Royall mail warning for UK members

[whinging pom]

im expecting packages from US.
i got two text messages saying the royal mail had tried to deliver and please contact for redeliver
I open up what looked like a very normal Royal mail layout and put in details.
They wanted £1.40 shortfall on the postage costs , i tried to call the customer number and told i was in a queue of 50mins
The next day i thought stop being paranoid and pay it
Paid it

Get phone call from my bank fraud office next day . Have I made payments to Argos and an insurance company in yorkshire i say no and explain whats happened
They say they need to run through some things to check my phone is not hacked do i have a card reader.
i tell them i can access at home later that evening.

called me and I was read out details of calls will be recorded etc.ask me to put card reader and give them the readout.
they say it looks like the scammers have opened a paypal with my account they will need to close it, they need a code off me to authorise this.
They warn me phone is hacked so get me to take app off phone. tell me i cant do online bank any more till new cards come through.
also they will close my internet banking and send me new number, Give me warning never trust texts from royal mail with a phone number.
But not to worry we at the bank are here to protect you and make sure you don't lose money. and use card for pin transactions.

Tonight come home to no post... weird bank normally prompt.
Try opening online bank with card reader and it opens up fine
many dozens of small paypal cash movements or 30-70 pounds , and movements from my savings account to top up this account.
Ring bank to stop it... the hackers managed to clean out about £7,000 in four days in small payment . I know have to wait 15 days to find out if any of it is recoverable.
Its a really long-winded little sting to win your confidence over ... BE Careful !!
WP

[Paul Arden]

That’s crazy mate.

A mate of mine had 100K AUD taken from his account this year after a very sincere phone call from “the bank” saying there was a potential security risk. He moved fast when he got suspicious, immediately after the call but was still too slow. Even though he gave his details across a phone it was all refunded. Somehow whoever rang him had account details payments in/out (probably a bank statement), that he used to verify himself as being “the bank”.

I hope you get it back. You certainly should. I’ve had my card details used a few times in the past couple of years and have always has a complete refund.

The only time I didn’t get any help from the bank was 20+ years ago when as a retailer I sold a bunch of Leatherman tools to Hungary, unknowingly to a US credit card holder. Six weeks later the money came out of my account and I was quite seriously out of pocket. For this reason I like PayPal for payments nowadays (they didn’t exist then!).

Anyway I’m sure you’ll get a complete refund. It’s very common.

Cheers, Paul

[Boisker]

That’s terrible Pom… hope you get it sorted

[whinging pom]

That’s terrible Pom… hope you get it sorted

Thankyou mate , I’ll update it if there’s any news.
Hopefully I can warn a few off this scam, I’ve spoke to a client tonight that’s had the same text message 4 times and she’s been wracking her brains as to what it was she ordered? The last one said package waiting and if no immediate action it’s going back to sender.
They even have a customer help line number set up saying the operators are busy and you’re in a queue. It must be a clever little team working away somewhere
Pom

[VGB]

There was a very sophisticated attack on our account that started with a text from the bank to my wife just half an hour before the Euro Football final. The scammer knew a lot of our information and was well versed in how the on line account worked. My wife started to panic and asked me to take the phone, there was a pending transaction on the account. I spoke to the scammer but something set my spider senses off and I started to press him for corroboration of his bona fides, he became aggressive and said that he had to speak to a manager and would call us back.

While I was awaiting his return call, I checked the phone listing and saw it was 1 digit different to the banks, so we immediately changed our user ID and passwords. There was no one available on the bank fraud hotline, they didn’t man the phones at weekends during Covid lockdown.

My gut feel is that he was a former employee or that he had an insider, there’s no way he should have known some of the information that he had. He knew my user ID which was more than I did, I don’t use online banking. It was a close call.

Regards

Vince

[whinging pom]

Vince it does seem we are bombarded with them now... the cell phones bad enough, My landline is now defunct there was a getting to be a scam call a day on there i just gave up on it.
I've just spent a month or two trying to work out if my email account was about to be closed down or whether scammers were trying to trick information...and there no human to call? Lots of options on customer services, multi questions, but none covered my problem. Automatics great when things work in the parameters expected, but as soon as there is a dysfunction in their perfect system or hackers hijackings them, there carefully rehearsed customer service options melt down.

Its hard work to keep on top of it.

The number of times we get attempts made on us, means its odds on that one's going to get through when your guards down ..

On the other side of it I've had some waders that i had complained about to the States. The manufacturers sent replacements I had no idea about.

I got the notice that a post man had tried to deliver a package and get an extra fee, and now the parcel was waiting for me in Leicester 40 miles away, i needed to pay extra to get a redelivery ..and they don't say who he parcel is from.
I was sure was a con , I d been in the house that day , no one called ,no card was left, and why take it all the way back to Leicester?! .
How many times do we get a text saying they've "tried to deliver," and you know the drivers just cut out driving to your area.
Hes never been near, hes cutting corners to manage his savage workload , why drive to one village and do a single drop.

Then when i got a message that they were going to return them to sender unless i paid in full by by card immediately.. ha ha! I just thought they were upping the ante. A few weeks later i got a email from the company wondering why i had rejected the replacements. You can't explain to people overseas how rubbish the system is here, you just feel daft!
So its no wonder people fall for it that is how deliveries go over here.

The trouble is for me there's consumer programs on the radio saying that the banks wont pay out now, over the sheer number of these frauds. They are fighting hard to distance themselves from compensation and move the blame onto the victim

I spoke to a fraud line this morning run by retired police and they send I will probably have to appeal through the Financial conduct authority to get any of it back, I have to sit tight for 15 days and wait first ... So self employed with my cash flow account frozen for online managing and the nearest branch now 18 miles away with an endless queue to get to the teller.

sorry i am living up to my name.
whinge over

But Hey !!! .... lets all be careful out there!