Postal Scam

[stickymone]

Just got this through from some old police friends, members might want to take note

Please read below regarding a mail scam in the area.

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number).

DO NOT call this number as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.
If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £315 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud

Now that's what you call an expensive phone call!

[Squaredancer]

It seems that this one's been around for a while - see http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/pds.asp This isn't a commercial site as far as I can see. You can use it to check out whether warnings of scams are really anything to be bothered about - a lot of them, like hoax virus warnings, are sent out just to clog up people's email inboxes, but some are genuine. We've had some beauties around at work! :D

[stickymone]

I've just clicked on the link above and my Anti-virus and Spybot went into overdrive!

It seems the site tried to change my Windows Registry

I'm sure Squaredancer posted it in good faith but I would suggested it's removed

Stickymone

[MarkJ]

If you read the article from Snopes (in Squaredancers post), you will see there are elements of truth in the scam mentioned.

I can remember this one surfacing a while ago and there are various claims about how much it costs to ring the nunber - but £315 is simply not correct.

0906 is a premium rate number - which means you will be paying top whack for the call - but these are something along the lines of £1.50 to £2 per minute - not £315 simply to connect.

These scams exist - but the charges are not as much as stated.

Mark

[Pam Downes]

I've just clicked on the link above and my Anti-virus and Spybot went into overdrive!

It seems the site tried to change my Windows Registry

I'm sure Squaredancer posted it in good faith but I would suggested it's removed

Stickymone
As far as I know (though I'm the first to admit I'm no techie) snopes is a reliable site, and I've just clicked on Squaredancer's link with no problems.
Haven't a clue why your 'puter would throw a wobbly.
Pam

[MarkJ]

I've just clicked on the link above and my Anti-virus and Spybot went into overdrive!

It seems the site tried to change my Windows Registry

I'm sure Squaredancer posted it in good faith but I would suggested it's removed

Stickymone

What? Snopes? It is a genuine site and I can't see any obvious problems there.
Can you give further info as to the exact nature of the issue your AV software reported?

Mark

[stickymone]

Hi Mark,

I was surprised when I saw the cost so I did a bit of research as I felt this must be a typo but it's not.

Apparently the recorded message will ask you to press a number on your phone if you do this and then replace the handset the call remains live hence the high cost

This information has come from the Police via the National Association of Retired Police Officers so I would hope the information is correct.

At the end of the day my point is:

If you get one of these, don't dial the number without checking first.
I understand BT have the details of bogus 09 numbers

Stickymone :)

[stickymone]

What? Snopes? It is a genuine site and I can't see any obvious problems there.
Can you give further info as to the exact nature of the issue your AV software reported?

Mark

As soon as I open the link Spybot popped up and said it was trying to change my Windows Registry and asked should it block or allow
Then McAfee popped up and asked the same question



The whole system then went a bit haywire and I was unable to close any windows even with Program Manager

I had to shut the whole thing down on the power button and reboot

I can only presume it was this site as I have nothing else on apart from Brit-Gen

[pattenwalsh]

This has been around for at least three years now and the sad part is that ,as a postman ,I have had to deliver these things, because even though I knew it was a scam,Royal Mail decided that as long as the company that issued them had paid the postage it was none of their business as to what the correspondence contained.How greedy can you get and also considering that the cards that were delivered mimicked Royal Mails "sorry, we tried to deliver "etc card that is left when you are out they still didn't act.

[Lizzy9]

This has been around for at least three years now and the sad part is that ,as a postman ,I have had to deliver these things, because even though I knew it was a scam,Royal Mail decided that as long as the company that issued them had paid the postage it was none of their business as to what the correspondence contained.How greedy can you get and also considering that the cards that were delivered mimicked Royal Mails "sorry, we tried to deliver "etc card that is left when you are out they still didn't act.

How flippin' disgraceful, it beggars belief.

[Chris Doran]

I once had one of the Nigerian scam letters which had been rubber-stamped something like "SUSPECT MATERIAL", so some post office somewhere must be authorised to issue warnings.

[Squaredancer]

I've just clicked on the link above and my Anti-virus and Spybot went into overdrive!

It seems the site tried to change my Windows Registry

I'm sure Squaredancer posted it in good faith but I would suggested it's removed

Stickymone

I've never had any trouble with Snopes - I use it at home where we have anti-virus software and a firewall, and at work where the computer security is unbelievably tight.

[Peter_uk_can]

Snopes is 100% OK.

Spybot will warn you but that is all it is and once you have agreed to it then life goes on.

I have used Snopes and Sybot for years without problem.

I just wish folk would go to Snopes or even look at Google before posting on this forum, the increase in none events postings are getting a bit of a bore.

This is essentially a genealogy forum not a general free for all chat forum.

It isn't as if the internet was only invented yesterday.

..

[Procat]

This is essentially a genealogy forum not a general free for all chat forum.

It isn't as if the internet was only invented yesterday.

..

Peter, you are correct in that this is a genealogy forum however we do have a number of boards which cover events outside genealogy. And Spam, Scam & Phishing is one of them. :)

Whilst the internet may not have been invented yesterday our members come from all walks of life, all age groups and all levels of experience with the internet. Some are experienced and some are novices. All of which makes us the varied and interesting group that we are. :)

[WK1937]

Couldn't agree more!