it’s that time of year when the scams seem to increase, I’ve had more in the last few days than I have for the past few months, the latest ones were a phone call from “the Hammersmith Police” saying my card had been used in London, he had my address and name details and probably would sound quite genuine to lots of people, I know I could of put the phone down straight away but I used to deal with the police in my previous job so I went into ‘work mode’ and asked him to repeat his name, rank and police number so I could write it down in case I needed it at a later date. I didn’t get to the end of my sentence before he put the phone down.
Another was an email this morning from Maersk (the shipping people) asking me to download the original shipping document… errr no, that got deleated straight away.
I hate all these scams and always remind family members and friends about them, especially vulnerable ones who may be taken in by these scams.
We had a real problem about a month ago with a scammer who was even ringing the house, pretending to be the bank, trying to get our bank details. The scary part is that he sounded really friendly and genuine and would have easily convinced anyone less aware. They are horrible people, who often prey on the elderly and vulnerable and are so hard to track down.
I had a ‘robot’ call today claiming to be Tesco bank, sounded genuine but I wasn’t going to ‘press any button to continue’ as asked. I’m sure if it was Tesco and they really do need to talk to me, they will get a person to call me or email me. Husband has also been getting robot calls, claiming he is under investigation by HMRC.
I’ve had the HMRC ones, too. After the first one - it was really quite abrupt and rather rude - my brother, a retired accountant, told me HMRC NEVER send out automated calls. So if anyone gets those, ignore them!
I had another Tesco one yesterday evening, I have looked into it and seems it is genuine. I might contact them today as I think unsolicited automated calls are wrong wrong wrong. I’m sure robot calls have their place, like if you are waiting for notification of something, but otherwise they open so many doors for scammers.
After another weird Tesco one this morning, I contacted them on a number I trusted and they were indeed trying to get hold of me. I let the lady know that I was really appreciative that they were trying to take care of my account, but that I was appalled that they were using this method of contact, a simple ‘please contact customer service’ message might be better and asked her to pass my comments on. Not that it will do any good but at least I had my say!
Yes, it’s difficult to know which ones are genuine. If I ever thought it may be genuine I wouldn’t use a number they gave me or click on a link but like you I would call or email them on a number or address that I looked up myself. You done right by being wary but it’s a shame that we have to be.
The calls from Tesco went on yesterday, even though I contacted them first thing in the morning. I tried responding to one of them, but when it started asking me to key in details I hung up once more. I just don’t want to encourage them to be using automated calls like this. I have sent Mr Tesco a polite email suggesting some improvements in their customer service
