标签归档：scam method

(English) Data Protection and Nuisance Calls – Rights and Regulations

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

The usage of nuisance calls is one of the most annoying marketing strategies nowadays, its benefits are highly controversial and justifiably so. Nevertheless dozens of companies call and message their customers as well as total strangers every day. While the tellows community offers fruitful hints about the source of certain telephone numbers, we now would like to provide you with useful information regarding your right to data privacy as well. Especially the regulations on personal data and its use are rigorous and actually promote benefits for all of us. But for a successful fight against scam and spam calls you need to know and defend your rights.

The following information will give you a broad knowledge on data security, mainly based on laws and regulations valid in UK. Some institutions were specially built for the protection of our data.

The Data Protection Act
The DPA is one of the most important pieces of legislation when it comes to data protection in the UK. The DPA was enacted to be in line with the data protection directive in the EU, which should guarantee protection of people’s right to privacy, especially concerning the processing of personal data. As it aims to safeguard consumer rights regarding personal data, the 1998 DPA also guarantees self-control over personal information and the right to privacy. It determines that any collection or use of personal date requires consent of the individuals concerned. Furthermore, all organisations processing this kind of data need to comply with the regulations of the Act and need to be registered at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as well. It also vests all individuals with the authority to get access to their stored data by any organisation.

Privacy Electronic Communication Regulations
The EC Directive, known as the E-Privacy Directive is a continuation of the DPA on data protection. It enables criminal proceedings through fines up to £500,000 for the unauthorised use of recorded messages for marketing purposes. The impact of the EC Directive also includes phone calls, emails and SMS messages. Thereby it provides the legal basis for consumer protection especially in the case of direct marketing and has been amended several times.

Information Commissioner’s Office
As mentioned before, the ICO is the authority for upholding consumer rights as well as data protection in the UK. The enforcement of both presented regulations is controlled by the ICO, who has multiple tools for opposing misuse of personal data. There are not only possibilities of monetary penalty, the ICO is also entitled to audit and prosecute anyone disregarding the DPA or the EC Directive.

Every call or message as marketing measure needs to be consented by the individual to be permitted. In any case marketers need to provide a possibility to opt out any following messages or calls to meet the legal regulations. If this is disregarded, those responsible also disregard the regulations and thereby are liable to prosecution. Thus, consulting the ICO is everyone’s right. When there is violation of rights, the ICO takes action to ensure a proper handling of personal information and also enables individuals to detect the information held about them.

Telephone Preference Service
Next to these legal institutions and laws consumers have the possibility to use the TPS. This central register enables people to opt out from receiving unsolicited nuisance calls. As described before, organisations have to respect the request of individuals not to be approached if listed in the TPS. The free registration can be done by any individual for a certain number (mobile phone numbers as well) and takes full effect after approx. 28 days. The TPS offers a complaint system as well. Although the TPS is not allowed to take any action of enforcement, they regularly send updates about the incoming complaints to the ICO as the body responsible. This strongly supports their investigations.

While reliable companies accept the TPS entries as it is a legal requirement, it is quite easy for organisations working outside of the UK to circumvent the regulations. Through Caller ID spoofing, which allows deceptive organisations to display a number that is not the original one. Although this is obviously illegal, the ICO’s and TPS’s authority is not effective outside the UK. Unfortunately a TPS registration does also not prevent calls on the purpose of legit market research. Also the receipt of marketing text messages is not under the control of TPS. To stop receiving SMS messages you have to send a request to the company yourself, a simple „STOP“ message is enough though.

The Office of Communications
The Ofcom has an even broader scope. As it is a regulatory and competition authority approved by the government, it represents the interest of UK citizens regarding competition and protection for broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries. Thereby the Ofcom also deals with problems of nuisance calls and offers particular guidelines for several situations.

All of the presented regulations and authorities can help you taking care of annoying, even malicious phone calls and messages. In some cases however it might be advisable to consult a lawyer to advice you for further legal steps if necessary.

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(English) Students – more likely become victims of a scam

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

Mobile phone fraud involves a variety of scams that either persuade you to buy phone-related products/services that turn out to be non-existent or to make phone calls or texts to premium services by accident or to unknowingly sign up to expensive subscription services. And each year millions of the UK consumers fall victim to mobile phone frauds.
There is one group of people who are more likely to become a victim of a scam – students! Students are using their mobile phones almost 24 h a day and they are open to communication with the world. Those might be the reasons for the latest frauds in the UK, when students were victims.
Last fall college students have been left in thousands of pounds of debt after becoming involved in a mobile phone contract scam. A fraud has made young people sign up for numerous expensive mobile phone deals on the promise they will not be required to fulfil them. Young people from Preston College have taken out mobile phone contracts which they hand over to a fraudster, who promised to cancel the contracts. But instead he shipped them abroad to places like India and Pakistan leaving students facing bills for more than £2,000 each. Some of them were paid a fee for their work, while others were probably conned into the belief taking mobile phones would “improve their credit rating.” Police have today revealed frauds – criminals from Blackburn.
Very often scammed are especially international students. Tellows user m.wentzel reported number 02032398294 and his comment:

This is one of the numbers that pretends to be from the UKBA to fool international students in the UK and tell them there is something wrong with their imigration application. They have parts of your data (maybe name, zip-code etc.) and they try to get ALL of your information plus your credit card details. Do not give that information!

In 2012 BBC informed that in nine months viruses that steal cash have jumped from 29% of mobile malware to 62% . Mobile security firm Lookout said viruses were getting on to phones via booby-trapped apps and through adverts and webpages harbouring malware. Those viruses added charges to a user’s bill to cash in. Fraudsters inserted a virus called “NotCompatible”. Such a virus might be used to artificially inflate the popularity of an advert, a song on a music website to help generate a larger return for criminals.
Another example of scam adds has been reported by Tellows user London on number 07572597532:

Be careful people. This guy puts fakes adds on gumtree. But is a scam.
Trust me. This guy is a scammer.

People are being tricked into signing up, often by typing in their mobile number online, for services they actually don’t want. Messages are then sent out which can cost users up to £4.50 per text to receive. Unless people keep a close eye on their mobile phone bills those charges can add up very quickly. For example, twenty-four-year-old Beth Coundley from Chichester got caught out after receiving around five texts a month for five months. In total she was charged around £130 despite insisting she never signed up for any services.
And those are just few examples of this huge problem. To protect yourself it is better not to respond to unknown numbers, to reply to text messages from someone you don’t know, to reply to any text that claims you won money. We have to remember it is not possible to win money without entering a competition.
Taking into consideration the amount of phone frauds, the UK government is doing everything possible to protect their citizens. There are advices how to protect yourself and your money in the internet, also everybody who becomes victims can make a fraud information report on webpage of Tellows. Police and National Fraud Authority are working together to fight this fight. Unfortunately, the development of technologies guarantees the development of fraudsters’ imagination.

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(English) New Top 5 of Most Annoying Numbers in UK

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

Whenever someone receives a call from a strange number arrises a question: ”How to check who is calling me?” Answer is simple – check it on Tellows It works very simply. Put in the number of someone who called you, read the complaints and see where the number comes from, read experiences of other people and then post your own. Simple, you see!

Regarding the most wanted numbers we make our weekly updates on most annoying numbers in UK. So, are you ready to know who is hiding behind UK’s most annoying numbers this week ? Here we are with UK’s latest update on Top 5 of Most Annoying Numbers.

1. 01422387713 from Halifax – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 9
2. 01618505451 from Manchester – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 8
3. 01709384780 from Rotherham – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 6
4. 01933441081 from Wellingborough – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 8
5. 01614867770 from Manchester – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 8

The most wanted number 01422387713 this week comes from Halifax and Tellows user Fed up posted the last comment on this number:

Call daily on my work phone. Have requested they stop but they still persist

This is a classic harassment call and it has been our top leader for a couple of months already. The second place goes to number 01618505451 that has been reported as harassment call, also. Our user bagsy told us:

Calling me everyday for months despite me ignoring their calls. ask too many personal questions over the phone

If you receive harassing phone calls, hang up immediately on obscene callers or strangers who ask questions regarding private matters. Do not share your private information and be aware of scammers!

We wish you a scam free week!
Yours, Tellows Team

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(English) UK – world’s most phished country in 2012

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According to the world renowned cyber experts RSA, in 2012 UK consumers lost more money to online fraud than any other country. The RSA Anti-Fraud Command Centre (AFCC) released figures of a £405.8m loss in the UK for 2012 which was gained from 250 000 phishing attacks.
For the UK, this resulted in a 25% increase from 2011. The top five countries, which have a significant English speaking population, are as follows. US are second even though there loss was a decline of 19%. Canada, India and South Africa make up the rest.

An annual lost to the UK through cybercrime was estimated at £27bn by Detica-BAE Systems. From this £27bn, £21bn is believed to come from businesses.

The cost to consumers is equally catastrophic. Detica believes that a total figure of £3.1bn has a more encompassing scope than RSA. Fake antivirus packages and ‘scareware’ cost the consumer around £30m.

However, one must use caution when using estimations of cost as previous usages have been exaggerated wildly. However the RSA’s figures are based on attacks detected and dealt with by its AFCC. The attacks are then given the value of $300 per attack as this is the average from 8 years of operations, with 500 000 incidents tackled in this time. Detica’s totals use analysis from 25 industrial sectors and consultation with five British government agencies.

Due to the widespread use of chip-and-pin technology and other multi-factor authentication, the UK population are less at risk than those in the US.

Limor Kessem, Technical Lead of Knowledge Delivery at RSA believes that the UK are targeted due to an increase in technology for the average person. She said “The problem with the UK is that more people use the internet, more people have technology”.
The Office for National Statistics released figures last week that show that 84.7% of the UK public have used the internet at least once. In comparison, the US has a figure of 77.9%. In addition, the UK has the most usage for internet access from mobiles which increases the risk of attack.

New tactics are constantly being evolved by potential fraudsters to rid you of your money. For example, online fraudsters often require an individual, or an ‘insider’, to reside in the country of the target. This is in case attendance at a bank is required and in this sense the fraudster can impersonate the target. “It’s partly because of the accent. You have to sound like a local if you really want to make sure the transaction goes through”, said Kessem.

Highlighted in a 2012 UK Cards Association report on payment fraud were methods that a potential fraudster might carry out in-branch. The theft of a card at an ATM, or tricking individuals into revealing their card and PIN by posing as a telephone salesperson have been used in the past.

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(English) Work Methods of Call Centres – The Importance of Telephone Number Blocks

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

Constant avaiability through our mobile and smartphones has become a part of our daily routine. Although there are, undoubtably, advantages to this avaiability, for some people this benefit turned into curse, especially as far as unsolicited calls are concerned.

One Company, Innumberable Phone Numbers – Thanks to Phone Number Blocks

Who does not know about the problem of being called by unknown phone numbers? Often the perpetrator is only one call centre disguised behind a broad range of phone numbers. How does that work? On one hand, call centres employ the Voice over IP technology to generate random phone numbers to conceal their true numbers, on the other hand, most call centre request vast blocks of telephone numbers from the network provider.

A phone number block contains at least 10 phone numbers which match each other in their initial digits. The public telephone network offers block numbers containing up to 1000 phone numbers. Some companies with a high affinity to telecommunications maintain block numbers supplying up to 10000 phone numbers to support their telephone systems. Another variant of block numbers refers to the bulk of extension numbers to define a telephone systems substations.

The main advantages of number blocks enables companies the use of Direct Dial Ins, that provides the telephone system’s substation to be avaiable directly from internal and public networks without the need of being relayed manually. As far as the consumer is concerned, he or she will be able to skip the company’s or institution’s swithboard and call the desired colloquist directly through the extension number. Additionally, consumers can recognize the number and attribute it to a certain company or institution.

Call Centres Use a Large Variety of Numbers

De facto most call centres use their number blocks to their own profitable ends. Hence consumer will be targeted by various numbers behind which telemarketers and lottery scams lurk. Most call centre expect their numbers being blocked every now and then. In order to avoid any losses call centres draw on a vast pool of numbers, essentially, thanks to the number blocks provided by the nertwork operator. The more number block a company has at its disposal, the more phone numbers it can employ. Although numbers of nuisance callers are blocked not only by consumer on a regular basis but also by official institution – some only after thousands of complaints – the call centres supply of replacement numbers enables the company to go on as if nothing happened.

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(English) Mobile scam that hit thousands of people

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

Last weekend tens of thousands mobile phone users in Ireland woke up to a missed call, that, at the first glance, appeared to have originated locally. However, it was actually just a carefully disguised premium rate service number based in Slovenia, which the scammers used to profit from those who called back. While there is still no exact data on how much money in total the users have lost, it is estimates that connection charge alone was in excess of €2 in addition to similar costs incurred by the users for each minute spent on the call.

The scam was initially set up to play on peoples’ feelings and emotions after missing a call in the middle of the night, and it worked to the extent that people called back. Once the user had called back, the automatized system would play random noises to ensure that the caller stays for as long as possible and pays as much as he can. Many of tellows users are also annoyed by the calls in the middle of the night, our user sleepless reported:

Last night, while I was sound asleep, my phone rang. WTF! I was really pissed because I was sleeping soundly and then a sudden phone call woke me up. I did not answer the first call and then, someone from this number gave me more rings and it reached 20 missed calls. That was ridiculous. I HATE IT , REALLY !

Our user Jippard gives a good advice to everyone who has ever got a missed call:

Don’t answer calls from this number. If you answer you’ll only get harassed more and more from this company and others. If you get calls from strange numbers that you don’t recognise don’t answer. If its an important call they’ll leave you a message and you can phone them back.

The good news are that everything is being done to stop the fraudulent earnings reaching the scammers pockets, and, hopefully, Irish consumers will be reimbursed for any costs they have incurred due to the scam. Nevertheless, the idea behind prevention of this particular fraud is not just to keep the customers happy or to stop those in charge of the scam profiting from it. Irish communications regulator ComReg has stated that prevention is also being done to prove to others who may attempt a similar trick that the payment system in Ireland is secure enough to be able to withstand such scams and not to pay out the wanted money.

No data protection issues can be seen so far in the case, as the numbers that were called had been generated by a computer and all had the same prefix of 087, therefore it appears that there is no connection to any phone lists being leaked or used. However, regardless of the fact that the scammers will not get their money, they are also unlikely to be traced as the host numbers that appear to have come from Slovenia may have been cloned and could have come from a completely different place.

ComReg spokesperson has said that such scams are not uncommon in Ireland and are dealt with as quickly as possible and that any person, who believes that they may have been a victim to this particular scam, should contact their personal phone service provider to check whether any costs have been incurred.

Phone scams are by all means not the only type of fraud that are constantly happening. Letters from supposed foreign Lottery funds asking you to cover administration costs before you receive your money; SMS telling you that you have won money and that you need to call back; advertisements suggesting work from home where you have to pay for materials first; fake computer virus alerts and emails from banks requesting your financial details – all of these are scams that are not uncommon and might be attempted on anyone, therefore it is always essential to watch out for them. And Tellows is always here for you to help fighting against annoying scammers. Together, we can !
Your Tellows

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(English) Timeshare Cold Calls

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

It seems as though there is a new player in the game of scamming innocent timeshare owners into purchasing help to move their timeshares. Action Services International, or ASI, has been recently noted to be cold-calling individuals who own timeshares, and offering to assist the owners in selling their timeshares. What happens on this phone call, and what should you been looking out for? The agent(s) performing the cold-call will generally invite the owner to Spain to partake in legal action against the company which owns their timeshare on something called a “no-win, no-fee” basis. Subsequently, the individual would then be offered another service, this one referred to as a “disposal service,” which would buy-out the timeshare for an upfront fee. If the trip to Spain for legal action wasn’t something to be cautious about already, the upfront fee certainly is.

Tellows user mmj reported number 01474607608 and shared her experience with us:

Told that I was a former owner of time share and so was entitled to a week’s holiday for 6 anywhere in the world accomodation only but had to agree within 3 days and pay up front.

With any agency such as this, whether or not they are marketing a timeshare or any other piece of personal property, an upfront fee is not an industry standard, and allows the company to profit from you without helping you.

Be wary of how you interact with these companies, because if it is a scam, you may spend the money without even moving the timeshare from your name. When this happens to an someone, that individual still owes yearly dues on the timeshare, even though they spent the money to the scamming company to remove them.

It can get very annoying, tellows user angry man has reported number 01229346001 as a harrasment call and commented:

This is a Timeshare resale scam, asking prospective customers to part with their money as a ‘Retainer’ before they sell their timeshare or holiday club membership to them.

Unfortunately, this occurs more than you may think. This sentiment is mirrored by Alberto Garcia, the director of Mindtimeshare, a consumer association in Spain that represents victims of fraud such as this. He mentions that there are numerous cases where the “disposal fee” is paid, and the timeshare is never removed from the owner’s name. Fortunately, many timeshare companies are now changing their regulations in order to combat fraud such as this, in an effort to protect their customers. It is important that timeshare owners contact their representative companies first before seeking third-party assistance in marketing such assets.

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(English) Another Day, Another Scam – Be aware of current fraud-methods!

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

Another scam trying to lure you into a trip by promises of great riches sprouts shoots.

We would like to warn you about a message which promises a bonus payment of 1000₤ in addition to the regular pension. This recorded message want you to push 5 for further information or 9 for unsubscribing. Sometimes it’s not a message but a call. One of the numbers which are used by those fraudsters is 01619610056. Please don’t answer to that, its a scam! If you know other numbers, comment them here in order to warn other users!

Another method to get your money is stealing your bank details. We reported last year about scammers who claim to be SKY-employees in order to get your bank information. Now another company called Lending Stream is intend to gain access to your purse. They claim they granted you a loan in the past which they debit from your bank account now – although there isn’t any evidence for this loan. Even big banks like Lloyds aren’t protected from this method. Unfiortunately, you are often left alone with the problem because they don’t know how to avoid scams like this.

Our user Andrew tells us about his bad experiences with Lending Stream.

this company offered my father a loan so he paid them a u-cash voucher for 145 pounds so as his loan went into his bank account… it all seemed above board then they said they wanted another 250 to process….LENDING TREAM… Comlpete rip off merchants PLEASE STAY AWAY… my dad is 68 years old and they took most of his wages and then wanted more…SCUM THATS WHAT THIS COMPANY ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And they said he cant have his money BACK!!!!

All we can do is to pay attention and to share our experiences on tellows.co.uk.

Take care, your tellows-Team!

Sources:
Guardian – Lloyds Payday Fraud
Guardian – Recorded Phone Message

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(English) Great Success Against PC Doctor Scammers

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

It sounds like a relief from one of the most common scam methods of the past two years: the American FTC (Federal Trade Commission), in cooperation with several crime defense organisations such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission and the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency as well as law enforcement officials in India, has arrested 17 people in responsible positions of fraud companies.

As the Guardian reported, Indian fraud companies used locations and acounts in the USA and Canada to funnel the money back to India. Namely it were the following companies whose assets have been frozen: Pecon Software; PC Care247; Connexxions Infotech; Connexxions IT Services Private Ltd; Zeal IT Solutions; Lakshmi Infosoul Services Private Ltd; Virtual PC Solutions, First PC Solution; Direct PC Solution; Virtual IT Supports; Global Innovative Service; 24x7pchelp; 24x7pctech; Transfront Solutions; New World Services; Megabites Solutions; Mega Bits; Greybytes Cybertech; Bluesystemcare; Shine Solutions Private Ltd.

Tellows reported about the so-called PC doctor scam method on its blog earlier this year: http://blog.tellows.co.uk/tag/virus/

The scam was addressed to citizens of all English-speaking countries, with calls originating from India. Briefly said, the scam consisted in calliing the victims on the phone with the caller introducing himself as an employee of microsoft calling because of a virus that had been detected on the called person’s PC. The caller would ask the victim to open the Windows Event Viewer – a part of the Windows operating system that regularly gives error warnings, but these have no negative influence on a computer’s functioning.

Consequently, the caller would instruct the person on the other end to download a pseudo-anti-virus programme for a fee or even subscribe the person to a regular update for the application that should fix the computer problem. Even worse: in some cases the fraudsters were asking for personal information and bank account details to gain their victims’ money. According to the Guardian, the fraudsters were in average able to ripp more than $ 800 off each conned person.

Tellows has records of the following UK numbers connected to the fraud:

Source:

Yours,

Team Tellows

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(English) The Silent Call Plague – Weekly Top 3 Spammers

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对不起，此内容只适用于美式英文。

There’s not much news on the top UK spam ranks:

1. 01932504981 from Weybridge with a tellows score of 7
2. 07520905002 mobile phone number with a tellows score of 8
3. 02073286956 from London with a tellows score of 7

Insurance scam business is still flousishing, especially with the number 01932504981 that is still relentlessly trying to sell car insurance on behalf of Van compare.

User Odd call‘s comment speaks of the incompetence of the caller:

Answered and they said calling from car insurance company and that my insurance was up for renewal and was this right? I said “I have no idea” the guy on the other end said “oh my gosh!” and hung up. I have no idea what he thought I said, but it was different for a sales team to hang up on me rather than the other way round.

We got a silent call number on rank two for a change. Best comment of the week by scamhater says it all:

My advice is to always do what I do with these scam type calls;

1. use your phone to make a recording of 1 second of silence. (keep this 1 second silence in your ringtone or media folder)

2. save the recording and call it scamtone or something.

3. then enter the scammy number into your address book as ; scam1, scam2, scam 3 etc. Each one represents a different scammy number that you get over time.

4. finally, associate the 1 second of silence with each scammy number as a ringtone.

Simple – they can ring and ring and if you dont hear it you dont pick it up. If it is associated to a name ; Scam1 etc, you will never be tempted to ring it back from your call history.

Last week’s rank-3-number stayed where it is, still harassing people in the UK at all times of night. There are some hints that such silent calls at night could originate from an overseas call center, probably in India. Some companies are hiring telephone assistants in countries, where workforce is cheaper for them. They obviously did not keep the time zones in mind.

And as we already emphasized a million times, silent calls proved to be the precursors of real telemarketing or scam calls – so watch out!

Stay tuned and keep eyes and ears open for more spam numbers!

Kind regards,

Team Tellows

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