Probable scam?

[Peter Christy]

A couple of weeks back I bought a new TV and BluRay player from Currys. It came with a guarantee that if the price dropped on Black Friday, I could claim back the difference. Although I bought the items in the shop, I had to register the cashback guarantee online.

A couple of days ago (I've been away from home!) I received an email saying I was due a £20 refund as the price had dropped, and to follow a link to a website where I could register my bank details for a refund.

Smelling a rather large rat, I contacted Currys customer help, who knew nothing about any such email!

BE WARNED!

I've tried to report this potential scam to the powers-that-be, but they only seem to cater for those that have actually been scammed, rather than anyone reporting suspicious activity. I don't know if anyone here might have a better clue as to where to report activity like this?

In any case, be careful out there!

--

Pete

[Don Fry]

I had one of these last week fron the French Goverment asking me to claim a tax refund. As though governments give!

[Andy Stephenson]

Phone calls purporting from both Visa and Mastercard are surely a scam, whoever heard of both those companies working together.

[SIMON CRAGG]

Two others doing the rounds at the moment: HMRC /Amazon, be careful out there folks!.

[Keith Berriman]

My son bought a large TV and vac from Currys and was advised to watch out for Black Friday deals and if it was cheaper he could reclaim the difference . Sure enough there was a difference, he made various phone calls to try and get it sorted but finished up back at Currys cash desk to get his refund

[Peter Miller]

I get masses of "Amazon" calls, also "HMRC" and "City of London Police".

Unfortunately they are all recorded messages telling me to "press one". to speak to my case officer.

THis is a great shame because it is a waste of time informing them of their personal habits and ancestry to a recording.

[Jon Laughton]

I have had a TV License renewal email from a Belgian email address purporting to come from the UK TV Licensing authority...

[Ben B]

At work our manager got an email from "Ikea" saying he had a refund due. He forwarded it to me saying it was an obvious scam (we hadn't bought anything from Ikea for about three months). The phone number to ring looked similar to Ikea customer services. I just rang the main number (instead of the one on the email). The person on the phone said they couldn't confirm much as I wasn't the account holder but that a refund was due (based on the refund number in the email). Our manager then rang and after half an hour it transpired they hadn't actioned a 3-for-2 on some bags of Dyme bars he had bought there and they owed him £3! It only took a total of about £200 of our time to get this refund!!!!

[Peter Christy]

As a follow up to my original post:

Yesterday I happened to be in town close to the Currys branch where I purchased the TV. My phone call to customer services had indicated that "Black Friday" refunds could only be made at the store from which the goods were purchased. However, the assistant in the store - who tried to be helpful, but clearly had not been trained for this - said that claims had to be made online, and that looking at the email on my phone, it appeared genuine!

Left hand - meet Right hand!

I have decided that for £20 its not worth the risk!

I normally avoid Currys and PC World like the plague, because the staff seem more interested in selling unnecessary warranties and usually have little knowledge of what they are selling. However, my preferred supplier (Richer Sounds) was out of stock at both local branches, so I had little choice.

In her defence, I have to say that the young lady assistant did try to be helpful in this case, but was clearly unprepared for the question put to her.

I'm still not convinced that the email was genuine - and even Curry's own front line staff can't tell either!

Be careful out there!

--

Pete

[Ronaldo]

I had a suspicious email supposedly from TV licensing, claiming they were unable to take my direct debit payments, and could I please provide my bank details. No name, just 'dear customer'. ...... sure enough when I checked, my payment had gone out, ...obviously a scam. Scares me how many elderly people may fall for this, best spread the word !!

[Keith Berriman]

I recently had the TV licence scam then the following week I had another supposedly from Netflix to say my subscription had not gone through. Never been anywhere near Netflix so that got blocked

[Ben B]

There was also a scam going round recently whereby people from "the NHS" would ring elderly (IE perhaps vulnerable) patient saying there was now an administrative charge of £2 for flu vaccination and as they had had the vaccine a charge was payable and they needed to take a credit card number for this "small admin fee". Not surprisingly if anyone gave their CC number it was £2 that got taken.

Another quite cunning scam impacting on the NHS was scammers would order a load of ipads using the contact details of the manager of a GP practice (invoiced so payment later). The scammers would have tracking details so would be able to monitor when the delivery had occurred- they would then turn up at the bemused practice (wondering were these ipads had come from) pretending to be from the local NHS IT department saying it was all a mistake, they were for a different practice and they would take the unwanted ipads away....

Thankfully most practices have pretty good CCTV so quickly the ID of the culprits were caught and the last time they tried this a switched-on practice manager rung the police and who nicked the person.

[Paul Marsh]

My brother just bought a 4K 65 inch QLED from Richer Sounds, as it was the cheapest price then. After two weeks he noticed that another supplier had it for £100 cheaper. He Phoned up R.S. and although already paid for the TV about the lower price.

He had £100 refunded straightaway and a extra £15 price match guarantee . He had to phone up, but shows that if you don't ask, you don't get, but no-one gives anything away if they can get away with it. Although Richer Sounds is a well known name and a no-quibble policy.

[Tony Harrison 2]

Posted by Peter Christy on 21/12/2019 12:26:02:

...I normally avoid Currys and PC World like the plague,....Pete

Hi Peter. Very wise to avoid the possibility of a scam! They're so frequent now... But re your mention of Currys, a couple of years ago they had a cooker that seemed to fit my aged mother's requirements - this was her nearest branch at Botley, Oxford. Naturally I wanted to take her there to see the item, wouldn't dream of buying a thing like that online. It turned out, after various time consuming phone calls, that it's not possible to phone an individual branch to make sure an items is in stock, before driving ten miles to visit! They do not release the branch numbers! We bought instead from an independent local dealer, good price + service. I wrote directly to Currys HQ to tell them what I thought of their weird policy. I too avoid Currys and PC World like the plague.

Best, Tony

[wingcoax]

A number of years ago we owned a Hotel in the NW and received a letter from Currys about the guarantee on a large TV. We had not bought a TV. On ringing Currys it turned out the TV in question had been paid for in cash at a London branch and was in the name of an African sounding gentleman who had used our address. It was presumed that he had done this to avoid his own address being put into the system and avoiding the licence.

[Peter Beeney]

At the beginning of February I received what at first glance looked like a genuine email from PayPal Customer Care; this stated they needed to confirm the information I’d given them and until I’d done so my account would be severely restricted. There were two links within the email to click on, ‘My Account - PayPal’ and ‘Update information now’.

Nowadays I’m very cautious about any such emails so I just left it for a while and on having a second look look it soon started to fall apart, for instance the senders email address - [email protected] - appears to be a work of fiction and the Customer Care address given - 214 Teignmouth Road Torquay TQ1 4 RX - appears to be an empty residential property!

I use PayPal whenever possible but I don’t make that many online payments anyway. I sent it to Spoof@PayPal but I’ve never had a reply. However, I have just made a donation, the first use since it came and that went through as normal so the account is definitely not restricted….

I’ve personally never had any issues with PayPal in the time I’ve been a user; but another beneficial ‘Rule of Unexpected Consequences’ might arise from this; in future I will be examining any ‘unusually unexpected’ such emails first under a very powerful microscope indeed!! It can work both ways…

To echo Peter C above - you all take care out there……

PB

[Andy Stephenson]

If you get an email that has seemingly kosher web links in the body of the text, just float the mouse over the link and look down at the bottom of the screen of your browser to see the actual address, it can be immediately obvious when you see an address that looks nothing like it should. This probably only works on a PC not on a phone screen.

Do NOT ever click on these links as this can lead to a virus download.

A.

[Peter Christy]

Recently my wife and I have been plagued with 'phone calls, all pre-recorded messages threatening 1) our internet is about to be cut off 2) HMRC have sent the police to arrest us and 3) the usual one about being involved in an accident.

All of these have asked us to "press 1" to speak to an "advisor". No doubt this would connect us to an expensive reverse charge line.

Doing a 1471 shows that identical calls come from different numbers, all around the country, so they are not easy to block (they never use the same number twice).

I've contacted our 'phone supplier, but there isn't much they can do about it other than offer a call blocking service. However, as the numbers are constantly changing, even this doesn't work.

As soon as we hear a recorded message, we just hang up, and it looks as if they have finally got the message - for the moment anyway.

I can well understand the vulnerable getting caught out by this, though!

--

Pete

[ken anderson.]

nasty Peter, we have caller display on the screen,if we don't recognise the number we let it go...as soon as the ans machine kicks in they hang up.my brother just picks up the receiver and then puts it down on the table,and leaves it for 10 mins.

ken anderson...ne..1..nasty's dept.

[ColdLazerus]

I used to get about 5 bogus phone calls a week, have been using "truecall" for 5 years or more all stopped the instant I installed it, I can't recommend it highly enough.

[Frank Skilbeck]

Just on the above re phone calls, last year the law changed and BT were no longer allowed to charge for caller ID, so if you buy a phone with call blocker any number which isn't on your safe list will have to announce who they are, the phone then plays this message so you can decide whether to take the call. None of the scammers are prepared to go through this so just hang up. If it's somebody you know it's a one button push to add them to your safe list.

Ours has been great, no cold/scam callers since we've had it, but lots of missed calls from unknown numbers......

[Julian Murch]

We use the answering machine as our call minder. If we do not recognise the calling number or no number displayed we let the answering machine answer. The call usually stops before the recorded message ends.

[Michael Barclay]

I had an email this morning from a solicitor in South Africa informing me of the tragic death an aunt who I have never heard of. It seems she owned three gold mines and a diamond mine and she left everything to me. Just on my way to the airport now!

Edited By Michael Barclay on 24/02/2020 13:22:49

[Broken Prop]

When I get a nuisance call these days I just tell them that the voices had told me they going to call. The conversation rarely gets any further.

[Martian]

Whenever I get a call relating to an accident I,ve had i tell them it was fatal and that my head was severed the call ends without another word.by the way Michael that solicitor notified me about my aunt so it looks as though we will have to share