Warning to all users

[Anonymouse]

Not sure where this should go; mods, please feel free to put it where it should be if I've made a mistake. Hardly my first today.

This afternoon I nearly fell prey to a scam. Allegedly there was something about my Amazon account, but I thought the requirements were a bit dodgy, i.e. having to install some app I'd never heard of (LemFi), ScreenConnect and Western Union.

DO NOT INSTALL THESE, EVEN THOUGH, ACCORDING TO REVIEWS, THEY'RE LEGIT APPS. SCAMMERS ARE USING THEM.

Luckily Barclays was on the ball, and a rep (genuinely from Barclays, we did security checks) rang me up to check the two transactions I'd tried to make. I realised how dodgy this all was, and asked her to stop my cards as a precaution - which she has. The transactions have not been made. As a further precaution I'll go to Barclays tomorrow and ask about it.

Taking a photo of my passport? That was the first alarm bell. Then the bombshell, which set off louder alarm bells: entering my debit card number, which like a prat I did. But still the transactions failed. Whew.

The bloke (who sounded Indian) was vague about why I was making these money transfers - which was when I realised this was a scam, and told the rep. It's true that unusual activity was detected by Amazon - I've changed my password - and that's because apparently the IP address was in the States.

I know precisely one person there: my cousin. We haven't spoken since he went to the States decades ago. I doubt we ever will, we're not close.

I've cancelled my passport as a precaution; I'll get a new one when I get my new cards (you can no longer pay for passport photos in cash. Bit annoying). The phone numbers the scammers used, I've blocked and forwarded to 7726. I'll go down the cop shop and report this; I think it's a legal requirement.

And I have, of course, uninstalled the apps. I'm not totally daft.

Well, not totally.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

Not sure where this should go; mods, please feel free to put it where it should be if I've made a mistake. Hardly my first today.

This afternoon I nearly fell prey to a scam. Allegedly there was something about my Amazon account, but I thought the requirements were a bit dodgy, i.e. having to install some app I'd never heard of (LemFi), ScreenConnect and Western Union.

DO NOT INSTALL THESE, EVEN THOUGH, ACCORDING TO REVIEWS, THEY'RE LEGIT APPS. SCAMMERS ARE USING THEM.

Luckily Barclays was on the ball, and a rep (genuinely from Barclays, we did security checks) rang me up to check the two transactions I'd tried to make. I realised how dodgy this all was, and asked her to stop my cards as a precaution - which she has. The transactions have not been made. As a further precaution I'll go to Barclays tomorrow and ask about it.

Taking a photo of my passport? That was the first alarm bell. Then the bombshell, which set off louder alarm bells: entering my debit card number, which like a prat I did. But still the transactions failed. Whew.

The bloke (who sounded Indian) was vague about why I was making these money transfers - which was when I realised this was a scam, and told the rep. It's true that unusual activity was detected by Amazon - I've changed my password - and that's because apparently the IP address was in the States.

I know precisely one person there: my cousin. We haven't spoken since he went to the States decades ago. I doubt we ever will, we're not close.

I've cancelled my passport as a precaution; I'll get a new one when I get my new cards (you can no longer pay for passport photos in cash. Bit annoying). The phone numbers the scammers used, I've blocked and forwarded to 7726. I'll go down the cop shop and report this; I think it's a legal requirement.

And I have, of course, uninstalled the apps. I'm not totally daft.

Well, not totally.

Good to know. Thank you.

[jem]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

Not sure where this should go; mods, please feel free to put it where it should be if I've made a mistake. Hardly my first today.

This afternoon I nearly fell prey to a scam. Allegedly there was something about my Amazon account, but I thought the requirements were a bit dodgy, i.e. having to install some app I'd never heard of (LemFi), ScreenConnect and Western Union.

DO NOT INSTALL THESE, EVEN THOUGH, ACCORDING TO REVIEWS, THEY'RE LEGIT APPS. SCAMMERS ARE USING THEM.

Luckily Barclays was on the ball, and a rep (genuinely from Barclays, we did security checks) rang me up to check the two transactions I'd tried to make. I realised how dodgy this all was, and asked her to stop my cards as a precaution - which she has. The transactions have not been made. As a further precaution I'll go to Barclays tomorrow and ask about it.

Taking a photo of my passport? That was the first alarm bell. Then the bombshell, which set off louder alarm bells: entering my debit card number, which like a prat I did. But still the transactions failed. Whew.

The bloke (who sounded Indian) was vague about why I was making these money transfers - which was when I realised this was a scam, and told the rep. It's true that unusual activity was detected by Amazon - I've changed my password - and that's because apparently the IP address was in the States.

I know precisely one person there: my cousin. We haven't spoken since he went to the States decades ago. I doubt we ever will, we're not close.

I've cancelled my passport as a precaution; I'll get a new one when I get my new cards (you can no longer pay for passport photos in cash. Bit annoying). The phone numbers the scammers used, I've blocked and forwarded to 7726. I'll go down the cop shop and report this; I think it's a legal requirement.

And I have, of course, uninstalled the apps. I'm not totally daft.

Well, not totally.

Good for Barclays for stepping in. Now I'm not familiar with LemFi, but ScreenConnect and Western Union are perfectly valid apps, the first os a remote access application to allow tech support (or in this case scammers) to access your device, basically see everything on the screen and remote control your device. The second is a valid money transfer app.

Now the thing about your IP address being used in the States, was it somewhere in California by any chance? Were you asked to browse to a particular website and see what it said? Yes it's a well known trick.

The way it works is that a scammer working in a call centre probably in India or Pakistan, calls you and claims to be from Amazon; now they haven't really called you, they go through entire sets of numbers and work on the basis that most people might well have an Amazon account. They get you to do all sorts of stuff and then claim that you are being 'hacked' and they can help. They then want you to install software on your device which actually gives them control of it.Often they will offer a 'refund' which you need to log into your internet banking to receive. As they are now watching your screen, you have now just handed over your banking details. They will then transfer money using the (again, perfectly legit) Western Union app from your account to theirs.


Microsoft, Amazon, any ISP will NEVER EVER call you out of the blue and claim 'hackers...etc. I've lost count of the number of calls I've had which consist of an automated voice saying 'this is a message from bank security.....', (they don't say which bank as they don't know), press 1 etc....

Just put the phone down.

There is a BBC TV series available on iPlyaer called 'Scam Interceptors', yes a bit dramatic and OTT, but worth checking out