Consumer news and scams

[Fester]

Give them my name and address ME, because I'm already with them.... that'll teach 'em!   

[Merddin Emrys]

Like it!  how do you get on with them?

[Fester]

Don't have much to do with them.

All on Direct Debit.... they bill me....they get paid...... we rub along quite nicely.


UNTIL.... a huge old bloke came to read the meter under the stairs, (first time in 6 years), his arthritic knees meant he could hardly kneel down, so he used my door as support to get up..... and wrenched the damn thing off its hinges on Xmas eve!

I lost my temper with the idiot, and he promised to return to repair it, but in the 'season of goodwill' I fixed it myself, and put it down to experience.

[Michael]

  Fester I don't believe you. Its not you to loose your temper with some old bloke, so don't give me that

[Ian]

Today I received what seemed to be a perfectly normal communication from Apple, saying that my Apple ID had been used to sign into iCloud on an iPhone 5, yesterday.  As it happens, my wife took her iPhone to Wilmslow yesterday, so the email had a ring of authenticity about it.

As with all such emails, it helpfully provided a link to check you were not being compromised, but this link - when I examined it - went to a Russian server. So best to treat all such messages with extreme caution as always.

[Neil]

Thanks for this tip Ian, I've got all Apple equipment and it's scary to hear about this type of attack!

[Ian]

It's the first I've seen, Neil, so still hopefully rare.

[born2run]

  Fester I don't believe you. Its not you to loose your temper with some old bloke, so don't give me that

I'm only suprised Fester didn't beat him. Bad apple that Fester 

[Bri Roberts]

This morning, I received this e-mail with the latest BT logo.


Service Cancellation Notice.
     
Dear Customer,

This e-mail has been sent to you by BT to inform you that we were unable to process your last payment of bill.This might be due to either of the following reasons:

1. A recent change in your personal information. (eg: billing address, phone)
2. Submitting incorrect Payment information during bill payment process.

Due to this, to ensure that your service is not interrupted, we request you to confirm and update your billing information today.
Confirm your account by clicking here.

Regards,
BT Billing Department



Normally, I would delete this type of e-mail, for quite obvious reasons, but this e-mail was from ebilling@bt.com which is the usual email address that BT always uses to write to me.

Even when I hovered my cursor over the email address is still showed up as ebilling@bt.com

I phoned BT on 150 to check and was informed it was a scam.

So beware.

[DaveR]

You may find the Sender is actually ebiling@bt.com (only 1 L)?

https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/Email-scam-warning/td-p/1158926

[Bri Roberts]

In my case, DaveR, it was definitely ebilling@bt.com (copied and pasted).

The email has since been forwarded to abuse@bt.com

[Gwynant]

              Bri, I have received numerous e-mails from "e-billing@bt.com" (all with 2 l's in the e-mail address) in the last few months, some very similar to the one you received today and others reporting that they have detected some abnormality or other in my account or that t are hey carrying out a pre-planned software upgrade and always requesting that I confirmed my details, (bank a/c, passwords etc) and I have always forwarded them to abuse@bt.com at the time with a request that they confirm that they are scams. I have never ever had any reply about any of them. They do look very convincing, but they let themselves down in the earlier ones by opening with "Dear Valued Customer"! Every time I receive one I change my password immediately.

[Bri Roberts]

Thanks G. 

In the circumstances, I have changed my password as recommended.

[Ian]

This is a nasty scam on the lines of the Courier scam, but more sophisticated.  Worth listening to.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01z2ntt

[Fester]

A very elaborate, but obviously effective scam.   The lengths that these crooks will go to beggars belief.

It is at saturation point now, as I get at least 3 scam phonecalls per week on the landline, (easily batted off by the Mrs usually), plus about 20 email type scams per week.     The world is indeed a scary place.