Scam reminder

[Mr Colpot]

I have had the press 1 call a few times but when I press 1 it just cuts off the call so I don't have the pleasure of winding them up. I have just had half an hours worth of fun with first Billy (an Indian sounding BT Tech Guy) and then Harry (an Indian sounding BT Manager). He had me Google "my 1p address" and it came up with an IP Address and Company in Holland who have apparently stolen my Broadband and are using it illegally.(I did question him about 1P rather than IP and he insisted that 1P is the technical name!) He then got me to run netstat on the cmd line and it showed lots of connections. I had discussions with him about the validity of the connections but he just kept worrying me about the foreign addresses shown in the list.
He then asked me to go to wwwdotmybt1dotwebnodedotcom where I would see they were a legitimate company. I told him my Antivirus Program wont let me go to the site as it was warning me its a scam (it wasn't I just made it up) and he hung up. They used to call my landline but I thought they must have put a marker against saying not to call. Todays call came in on my office ddi though so I hope they don't put a note against this number as well as I have missed the fun recently.

 

[Hollyberry]

Hi Everybody
Scams similar to these have been going on for years, I remember before these scams were widely known, I was contacted by a person by email who gave me a hard luck story, I can’t remember what the story was as it was so so long ago, it’s got to be late 1990's as in 1999 that’s the year I left that bank, but not for this reason.

The person concerned contacted me by email and gave me a story about why he could not cash this cheque.

He then sent me a cheque postmarked from Nigeria and said to cash it and then send him a portion of it and I could keep the rest.

I deposited the cheque and waited for it to clear, needless to say it did not clear and my accounts were frozen until I proved what I was saying was the truth. I’d kept all the emails and showed them to the bank. They passed the case onto the fraud department.

I went round to the police station and told them about it and got a reply saying, “What the hell do you expect us to do about it” I did feel foolish.

I think this was before they had perfected the scam, as I think everybody would wait for the cheque to clear before thinking about sending any cash to anyone.

You live and learn.

Best Wishes Tony

I think it was a variation of this I came across in France. My house was for sale, I had a few private ads online. Man contacted me, saying he was a house finder in the UK , had a client who would like to view my house. Gave me a business name and address in Exeter and as I knew Exeter well and recognised the city centre address I didn't think any more of that.
Few emails further on he's saying he is charging his client €3000 for the inspection to cover flights, car hire, accommodation etc... Nowt to with me, thinks I. Then he says he'll send the €3000 to me. I refused, and repeated the correct buying procedure in France to him. Couldn't see what the scam was so I asked online.
2 Brits contacted me. Each had a property for sale advertised online. Each had gone through the same conversations as me but they accepted the €3000 which arrived as travellers cheques. They were told to cash them, then divide the money in 4 and send to 4 different addresses in Spain. They went along with it and with 3 days had Gendarmes on their doorsteps. Taken in to be questioned by detectives--- the travellers cheques were frauds of course but believing they were legit they'd shown their passports and given their home addresses at the post offices. Fortunately they were believed and no action taken.
I ignored the bloke who'd emailed me--- checked Companies House and found the company name he'd given me was in Exeter but had ceased trading 3 years earlier.