General Chat

We are all quite aware of scams these days but we were warned yesterday, at our U3a meeting, of a new one on me.

I don't know what the content was but it was a perfectly genuine looking email from M&S. Fortunately the lady didn't get caught by it but we are all such busy people, and can be pre-occupied when looking through emails. M&S do send out quite a lot to members of sparks etc so please be aware of the possibility of a scam before you respond to any.

Ty AnnG will keep a look out for that.

Hover your cursor over the sender, if the address doesn't look right it's fake. Just delete it. If you do open the email and it doesn't look right don't open any of the content within.

thanks for that tip Island.

Giving a ~~~~~~~ to all those who are reading, not replying. I know it doesn't require a reply but wouldn't it be nice to know who is reading? I assume some have not paid so are unable to comment. But welcome anyway :-) :-) :-)

My motto for any emails I do not recognise is
If in doubt chuck it out :-D :-D :-D

Oh and this counts for texts and phone calls too

I thought that the ‘read’ number was just from those logged in.

But do you really need 30 odd (number) acknowledgements. ?

Thank you AnninGlos for passing this info on.

You are welcome Kandj, nice to see you and hope you are well.
Names I guess it just tots up everyone who checks the thread out of curiosity automatically. But anyway, hope it has informed people who may not have been aware.

I agree Ann, it would be nice if more people would reply on threads, it is a CHAT board after all and the community part of the site. I think 'free' members can read the boards but not sure if they register on the view count.
The high view counts and few posts put me off posting threads. If people don't want to post they don't need to sign in.
FB has a 'seen by' on some groups which disappears when membership reaches 280(?) This can be anyone seeing the threads, not just members. Self help groups with low membership have complained as this puts people off before the group has got going. FB isn't interested :-|

Names, I doubt if Ann was expecting comments from all 30 odd non posters but what happened to communication? Friendship? Some people might put up threads because they are in need of a little company.

Just saw an old chap on the local news who had been scammed by one of these fake bank scams. He didn’t even twig when they persuaded him to buy a gold bar and hand it over.

So sad, but at least the bank have repayed him.

Are you sure the view count is 30 different people? I often look at a thread and reply if I have something to say, but I will then look at it again to see what others have to say.

Some of the very long threads have thousands of views, and there certainly aren't that many different people looking at them.

Andy'smum I think you are right, it is confusing but yes I think it registers whether or not you have looked in previously.

Names it is sad when people are scammed and it is not always elderly people either. So easy to be distracted and just reply automatically. We have to have our wits about us I think, all the time.

Andysmum, each view count is an Individual person, each registering just once.
Threads with thousands of views have been going for years so I expect all who have registered have looked at them.

Such a shame that there is no GR admin to ask.

Thanks Ann, I will look out for it. D mentioned last night about emails purporting to be from Wilko which obviously aren't. Mainly I get the ones where they say there is a parcel not delivered ( always in French).

I do look in to read ( I've never signed out) but don't often add anything, mainly on the grounds that I would only depress people who really don't need any of my moaning lol.

Thank you for the tip Ann.

I attended a course at work on recognising scams after an incident at another site. Things to look for :-

a) is all the spelling and grammar correct?
b) is the logo spot on, with the right shades of the right colours?
c) are you addressed correctly IE Christian name or Mrs Surname?
d) is there a reference to how they know you IE account number?

If the answer to any of these is no, that's a red flag.

Be careful everyone

Most of my scams are by phone. I was left wondering by one that I got a couple of weeks ago, which came from a 1-800- number, which is the free long distance area code over here used by many companies and by the credit card companies. The call was a little weird, and I wasn't worried until I (unusually) listened to the very end, when instead of saying "push 1", the voice gave a number to phone to speak to "security". That number was not a 1-800- number, but began with 1-85x-

I clicked off, and went to find the credit card, phoned the number on the back of the card, and had a long discussion with a very nice agent!

It was a scam. She checked all the phone numbers that showed for their company, and this one did not show.

Her advice, as I think most of us know, was "Do not hit 1 for xxxxxxxx", but this call added the extra warning ................... do not call any phone number given at the end of the call!!

I was nearly caught some years ago by a phone call, but it was partly because I was feeling sick and had been dozing when the phone rang. He claimed to be a Vancouver policeman who had caught someone with a bag of merchandise and receipts that were for a card owned by me.

Tingling sign ................ he wouldn't give me the name of the credit card.

But it got me out of bed, still talking to him, to check my cards.

It was quite funny actually, because I got him being very sympathetic to me when I said I was sick :-D :-D But he still tried to get me to phone the number. I did get out of him the name of the police station he was from .... which exists but it has a different purpose from what I later found out.

I did finally agree that I would phone the number he gave me ......... but instead I phoned both the credit card companies!

For emails, I hover my cursor over the sender or any address given, and out it goes!

Thank you Rose, Sylvia and Duncan for your inputs.

Rose it is always good to see you and hope we can cheer you up if you are miserable.

I guess if all of us only came on when we felt cheerful and up beat this place would be empty!! :-D

Ann, I will post later :-)

One thing that does cheer me this morning is that the trees outside the end of the garden are still upright, and the leaking ceiling coud have been an awful lot worse!

Thanks Ann for the info. Like Sylvia most of the scams I get are via phone but do get the odd email now and again. Always good to be reminded to be careful.

Ginnie

Got to be on my guard as I have just had it confirmed by one of my pension companies that I am I included in a cyber attack. Grr.