Latest Scam

F1.2

F1.2

Suspended / Banned
Messages
4,421
Name
Allen
Edit My Images
Yes
This is the latest scam around my area​
​
Dig dong on the door bell​
​
Open the door and confronted by a African man offering a handshake​
​
Hollo Sir my name is Anthony I live just down the road , I work for the Royal Mail and don't get paid until tomorrow , We have no electric and have just had a baby , Could you help me out with £10 until tomorrow ?​
​
So what do you do ? slam the door in his face or show some compassion ?​
​
£10 handed over sort of makes you fell good helping out someone in need
smile.gif
​
3 day later has the £10 been returned , NO it hasn't , Taken for a mug , How can people do this and still sleep at night
17433.gif
​
Yes it was me that was willing to help another human
frown.gif
​
 
Last edited:
Bloody annoying.
Give me your card and I'll stick £10 credit on it....
I've never got cash on me anyway :-)
 
Same happened to my wife.
It was about 10pm. I did ask her where the guy would buy ‘credit’ from at that time of night!
 
Wonder how many people he scammed, bet you never find out because people won't admit to it
Next time someone says they work for Royal Mail ask them for their official ID card, if the live close they
can pop and get it
 
Something similar was on tv the other day, can't recall the tv series. Fake neighbour just moved in scam. Scammer claims to have moved in further down the road, lost his keys, and needs to get a taxi to pick up a spare set. Asks can he borrow money to go and pick up a spare set. Takes money, to never be seen again.
 
I dont even lend money to the wife.

Our neighbourhood facebook group has been reporting 2 scroats knocking on doors offering to clean gutters saying they've done next doors and they recommended them, just an excuse to have a nosey around.
 
ask him to leave his nigerian driving licence as security.
 
Our local vicar had a story about this. He always considered himself to be streetwise, having lived in central London.

One evening a well dressed, well spoken guy knocked on his door. Said he was almost out of fuel. Car parked across the street, 5 series BMW. Says his wallet lost earlier, needed to get home. Asked for £50 to fill up with fuel, offered to leave work mobile, promised to return in the morning before work.

Trusting vicar was more than happy to help. Gave him £50, refused the work phone.

Came down later in the evening; car still there. Needless to say, guy never returned with £50.
 
There’s a local guy who’s been pulling this kind of stunt for years. Claims he’s locked himself out of his house and needs some money to get to the hospital where his wife works (or is having a baby, it varies) to get her keys. Despite regular warnings on the local Facebook group about him, people still fall for it time and again. He drives a newish and expensive car, so either his scheme pays well or he gets his kicks by conning people.
 
F1.2 said:
This is the latest scam around my area​
​
Dig dong on the door bell​
​
Open the door and confronted by a African man offering a handshake​
​
Hollo Sir my name is Anthony I live just down the road , I work for the Royal Mail and don't get paid until tomorrow , We have no electric and have just had a baby , Could you help me out with £10 until tomorrow ?​
​
So what do you do ? slam the door in his face or show some compassion ?​
​
£10 handed over sort of makes you fell good helping out someone in need
smile.gif
​
3 day later has the £10 been returned , NO it hasn't , Taken for a mug , How can people do this and still sleep at night
17433.gif
​
Yes it was me that was willing to help another human
frown.gif
​
Click to expand...
You are part of the problem, who gives a total stranger £10 on their door step , they guy must be laughing his head off at the stupid English people ! if people did not fall for this then it would stop.
 
Wonder if thats some of the knocks i have had on my door, i never answer it.
Wouldnt matter if i did i never have money anyway, not joking i just never have any money on me.
 
Studio488commercial said:
You are part of the problem, who gives a total stranger £10 on their door step , they guy must be laughing his head off at the stupid English people ! if people did not fall for this then it would stop.
Click to expand...
How do we know the OP is English?
 
Studio488commercial said:
You are part of the problem, who gives a total stranger £10 on their door step , they guy must be laughing his head off at the stupid English people ! if people did not fall for this then it would stop.
Click to expand...
It’s like paying blackmailers. I get quite a few door to door sellers and I just say, politely, that I never buy anything at the door. These days a lot say they are just out of prison, which never seems like a good intro to me but it must work :(
Also, to @F1.2 ”just down the road” or “working in the local area” etc etc are clues ;)
 
Mr Bump said:
ask him to leave his nigerian driving licence as security.
Click to expand...
You could give him £10.00 and ask him to buy tickets in the Nigerian lottery, a friend of mine won $13,000,000, not arrived yet but he's sure it will.....soon
 
Who still falls for this?
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
Obviously 2 folks on here so far....:)
Click to expand...
The rest have too, apart from me :), but they are not admitting it. It’s often been said “there’s one born every minute” so if you do the calculation you will see there a lot of them about :D :exit:
 
Give him £10 ? Absolutely not. I'd be more inclined to wait until he was along the road, get in to my car, call the police (whilst stationary of course..lol) and follow him. Scum of the Earth.

I had two working gentleman from Ireland ..(originally..lol) knock on the door a couple of days ago. They wanted to check my roof with...get this ..such are the times we live in..a drone..lol. "Hello Sir, how are you ?". I have metioned on here about suffering a nasty virus which my poor wife now has but I'm on the mend..so I said, well not too good to be honest and I spent a couple of minutes telling him what a nasty chest infectioin I had,throwing in the odd retch..lol. He then told me that the best thing I could do was to get hot water, lemon and honey witha drop of whiskey,well he would wouldn't he..and that will get rid of it. He then thrust a leaflet into my hand and was off wishing me a rapid recovery.

I inform those in town requesting money that they are committing an offence under the Vagrancy Act 1864. They tend to look a bit bewilderedd. It's a problem. I'd be happier getting them a bag of fish 'n chips and a cuppa. We had a decorator here at the beginningh of December and he told me that he was waiting for his wife to come from a shop/supermarket and saw a man begging. I can't recall the circumstances but shortly afterwards he saw the guy get into a decent Range Rover.This does happen. Sometime we go to St Davids Hall,Cardiff and there's the same man each time in the same place on the approach to and from the railway station. sitting down against a wall asking for money. "Could you spare some change this eveninbg ?" On one trip as we hurried on by as we wewre tight on time for the return journey he said he hoped we'd had a nice evening.

I suppose these two accounts are somewhat different to the original post even though both involve asking for money.
 
Somewhat OT, but I found that when I changed my broadband from PlusNet to Vodafone recently, (same phone number since 1963) I seemed to get an increase in scam calls but new types I’d never had before —- it’s more an impression than statistical of course.
Yesterday I had one saying “thank you for your payment of £500”, I hung up and they phoned back, which is unusual, but they just left the same message on the machine :(. Usual fake UK number.
According to web search it’s a VISA scam, the amount usually starts withe £5xx and the numbers begin with 01984xxxxxx

Edit to add: It‘s a scammer with a sense of humour, I did note it was “1984” but apparently it’s the code for Watchet ... ”watch it!” ... geddit?
 
Last edited:
F1.2 said:
This is the latest scam around my area​
​
Dig dong on the door bell​
​
Open the door and confronted by a African man offering a handshake​
​
Hollo Sir my name is Anthony I live just down the road , I work for the Royal Mail and don't get paid until tomorrow , We have no electric and have just had a baby , Could you help me out with £10 until tomorrow ?​
​
So what do you do ? slam the door in his face or show some compassion ?​
​
£10 handed over sort of makes you fell good helping out someone in need
smile.gif
​
3 day later has the £10 been returned , NO it hasn't , Taken for a mug , How can people do this and still sleep at night
17433.gif
​
Yes it was me that was willing to help another human
frown.gif
​
Click to expand...
Well, I take my hat off to you for trying to help out another person in need, but clerly it was always going to be a scam, I guess you just hope it's not and feel you should help.
Lesson lernt I guess and another notch on the "dont trust anyone" post, shame as you sound a decent guy. Luckily it was only a tenner, just be more careful in future but I do hope you retain at least some of your kind nature.
And thanks for letting us know, brave to admit to being taken for a ride on a public forum.
 
Last edited:
sphexx said:
Somewhat OT, but I found that when I changed my broadband from PlusNet to Vodafone recently, (same phone number since 1963) I seemed to get an increase in scam calls but new types I’d never had before —- it’s more an impression than statistical of course.
Click to expand...

I changed brodband supplier last year and was told by BT (I was leaving BT) that I would probably get scam calls, I just thought it was a BT scare tactic to stop me leaving but apparently not. Seems like broadband providers need to significantly increase their internal security...
 
A
sphexx said:
Somewhat OT, but I found that when I changed my broadband from PlusNet to Vodafone recently, (same phone number since 1963) I seemed to get an increase in scam calls but new types I’d never had before —- it’s more an impression than statistical of course.
Yesterday I had one saying “thank you for your payment of £500”, I hung up and they phoned back, which is unusual, but they just left the same message on the machine :(. Usual fake UK number.
According to web search it’s a VISA scam, the amount usually starts withe £5xx and the numbers begin with 01984xxxxxx

Edit to add: It‘s a scammer with a sense of humour, I did note it was “1984” but apparently it’s the code for Watchet ... ”watch it!” ... geddit?
Click to expand...


A strange thing (I think) happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I still don't know if the Email was genuine or not.. Last time I was in company with this person it was with a group in the US. 2012 . We all pretty well lost contact with each other since then but a couple of weeks ago I got an Email from her. ''Hi John..a blast from the past. Going through some old stuff and wondered if your Email is still the same before I tell you about all's that's happened" I don't ignore people so I replied out of courtesy. To date I haven't had any further Email but an increase in spam mail. I have an iMac and they're good at sorting wheat from chaff and I used to get a few but a lot more now. I'd rather not say who the person was because she has a public profile/blog in football which I checked and the Email there is the same. I thought about calling her workplace but just left it. Any thoughts ? Maybe someone has hacked her Email contact list.
 
JohnC6 said:
A



A strange thing (I think) happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I still don't know if the Email was genuine or not.. Last time I was in company with this person it was with a group in the US. 2012 . We all pretty well lost contact with each other since then but a couple of weeks ago I got an Email from her. ''Hi John..a blast from the past. Going through some old stuff and wondered if your Email is still the same before I tell you about all's that's happened" I don't ignore people so I replied out of courtesy. To date I haven't had any further Email but an increase in spam mail. I have an iMac and they're good at sorting wheat from chaff and I used to get a few but a lot more now. I'd rather not say who the person was because she has a public profile/blog in football which I checked and the Email there is the same. I thought about calling her workplace but just left it. Any thoughts ? Maybe someone has hacked her Email contact list.
Click to expand...
Strange things happen. I fairly regularly get emails from a well known hotel at an airport in the US confirming “my booking”. They are not spam because there is a wealth of detail and no reply is requested. I suspect it is to someone with an almost identical name and the email has been wrongly typed in. I have tried to communicate with the hotel but suspect my emails are treated as spam :(.

Re: your problem, I do get spam which appears to come from people I know and I usually just ignore it or tell them when I see them. Your correspondent might have picked/autocompleted the wrong address for another ”John” I suspect :).
 
I've given money to people with sob stories more than a few times... and I am fully aware that at least some of them are just scamming me. I think it sucks, but I think it would suck more if it soured me to the point I was unwilling to ever trust/help anyone.
So, if I think there's a better than average chance that the money will be used for something other than drugs I'll often hand over a few dollars... in the end, it's not really going to hurt me. If they're offering to repay me I tell them not to bother; if they are really in a bind where 5-20 dollars makes that much of a difference I don't want it back... and if they're not, I don't really want to know.

If it's feasible, what I will do is say that I don't have any cash but I'm willing to help using a credit card. I.e. "I have a 5gallon can I can go get filled" or "Let's go inside and I'll buy you some food." That usually puts them in a spot and they turn down the offer... which is also depressing because then you know you were being scammed. When I've made the "no cash offer" it's probably been accepted less than 10% of the time.
 
sk66 said:
I've given money to people with sob stories more than a few times... and I am fully aware that at least some of them are just scamming me. I think it sucks, but I think it would suck more if it soured me to the point I was unwilling to ever trust/help anyone.
So, if I think there's a better than average chance that the money will be used for something other than drugs I'll often hand over a few dollars... in the end, it's not really going to hurt me. If they're offering to repay me I tell them not to bother; if they are really in a bind where 5-20 dollars makes that much of a difference I don't want it back... and if they're not, I don't really want to know.

If it's feasible, what I will do is say that I don't have any cash but I'm willing to help using a credit card. I.e. "I have a 5gallon can I can go get filled" or "Let's go inside and I'll buy you some food." That usually puts them in a spot and they turn down the offer... which is also depressing because then you know you were being scammed. When I've made the "no cash offer" it's probably been accepted less than 10% of the time.
Click to expand...
The problem with people at your house is that they are often opportunistic burglars checking if someone is home and so on.
 
The latest one in my inbox...

Dear Friend

I am a banker in Cambodia. I contacted you for a reason , one of my late customer have the same last name as yours. He died 7 years ago and left , 17.7 million United States dollars in his account. Since then no relative have come to claim his money. I think we can work things out.


Unfortunately, my client died with his family in a car crash during summer holiday of 2011 in France. His account mandate does not have any contact of any of his relatives as next of kin. I have made several inquiries to your embassy to locate any of his relatives without any success, I have been mandated by my bank management to provide the next of kin to his account. If I don't get any of his relatives in 29 days the account balance of $17.700,000 will be returned to the government treasury.

Since you have the same surname with the late account holder and i cannot find any of his relatives I now I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin to the late account holder. You and I will share the money 50/50 after the money is transferred to you. I think this is fair decision instead of the Cambodian government taking the money.

I was his personal accountant before he died , i have all the vital information for us to claim the money without any problem .I only worry about your ability to keep this transaction secret to protect my job . The transaction is 100% risk free as I have studied and investigated the transaction properly as a professional banker and discovered that it's risk free before making contact to you.

If you are interested do let me know by replying.

Regards

Robert Rees
 
Norkie said:
The latest one in my inbox...

Dear Friend

I am a banker in Cambodia. I contacted you for a reason , one of my late customer have the same last name as yours. He died 7 years ago and left , 17.7 million United States dollars in his account. Since then no relative have come to claim his money. I think we can work things out.


Unfortunately, my client died with his family in a car crash during summer holiday of 2011 in France. His account mandate does not have any contact of any of his relatives as next of kin. I have made several inquiries to your embassy to locate any of his relatives without any success, I have been mandated by my bank management to provide the next of kin to his account. If I don't get any of his relatives in 29 days the account balance of $17.700,000 will be returned to the government treasury.

Since you have the same surname with the late account holder and i cannot find any of his relatives I now I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin to the late account holder. You and I will share the money 50/50 after the money is transferred to you. I think this is fair decision instead of the Cambodian government taking the money.

I was his personal accountant before he died , i have all the vital information for us to claim the money without any problem .I only worry about your ability to keep this transaction secret to protect my job . The transaction is 100% risk free as I have studied and investigated the transaction properly as a professional banker and discovered that it's risk free before making contact to you.

If you are interested do let me know by replying.

Regards

Robert Rees
Click to expand...
Go for it, what could go wrong :D. The choice bit for me is “Dear Friend” when the whole ploy is based around knowing your name ;). Of course it is thought these scammers make their letters deliberately bad to winnow out the smarter people.
 
Scams work often enough to make some people very wealthy.
They work either on our greed or our good nature.

The problem is they lower peoples empathy for others.
as once caught twice shy.
 
Just had a phone call 020 number .... something about finding £500 and press 4 immediately to speak to a police office! Female, English ”accent”. Can see why some would ”press 4”.

I’ve only posted this because of the oddity that I’ve had a series of calls with various stories but they’ve all mentioned £500 not some other figure :)
 
Two emails. One from eBay and one from Amazon, both stating that my accounts have been suspended. I immediately deleted both without opening them.
 
kendo1 said:
People actually fall for this?
Click to expand...

Well the upside it was only £10. Its not such a big deal for most; a more typical scam will take away thousands.... So you obviously people need to watch out in the future. They probably vacuumed up a couple hundred up and down the street in an hour. It's probably an amount most would just give to get rid of them more easily.

Bobsyeruncle said:
Bloody annoying.
Give me your card and I'll stick £10 credit on it....
I've never got cash on me anyway :)
Click to expand...

I bet they will happily take it. Its still £10 to burn... you either give them or not. I am not suggesting that you do in this case, but let's presume there might be a genuine case once in a long while.
 
"Amazon" just called. A synthesised voice with an American accent told me I'd just signed up for Prime, and payment was about to be taken. If I wanted to cancel, I should press 1 to speak with an operator...
Finger.gif
 
Don't tell me, the amount was 39.99 with no currency specified?
 
Last time we had that call, I had actually just (mistakenly) signed up for prime (clicked the wrong button [or failed to click the right one] at some point during checkout) and the call reminded me to cancel it before I forgot again!
 
I have an answerphone permanently switched on on my landline, scam callers rarely speak to it and I won't pick up unless the caller listens to me saying "please speak to the machine, if we're in we'll pick it up if not we'll call you back" all our friends know that we don't automatically pick up unless we recognise the caller ID.

A while ago I was approached in a public car park whilst unloading my luggage, the chap was a bit scruffy looking but very polite and well spoken, he asked me for some money so he could get some food as he was homeless, I told him that I don't carry cash but if he comes with me towards the Hotel I would buy him a meal in the Burger place which was on the way. He declined.
 
HMRC scam phone calls spoof a real 0300 200 xxxx HMRC phone number, so you can't go by caller ID.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top