Scammers are becoming ever more sophisticated in their efforts to relieve us of our money. Here’s one I’ll share with you that almost had us fooled:
Sam received a letter from our bank, which seemed to be typed on genuine headed notepaper. The letter stated that in order to repay the money owed under the loan agreement he needed to pay £77.53 by June 30th. This would be a final payment to clear the remaining balance within the agreed term. It went on to say that as he pays by direct debit, the final payment would be requested from his bank on or immediately after the date mentioned.
This immediately rang warning bells in my head. To start with we have a joint account, and usually correspondence is addressed to both of us. Secondly we have no outstanding loans with that particular bank, and neither of us had any idea what the £77.53 related to.
I logged in online and sent a secure message questioning the letter and asking them to check the P.O Box address given and to investigate further. Back came a reply today stating that the P.O Box number and phone number given on the letter was genuine, but they unfortunately could not find any notes or electronic communication they have sent associated with the letter Sam received.
Hmm… I suppose these days it’s easy enough to copy a piece of headed paper. I don’t think I’ll be paying that £77.53. Would you?
dgkaye said:
That’s scary! It’s bad enough we get bank scammers calling our mobile phones and leaving threatening pay up messages. But I’ve never heard of them coming by mail. Bloody awful! I just delete the mobile messages. Duh, no banks even have my mobile number, that’s my first clue. We have to stay one step ahead of them! 🙂
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Clive said:
This happened to one of my daughters, who received a payment request supposedly from the taxman. What convinced us it was fake was that it had been created from an actual template, but we checked the HMRC letter code at the bottom of the page and it referred to something completely different. The clues are there but it’s a shame we have to be so much on our guard!
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Stevie Turner said:
It seems everyone is after our money, Clive.
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Clive said:
They always have been, it’s just that some use legal methods, others illegal!
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Colline said:
Definitely not. The technology today makes it so easy to people to create scams.
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