Bank letter scam.

Started by Techno, 29 October 2019, 09:46:30 AM

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Techno

Had a letter purporting to come from my credit card company, about updating security.

The logo 'looked wrong' and appeared to have been done on a cheap home printer..... it looked like the ink was starting to run out.

The telephone numbers for the bank WERE correct....But as far as the link to the 'update your details site' was concerned, I can't comment....maybe it's been hijacked ?..Or is a complete fake ?

Anyway....Used a number that I've used on umpteen occasions to give the bank a call, and was told that they knew about a number of fake letters being sent at the mo'....."Throw it on the fire", I was told.

Can't quite make out what 'they' hoped to gain from this.....If I'd sent the form back in the enclosed envelope, they'd have got a few more details.....But not the whole kit and kaboodle.
Whether the boys in blue already have the return address under surveillance is anyone's guess.

Just be vigilant, chums.

Cheers - Phil

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Cheers Phil. Other things to look for - if it's addressed Dear Sir, rather than Mr Lewis, or Mr Shaw etc...also if it has a stamp, sounds odd but banks and similar have bulk mail facilities..no stamps.

IanS
FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

Techno

Good point, Ian..... :)

Though mine was addressed to me....(with 'Dear Mr Lewis' on the accompanying letter.)

I'm sure it's a throwback to the time I had my eBay a/c hacked...and some parasite got my credit card details, a few years ago.

As far as I can tell, the  only place where someone could have found the specific combination of my card, eBay a/c and home addy details  was an eBay seller in the Netherlands.
I assume he either sold or used my details.....or had his computer hacked. :-\

Cheers - Phil







Heedless Horseman

However, there ARE genuine letters being sent out asking you to provide mobile and email contacts. Ma and I have had 3. so far. from our bank. First seemed to work online...others did not recognise the special number. Phoned Bank using number from statement and guy said that these letters are genuine. Posted forms.

I was probably lucky when phoning! Menu said possible 5-10 minute wait for call to be answered  >:(...but got picked up straight away! :) I want my local Branch back!!!  :(
(40 Yrs ago. I should have been an Angry Young Man... but wasn't.
Now... I am an Old B******! )  ;)

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

If you have a local branch, take the letter there to check, I have 2 within reasonable walking distance.
FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

Techno

Like HH, I'd like the 'local' branch back  :(.....OK, it was 10 miles away in Cardigan....(But we often go to into Cardigan...So that's no hassle.)

Now we'd have to travel to either Haverford West or Carmarthen......20 miles, or so from either.

Cheers - Phil

Raider4

My local bank branch is still open - just been refurbished in fact - slightly to my surprise. Two of the big four have closed theirs recently, and my bank seems much quieter than it used to say five years ago.

My building society - in town - is a nightmare. There are four teller positions - only two are ever used. Queues are huge. To even get to see the teller you have to navigate a phalanx of employees armed with iPads, whose entire job is to try and get you to use a machine instead of talk to a person. They were not amused when I suggested that the queues would be shorter if two of them were working on the teller desks, rather than desperately trying to stop us joining the queue . . .

The big Barclays in town looks even worse - no actual teller positions, not been in (not my bank), but it looks like you have to talk to a person on a monitor screen?

It's almost as if the banks are making the branch experience so bad that people will resort to using online banking instead, so that then they can turn around and say "no one uses our branches anymore, so we're shutting them".

Techno

Quote from: Raider4 on 06 November 2019, 10:01:34 PM
It's almost as if the banks are making the branch experience so bad that people will resort to using online banking instead, so that then they can turn around and say "no one uses our branches anymore, so we're shutting them".

I'm with you on that Martyn !

I know a lot of folk do 'do' online banking nowadays*.....the branches can't be as busy as they were.

Cheers - Phil

*I'll resist as long as possible, and use telephone banking if I need to check things....I simply don't trust computerised banking.

Heedless Horseman

Long, long ago, I was a Post Office counter clerk...in the pre-computer days of Pension Books, Green Giros, Visitors Passports, etc. etc.etc.etc. I still have nightmares about queues!  (PTSD???  ;D ).
A year or two back, I went into Newcastle to Offices where I once worked...Gone...including the wonderfully 'calm' Head Office Counter  :) and the 'flagship'  ;D Eldon Square (with, I think, 10 counter positions...and you sometimes had to 'hot seat' on a busy morning  :Ph).  A kind Eldon Sq enquiry desk directed me to a Post Office 'above a shop' on Nld St.
With trepidation , (it was Thursday (Pension Day) morning!), I entered.
There were, I think, 6 counter positions...3 staffed...AND TWO CUSTOMERS...one of which was me!  :o

Ain't progress wonderful??? Depends on your view. All those counter clerks of yesteryear were on 'reasonable' pay, (though not enough! lol ), with full-time, 'permanent' contracts. They paid taxes, paid into good pension schemes and had, (they thought), security for the future...for loans, mortgages and 'life'. The economy wasn't 'broke'...it was boom time... so, down the Pub / 'wine Bar'  8) ...while you could, 'cos the gov't had long term plans...but computers were going to give us more leisure time... ;D

Wish I could go back to the '80's.  :(   I Maunder!
(40 Yrs ago. I should have been an Angry Young Man... but wasn't.
Now... I am an Old B******! )  ;)

Techno

Quote from: Heedless Horseman on 08 November 2019, 02:26:18 AM
Long, long ago, I was a Post Office counter clerk...

SNAP !! :)....(That was before I transferred to BT....(You could in those bygone days)....and worked as a clerical officer for a year, before I went onto the engineering side.)

Yep.....Thursdays was pension day !......Tuesday was family allowance day.....(£1-50p per child ?)...and Wednesday was 'balance your till day.'
Balancing the tills was quite quick, because the 'town' (or more accurately the VERY large village) had half day closing on a Wednesday, so we used to shut all but one of the counter positions early, so everybody apart from the person on the open position could get on with balancing.....Then everybody would 'muck in' to balance the final till.

Our record was leaving the office at 5:35

We were strolling out of the door when the head Postmaster walked in.
Couldn't tell if he was impressed, or thought we were taking the Micky. ;D ;D

It was the late 70s when I worked there.

Cheers - Phil

John Cook

I haven't had an account at a local/high street bank since 1994, when I fell out with NatWest, the robbing b******s.  Haven't missed it one bit.  Telephone/on-line banking does almost everything I need efficiently and effectively. 

FierceKitty

In my student days in the 80s I opened an account at NewWest, innocent little colonial that I was. I soon came to see my mistake.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Orcs

When I started work, I was paid each week with a Giro cheque that I had to go to the post office on Saturday morning to cash.
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

mollinary

08 November 2019, 07:46:37 PM #13 Last Edit: 08 November 2019, 07:49:12 PM by mollinary
Quote from: Orcs on 08 November 2019, 07:34:07 PM
When I started work, I was paid each week with a Giro cheque that I had to go to the post office on Saturday morning to cash.

When I started work, I was paid in salt, plus all the garum I could eat! Not that that was much.  :( :( still the caligae were hardwearing.......
2021 Painting Competition - Winner!
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Kiwidave

Quote from: mollinary on 08 November 2019, 07:46:37 PM
When I started work, I was paid in salt, plus all the garum I could eat! Not that that was much.  :( :( still the caligae were hardwearing.......

Luxury! Sheer luxury!

Back when I were a lad, we had t' pay boss t' work 52 hours digging coal with our bare 'ands!


:D