Scam watch: fake Microsoft ‘covid relief fund’ email

Tony.
I feel quite sorry for people who are duped into thinking that the world owes everyone a living, but there again there are scum bags who will try anything other than to get a proper job and contribute to the sad world we live in and to make an effort in changing lives.

I get about. 10 phone calls a day from scammers, i have a phone which i can press a button on to. Block their number, this lasts about. Two weeks of no calls, after that they are back as bad as ever, now i look at the number, and i dont pick up the phone, a lot of these callers. I think are from. Call centres, we use ourselves to go to for business, or to pay a bill, these numbers. Are. Stored and recorded. From us the public, they can be used at any time by fly bad articles. I say dont answer our. Phone, but elderly very very. Vulnerable indeed, please be care ful

I had a phone call claiming to be from Microsoft,saying that my computer wasn’t working,and that they could fix it,I asked them what was wrong,his answer was that he could prove that there was a problem,I said yes there is something wrong I forgot to switch it on that got rid of them hadn’t had another call since.A few days ago I had a call asking is that Mr so an so replied no its the police,all I heard was the phone slammed down.

I@ve got a very useful filter: if a caller isn’t on my “approved” list, they are asked to give their name and only then does my phone ring. I hear their name and can accept or bar them. This has stopped all the cold calls I used to get.

The scammers nowadays are getting very sophisticated — they are evil scum and criminals who should be dealt with accordingly: very harshly. But, watching some television programmes covering scamming scum/s they seem to be dealt with very very lightly: i.e. 103 hours of – community service no matter what their sick crimes are — the law is a real ass sometimes. it’s costing a fortune finding and dealing with these criminals. Some ‘community service’ placements are never checked so the scum will be laughing up their sleeves and they certainly won’t stop. It’s sickening what they get away with – if imprisoned they get 3 square meals a day, kept warm, given all sorts of ‘care and attention’, sports facilities, computer servcices etc etc. — they are better looked after than half our country
—– thinking of becoming a scammer!!!!

Perhaps the best way for us all to deal with this issue is not to ignore it but to respond with a fake name, address, occupation, bank details etc. Swamp them with thousands of replies. The poor unfortunate soul, the one in a thousand, who does fall for the scam will be well protected because the chance of the scammers following up his/her reply is negligible.

My son received a recorded message phone call claiming to be from HMRC informing him that he was liable for a substantial fine or jail sentence for non-payment of income tax, “press 1 for further details”. He pressed 1 and was answered by a polite male asking how he could help. At this point my son became wary and put down the phone. He was upset and called me for reassurance. This is apparently another scam as I am told that HMRC will never phone you and certainly will not use recorded messages for such serious matters. Please be aware.

Scams have gone on since the beginning of time. I remember back in 1945 when I was 5 years old a door to door salesman was trying to sell my mother some very hard to get hold of nicker elastic, I could see he was stretching it and told my mum who sent him packing with a flea in his ear. and told me to go knock on all the neighbors’ doors and warn them soon there were kids running from house to house warning the mothers he slunk off and did not make any more sales in our street. how many sales he made before he got to our house we never got to know as we lived in No 19.
Though too days scams are more complicated and use a lot of technology for instance if you get a telephone call check to see if it is a withheld number if it is then it is a scam especially if it is from your bank etc

I am 88 and not very technically minded. I got a phone call a few months ago, supposedly from Telecom, saying I would lose my internet connection in 18 days unless I followed their instructions. As I DEPEND on the internet I followed their instructions to do things on different pages until it went on too long so i shut down. I got my “guru” to clean out my machine.

I tend to engage with scammers as it keeps them off someone else’s back for a while. When they check my address I tell them that I’ve moved to somewhere like a caravan on Bogend Farm. I often have to spell it out for them in phonetic alphabet. Then when they ask for the postcode I tell them its Papa India Five Five Zero Foxtrot Foxtrot. They write it down and tell me that their machine does not recognise the code. Must be a cheap machine they have there…………….