Scam - beware
Scam - beware
[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]The instant answer to that question, and actually a true one is no you wouldnt see the transactions Carp because when the fraud team find a suspicious transaction they hold it more often than not so it doesn't hit your account. It's harsh to say everyone would, could or should question absolutely everything, different generations are used to different technologies and methods and scammers get cleverer and smarter with responses. Of course there are steps and guidelines it would be great if everyone followed or were even made aware of but it's an impossibility to teach every person, every thing, every day and each time it changes .. no matter how perfectly astute everyone is.
We had a corporate example just yesterday, we called out usual supplier of a paper item we buy frequently from our software supplier . We got the usual answer to the phone system, asked to place an order and were transferred to the relevent department. The man explained this side of the business has been separated and was trading under a new name but the product was the same and pricing etc. This has happened before about five years ago so I didn't think too much of it as we'd phoned the usual number. It sounded logical and he knew the items we ordered, our details and pricing etc. He said the main company had written recently explaining and I have to confess I do not have time to read every last bit of non client related mail I get each day so it was feasible I had buried it. I said I would go back to him with a quantity and it's only that he was so pushy, calling me back every half an hour asking for the order number and quantity that I thought I might shop around and see if anyone else does the same product. I hate pushy! When I called them back again later to say I was looking at other options, they didn't know what I was talking about. From an indepth discussion with them it turns out someone has either hacked their phone lines and database to steal business or a member of staff was transferring sales calls and data to a friend within the building and scamming us and their employer. Now I had no reason to not give them my order number on the first call and little to be suspicious about, it's pure chance my laptop froze and I couldn't access my internal PO system that made me have to call back![/COLOR]
I know we are from different era's and what not, and that tech is new to the eldery but i jsut honestly believe that Common sense should prevail and that in a society like today you question everything........anything bank related you should contact your local branch direct and confirm, not agree on a whim that someone has phoned you. and never "send your cards off" go into the local branch with them.
It jsut makes sense to me, it completely negates the argument of needing to know about tech and gadgetry etc, as your steps to confirm what they say should be the same??
As for your PO / Fraudulent company im nto sure how that would of worked? I order items and when i receive them i release a PO to the company so they can send an invoice to my finance team. and the finance team will only pay "known suppliers" so if one changed name or split then we would ahve to give finance the confirmation letter first and check them against trading house to show they are legit
but all companies are diff i guess
[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]you can't often speak to your 'local' branch with most banks, with their press one to be ignored, two to have the phone disconnected on you and three to hold for the next two hours options, they make contacting them so complicated and time consuming and if you forget a password you can forget ever having access to your account again without blood and dna .. in triplicate. Scammers rely on you not having time or inclination to inflict this upon yourself.
The scam was easy, probably staff diverting calls to their own business, they'd set up the scenario well, and your new invoice from the new company they have already explained will have different payment details ... generally if you operate a PO system you give that at the time you place the order, it's purpose is to show the seller you are authorised to place the order and it's their assurance they will get paid for it. [/COLOR]
Didn't expect this to spark off such a discussion, just wanted to warn people it existed!
Think I can see both sides of it, my parents called me because they were suspicious as to why they needed our cards, and rightly so but made the mistake of answering basic questions (like date of birth) without fully identifying who was on the phone.
The thing is though if someone calls and very convincingly tells you that they're with the fraud team at Barclays, and that your cards have just been blocked due to erroneous activity and tells you the stores and the amounts of the purchases made, it can at first glance be quite easy to get sucked in.
He lists the names of the cards that we have, and it's all too easy to believe the story. To a certain extent, without the request for the actual cards it was a reasonably plausible argument, and it was this that I think pushed it too far.
And yes calling your local branch is pretty much impossible, the only thing you can do is call customer services (which we did) and they can confirm whether there is indeed a hold on your account.
Phil01 at some stage in our lives no matter how clever we are we will get stung
Phil01 at some stage in our lives no matter how clever we are we will get stung
I will probably get stung,........but it wont be through stupidity or arrogance, they will probably catch me on the fly and when im elast expecting it.
I fully understand old people getting done by dodgy plumbers/sales people and event he "nigerian" email scams
But i still fail to see the why people let themselves get scammed with money and credit cards??
There are several points you can check nowadays to ensure the information is legit,........online, ring local branch, go to your local branch, ask the caller the address from which they are calling and then google it, simply noting if its an 080 number calling can help, then google that number there are many forums around designed to help people identify numbers and scammers
I understand the "other" generations are less astute to this sort of thing than we are, but credit/debit cards arent that new, and when you understand that its the key to practically your entire life, you would think people would be a little bit more discerning as to who they give it to and what information they give away
I defiantely think some sort of campaign needs to be started to make people aware, even though my personal feelings are they shouldnt be daft enough to get scammed like that in the first place,...i can be understanding sometimes
I will probably get scammed buying something off tinternet as im a tight sod and always want cheap...:glare: