Unnerving scam
Discussion
I've just received a letter through the post, addressed to me personally with my correct name and address including the postcode. It had a Royal Mail frank for 62p from a Leicester postcode. When I opened it, it was a blatant scam, along the lines of the usual 419 scams but purpurting to be from Hong Kong.
I wouldn't have worried with an email version, we all get those. What has made me a bit uneasy is that the person sending this obviously has my name and address, despite our entire household being ex-directory, ex-electoral roll (the modified version which is made commercially available by local councils), with no evidence of anything linking any of us to our address. I've googled myself with and without some or all of my address and there's absolutely nothing online. Where the bloody hell did they get my address from? Has it somehow leaked from an online purchase?
Googling the scam, I have found that I'm not the only recipient of this but there's still no explanation of how anyone got hold of my name and address. The story is exactly the same as in the article in the Independent below, including very similar names.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/a-lett...
Having previously been a victim of credit card cloning (which, to be fair, my then bank sorted out without any fuss), I'm now worried about identity fraud and fraudulent bank/credit card transactions. All PCs in the house have anti-virus protection and firewalls plus I have parental controls and content filtering set up through the router which should deal with most of the dodgy sites. Action Fraud says to contact them if fraud has been committed but it hasn't, at this stage it's only an attempt.
Any suggestions as to what to do next? Ignore and file in the shredder, or call up the bank and the credit card companies?
I wouldn't have worried with an email version, we all get those. What has made me a bit uneasy is that the person sending this obviously has my name and address, despite our entire household being ex-directory, ex-electoral roll (the modified version which is made commercially available by local councils), with no evidence of anything linking any of us to our address. I've googled myself with and without some or all of my address and there's absolutely nothing online. Where the bloody hell did they get my address from? Has it somehow leaked from an online purchase?
Googling the scam, I have found that I'm not the only recipient of this but there's still no explanation of how anyone got hold of my name and address. The story is exactly the same as in the article in the Independent below, including very similar names.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/a-lett...
Having previously been a victim of credit card cloning (which, to be fair, my then bank sorted out without any fuss), I'm now worried about identity fraud and fraudulent bank/credit card transactions. All PCs in the house have anti-virus protection and firewalls plus I have parental controls and content filtering set up through the router which should deal with most of the dodgy sites. Action Fraud says to contact them if fraud has been committed but it hasn't, at this stage it's only an attempt.
Any suggestions as to what to do next? Ignore and file in the shredder, or call up the bank and the credit card companies?
Dan_1981 said:
Anytime you sign up to 'something' to buy something there is a chance you haven't ticked the "don't sell my details box" and that's all it takes - sold on to the highest bidder.
Ah yes, it could well be that. I'm usually fairly good with spotting them and un/ticking as appropriate but I think I missed one a little while ago as I'm also receiving a larger than usual volume of spam emails. 
Thank you very much indeed
I'll stop worrying and shred the letter.Ignore, shred and move on.
Your details are for sale on the web along with everyone elses if you've :
ever bought anything online
bought anything in a shop and given them your address details
had a bank account / credit card
booked a hotel
registered at a doctors
had a mobile phone
internet connection
used public wifi
or anything else.
The businesses or government departments aren't necessarily selling your details, but they are regularly stolen from all the above businesses and any others. There are only two types of business out there - ones that have been hacked and lost customer data and know about it, and ones that have been hacked and don't know about it.
The key to being safe, is not to try and avoid your data being out there, but to be considerate about what data you share when, and to regularly change any passwords or security measures to minimise risk.
A company I worked at recently did an in depth study of around 100,000 people in the UK. The average person in the study had 26 online accounts of some kind, but used at most 6 passwords to access them. One of those organisations gets breached and your details taken (without anyone knowing) and all the accounts that share that password are open to them.
Then consider how easy it is to socially engineer your mobile phone company or your bank to give out details that they shouldn't and hey presto, I don't need to send you scam letters (thats for amateurs) I can just walk into your bank account having sim swapped your phone so I now own the number and can reset your bank passwords and manage the 1 time codes they send you and happily drain your accounts / apply for finance in your name...
It's remarkably common. So the good news is that you're being targeted by an amateur. Ignore it.
The bad news is that if you are going to be targeted by a professional, they will get you. The only way to avoid it is to be harder work than their alternative targets, who don't take their security so seriously.
So if you want to be safe, do the basics right - change your online passwords today, and stop using the same password on PH as you use on your bank login or mobile phone account..
Your details are for sale on the web along with everyone elses if you've :
ever bought anything online
bought anything in a shop and given them your address details
had a bank account / credit card
booked a hotel
registered at a doctors
had a mobile phone
internet connection
used public wifi
or anything else.
The businesses or government departments aren't necessarily selling your details, but they are regularly stolen from all the above businesses and any others. There are only two types of business out there - ones that have been hacked and lost customer data and know about it, and ones that have been hacked and don't know about it.
The key to being safe, is not to try and avoid your data being out there, but to be considerate about what data you share when, and to regularly change any passwords or security measures to minimise risk.
A company I worked at recently did an in depth study of around 100,000 people in the UK. The average person in the study had 26 online accounts of some kind, but used at most 6 passwords to access them. One of those organisations gets breached and your details taken (without anyone knowing) and all the accounts that share that password are open to them.
Then consider how easy it is to socially engineer your mobile phone company or your bank to give out details that they shouldn't and hey presto, I don't need to send you scam letters (thats for amateurs) I can just walk into your bank account having sim swapped your phone so I now own the number and can reset your bank passwords and manage the 1 time codes they send you and happily drain your accounts / apply for finance in your name...
It's remarkably common. So the good news is that you're being targeted by an amateur. Ignore it.
The bad news is that if you are going to be targeted by a professional, they will get you. The only way to avoid it is to be harder work than their alternative targets, who don't take their security so seriously.
So if you want to be safe, do the basics right - change your online passwords today, and stop using the same password on PH as you use on your bank login or mobile phone account..
Can't I just do the rest as a man?? mr_tony said:
Ignore, shred and move on.
...
The key to being safe, is not to try and avoid your data being out there, but to be considerate about what data you share when, and to regularly change any passwords or security measures to minimise risk.
...
It's remarkably common. So the good news is that you're being targeted by an amateur. Ignore it.
The bad news is that if you are going to be targeted by a professional, they will get you. The only way to avoid it is to be harder work than their alternative targets, who don't take their security so seriously.
So if you want to be safe, do the basics right - change your online passwords today, and stop using the same password on PH as you use on your bank login or mobile phone account..
Thank you, I will shred and ignore ...
The key to being safe, is not to try and avoid your data being out there, but to be considerate about what data you share when, and to regularly change any passwords or security measures to minimise risk.
...
It's remarkably common. So the good news is that you're being targeted by an amateur. Ignore it.
The bad news is that if you are going to be targeted by a professional, they will get you. The only way to avoid it is to be harder work than their alternative targets, who don't take their security so seriously.
So if you want to be safe, do the basics right - change your online passwords today, and stop using the same password on PH as you use on your bank login or mobile phone account..
I am pretty security conscious and use different passwords for all accounts which are linked to any personal (financial or otherwise) information; eBay, bank, credit card 1, credit card 2, primary email account, etc. all have substabtially different passwords, not just derivatives of the same stem. I only share passwords between accounts not linked to any personal data, e.g. PH.
mr_tony said:
registered at a doctors
Picking up on this - I've had a few doctor/hospital appointments in the last few months, and every time I attend one I start getting unsolicited phone calls to both landline and mobile in the following couple of days. They then die away again, and then as soon as I attend another appointment it starts again.Any way I can find out what the NHS are playing at with my details?
Sheepshanks said:
Dan_1981 said:
Anytime you sign up to 'something' to buy something there is a chance you haven't ticked the "don't sell my details box" and that's all it takes - sold on to the highest bidder.
Does ticking the box make any difference?Having a tick box will only work if the people you are giving your details to play by the rules. Plenty don't and there is often little way of knowing who will and who wont. Some people get caught and get fined many don't.
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