Category: Scams

It is something that I have blogged about for over a decade, but more recently I have been made aware of a SERIOUS increase in scams originating from India and similar countries, targeting mostly elderly people or people that they have scammed before (they share and sell info between each other)

DONT BE FOOLED if they seem to have your details and seem legit – there are ways and means of getting this data. Don’t confirm anything with them as this simply validates their data, of which they resell to other scammers.

There are a couple of different types of scam, here are some examples;

• The scammers claim they are from a tech company (usually anti virus related) and claim you signed up and bought something 2 years ago that is now renewing for something like $179 or £70 and unless you call them, it will automatically be debited from your account. The scam is that they make it look like you’ve been given £1790 or £7000 as a refund and they “need the money back or they will lose their job etc”
• The scammers claim your computer/network has been hacked and the hackers are stealing your data etc. They connect to your PC and show you loads of stuff that is totally normal but looks scary. They then make you buy anti virus that you dont need (and that doesn’t exist)
• The scammers claim your national insurance number is on the national crime database and there is a warrant out of your arrest. If this was true, you wouldn’t be hearing it for the first time via a voicemail. They try and get you to pay a kind of “bail” to stop you from going to prison.
• The scammers claim you have won a HUGE prize or have been awarded some kind of grant. You will be asked to make a payment towards the shipping costs they incur when they send you a crate of money. Obviously there is no prize or grant, you are simply giving them money and they vanish once you’ve covered the “costs”.

I wont go into their methods or their techniques – I simply want to state a few FACTS that if we share far and wide enough, should stop a few people getting scammed.

1. No legitimate company will want to CONNECT TO YOUR PC to SHOW YOU that they have given you money back
2. No legitimate company will want you to send them refunds in the form of GIFT CARDS
3. No legitimate bank will EVER ask you to click links in emails and log into your account to do *something* – they would simply say “visit your online banking” and never directly link you to it.
4. Amazon, Microsoft, The Tech Guys, Norton Anti Virus, MacAfee Anti Virus – none of these companies have joint support services and none of them work together.
5. If you get a voicemail or text message that says something is being renewed that you know nothing of, ring your BANK and talk to them about it. They’ll inform you its a scam. NEVER PRESS ONE or ring the number they give you.
6. ALWAYS search for phone numbers they ask you to ring – as they’ll never take you to their official company website.
7. The police or national crime agency wont leave you automated voicemails to let you know you are in trouble

I will keep nipping back to this post and add more examples of the scams they run. If you encounter one or are unsure then please forward the email to scams@0lly.uk or comment below.

Together, we can squash these bastards.

InterfaceFM Ltd Is not a scam – their emails are being spoofed and the scammer registered a similar domain name and set the “Reply-to” address as his.

Ha. Welcome to 2021, where the world is broken and the scams have evolved. My accountant actually sent me this as he was suspicious;

He was confused as we have never dealt with this company.

I checked them out, they are legit. Hmmm

Looked at the details of the email closer, ah ha!

If you look at the spelling of the reply to address, its not INTERFACE its INTREFACE – Sneaky fookin prawns, eh!

So the email appears to come from a legit source, a real company – confusing! But on closer inspection the reply-to address is slightly different meaning you’d reply and think you were requesting info from the legit company but some scamming bastard would be replying instead.

I have informed GoDaddy, I have informed InferfaceFM Ltd

InterfaceFM Ltd Is not a scam – their emails are being spoofed and the scammer registered a similar domain name and set the “Reply-to” address as his.

Karen​ McGargle karen@interfacefm.com karen@intrefacefm.com

Well, this was one of the most random scam/spammer experiences of my baiting life/career.

Email address used: supportteam@daramail.com

I got an official email from Amazon Prime (haha it wasnt official) thanking me for my recent payment of £79.99 for my prime membership. Hmm, I do have prime but pay it monthly.. I wasnt really puzzled – I knew it was a scam before I even opened it, let me explain;

Ok, so for starters a company as big as Amazon would not miss a space between Amazon and Prime in the title of an official email.

Also, the grammatical errors are immediate, and inexcusable. Greeting not Greetings. No pound sign, missing dates, its just all wrong. Also £79.99 is the annual payment, then it refers to monthly. I think this was maybe to panic the reader and make them do something. Anyway, the email itself was obviously fake – but it wanted me to call a phone number;

This puzzled me. As literally 99 out of 100 other similar scams want you to click a link and they harvest some kind of credit card info or personal info from you.

So, I called the number.

Ring ring…

Ring ring…

“Hello?”

I played along a bit;

“Hello, is this Amazon Prime?”

He replied

“Yes, this is amazon prime how can i help”

Me: “I got an email, I think I need a refund or something?”

Him: “Yes ok [inaudible]”

Then I dropped the bomb.

Me: “How do you sleep at night knowing you’re scamming people out of their hard earned money?”

I fully expected him to hang up, but he didnt!

I asked him why he did this, and he told me!

He explained that he also worked full time, and that COVID has caused so many issues in his country, he needed to earn money to he turned to this scam. He tried to say he was a nice guy and that he didnt take much money from people he was just trying to survive.

I explained that he wasnt not going to know if he caused issues for people and £79.99 is a lot of money to a lot of people!

I asked him if he had grandparents, he said yes and I asked him how he would feel if someone stole their last £80, he went quiet.

Then, his manner changed. He seems to be less confident and more humbled. I asked him to think long and hard about what he was doing, and he said he would stop doing it.

A scammer with a conscious!

Update – I started writing this on the 3rd of June – its now the 16th and the number now just rings out. I hope this means hes stopped the scam!

Update – He called me back! I didnt answer, but it means hes still at it.

Update – Had a call today from 01324 409 887 and an automated lady said similar to the above “your prime membership is expiring etc” and press 1 to speak to someone, I pressed 1, through to – what sounded like – the same guy.

01324 409 887

DO NOT PAY THIS GUY ANY MONEY! HE IS NOT AMAZON PRIME!

My past is littered with instances where I have been sued, or people have tried to sue me. So when I received this email about a Subpoena I opened it with hesitation in case it was something legitimate.

Once open, it was quite clearly not. haha.

Came from the following address – looks propa legit innit;

The link in the email links to a hosted Google document, and then it wants you to download a file;

The download link takes the user to a really dodgy URL;

https://www.google.com/url?q=hXXp://193.0.178.46/m2Dj5W&sa=D&ust=1571397808415000

(obfuscated URL to avoid you getting e-aids)

This is really concerning as the use of Google docs to host this legitimises the scam, I have reached out to google to get them to remove the page.

These scams are starting to get more intelligent, and it seems some of the larger vendors (Amazon, Google,. etc) are seemingly letting things fall through the cracks which is, I guess, to be expected. Its still alarming and a worrying thing to be discovering especially as technology isn’t slowing down, I hope security and corporate responsibility/accountability can keep up!

Remember, if its too good to be true, its probably a scam.