Hi Meg, funny but I always seem to get the same two together - one is to develop my penis (they would have to send out a search party to find it these days!) and the other to get my death coverage benefits paid up to date - if only.............................if only..................................!!!!!!!
Last year my gmail was pirated when I naïvely answered an email from "gmail" saying I was about to lose my account if I didn't confirm my password. Of course I know better now, fortunately I received a mail from myself at another of my accounts saying I was stranded in London and needed financial help, my friends were trying desperately to help me but I managed to stop anyone sending money in time. Now I only receive a spam or two a day telling me I can increase the size of my penis by inches, this would be an interesting experiment as I am a 73 year old woman, but as the mails are from different addresses daily there seems no way I can stop them, they go into my spam box and I just delete them.
Leslie,
People who want to rob you find that "we want to give you money" is much more effective than "you owe us money." Some people just never learn that there is no such thing as a "free lunch."
I also get a lot of these but I always send them (forward without opening any links or attachments) to the Metropolitan Police Computer Fraud unit (phishing@cityoflondon.police.uk ) as well as the "host" e.g. NatWest Bank, Apple etc fraud or phishing site. I hope that by doing this it will gradually reduce the "window" in which these fraudsters can operate and maybe track a few down and lead to action against them. I am not sure how successful this will be but it seems to be a responsible course to take and I encourage others to do the same.
Julian, I think that (amongst several others) I see the industry I spent my life in, going down the pan extremely rapidly.
Amongst other roles in my diverse but essentially advertising career I was deeply involved in Direct Marketing. At the time we spent many hours on getting the highest Response Rates possible (which resolutely remained at less than 3% if anyone is interested - i.e. 3 people out of every 100 contacted).
My rationale was to try and match those who could be interested in the product being those we would approach with offers. As such I spent hours if not days on trying to get to grips with 'Consumer Behaviour' and variants thereof in different countries and environments. To be honest it was fascinating, and I became quite good at what I did (the same applied to Sales Promoion which was another specality of mine).
Blanket or untargeted mass mailings were an anethema to my professionalism (self-perceived) as were cold-call telephone selling of all descriptions which I found essentially counter-productive.
But now we have unlimited access to 'lists' at almost ridiculously low prices, but because we now know much more about people on an individual basis, I would have thought the industry would have become more sophisticated - as in 'selective'.
That just hasn't happened, and I thought about the 'why?' bit long and hard and the answer was clear. It simply isn't worth going through the selective process any more. With so many cheap lists and names available you might as well go for total 'rape and pillage' and hit everybody and anybody and get even a .005% response which on a million messages sent could still be cost-effective, dependent on the product of course.
It is no longer a precision exercise but a hammer blow and with my ex-professional hat on, I am saddened by it. But the information is out there, accessible and cheap, so what can we expect businesses struggling to contain costs to do?
We feed information into the systems and we 'reap' the results. I don't like it either, but looking back I suppose it was inevitable.
Actually, what you and others, should know is that the CAF has had access to your tax declarations for some time now, so they WOULD, theoretically be in the position to 'calculate your rights' - The CAF is the CAF, and pretty useless, but it may be worth a call (Account number and Confidenial code required) to check it out. Another thing people should be aware of is that whenever you change address and other details, you must submit a new request for your rights to be reassessesd. Of course - they don't tell you that, they just stop paying anything!
Hi Julia,
I got a few of these CAF emails last August (2013) as well. My French isn’t so good (I’m still living in Ireland but renting out my apartment in Montpellier). Nevertheless, I thought there was something ‘strange’ about it and showed it to my son who is fluent in French. He agreed that it didn’t look authentic so I just ignored it.
I didn’t even think to post it here so good for you for sharing this information with others. I had my Credit Card ID stolen just last week. It was used in Kentucky, USA! There’s no end to it.
Regards
Helen
Free money! Even apparently intelligent people fall for it.........
In the jungle, a wise man treads with caution.
Very interesting Norman. Thanks.
For the past couple of years several of us in the Renewable/ Sustainablity area, have been not bothering to go down the route of ISBN numbers and the publishing houses. Its just more hassel than its worth, and my back is just not strong enough to support all those that clamber on it.
We find that the World Wide Web is just that, and folk who want to really seek us out will finds us. Unless off course some vested interest withhold the search facilities.
I recently had an email from HRMC telling me that I owed them some money, NI contributions, and to send.....
I had an old HMRC letter with number on it so I phoned the Number, guess what it was the HRMC and everything was in order but one of my NI payments was missing during Bank change over period. "yes" said the lad on the phone, "We are aware that are emails look like spam/phising types." "Send it in the post next time", was my parting comment.
Another rule of thumb for this type of phishing scam is to note the salutation. If it is "Madame, Monsieur," its a scam.
A legitimate correspondence from a legitimate business will always address you by your name, not some generic greeting.
Thanks! I received one yesterday.
Hi Julian, the main thrust of the argument is that here are three companies - one parent, and two subsidiaries working to a different schedule. The parent company Amazon with whom I work, does indeed ask for an 'online statement' that one is a non-US citizen. Fair enough and legally absolves them of any problems with the IRS - which are quite simply over-doing the whole' money-laundering' situation - and by the way fixing nothing for those who are really involved in it, not small operators and authors.
The two subsidiary companies are working to the same IRS rule - presumably, but instead of asking for an 'online statement' as per Amazon, are trying to act AS the IRS in my opinion. They are NOT government, and although I will probably supply the information, I will do it resentfully as I genuinely feel such information is none of the business of private companies - as I say the parent does not even ask for this.
The thrust is of course as to where do we stop with handing out our personal details? Who can get hold of it? Are we too late anyway? What can anyone do with the information they gather? Genuine business? Mischief? Phishing - and for what devious reasons? Identity Theft?
There is one small consideration I have to admit in this particular instance, is that whilst I have a corporate block of purchased ISBN numbers, they emanate from Australia where my parent company is registered and headquartered, but I have used the free ISBN allocation from ClearSpace as part of the deal there, as it is cheaper (free) and obviously these are US issued, but this is of course not pointed out at any stage, and I only thought about it myself yesterday.
With regard to proof of where I operate from they have my IBAN number, so I am hardly hiding myself away.
The concern is as ever who gets hold of all this stuff? If the IRS ask, one is reasonably sure that is where it ends up, but private companies? That I think is worrying - but again to repeat myself probably too late for all of us - Facebook, Youtube etc are now all freely handing over all personal details and details of postings, emails and the like, to the US authorities which really does smack of Big Brother don't you think?
The problem lies with at what point do we stop putting our personal info; 'out there'?
I am now in an odd situation with CreateSpace which is an Amazon POD/Distribution company and separately Kindle - also an Amazon Company.
According to them all they need information on all authors for the American Tax Authorities OR they place a 30% 'Withholding Tax' on Royalties.
Curiously Amazon only ask for an Online Statement that one is Non-US (Resident, Citizen or Business). Naturally on order to receive Royalties they need a bank address and number to send them to. OK, understandable. But now both Kindle and CreateSpace (remember both Amazon companies) are demanding my French Tax Registration number as 'confirmation'. Demanding is the correct way of describing it as well - not 'asking'.
I have nothing to hide, but these are NOT U.S. or any other Government bodies but private, commercial entities, plus the demand has been made AFTER my books were published and NOT before.
These are the worrying things. If they don't get the information, then my books presumably will be withdrawn - and they have certainly stated that I will not be able to continue using their services and presumably their designated ISBN numbers.
These are PRIVATE companies. I don't know them or any of their staff from a bar of soap. At what point do we stop handing over information? Is it all too late anyway as everything from my birthdate, bank details, marital and family status, sort of car I drive and even what I look up on the web is 'out there'! But my Tax Number? A step too far or just another piece of open info.
As you know I am pro-business, but this is NOT their business. IF the US-Govt has a problem with my earnings then let them do their job and notify France but not intrusive private companies. Like most I am not impressed by the 'non-disclosure to third parties' clauses they all add!
However the weirdest thing remains that their Parent company doesn't require this. Left Hand Right Hand?
They are still at it as of this morning. I traced the sender to an address in China. Last week I received a slightly different one alleged to be fromm sfr. I deleted both and clocked sender but they rotate the sender addresses all the time
Thanks Julia - will look out for this - I try to remember to always type in the web address myself for anything financial but with 3 kids under my feet something like this could catch me out, so cheers.
Suz
I love the tax rebate one. I reclaim royalty and copyright fee tax each year, about £20 over the last couple of years, which is the only tax connection I have. Also, why HM Customs? I wish these scammers would actually make it more entertaining by getting details right. I still would not believe them anyway.
Hello. Yes, I received the same email, but also deleted it. They are just after your bank details. Also received one from (supposedly) HM Customs telling me I was due a tax rebate - have lived in France for 18 years, so don't think so!!
Sadly!
If the warning has saved even 1 person from entrapment it was worth posting it. As you say Valerie, not everyone's French is good enough, or is up to speed with the various French organisations etc so it may be easier to be caught out than it would be by the standard bank/inheritance/business proposition type scams in your own language. And even if most of us are on the ball, there are still innocents out there waiting to be caught.
Note that Orange, SFR and EDF have also sent out warnings that spurious requests (aka 'account information warnings') under their logos are also in circulation. PayPal and eBay have also issued warnings.
The issue is quite simple any and all mailings that request you to 're-provide account details' is quite patently a scam, and should be dumped immediately. If in doubt at all then contact the companies direct through YOUR own account details.
ANYONE asking for money online treat as if they are scammers, as 99.9% of the time they will be. Even when you know the person (or think you do). As others have already said anyone offering YOU money should be given the old 'sex & travel' treatment.
Incidentally I read a report some while back that Hotmail are the leading suppliers of email addresses to companies. Costs of a million addresses is remarkably low, which has fed the spam market massively. Plus any FREE programme you download automatically comes with the 'agreement to receive offers from our partners'. OK that's part of the deal, and with Windows rip-off programme prices, I still find it worthwhile. But rarely is anything for nothing.