Scam alert

[John Privett]

Just a quick 'heads-up' on a scam attempt I received today.

It was an email sent to the address I use as club treasurer - and the one shown on the club website. The 'from address' gave the name of our club chairman, but the email address was [email protected] - certainly not his! His name of course is also on the club website.

The text of the email was as follows;

Hi John,

We need to make a payment by Bank transfer, would you be able to do it today? let me know if you can

Regards,

David

A quick google searching on the text of the email revealed a number of small sports clubs receiving emails earlier this year, but from a gmail account with a very similar name - [email protected].

One account mentioned an email exchange where their treasurer played along to see where the scam went. They gave bank account details and a request to transfer (without giving a reason) £2,489.56. Obviously they sent nothing!

So - club officials - keep a look out. It was a hang-gliding and paragliding club as well as some football clubs that were targetted last time. It seems they've moved on to model aircraft clubs - if they've targetted my club they could well try yours too.

I've reported it to the abuse address at AOL.  I won't hold my breath though...

 

Edited By John Privett on 24/12/2018 22:37:38

[Geoff S]

My wife has been the treasurer of the local cycle club for over 25 years and regularly makes payments of that order from time to time (club clothing, mostly - it's a big club). However I'm pretty sure she wouldn't make a payment without some evidence it was legitimate. I would think that would apply to most clubs of whatever stripe.

I will let her know, anyway, so thanks for the heads-up. I suppose asking for such a specific amount makes it sound more real but I wonder how successful the scam is. The fact that they quote a bank account might make them traceable but as it's probably not a UK (or even European) bank it might not help.

Geoff

[John Privett]

Yes Geoff, I did wonder how many treasurers would really just fire off a bank transfer for no stated reason in response to that email (or the follow-up to it). Hopefully very few!

The earlier attempts were actually slightly more sophisticated in that they made the 'from' address appear to be the chairman's actual address as listed on the club websites, and the reply-to would go to the gmail account. That wouldn't have worked anyway for me as the chairman always sends stuff from his personal account which is not published!

[jimmac]

We had the same email sent to our club they wanted £875 when our treasurer replied and told who ever is behind this that our committee is only authorised to spend £300 the cheeky sods replied that would be fine.

Like you say its hopefully unlikely anybody would send them money, but the bank account they wanted it paid into was marked as a BMFA account so somebody may have fallen for it.

[John Privett]

Posted by John Privett on 24/12/2018 22:35:46:

I've reported it to the abuse address at AOL. I won't hold my breath though...

Just a quick update... The report to the aol.com abuse address has proved as utterly useless as I'd expected. I have today received a second, identically-worded email, also "from" [email protected].

So, whilst I'm sure the vast majority of us would never fall for this, be aware that these scammers are still at it.

[Peter Dyson 1]

Just to let everyone know that this fraudulent activity continues with Model Flying Clubs as the target.

As treasurer of Gloucester MFC I received and email today from "[email protected]" asking me to transfer a large sum of our clubs money to an unknown account in London:

Continental Sports Account number:75964021 Sort code:08-71-99 that breaks out to an account administered by Aps Financial Ltd, Po Box 52768, London, EC3P, 3WR.

Stay vigilant.

[Rick Tee]

Not a great idea to put email addresses on a web page, easy for spammers to collect using spiders (bots). Better to use a form via a php or cgi script. That way your email is hidden and can't be discovered by scanning the page or its source. Few ideas here but many can be circumnavigated by bots: **LINK**

[Peter Christy]

Am I missing something here? Surely, since the scammers have revealed their bank account details, they can be traced - or at the very least, the account closed down. OK, they may get another one, but perhaps if the banks were forced to take action each time the scammers popped up, they'd soon get fed up playing "Whack-a-mole" with them and perhaps perform more diligent checks before opening an account?

--

Pete

[The Wright Stuff]

Surely the most satisfying approach would be simply to enter the bank details provided into one of the 'my uncle died and I need to pay $90,000 into your bank account' scams, and sit back as the two scammers try to scam each other...

[Peter Christy]

Oh, I like that one!

Reminds me of my days at college when, during one rag-week, a bunch of students found some council workmen digging a hole in the main street. They warned them that there were a bunch of students disguised a policemen who might try to interfere with their work!

They then found some nearby rozzers and told them that there was a bunch of students disguised as workmen digging up the main street!

Finally, they retired to a nearby pub to enjoy the ensuing fracas from a safe distance........!

--

Pete

[Trevor Searle]

I am treasurer of the Croydon Airport club and received this phishing email recently. I reported it to Action Fraud (https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-phishing) and received an email from them stating that they have asked the bank to monitor this account for suspicious activity, which makes it more likely that anyone who has fallen for the scam will get their money back. The more people who report this type of phishing scam to them the more likely they are to follow it through, so I would ask anyone who has received it to report it to them.

[John Privett]

Posted by Trevor Searle on 16/01/2019 22:51:50:

...so I would ask anyone who has received it to report it to them.

Thanks Trevor - Done!

John - treasurer at Epsom Downs MAC.

[John Privett]

One year on and this one has popped up again...

This time it comes from a gmail account (probably a legitimate account) but the reply to address is the rather dubious-looking [email protected]. Text is almost identical to the last one;

Hi John,

We need to make a payment by bank transfer, would you be able to make the payment today.

Regards,

David

Again, I hope no treasurer would actually get fooled by this, but I mention it just in case...

[SIMON CRAGG]

Thanks for letting us know. Passed on to our treasurer and the rest of the committee.

[Julian Murch]

Does anyone know why the banks will not agree to the account name being included for transfers. This would go a long way to stopping such emails as you would be able to see who the money is actually going to.

[John Privett]

Julian - that is due very soon.

I remember it being mentioned many months ago that at some point in the near future anybody making a bank transfer will need to state not just sort code and account number but the account name as well. I believe there will be a small amount of 'latitude' for variations in the exact name.

And the following is now displayed every time I login to my club's internet banking account - obviously it's written from the viewpoint of a business sending out invoices;

Coming soon - Confirmation of Payee - Checking payments you will receive

Confirmation of Payee is a new service that helps protect against scams and mistaken payments by checking the name of a payee against the name held by the payee's bank.

From now on, when sending invoices or requesting a payment, be sure to provide the payment sender the full name we hold on your account and tell them it's a business account. This will help the payment sender avoid a message saying the name they entered doesn't match the details we hold for your account, which could result in delays to the payment while they contact you to check the details.

We will be introducing the checking of payments you want to make in the first half of 2020 and will provide further details of this closer to the time.

[Erfolg]

The scenario as indicated has happened twice with respect to myself. The Email used a Email address that looked authentic, it was only on examining the extension, that I saw it was one that I did not recognise.

The Chairman also received something along similar lines. He advised all of his contacts related to us, to be wary and carefully examine the address.

I just take these events as something I have to live with. In many instances which i think may be genuine, I contact the person via the telephone, to seek confirmation. If any aspect cannot be verified, I do nothing. As very rarely is anything desperate when related to modeling or even every day life.