Scam Warning

Lazarus

Lazarus

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Just received word of iniquitous mail scams people would be advised to take note of:

"Postal Scam:

Can you circulate this around especially as Xmas is fast approaching -it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

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 on 020 7239 6655"



Also, a variant:



"There is a similar thing when you get an email saying that UPS (or it could even be the same PDS) couldn't deliver a parcel. If you open it and open an attachment then you get a phishing virus."





(With thanks to rare Forum visitor and personal friend JamesE)
 
Just got one from DX but the tracking number doesn't work on the website. Not sure if it's legit because it's on 0845 number and I'm expecting something through Royal Mail but might be through this.
 
Tivù said:
Just received word of iniquitous mail scams people would be advised to take note of:

"Postal Scam:

Can you circulate this around especially as Xmas is fast approaching -it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

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 on 020 7239 6655"



Also, a variant:



"There is a similar thing when you get an email saying that UPS (or it could even be the same PDS) couldn't deliver a parcel. If you open it and open an attachment then you get a phishing virus."





(With thanks to rare Forum visitor and personal friend JamesE)
Click to expand...
Nothing to worry about

This story dates back to December 2005 and the full story can be found on snopes.com. (Google the 0906 number)

The phone lines were shut down on Dec 29th 2009, and the story has got hopelessly mangled over the years - the phone lines were £1-50/minute lines with a maximum call length of £9. They tried to keep you on the line for amaximum amount of time to rack up the call charges.

There is no phone tarrif in the UK that could possibly lead to a 300quid connection charge.
 
Yes, it does seem to come back to prominence from time to time ............ quite a long history, looking at the Google results.

But there's no harm in heightening awareness in general. Trust nothing you aren't absolutely positive is both expected and genuine.
 
Tivù said:
Yes, it does seem to come back to prominence from time to time ............ quite a long history, looking at the Google results.

But there's no harm in heightening awareness in general. Trust nothing you aren't absolutely positive is both expected and genuine.
Click to expand...

Oh yes - you need to be aware of these tricks - no doubt something similar will be tried at some point. :)
 
There's a FedEX Phishing e-mail doing the rounds as well. My dad got one last week. Luckly he's a suspicious old sod who didn't open it as wasn't expecting anything.
 
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