Another story about people conned by a very common and easily spotted scam.
A couple have been left “heartbroken” after being tricked out of their savings in a Royal Mail text scam.
Tom and Freyja Cuff, from Frome, Somerset, received a text about a parcel collection which eventually led to their bank account being emptied of £2,500.
Every time I read a story like this, I sink my head into my hands. Just how many times do people have to be told that the Royal Mail doesn’t do this? If there is money to pay on a parcel or letter, they put one of their cards through the letterbox. Yes, these have been faked, but again, if you go onto the Royal Mail’s website or call into the local collection office you can find out easily enough if this is real or not. It isn’t difficult. Really, it isn’t. It just requires basic common sense and the ability to read and understand the plethora of warnings from the relevant institutions as well as the media.
Sometimes scams can be a little more difficult to spot, but inevitably there is the asking for money or personal details that should – if you are paying attention – ring alarm bells. Usually, however, it’s the simple ones that work time after time, because people like this fail to exercise the most basic due diligence. If you are scammed, I’m sorry, but it is your fault and yours alone for being so gullible.
Fraudsters sent the text message to Mrs Cuff, who is eight months pregnant and has been working for the NHS Covid Helpline, claiming a parcel was being held.
Mr Cuff said that with online shopping being very common over lockdown, his wife “didn’t think anything of it” and clicked on a link authorising a small payment of £2.50 to release the parcel.
The Royal Mail never does this, so the texts are always a scam. I mean, just take a second to ask how the “Royal Mail” got your phone number and associated with the package?
Mrs Cuff was then contacted again by the fraudsters, this time claiming to be from the couple’s bank.
She was told they wanted to move her money in order to protect it from being targeted further, but the couple’s account was then emptied.
Oh, FFS! How many times do the banks have to tell people about this type of scam? How many times do organisations such as Which? and the media have to publicise it? How many times do people have to be told that the banks will never do this. Never. Scams are a tax on stupidity frankly. There was a time when I had a modicum of sympathy for the mark, but those days are long gone. There is no excuse for falling for this one.
I never get tired of reading about the romance scams.
Old fat woman gets emailed by attractive young foreign man.
Old fat woman gets ripped off and without embarrassment appears in the paper or on a tv programme . At no point does she stop and think ” why does he fancy me? “
“At no point does she stop and think ” why does he fancy me? “”
They don’t because every woman is told by every TV program she watches, and every paper or magazine she reads that regardless of what she looks like or how she acts she’s a beautiful sexy woman and any man would be grateful to have the pleasure of her company. So the average woman has an over inflated view of her attractiveness to men, and hence why women fall for these scams left right and centre. If the average woman has a somewhat overinflated view of her attractiveness, just think what the truly delusional ones think………….they see a young adonis sending her messages and they are thinking ‘Yess! At last someone who recognises me for who I really am!’. The easiest way to scam someone is to tell them what they already believe is true.
Well, we do elect scammers and con artists, ie politicians, regularly, so we’re not much more clever, are we? 🙂
Some people do. The problem is that even if we don’t vote for them, they still get in.
Even in cases like these I don’t think that we should be blaming the victim, the scammers are still the bad guys. But bloody hell people can be stupid. One person even withdrew the contents of their bank account in cash and gave it to a motorcycle courier.
Yeah, that’s the point I’m making here. There is no excuse for this couple not to have been aware. The elderly who may be less savvy to this stuff, yes, but a young couple? No, no excuse.
“One person even withdrew the contents of their bank account in cash and gave it to a motorcycle courier.”
Did you read about the one who was conned into buying some gold ingots (real ones) and then giving them to a ‘police officer’ for ‘safekeeping’?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/katie-investigates/fake-police-detective-convinced-buy-90000-gold-snatched-life/
I normally give the elderly a pass with these scams because they tend to be somewhat more trusting. Even so, this goes way beyond that. The police never in all of their history have told people to buy gold and give it to them.
I commented on an earlier thread about the BBC.
“If the licence collectors are claiming that people are watching BBC iplayer when they are not, and then claiming that they therefore need to pay the licence fee, then that surely must be illegal.”
This must surely qualify as a scam in exactly the same mould as the one in the OP.
Meanwhile the politically neutral BBC are pretending that a massive anti lockdown march in London didn’t happen.
Yeah, I noticed that.
Dear Stonyground
Search result on BBC news website:
Sorry, there are no results for anti-lockdown march 29 may
DP