UK: Ten Covid-19 scams to watch out for

[leroux]

Scammers are exploiting the pandemic to trick people out of their cash.

Here is their list of some of the fraudulent schemes to watch out for:

1. Fake government emails offering grants of up to £7,500. Clicking on the links allows scammers to steal personal and financial information

2. Scam emails offering access to "Covid-19 relief funds"

3. Official-looking emails offering a "council tax reduction"

4. Benefit recipients are offered help in applying for universal credit, but fraudsters grab some of the payment as an advance for their "services"

5. Phishing emails claiming that the recipient has been in contact with someone diagnosed with Covid-19

6. Fake adverts for non-existent coronavirus-related products

7. Fake emails and texts claiming to be from TV Licensing, offering six months free but asking people to update their payment information

8. Emails asking people to update their TV subscription services payment details by clicking on a link

9. Fake profiles on social media sites are used to manipulate victims into handing over their money

10. Fake investment opportunities are advertised on social media sites, encouraging victims to "take advantage of the financial downturn"

[rslade]

> leroux (Community Champion) posted a new topic in Threats on 07-29-2020 05:40 AM

> 7. Fake emails and texts claiming to be from TV
> Licensing, offering six months free but asking people to update their payment
> information 8. Emails asking people to update their TV subscription services
> payment details by clicking on a link

Given various levels of "lockdown" in different jurisdictions, a lot of people are
very nervous about losing access to entertain or information services. I've seen a
serious uptick in the level of scams attemtping to take over Netflix and related
services, and also email and social media accounts. (As a side issue, a number of
these also go after credit cards, threatening that the service will be cancelled if
payment is not made or payment options upgraded or "confirmed.")

====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade@gmail.com rmslade@outlook.com rslade@computercrime.org
... fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each inclosed in a
parenthesis of its own, with here and there extra parentheses
which reinclose three or four of the minor parentheses, making
pens within pens: finally, all the parentheses and reparentheses
are massed together between a couple of king-parentheses ...

Mark Twain on Lisp. (Well, he was actually speaking about the
German language, but he could have been speaking about Lisp. 🙂
- https://twitter.com/CompSciFact/status/382864625651712000
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://twitter.com/rslade
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