I saw that discussed here. Scroll down the page
http://possumworld.informe.com/viewtopic.php?t=145&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
• Getting a new mobile, but want a number you can take with you?
• Using your mobile for business and don't want to give out your real mobile number?
• Have to give out your number a lot, but would rather keep your mobile number private?
• Want one number for family and friends and another for business, or new aquaintances from your social scene?
...Sounds simple, but how does it really work?
All you need to do is select your number from the link below and Ophone will connect you.
0702 is NOT premium rate. When customers, family or firends dial an 0871 number, they will be charged at K rate. K rate may vary depending on your phone provider, contact your phone provider for more details.
Check out the United Kingdon Accommodation Providers Alert System for many more examples of this type of letter.
Can someone help me out? Why are these letters/emails seen as being scams? I need to know as we run a B&B.
I checked out your link, Sunday Driver, and now know about the cheque/credit card scam - thank you for that. However, I do not see how the original letter tooks like a scam. Can someone enlighten me?
Cathy wrote: Can someone help me out? Why are these letters/emails seen as being scams? I need to know as we run a B&B. I checked out your link, Sunday Driver, and now know about the cheque/credit card scam - thank you for that. However, I do not see how the original letter tooks like a scam. Can someone enlighten me?
First I think it's just a feeling you get probably based on the amount of very similar emails you get. If you use good personal (I mean software residing on your PC as opposed to your ISP) anti spam software that 'talks' to anti spam databases then usually such emails are reported and the email comes up as spam.
If you take this particular email there are a couple of things. Firstly the 'vacation in your area' is a bit general and the word 'vacation' is an American description where as a Brit would probably use 'holiday', agreed its not always the case but it does make you read the rest more carefully. I had one saying they were attending a three day conference in central Paris and thought my place looked nice to stay at for those days. It takes me 8 hours to drive to Paris.
In some cases your suspicion is further enhanced by the poor standard of written English in a letter supposedly from a 'professional' person like a doctor, barrister etc. Many use these titles in their letter because we all trust doctors, lawyers, barristers etc, don't we ?
The next issue is the phone number, the correct code for the road used (the post code is correct by the way) is 01324 according to www.192.com .
Next there is actually no such address (Baird Hall is in Glasgow and is a 'Hall of Residence' for the university and was build in 1937), nobody registered with that name in that road on the electoral road, in a phone book or in the last census. This information can be acquired by using www.192.com.
You can also use 'reverse number look-up' (which is where you type in a phone number and it tells who has it http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/section/tci/locator.shtml ) in this case it's Magrathea Telecommunications Limited who are a 'use anywhere call forwarding number' this is a number that's allocated to a person and not a phone. This company is often used by people perpetrating frauds of some kind according to the Fraud Watchers Organisation in the UK (information source click HERE).
Now to put the cherry on the cake as it were they want to pay by credit card. Credit card and Euro cheque payments are often methods used by scammers as explained in the link SD has given (thanks for that SD I never knew it existed and now have it bookmarked). Credit card type payments are easy to deal with as I said before use PayPal as it is online and requires the 'magic' three number code from the rear of the card which scammers more than often don't have. It checks the card before accepting the transaction, scammers know this so if you ask the scammer to pay using PayPal they will either never answer or come back probably with the Euro cheque proposition.
Another 'test' you can do is give a price and put one or two zero's on the end i.e. a 900 Euro stay becomes 9,000 Euros. Scammers are driven by greed and will see the importunity of getting more money out of you so will go for it where as a real person will say HOW MUCH !!!!!!! and you can say 'Sorry my finger slipped on the old keyboard'.
Hope that helps.
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