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.

I think we've heard of this one before - a company claiming to call on behalf of Sky regarding your Sky Box calls from 08005979841. This lady seemed to know my name and told me the original contract on my box has expired. I immediately grew suspicious and asked her to repeat what she was calling about. Convinced this was a scam, told her what to do with the "contract" and put the phone down.

Years ago Mrs TP had some shares in Shell and they were due for some form of compensation. I can't remember the detail but I think it was some international tax ruling.

A couple of years ago I filled in some forms - and then silence.

Last night Mrs TP received an email, purporting to come from
royaldutchshellsettlement.com

They ask for her bank details.

The email says that if you do nothing the payment will come by cheque - which suggests it may be genuine.

But one cannot be too careful....

TP

Wait for the cheque!

Thanks Skinny.

TP

Blimey even the FBI are now at it :-)

Anti-Terrorist And Monetary Crimes Division FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation
J.Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, Nw Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 www.fbi.gov

ATTENTION: BENEFICIARY

This e-mail has been issued to you in order to Officially inform you that we have completed an investigation on an International Payment in which was issued to you by an International Lottery Company. With the help of our newly developed technology (International Monitoring Network System) we discovered that your e-mail address was automatically selected by an Online Balloting System, this has legally won you the sum of $2.4million USD from a Lottery Company outside the United States of America. During our investigation we discovered that your e-mail won the money from an Online Balloting System and we have authorized this winning to be paid to you via INTERNATIONAL CERTIFIED BANK DRAFT.

Normally, it will take up to 5 business days for an INTERNATIONAL CERTIFIED BANK DRAFT by your local bank. We have successfully notified this company on your behalf that funds are to be drawn from a registered bank within the world winde,

so as to enable you cash the check instantly without any delay, henceforth the stated amount of $2.4million USD has been deposited with IMF .
We have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to receive the winning prize as we have verified the entire transaction to be Safe and 100% risk free, due to the fact that the funds have been deposited with IMF you will be required to settle the following bills directly to the Lottery Agent in-charge of this transaction whom is located in Cotonou, Benin Republic. According to our discoveries, you were required to pay for the following,

(1) Deposit Fee's ( IMF INTERNATIONAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE )
(2) Shipping Fee's ( This is the charge for shipping the Cashier's Check to your home address)

The total amount for everything is $96.00 We have tried our possible best to indicate that this $96.00 should be deducted from your winning prize but we found out that the funds have already been deposited IMF and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you the winner, therefore you will be required to pay the required fee's to the Agent in-charge of this transaction In order to proceed with this transaction, you will be required to contact the agent in-charge ( Mr Mark Ben) via e-mail. Kindly look below to find appropriate contact information:


CONTACT AGENT NAME: Mr MARK BEN
E-MAIL=mark_ben001@w.cn
PHONE NUMBER: +229-9831-9986

You will be required to e-mail him with the following information:
FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
DIRECT CONTACT NUMBER:
OCCUPATION:

You will also be required to request Western Union or Money Gram details on how to send the required $96.00 in order to immediately ship your prize of $2.4million USD via INTERNATIONAL CERTIFIED BANK DRAFT from IMF, also include the following transaction code in order for him to immediately identify this transaction : EA2948-910.

This letter will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau Of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $96.00 ONLY to Mr mark Ben via information in which he shall send to you,

Mr. Robert Mueller
Federal Bureau of Investigation F B I
Yours in Service,Photograph of Director Robert S. Mueller, IIIRobert S. Mueller, III Director Office of Public Affairs Welcome once more to FBI www.fbi.gov

I speak good English - I learn it from a book :-)

Unbelievable, but the sad thing is that there are still people out there falling for this kind of scam, some vulnerable, some just idiots. I suppose if I reach a ripe old age I shall fall into one of those categories!

This looks well dodgy! Or is it? The lack of capitalisation on 'member' and lack of my name on the email makes me suspect it's a con - but a very cleverly done one.

Please pay your eBay Buyer Protection fees today

Dear member:
We are writing to inform you that your eBay account will become suspended due to unpaid eBay Buyer Protection fees. Your current listings will be ended and you will not be longer a member of the eBay Community.
Please pay the amount you owe immediately to avoid further collection activity. Consequences of not paying your fees may include having your account placed with an outside collection agency for further action.
To pay the amount you owe or to check the fees, please update your payment method or add a new one by clicking the "Check/Update payment method" button below.
Click here to update your payment method on file
Thank you,
eBay Global Collections

Frequently asked questions:
What happens if I do not pay my fees?
Your account will become restricted and you will enter collections. Your account may be sent to a collection agency for the balance owed.
I have additional questions and require further support.
Please use our Help system by clicking on the 'Help' link at the top of most eBay pages. You may also click on the 'Contact Us' link to send an email to Customer Support.

A couple of clues :-

"and you will not be longer a member of the eBay Community."

"Your account will become restricted and you will enter collections."

Scamsters targeting Barclays Bank customers:-

At 0920 today recieved a call on my mobile (automated) stating "This is Barclays Bank Fraud Prevention, please press any key on your phone." Immediately suspicious and ended the call. Thirty seconds later recieved a text requesting me to call the above urgently on 0845 3512288. Contacted Barclays via theire security number and they confirmed the number to be as suspected 'joey'.

Cannot imagine anyone being daft enough to fall for this kind of scam, more annoyed as to how easy it is for these low lifes to gain access to my mobile number.

cc - i hope you gave them all your personal details lol!! btw very easy to get anyones mobile - especially with so much stiff being outsourced to countries like india, turkey, mexico etc nowadays - cant wait for when the government lets these countries takeover medical records, tax et cetera - it will be great!!!! bunch of simpleton over educated nil common sense idiots running the country!

I've had some fantastic news this morning. I have received a letter from John Allen, Co-ordinator of the 2012 Summer Olympic Lottery, Zurich, informing me that I have won £900,000 in a lottery draw that they entered my name in! Marvellous!! They have sent me a form to fill in which I am to return to Microsoft Financial Security Company in Devonshire House, 1 Mayfair Place, Westminster. It says that I don't have to fill in my bank details if I do not want payment through bank transfer so it must be all above board! It even has a section to give details of my next of kin "In the absent or lost of contact" with me. Very thoughtful of them. I can't wait for my cheque to arrive! :o)

Looks like you have been short changed! :-)

Ha! You can't scare me skinny! I know that I am perhaps a little over excited by this amazing win and as a consequence might have missed something similar on your list, but I can't see the Fax or telephone numbers that I have in my letter on your list. Besides, they appear to be a very friendly lot this, they have even addressed me by my christian name - "Dear Mr Stephen" - nice! ;o)

lol

I haven't sold anything!
email address is eBayinc@case.com, no proper eBay logos or anything.

------------------------------------------

eBay opened a case in the Resolution Centre because the buyer has a problem with an item purchased from you.

In most cases, buyers and sellers can resolve these types of issues through direct communication.
If you aren't able to work things out, you or the buyer can contact customer support to review this case and make a final decision.


Details the buyer provided:
Problem: The buyer has not received the item
The buyer has already contacted you through eBay Messages
The buyer paid for the item with PayPal.
The buyer did not get a response from you.
The best time to reach the buyer is at "any".
Additional information:
'I have not heard anything at all from the seller. I emailed after a week asking for a eta but still heard nothing.'
The buyer wants:
The buyer prefers a full refund.
Transaction Information:
We've placed a hold on this PayPal transaction while you and your buyer work to resolve this case.
Email reference ID: [#38bfb83b519a4fbe9bba8c3b1dce1418#]
Please don't remove this number. Customer Support may ask you for this number, should you need assistance.

Kind regards,
eBay Customer Support

You'd better memorise that number Seymour; they do seem quite insistent! :o)

Three of my friends have had a virus recently that sends out messages, with no subject info, and the body of the message is a URL. If you click on the URL it comes up with a message similar to

"You are here because one of your friends have invited you to try our free trial.
Hurry up! Limited quantity available!
We try to be helpful for you.
Page loading, please wait…."

A few seconds later the redirect takes users to a site offering some form of medical product.

Usually on the first Google search there is a reference as to which trojan, or virus, this is. Not this time though.

Has anyone around here got any more info?

TP

This message I got last week, looks like a hacked yahoo account. For me it was a previous customer that had their account hacked and the email sent to anyone that had either had emailed her or she'd sent an email to. xoxo was placed in the subject field, this is nothing more than spam, I didn't click on the link though so can't confirm if indeed a virus or anything attaches itself as a result if the action.

The ones that came through last night were from an @aol account. And the one last week was btinternet.

I've deleted the ones coming to me before they reach my PC - but I had a look at one with an Android tablet which is how I know what happens when you click the URL.

TP