Bell's Banter 2021

[Tel 911S]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Two new scam attempts recently, one on the mobile and the other by two separate emails.

The mobile is purporting to be from Royal Mail demanding £2.90 for an unspecified reason to deliver a package. Fortunately I am not expecting any deliveries so unless somebody has sent me unsolicited junk, then that could be ignored. Oh, and the return address looked a bit iffy, something like Royal Mail app.

The emails were actually blackmail attempts claiming that they had hacked into my computer, and have taken control over it - who knows, they may be reading this as I type. They claim further that they know the password on a website that I have been on, and that they know that I store pornography on my computer, which they consider to be a very good choice. Well, as it happens, I do not and never would either. They also say that they have taken control over the camera on the laptop, and they have very interesting pictures from that, that they are prepared to send to 10 people in my address book if I do not pay a sum of over $4,500 to them immediately.

Next step for me was that I checked whether any of my passwords were visible or had been hacked, and yes the password that the scammers had mentioned came up in the report on a certain retail website, but on checking further I am not even registered on that site. And I don't think that I have ever used that password as a password, although I have used it as Username.

But more importantly, they cannot have possibly have pictures taken through the laptop's camera because the very first thing that I did when I purchased it was to cover over the lens, and on checking the camera, all one can see is a yellow blur and nothing more.

One has to be so cautious nowadays.

Yes , been quiet for a while , but have had a couple , [ this week ] , of the old , " Your Internet connection is going to be shut down unless ???".

Have in the past , checked the phone code for these scams , and they do seem to come from all over the place , so I think there is a way they can link through remote numbers & places .