Cookham Discussion Board

 
FIRST: An Action Fraud case:
 
The aggrieved received a phone call from someone, claiming to be from Amazon on 24/01/2020.
 
The aggrieved told the caller that they were busy and put the phone down.
 
The scammer phoned back the next day at 9 a.m... They claimed that £39.99 had been taken out of the aggrieved’s bank account by Amazon Prime.
 
The aggrieved then responded.  The scammer told the aggrieved that they would be entitled to a full refund. The scammer asked the aggrieved to allow him to ‘proxy’ their computer remotely, which they did.
 
The scammer then asked the aggrieved to log into their online bank account and pump in their security information, which they did, to gain access.
 
The scammer has subsequently taken one amount of £8,000 and another amount of £7,900.
 
The caller later received a phone call from their bank alerting the caller that this was a scam.
 
The bank has refunded £7900.
 
We have still not reached everyone who needs to know about these scams and at the moment that has cost this victim £8,000.  We have no idea how many other vulnerable victims there are out there, parting with money - THIS EASILY - at this very moment.
 
Why would an opportunist thief run the risk of being caught and prison time, carrying out a burglary - and - getting peanuts for the proceeds, when they can simply phone someone up, ask them for nearly £16,000 - and have it handed to them on a plate.  All without leaving the comfort of their living room and with virtually no chance of them being caught.
 
A very large number of these cases are never reported to us, as once the scam has been revealed, the victim feels so stupid !
 
DON’T DO IT AND DON’T LET IT BE YOU !!!!
 
NEXT:  I have just carried out a quick trawl through the police computers over the last 30 days, for Action Fraud referrals.
 
Several other reports of people selling items on Ebay.  The vendors, appear to receive an email purporting to be from PayPal, to say that the items have been paid for and can be dispatched.  The items are sent and then it appears, they have not been paid for and the emails were fake.  Normally all this takes place within Ebay and an internal link to Paypal.  If you get any separate emails - check paypal using your password protected access, before dispatching anything.
 
DON’T LET IT BE YOU.
 
All Action Fraud Jobs we receive contain this advice for us to follow
 
Please provide this victim with all the relevant prevention advice. If the scam has been carried out over the phone, it is important that they get a ‘Call Blocker’ phone. These are easily available and relatively inexpensive.  They are also easy to programme with the numbers of family, friends, doctors etc. who will be able to get through, while all other numbers are blocked.  This will reduce the amount of fraudulent phone calls.  Simply by not responding to unwanted phone calls, they will stop.
 
The phone is a gateway to most frauds.  By not entering into a conversation, or returning a missed call with the suspect, can help protect the victim from future frauds. Victims giving even basic personal information eg. their utilities provider, can add value to the victims profile, when sold on.
 
Pressing 1 on the phone, can also suggest that a victim will follow instructions and may therefore be targeted with other frauds, resulting with the victim losing large sums of money. Personal information given, can also be used for identity fraud.
 
This victim’s personal profile, could be on a ‘Victim's List’ (suckers list). Small bits of information about the victim may have been compiled possibly over months and even years and then sold on. This is when the big frauds happen, when life savings can be lost.
 
Even though a victim has only logged one fraud call to the Police / Action Fraud, the victim has picked up the phone, which means that their profile will be sold on for a higher cost.  The computer generated group of numbers, is in fact a live telephone number, with a potential victim on the other end - who responds.
 
This call to Action Fraud was a very common one - the victim received a call to say their computer was running slowly:
 
‘The aggrieved received a call from someone, purporting to be from British Telecoms on the 21/01/2020. They answered and the scammer stated that they are calling because the aggrieved’s computer is slow and they are looking to fix this. The scammer asked the aggrieved to go on to their computer and type in a few things into the computer, so that they could have direct access to the computer, to fix the problem.  Once the aggrieved had done this, they said they could see that there were many errors, but they could fix it.  The aggrieved said that she could see things move about on her screen. She was on the phone for 2 hours, with the scammer.
The scammer sent a message to everyone in the aggrieved’s contact list to send £100 through Amazon, to the caller’s wife's niece, who doesn't exist.
 
The scammer told the caller that they only needed another 5 minutes and everything would be fixed.  The call was then terminated.
 
The aggrieved, then became suspicious and called her bank.  They said that there had been an attempt to remove a large sum from her account, but they had blocked it.  The aggrieved then started to receive lots of calls and messages, asking what her message was about.
 
The aggrieved is aware of four people, who have actually responded and sent over the money. Her computer is now turned off at the moment and her contacted 101 who advised her to contact Action Fraud.
 
A LOT OF DETAIL, BUT IT SHOWS HOW THESE SCAMS WORK - ONCE YOU HAVE HEARD THIS, IF YOU GET A CALL LIKE THIS YOU WILL RECOGNISE IT - AND JUST PUT THE PHONE DOWN.
 
YOU MUST NOT BE RECORDED AS A ‘RESPONDER’ - A POTENTIAL MARK !
 
 
CRIME
MAIDENHEAD CENTRAL:
maidenheadcentralnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk
17/2  Monday midnight / 6 a.m.  Wootton Way.  A witness reports a burglary at the shop, entry through forced front door.  Cash taken from a filing cabinet.
19/2  Wednesday 0.30 a.m. / 8 a.m.  College Rise X 2.  Cars damaged overnight.  1.  Wing mirror knocked off.  2.  Driver’s side wing mirror kicked off.
16/2 - 17/2  Northfield Road.  Index plates stolen from a car.
 
RIVERSIDE & BELMONT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
 
MAIDENHEAD WEST
maidenheadwestnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk
BISHAM, COOKHAM, HURLEY, THE WALTHAMS, LITTLEWICK GREEN & KNOWL HILL:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.

PINKNEYS GREEN & FURZE PLATT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
 
MAIDENHEAD SOUTH
maidenheadsouthnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk
BOYN HILL, COX GREEN & WOODLANDS PARK:
18/2  Tuesday 2 p.m. / 6.30 p.m.  King’s Grove.  Burglary.  Entry via forced side gate to access the rear garden.  Rear door forced.  House searched.  Cash stolen.
16/2 - 17/2  Sunday 10.30 p.m. / Monday 6.35 a.m.  The Tressel.  Black, Vauxhall Insignia index DV ** OMW stolen from the road
 
OLDFIELD, BRAY & HOLYPORT:
17/2  Monday 4.30 p.m. / 6 p.m.  Hotel Car Park, Manor Lane.  Catalytic Converter stolen from a Toyota Auris
 
 
COMMENTS:
 
FIRST - in from Malcolm
 
Hi
 
In the light of the inventiveness of the unscrupulous, I wonder whether this is another scam.
 
At 6.50 p.m. – outside normal office hours – we had a phone call for my wife, which I took in her absence.  It was from a foreign sounding man. He claimed to be calling “on behalf of a client, who wanted to buy IAG shares (parent company of BA) and he could see from the share register that my wife, was a bona fide shareholder, so he would like to buy her shareholding.”
 
At that point, I said she wouldn’t be interested, thank you, and put the phone down.
 
Something doesn’t ring true to me, hence my reaction to him.
 
Have you heard of this or anything similar ?  Maybe a general warning would be worthwhile.
 
Best regards
 
Malcolm
 
I haven’t, has anyone else had anything like this ?
 
NEXT - another scam email into my police email inbox.
 
It is from a woman with a Polish name.  She has apparently won $758 million dollars.  She wishes to share $5 million.  If you would like to share in this amount - email her back !
 
 
BIN IT - DON’T DO IT - DON’T LET IT BE YOU !