsite or off-shore) etc etc etc

It would be very interesting to see whether the following groups of people
will have their medical records kept on the system - royal families, tycoons, cabinet ministers and their families ... Oh, I forgot, they are probably all private.


All IMO, DYOR etc

"A new NHS computer database may threaten the privacy of patients' medical records, the BBC has learned...."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4392555.stm

Is this legal?

I have received my latest Orange phone bill, and there are two charged calls, from numbers 89069 and 83222, neither of which I have ever heard of.

Total cost of the calls is 2 inc VAT.

I ran Orange and they said I had no idea what these numbers were, and I had not requested calls from these numbers. They informed me that I must have downloaded a rinbgtone or similar, or been on a chat line.

I told them I HAVE NEVER EVER downloaded anything to my mobile, and only use it for calls to people I know, never anything else.

I said the charges were a mistake, and please remove them, and they countered saying that it is MY responsibility to remonstrate with the company concerned, and ask them to refund my 2.

They checked my bill and these charges are now accumating every 5 days at the rate of 2 a time.

I asked orange to disallow these numbers, to prevent further charges accumalting, but they said they couldn't.

I asked the originator of the charges, and they couldn't tell me!

They did provide a list of 10 companies, some chat, some porn sounding, but none that I had heard of. They could not confirm the actual name of the company they were charging my account for, and they were paying! Interestingly, both of these numbers originate from the same company callcentre!

They gave me a number to ring, but it was an automated system, where I had to input my mobile number, and the two originating numbers, and they said they will text me within 5 days a code to block these messages in the future.

I then registered my mobile number with www.tpsonline.org.uk, which SHOULD stop this "within 28 days"!

My beef with Orange is that have simply charged my bill for two text messages I do not recognise, and are then proceeding to repeat this charge every 5 days!, regardless of me informing them I have no idea what they are for!

Does anyone here think this is correct or not?

If your Visa card was charged for an amount you had not authorised, who would you remonstarte with? Visa I think! Surely the same principle applies here?

I informed them that unless they withdrew the charges, I would close my account, and they offered to transfer me to account terminations, they would rather lose a customer than refund 2, what a bunch!

Sadly, I have had my contract, and number for many years, and if I terminate, I will have the inconvenience of having to source a new contract on worse terms, and I have an SPV phone with full web browser, which I use for streaming prices, and this is exclusive to orange.

I do feel they are unfairly treating me, as I genuinely have not used any service, and am being treated like the wrongdoer, and although Orange are charging me, they cannot tell me why, or by whom, and expect me to do the running around!

Does anyone have any ideas, or know my legal position?

I know it's not a lot of money, but it's a scam, IMHO Orange are failing in their duty, and allowing me to be ripped off.

Any info / ideas would be appreciated.

Andy.

Ok,

I have now received a text message from each number saying they have will stop sending messages within 1 day.

The messages were from WWW.WINPLC.COM

I foud the contact information for Winplc.com on their website, and all the mobile logos are there, the Orange logo is top of the page!

I rang them, they asked for my number, and they said the company that has been charging me is DIGITAL DAZE.

They gave me a phone number to ring for a refund - 0871 750 4019
So I have to ring a premium rate number to obtain my refund!


I did a check at Companies House for Digital Daze

DIGITAL DAZE ARE REGISTERED AS A COMPANY NUMBER 04915631.

18 Rudolf Place,
Vauxhall,
London
SW8 1RP.

I tried google, but no info re these guys, so if anyone does know something about them, pleas epost, os send me a private message.

TIA.

Andy,

Who are the directors ?

axdpc,

I presume you have to pay Companies house for that info?

Not sure how to find out otherwise.

I searched around on the address, 18, Rudolf Place, and found another company registered there, QLD Limited - company number 04875845.

I found a phone number for them 0207 735 7555.

I rang and said "is that Digital Daze?", and the reply was "yes"!

I related my story, and the guy said he would check, then their computer went down, so waiting for him to ring me back.

I have asked him to inform me how I started to recieve these text messages.

If I am at fault somehow, I will pay up happily and learn my lesson, but otherwise I want a refund.

Some of these problems occur when you request a service once. Unbeknown to you the terms and conditions state that you will receive one once a week. However you should of course be getting the actual text messages!

kayak,

Yes I have heard of examples of this hapenning with ringtones, but I really haven't requested ANY services, nor rung any chatlines or the like.

I rarely use the phone, only ever call people I know, and only access MAM monitor on internet connection.


Update

The company i rang have not returned my call informing me how i came to receive these unwanted messages, but I have received another text confirming they will not text me again.

I want orange to refund my account, IMHO these transactions were not authorised by me, so they have no right to take the payment IMHO.

I would like a legal view if anyone here can offer one.

If you look at www.winplc.com website, Orange are advertised there!

Dear Mr./Mrs.

We are writing you on behalf of ULTRACO S.A., well-known prestigious Swiss company which main field of operation lies in selling elite watches collections and jewelry series. We are glad to propose you interesting and highly paid job in financial sphere. At this moment we are in need of new regional financial agents whose work consists of collecting the payments from the customers from the same country and forwarding them to our company's main office. Due to our operating employees inability to handle the sales volume we decided to open additional vacancies in each European country as well as in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Regional financial managers are needed because we accept bank wire transfers only and as you know international wire transfer could take more than 3 or even 5 days, thus increasing term of delivery up to 5-8 days. Such long term of delivery adversely affects our sales volume that's why we provide our agent's account details to the customer who is in the same country. Bank transfer within the same country takes 1-2 days only. After we receive confirmation that the amount has been received we send purchased items to the customer immediately. These actions let us to diminish term of delivery to 3-4 days.
Please visit our webpage at www.ultra-co.org/vacancies.html to get to know our proposal in greater detail and if you are interested please send an email to vacancy@ultra-co.org and we will send you an Application Form back. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact us at info@ultra-co.org and we will reply you for sure. Thanks for reading our proposal.

Chief Executive Officer,
Jose Ansari,
ULTRACO S.A.

Keryong Mining Company.
P.O. Box 443,Tema,Ghana
Email; dr_daiz@web-mail.com.ar
Dear friend,
I am writing to you at this time to advertise the
availability of our main product,alluvial gold-dust in bulk
quantities. As we represent a large number of local
artisan miners, we are prepared to provide quantities of up
to 350 kilograms of 22 carat plus alluvial gold.

Product: Alluvial Gold Dust.
Quantity: 350 kilograms available
Quality: 22 carat plus.
Origin: Ghana, West Africa
Price: US$6,500 per kilogram
Assay reports provided by SGS Laboratories,Accra-Ghana.

We will need to firstly have a memo-random of agreement
signed and Also an ownership certificate will have to be
made in your name from the high court of justice here in
Ghana before we could start any business with you,as that
will enable us to move the goods directly to your choice
of destination through a well known and registered
diplomatic agency here in Ghana.

Further-more,we are currently seeking outside-based serious
investors to Increase our production capacity. If you are
interested in this proposal, or have any further questions,
kindly contact me at the email address listed above.

Thanks in anticipation as I am expecting your urgent
responses and also Your telephone contact numbers. Looking
forward to doing business with you and your company.
Yours Faithfully,
Dr.Daiz Akpong .

NB:You are also going to take care of the shipment of the
goods

"Watchdog blasts rip-off mechanics

The entire car repair industry has been issued with a final warning by the National Consumer Council over "shoddy service and rip-off charges".

Trade bodies have failed to deal with customers' problems, says the council.

...

The NCC's undercover research on car repair shops suggests that consumers are often cheated.

Repairs that need doing are missed, unnecessary work is done, and consumers are often charged for incomplete repairs.

Women are deceived more often than men, according to the NCC.

...
"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4407627.stm

"'Rip-off' garages cost drivers 4bn a year
Alistair Foster, Evening Standard
4 April 2005

GARAGES and mechanics offer a "shoddy service and rip-off chargesthat could be costing customers an extra 4bn each year.

...
"

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money-savers/article.html?in_article_id=399425&in_page_id=2&ito=1565

Hi

We offer easy job to you.
We have contracts with 5 clients from UK.
They should pay our services only by bank transfer inside UK.
Our British representative has left for business trip.

You should have the account (or open new one) with one of this banks: HSBC,
Lloyds, Barclays.

Our clients will send money to your bank account.
You should withdraw cash in bank and take for yourself 10%.

You should send our 90% by Western Union or by MoneyGram to our office to
Russia.

PLEASE REPLY ONLY TO THIS EMAIL: X-STARS@KM.RU


Thanks,
Andrey Gorilenko.
-
X-Stars Group Ltd.
23 Lenina Street,
St-Petersburg, Russia.

Kayak,

presumably this is a variation on the old Nigerian fraud, where once they have obtained your bank details, they withdraw all the funds themselves?

They only want clearing banks, but not RBS, I wonder why?

"Phoney revenue forms con ex-pats"

Last Updated: Monday, 25 April, 2005, 08:51 GMT 09:51 UK

"Bogus tax forms, claiming to be from the Inland Revenue, are being sent out to unsuspecting staff working abroad in a bid to gain bank details from them.

British citizens overseas are receiving what professes to be a P86, for staff "Not Ordinarily Resident in the UK".

The taxpayer is asked to return the completed form, to Kensington House, 33, Imperial Square, Cheltenham.

But it is a "brass plate" address and the letters were being forwarded to Lagos in Nigeria.
..."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4480379.stm

All LEGAL but it does leave bad tastes in the mouth and cause great alarms ...

"Private deals block Jamie's school dinners

Felicity Lawrence and Katharine Quarmby
Monday April 25, 2005

Guardian
The school meals revolution set in motion by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has already run into difficulties as long-term contracts with private companies prevent schools getting rid of junk food.

The Guardian has learned that new schools locked into 25-year contracts through private finance initiatives are finding that they cannot rid their menus of junk food despite the government's pledge.

Other schools are also running into problems as they discover that they face substantial financial penalties if they try to opt out of long-running contracts with private catering companies.

..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5178651-103690,00.html


The bits that irk me was

"... Most Merton secondary schools are locked into a 25-year PFI contract with a company called New Schools. It has subcontracted all services for 25 years to Atkins Asset Management. Atkins has subcontracted again, giving a 25-year catering contract for the schools to Scolarest catering. ..."

IMO, either the original contract was grossly over-priced or the health of children are sacrificed by the process of two sub-contractings.

If this can be done to children, the most vulnerable and valuable parts of our society, what are being done to .... ?????????