Beware of the Scammers

Oh what an evening that was.  We nearly were scammed by telephone this evening.



We were having a quiet evening in minding our own business.  I noticed that we had purportedly received some phone calls from Barclays Services Limited.  This was quite odd from our perspective as these calls were later in the day.



Anyway the phone rang again and I answered it and in the end I passed it through to my partner.  The chap on the other end of the phone tried to get OH to transfer some money from our account saying that our account had been hacked and that the sum of £900 had been spent at Car Warehouse and £300 at Argos and to safeguard the security of the account he proposed opening a new one for us and transferring the money into that. That is all very well but there are not those sums of money in there at all.  In the end at my insistence OH refused to do anything.  The chap came over as particularly sincere but this call was unsolicited and not asked for.  The number actually came up as a legitimate as the same phone number that was on the back of the card and to all intents and purposes appears legitimate.  IT IS NOT this number has even been cloned.



If you receive any such calls tell them that you will ring them back and then ring independently to speak the security services at your bank.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  If needs be further arrangements will be put in hand to secure the account(s).



My instinct as soon as I received the call was that it was a spam and so if you receive similar calls decline to have anything to do with them and certainly do not confirm any information or give out information.



What worries me is that they come over as extremely sincere - Barclays will not necessarily ask you for any security data.  We nearly got took in and we class ourselves as street savvy when it comes to this sort of thing.  Such a hoo ha has been made about computer fraud so much so you do not expect it by phone.



In our case matters have been sorted out but could I ask you all to be wary please for your own peace of mind.

If it does happen to you ring on a different number to that you are given and speak to your bank security services.  

Hope no one is caught out by this.

Kind regards.

Pattypan

x

Comments

  1. hi! Good idea to post about fraud like this. Identityfraud is quite an issue here in Holland aty the moment along with all kinds of scams. You can always ring back as you say to make sure. It is policy at some companies even to phone back callers before they even share any info. You would not believe the stuff people just throw in the dustbin like social securty numbers and name and address of bank statements. These all can be misused too. Shred shred shred!!! Have a peaceful day if possible, you read like a human dynamo and put me to shame sometimes ;) M. from Holland

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    1. Hello Nomenomen, I was concerned that we are reasonably techie savvy and yet nearly got caught out and wanted to warn everyone else. My phone also went wrong after the incident but OH managed to sort it out. The trouble is that they come over as reasonably plausible. I am not a human dynamo when I am up to it I do try and do a lot but it does not always happen. After my illness during the week I am at the minute taking thing steady. I try and shred anything and then some as you just never know. Thank you for your good wishes and take care Tricia xx

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