David Lock

I got the following overnight

==============

"You have received a tax refund payment of 632.25GBP
from HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) into your Internet
Banking Account.

Please accept the tax refund request. The money will
appear in your Internet Banking Account after 3-6 days.
A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.
For example submitting invalid records or applying
after the deadline.

Please click on Sign In to Online Banking to accept
your incoming funds


Best Regards
HM Revenue & Customs"

==============


I am owed something like £630 odd but I have my suspicions? Note I took out the original Sign In link.

David

romford-boy

Yes

http://www.tamesite.co.uk/e-news/201...scam-warnings/

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

I have never yet had to sign in to my account to 'permit' people to send me money.
That's a scam all day long DL.

warrenm2

HMRC always send a cheque - email is a scam

dpb

You'll not get email off hmrc

Specially not signed. "Best regards". Lol ..


As above cheque,or straight into your account -assuming you filled that section in on the return

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Common sense seems to go out of the window with these sort of things. I spoke recently with Barclays and while we were waiting for the account information to come up off the system I asked the girl on the phone does she get many calls in relation to these phishing scams.

She said yes plenty, but the funniest thing is that she said she gets a fair number of calls a day from people asking why their Barclays current account access has been restricted as per an email they have received only to find out that at least 10% of them have not got and have never had an account with Barclays

Blue by You

iTrader: (23)

David Lock

Thanks guys. I agree with all of above and actually phoned HMRC and after the usual 20 min wait they confirmed it was a phishing scam. Odd thing is they do owe me so quite disappointing dpb - agree they would never say "Best Regards"

As an aside I was chatting to an oldish fella in my local who wanted to get a computer to use Google and general stuff. But I don't think he stands a chance with all these bloody scams around. Would he be safer with a Mac?

David

=========

hodgy0_2

not really

dpb

Just don't never reply to any unsolicited email, and same goes for phone -always leave a message for me anyway- unless you know them well of course

Type20Paul

If he bought a mac he'd have been scammed before he even had a chance to get an email address!

JohnD

iTrader: (5)

As the UKIP guy said - it's probably from Bongo-Bongo Land.
If it's real it would be by letter.

JohnD

dpb

He probably would, and that's why he'll never get in



Phishers come from anywhere ffs, probably more in Accrington Stanley than Abuja

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

The fact that you had to ask on here should be proof enough.

Would have been a nice little earner though!

My brother had some twit call and offer him £20k for his business name. I told him straight away it was a scam. He wouldn't have it.....until they called back asking for money up front.....which I told him they would!

Markus

A Mac would not make any difference when it comes to these scam emails, you'll get them regardless of what type of machine you use. Trojans and viruses, you might be a little better off. There are some that target OS X, but nowhere near as many as there are for Windows. If you run AV software, keep it up to date, and don't go clicking on links in scam emails then you might be ok. Applying a lot of common sense also helps.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Leslie

I was going to suggest that you contact them directly to check it all. You were sensible to do so of course,as you have discovered and I am glad that you were not caught out.

Les

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

A sure fire way to tell if it's a scam is if they don't use your name in the email.

Dear Sir - In all liklihood SCAM
Dear Mr Lock - possibly not scam

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

That's dangerous advice, they can harvest a lot of personal info.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

The difference between phishing and spear phishing. As for telling scams, the easy rule is: if it asks you to click on a link, it's a scam. Real e-mails tell you to log on as usual and follow directions. Just occasionally, some idiot company will send a genuine e-mail with a link to follow. Don't. Send them a shirty reply about their stupidity.

David Lock

That's exactly what I do with note saying I don't open email attachments, what was link about?

These days you even have to be suspicious if someone you know sends a mail as his address book could have been hijacked. Often you can spot these as it can be seen that the same message has been sent to many others, often in an alphabetical sequence.

BUT - how do you send a genuine message about a website which you want someone to look at???

david

dpb

Text message

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Don't parse it? If your audience can't copy and paste a text link then perhaps you don't want them as customers.


But on a more realistic note, an e-mail which is clearly just spam is usually obviously such. The dangerous e-mails are the ones which want you to input information. Drive-by downloads are still a risk, but they are much less likely to get through a firewall.

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

The very fact that the OP has had to ask if its a scam is worrying in itself!!!

Turbohot

I get plenty of that sort of emails from NatWest, and I don't even bank with NatWest.

Upon receiving this scam repeatedly from Barclays bank as well, I asked their worker who I can report this wrong-doing to. She told me that there's no point, and Barclays can't do anything to stop this.

Basically, just delete the email without clicking on any link.

Chip

Yep.

ReallyReallyGoodMeat

Yes, fair point - though so far I have not encountered any email with at least one bit of personal information on that was a scam, perhaps I am fortunate.

David Lock

I get a few mails from WAYN saying I have a message from someone and I need to register to read it.

Who the hell are WAYN? I think it may be some Linkedin type group. If this is the case would it be safe to open the link?

David

dpb

Someone who didn't go to grammar skool

Turbohot

That WAYN is like a social networking site. My past work colleague (now a good friend) once emailed me through that site 5 years ago or so, asking me to join it. I did, like a plick. I didn't give too much info about me, but even then, I started to get loads of junk mail and contact requests from them. My friend did have herself there, but I don't really care. I didn't know what to do there, so I deleted myself from there prompto.

I don't fall for things like that any more.