Scams and Fraud

Last week, a fairly credible young man called my mobile and claimed to be from the security division of my bank. He said that someone with an Asian name had attempted to withdraw £600 from one of my bank accounts and asked me to log into my online banking as part of the security check process.
Something just didn't feel right so I asked him how I could know that he was genuinely from my bank and he said check the number he was calling from and sure enough it matched the security hotline number on the back of my bank card.
Something still wasn't right so I said I'll call him back - at which point he cracked and knowing the game was up started laughing.
I rang the security hotline number and apparently scammers can buy cheap software to emulate any phone number so the calls you receive can appear to be from anyone they choose.

Banking fraud and financial scams are currently at an all-time high so I was disappointed to read that the Government has suspended the Fraud Taskforce - which is responsible for coordinating the Police and Financial Regulators in the fight against fraud.
Moreover, the Home Office is refusing to say whether or not there are any plans to reinstate it.

A wide range of concerned groups including Which?, Martin Lewis's Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and the wealth management trade association Pimfa have all called for scams to be covered by the Online Safety Bill which will go before Parliament later this year and is designed to put a duty of care on online providers but currently the Bill only covers issues such as child safety/abuse, hate crimes and terrorism.

IMO financial scams prey on the ill, the gullible and the elderly but anyone can get have their lives ruined by it so surely there is a case to increase the onus on content providers?

I've had many calls like this, and it's always £600. These calls are a pain in the arse.
Another one calls saying he's from amazon prime, and another informs me that my name has been associated with a tax fraud.
It's all about instilling fear in gullible or vulnerable people.
It's as low as it gets.

If i'm off during the day i tend to not answer the house phone as 99% of the time it's a scam call. Most of them now are automated messages but i have had a few live calls. Last one i can remember was from a so-called Police detective telling me my card had been used to buy a laptop in East London!

The most memorable one was a few years ago, i was at the match and when i got home Mrs Pig said someone from Microsoft had called to say there was an issue with our PC. She knows nothing about computers so told them to call back at 6pm to talk to me. I told her it was a scam but to my surprise they did call back at 6pm! I let him get started on his spiel then gave him both barrels down the phone and he hung up.

One other time i did the same and told him to fuck off and he actually called me back to say he would lock my pc 

Norpig wrote:If i'm off during the day i tend to not answer the house phone as 99% of the time it's a scam call. Most of them now are automated messages but i have had a few live calls. Last one i can remember was from a so-called Police detective telling me my card had been used to buy a laptop in East London!

The most memorable one was a few years ago, i was at the match and when i got home Mrs Pig said someone from Microsoft had called to say there was an issue with our PC. She knows nothing about computers so told them to call back at 6pm to talk to me. I told her it was a scam but to my surprise they did call back at 6pm! I let him get started on his spiel then gave him both barrels down the phone and he hung up.

One other time i did the same and told him to fuck off and he actually called me back to say he would lock my pc 

They sometimes call Bob.

boltonbonce wrote:
They sometimes call Bob.

Maybe the government is planning to use Bob to replace the Fraud Taskforce ?