A warning made in good faith

[norm.h]

I normally have AdBlock Plus enabled, so I've never come across the adverts that appear at the top of the page.
I recently had occasion to disable ABP and so I saw the advert telling me I'd won the chance to take part in a competition to win an iPhone.

Now, I can hear what you are all thinking, and yes, I should've known better, but I did enter and I did win - and all for £1.
Anyway, I thought I'd stopped the procedure in time, checked my bank to see if anything had been taken out, and all was OK.

Today I get an email from USPS [US Parcel Service] saying they couldn't deliver a package.
Thinking this was from a relative in the US, I followed the tracking links, to find it was the iPhone, and would be delivered for £1.78.
I then made the mistake of thinking it was genuine, so gave the necessary information, but my card was declined.

A minute or so later I got a call from my bank, telling me to contact their fraud department, which I did.
They've blocked my card and will send me a replacement.

Now, two points come to mind.

1) Beware of that particular advert - don't be fooled as I was.
2) Whoever is responsible for those adverts should;
a) Take it down
b) Try to ensure that any adverts shown are not scams.

Yes I was foolish, and no I won't do it again.

[Flemur]

I then made the mistake of thinking it was genuine, so gave the necessary information, but my card was declined.

A minute or so later I got a call from my bank, telling me to contact their fraud department, which I did.
They've blocked my card and will send me a replacement.

So what's the scam?

Was your card declined because the bank knew the people were scammers, or because they were trying to transfer an unusually large amount of money, or ...?

[norm.h]

I guess the bank must have known they were scammers, 'cos the amount was only £1.78, and they were in touch with me very quickly.

The scam, as I see it, was entering the competition in the first place.
I thought I was savvy enough to spot a scam, but now I'm not even sure the email from USPS was genuine.

[Mick-Cork]

I guess the bank must have known they were scammers, 'cos the amount was only £1.78, and they were in touch with me very quickly.

The scam, as I see it, was entering the competition in the first place.
I thought I was savvy enough to spot a scam, but now I'm not even sure the email from USPS was genuine.

Did the bank caller give you the number for the fraud department, or did you find it yourself. If the former I'd call the bank and make sure the call from them was genuine. The whole thing could be a scam. By telling you the card is blocked stops you trying to do anything for a number of days, which potentially gives any scammers some time to do damage.

There's a public warning going around here in Ireland about fake delivery company calls. They're using Covid (knowing that huge amounts of people are waiting for deliveries of things) and Brexit (import duties) to get peoples bank details, and apparently a lot are getting caught out.

Years ago a guy at a place I worked at had his card lifted from his jacket. He got a call that afternoon from the 'police' to say someone had been picked up using it and that they'd informed his bank. (He hadn't even realised it was gone until he got that call). They told him the card was now blocked and the bank would be issuing another one to his address. If I remember correctly it was 24-36 hours later before he started questioning it, by which time the thief had had a good run with it at the shops.

[MartyMint]

I thought this stuff was urban legend from the early 2000's....

[all41]

people in 2000 were just unaware
people today are aware--but just as gullible.

Did the bank caller give you the number for the fraud department, or did you find it yourself

Exactly--if it's the bank calling it must certainly be real--because they said they were the bank

[norm.h]

The bank did give me a number to ring, but it was said so quickly and was so long I couldn't get it.
I rang the bank's customer service who gave me a different number to ring, and when I queried it they understood what I meant.
I then rang the number CS had given me - got through to the fraud dept who knew about the blocking of my card, so all was genuine.

This morning I got a series of emails from the company trying to deliver the phone - all of which I deleted
They can stick their iPhone where the sun don't shine!

[norm.h]

Responding to that particular advert was a big mistake.
I'm now getting reams of emails from all sorts of 'investment managers' and the like. .................

[Mick-Cork]

Responding to that particular advert was a big mistake.
I'm now getting reams of emails from all sorts of 'investment managers' and the like. .................

That's a bummer. Maybe the horse has (metaphorically) bolted, but what I did in the past was set up a 'spare' gmail address. I never use it for personal or work email, but if there's anything I subscribe to that has the slightest sniff of iffiness about it it's the address I use. I don't download anything from there to the laptop, just login to gmail to check now and again. It's full of spam but I don't care - you might call it 'the poo bucket'!

Anyway, might be worth doing for any future stuff.

[norm.h]

I've had 22 emails today relating to this scam, one of which telling me that if I haven't responded in 48 hours, they would choose another contestant - be my guest!

I just hope that any member tempted to respond to that particular advert will have seen this topic, and act accordingly.

I also hope that the LM Forum 'powers-that-be' have seen it, and taken note.

[Pierre]

while we were out shopping yesterday, there was an message on the answer phone,
from eBay .. about our failed iPhone order.

last week it was from Amazon .. about our failed iPhone order

one time, they did ring whilst we were at home, and I've spent some time in engaging them in conversion:
- - less than three minutes, in total,

and all I'd done was asked how the Covid was affecting them.


normally, I'm able to engage with them for closer to 30min or so.

[ricardogroetaers]

..., but I did enter and I did win - and all for £1....

Glad you "died" at just £1.
£1 here, £1 there, from grain to grain the chicken fills the crop.

[vansloneker]

The scam is they want your details. It's a refined version of the package-delivery-click-link scam. The victims are lured with the won iPhone, the £1 entry fee is to make it plausible and a nice by-catch. Now that the victim is convinced an iPhone is coming they are greedy and they want it, thus accepting the £1.78 payment. You never have to pay for deliveries for a free gift and usps or dhl or whatever will never sent you delivery bills up front.

A really good scam and you were lucky your bank was alert or it could have cost you a fortune.