The Lemon Fool

I've checked out the previous thread on this, but the one I found is quite old.

I watched a program last night about the scam in which and unsolicited phone is delivered in your name, and later picked up by a taxi saying it was wrongly delivered. The victim can be left with an account falsely set up at the phone company with regular payments to make. From what I've heard on other programs such as Money Box, setting up a fraudulent account with a phone company is trivially easy in some cases.

What they didn't really tell you was how to defend against this fraud - except generalised comments about keeping your data "safe". No one explained what you should do if this actually happens: i.e. someone turns up on your doorstep with a parcel purporting to be for you, but you know it isn't. Even if you refuse it, as I understanding it, you could still be billed for it.

So, what should one do if it happens? Not something they explained clearly at all - by the time the delivery has turned up, it could be too late.

Arb.

Incidentally, on the subject of passwords, and changing them frequently. I was talking with a bank employee at TSB last week about this, and I was astonished when he opined it was not necessary, and that he hadn't changed his for several decades! I nearly fell off my seat hearing this from someone inside the bank. His argument was that they would also need your memorable information to get in to the account.

https://litenetuk.com/blog/f/scam-of-th ... 0sold%20on.

Arborbridge wrote:I've checked out the previous thread on this, but the one I found is quite old.

I watched a program last night about the scam in which and unsolicited phone is delivered in your name, and later picked up by a taxi saying it was wrongly delivered. The victim can be left with an account falsely set up at the phone company with regular payments to make. From what I've heard on other programs such as Money Box, setting up a fraudulent account with a phone company is trivially easy in some cases.

What they didn't really tell you was how to defend against this fraud - except generalised comments about keeping your data "safe".

I have a free alert set up with One of the creditcheck agencies, Equifax. I get an email when a credit check is performed on my account, and when I apply for or close a savings product.

Incidentally, on the subject of passwords, and changing them frequently. I was talking with a bank employee at TSB last week about this, and I was astonished when he opined it was not necessary, and that he hadn't changed his for several decades! I nearly fell off my seat hearing this from someone inside the bank. His argument was that they would also need your memorable information to get in to the account.

As mentioned elsewhere, the weakest point of any online system tends to be the user. At work we had frequent password changes, some were monthly, some 3 monthly, some required a non alphanumeric character, some forbade them, everything was out of synch. The result was that over 95% of staff kept them written down, either in a locked drawer or often on a post it under the keyboard. If you have 2 factor authentication set up then as long as you don't lose access to your phone at the same time as someone finds out your password, they cannot log in from a new device. I also have 2 email addresses that alert each other if either is used on a new device.

Paul

Similar for me, DrFfybes. Last year got notification of a search, reported it online as not recognised by me. Day later removed, but no update as to why.

Arborbridge wrote:Incidentally, on the subject of passwords, and changing them frequently. I was talking with a bank employee at TSB last week about this, and I was astonished when he opined it was not necessary, and that he hadn't changed his for several decades! I nearly fell off my seat hearing this from someone inside the bank. His argument was that they would also need your memorable information to get in to the account.

I believe that best practice is NOT to change your password frequently so long as it is strong and used for just one account. I can't see any reference to frequent password sharing on the NCSC web site.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/top- ... ure-online

Arborbridge wrote:I watched a program last night about the scam in which and unsolicited phone is delivered in your name, and later picked up by a taxi saying it was wrongly delivered. The victim can be left with an account falsely set up at the phone company with regular payments to make. From what I've heard on other programs such as Money Box, setting up a fraudulent account with a phone company is trivially easy in some cases.

What they didn't really tell you was how to defend against this fraud - except generalised comments about keeping your data "safe". No one explained what you should do if this actually happens: i.e. someone turns up on your doorstep with a parcel purporting to be for you, but you know it isn't. Even if you refuse it, as I understanding it, you could still be billed for it.

So, what should one do if it happens?

Well, if the account has been set up with your credit card, just tell your credit card company that the transactions are fraudulent and they will (generally) cancel them. Or are you referring to direct debits etc?

RockRabbit wrote:

Arborbridge wrote:I watched a program last night about the scam in which and unsolicited phone is delivered in your name, and later picked up by a taxi saying it was wrongly delivered. The victim can be left with an account falsely set up at the phone company with regular payments to make. From what I've heard on other programs such as Money Box, setting up a fraudulent account with a phone company is trivially easy in some cases.

What they didn't really tell you was how to defend against this fraud - except generalised comments about keeping your data "safe". No one explained what you should do if this actually happens: i.e. someone turns up on your doorstep with a parcel purporting to be for you, but you know it isn't. Even if you refuse it, as I understanding it, you could still be billed for it.

So, what should one do if it happens?

Well, if the account has been set up with your credit card, just tell your credit card company that the transactions are fraudulent and they will (generally) cancel them. Or are you referring to direct debits etc?

Direct debit probably wouldn't happen in this sort of case - I hope. I rather meant what should you do if someone turns up on the doorstep with such a delivery? The chances are, most people would look surprised but take it in - only then realising they had hold of a hot potato.

This happened to me a few years ago. The crooks used a charity's bank account number (easy to find on the web). Vodafone never tried to recover the iPhone - I still have it.

martinc wrote:This happened to me a few years ago. The crooks used a charity's bank account number (easy to find on the web). Vodafone never tried to recover the iPhone - I still have it.

So, did you just accept the delivery and ignore whatever happened after that?

martinc wrote:This happened to me a few years ago. The crooks used a charity's bank account number (easy to find on the web). Vodafone never tried to recover the iPhone - I still have it.

Maybe this is a good way to get a free upgrade (especially if you've been rejected for your own upgrade).

Bizarrely I just had an email saying "WE HAVE YOUR PARCEL" in large red letters, which I initially read as a ransom note until I realised it was from DHL and not EVRI.

Apparently my new laptop is on its way, which is nice. So either someones doing a scam, or the company I bought the one from 3 weeks ago has cocked up and is sending me another one.

I shall wait and see.

Paul

DrFfybes wrote:Bizarrely I just had an email saying "WE HAVE YOUR PARCEL" in large red letters, which I initially read as a ransom note until I realised it was from DHL and not EVRI.

Apparently my new laptop is on its way, which is nice. So either someones doing a scam, or the company I bought the one from 3 weeks ago has cocked up and is sending me another one.

I shall wait and see.

Paul

Tangentially, I bought a kg of baker's yeast on Amazon last week. It came beautifully boxed up in heat-insulating bubble-wrap and also a huge block of ice in the package heat-welded inside two plastic bags obviously to keep it refrigerated in transit but with no water spillage. Most impressive. The packaging must have cost more than the yeast.

Then five days later another arrived! I though about offering to return it but the ice block this time had melted and although still cold, it seemed unlikely they'd want it back. So I bunged the yeast in the freezer with the other one.

That was it really. I'm not expecting a sophisticated 'Baker's yeast scam' to unfold....

DrFfybes wrote:...

Apparently my new laptop is on its way, which is nice. So either someones doing a scam, or the company I bought the one from 3 weeks ago has cocked up and is sending me another one.

I shall wait and see.

Paul

but how would you know which it is when it arrives?

DrFfybes wrote:Bizarrely I just had an email saying "WE HAVE YOUR PARCEL" in large red letters, which I initially read as a ransom note until I realised it was from DHL and not EVRI.

Regular spam. If you're not expecting anything from (the real) DHL, it's a fair assumption that it's an impersonator. With either an attachment or a URL they want you to click.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

DrFfybes wrote:Bizarrely I just had an email saying "WE HAVE YOUR PARCEL" in large red letters, which I initially read as a ransom note until I realised it was from DHL and not EVRI.

Regular spam. If you're not expecting anything from (the real) DHL, it's a fair assumption that it's an impersonator. With either an attachment or a URL they want you to click.

It named the company sending it, which was why it looked legit. However prompted by your caution I just ignored the link in the email (I usually do) and pasted the supplied tracking number into the real DHL site.

Apparently the parcel was delivered on 9th Jan, which is when my laptop arrived.

Paul