Scam with new Twist

I don't know if this is a Global scam but certainly, in the UK, there has been a scam in existence for a while now where unscrupulous people phone pretending to be from the tax office and tell potential victims that the police will be arresting them in the morning if they don't pay their tax bill of around £2500.

However, recently this has taken a more sinister turn. They seem to be targeting people with accents or who they suspect are not of UK origin and in addition to the above threat, they are saying that they will also be taking their passports and driving license if they don't pay the fine or attempt to hang up. This happened to one of my friends who fortunately was able to identify it as a scam and hang up but there will be a lot of people who are already concerned about their status and the unrest over Brexit who may feel compelled to pay. So just a quick reminder that no legitimate company or tax office will contact you to request payment over the phone nor will they send an email requesting you click on a link to make payment and they don't have the right to take your passport or driving license either.

People are such dirt bags! We get calls in the states too. I like to mess back to them. I feel awful for the people that get taken by these people.

We get similar scams here, though more "tech support" related.

Mum got a call once from an overseas scammer claiming that he's from Microsoft and that her son's (my) computer had a virus on it due to downloading porn. Seeing as they were specific about how the PC supposedly got infected, I took the phone and asked them if they could list the websites..you know...for confirmation. They hung up after about 20mins of me trying to negotiate paying them with cake.

Fast forward a few days and my bro gets a phonecall from "Microsoft" also. Now calling my bro a wizard when it comes to computers & electronics is a massive understatement. He designs, etches, builds and programs circuit boards from scratch. They ran the same spill on him and he led them on for nearly an hour before letting them know that he doesn't use Windows.

Point being, when they call, just waste as much of their time as you can. It's a good laugh. This was about 3yrs ago and they haven't called back since :)

There was a Panama Episode recently were some hackers had hacked into the office in India full of people scamming people all over the world. (they apparently are only targeting the villains who try and scam them and try and bring them down) The hackers hacked into the office CCTV and were able to film and record everything that was said and done. Apparently the villains were hacking into peoples computers and making things go wrong the victim would see a message saying there was a fault and that they had to ring Microsoft (the number being them) then would tell the victim that they had inadvertently downloaded porn or child pornography onto their computer (for which they could be arrested) and that they would need to pay over £900 to get it taken off and fixed. The truth is that if that happens all you have to do is turn your computer off and back on again and the message clears. If any error messages come up always turn computer or phone off and dont click on any links.

Great to spread awareness! There are new scams that develop or at least new ways some scammers try to "sell" them. Maher, your brother sounds amazing. Props to him!

On YouTube, I follow some people who raise about scams and mostly prank the scammers. Trilogy Media is a pretty active channel and then there's Kitboga, who has intense (and genius) sketches and he will take on characters (like an elderly man or woman) then usually outsmart or catch the scammer. He also educates the viewer in between talking to the scammer, describing what techniques are being used or what steps to watch out for.

Every few months, I'll google specific scams. Most recently, I've had many attempts of calling for info from my "bank", though on my bank's website there is a very bold warning that the bank would not call concerning fraud identity, at least in regards to confirmations over the phone. My card has never been shut down, though threats have been made. I don't trust a lot of things on the phone anyway, would rather go in person to my branch and verify with them.