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Can you hear me scam: You can fall victim to fraudsters by answering simple phone question

Seen this one floating about recently and I'd file it under "urban legend". As Snopes points out, there's been no confirmed cases of fraud involving this.

http://www.snopes.com/can-you-hear-me-scam/

I can't see how this scam could work except by bullying the particularly vulnerable. Using the recording to bypass voice recognition is even more unlikely.
 
Seen this one floating about recently and I'd file it under "urban legend". As Snopes points out, there's been no confirmed cases of fraud involving this.

http://www.snopes.com/can-you-hear-me-scam/

I can't see how this scam could work except by bullying the particularly vulnerable. Using the recording to bypass voice recognition is even more unlikely.
Some banks are adverting voice recognition as a security measure. If it's designed to be used from a phone, any losses due to the voice channel bandwidth in the phone network will already have been accounted for. It might just work.
 
I was going to put this in the 'Are All Psychics/Fortune Tellers Fakes' thread but here is probably more apt.

Exposed: Magicians, Psychics and Frauds


BBC Storyville programme about illusionist & magician James Randi's lifelong quest to debunk frauds. Takes in Uri Geller, psychic surgeons, evangelist & 'healer' Peter Popoff who's wife was recorded giving him direct information via VHF & an earpiece, & others.

There's a twist when Randi's partner of 25 years is revealed to have used someone else's name & could be deported to his native Venezuela. It has a happy ending though.

Uri Geller apparently no longer claims to have psychic powers but flogs his own line of jewellery on tv.
 
Scammers target Cornish residents with 'alarming' phishing email that could steal your information
By HannahCL | Posted: April 17, 2017

Scammers have been targeting people in Cornwall with a new and "alarming" phishing scam to steal personal information, police warn.
Police said that the new email scam will look as if it has come from a good Samaritan trying to warn people about having their information stolen, but really it is a scam to do just that.
Residents of the Newquay area first raised the alarm about the scam which has since been seen across Cornwall.

The scam has been referred to as "more alarming than most" by police.
A police alert was issued to warn people not to reply to the email.
The alert said that the emails will contain your actual home postal address, as well as an attachment that requires a password to open.

According to the police alert, the email in will be similar to this:

"I am disturbing you for a very important occasion. Though you don't know me, but I have considerable amount of data about you. The fact is that, most probably mistakenly, the info about your account has been dispatched to me.
"For example, your address is:
"1 Street Name
"Town
"County
"Post Code


"[The above would be your actual home address]

"I am a law-obedient citizen, so I decided to warn may have been hacked. I attached the file – [Your Surname].dot that I received, that you could find out what info has become available for fraudsters. File password is – 1234

"[If you receive this, or any other suspicious email, do not open the attachment!]"

The email was discovered by a person who saw through the good Samaritan act and forwarded the scam to the police.
Police said that there were "only a handful of references" to the scam that they could find, which indicates it is a new scam.
It is believed that people who receive this email scam could have had their email addresses leaked via a website that has suffered a security breach.

Police are advising people to make sure that they change online passwords to banking, social networks and emails regularly.
Police said that people who receive an email similar to the one above, should not open the attachment, change all passwords immediately and report it the email to Action Fraud.

The Action Fraud team can be contacted on 0300 123 2040, or online at www.actionfraud.police.uk

http://www.cornwalllive.com/scammer...-information/story-30275777-detail/story.html

The language of the email is not good English, which is a clue it's a scam.
 
Dublin hotel advertised as 120-room luxury getaway is actually a two-up, two-down in Booterstown
Foreign workers claim to have been offered jobs at the hotel.

12 hours ago 34,499 Views 20 Comments

CONCERNS HAVE BEEN raised over a fake hotel claiming to exist in south Dublin which is in fact a small house overlooking Dublin Bay.

The ‘Hotel View Villa’ claims to be situated on Booterstown Avenue in south Dublin and somehow “overlooks the Grand Canal”, according to the official website, despite being miles away from it.

Young men living in India have claimed that a recruitment agency told them they had secured work at the hotel and that they needed to pay up money for admin fees. ...

http://www.thejournal.ie/hotel-view-villa-3394207-May2017/?utm_source=shortlink
 
Some banks are adverting voice recognition as a security measure. If it's designed to be used from a phone, any losses due to the voice channel bandwidth in the phone network will already have been accounted for. It might just work.

Security software designed to prevent bank fraud has been fooled by a BBC reporter and his twin.

BBC Click reporter Dan Simmons set up an HSBC account and signed up to the bank's voice ID authentication service.

HSBC says the system is secure because each person's voice is "unique".

But the bank let Dan Simmons' non-identical twin, Joe, access the account via the telephone after he mimicked his brother's voice.

HSBC introduced the voice-based security in 2016, saying it measured 100 different characteristics of the human voice to verify a user's identity.


http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39965545

(Note, though, that it takes more than a simple "Yes" - you have to say "My voice is my password")
 
Amazing that it wasn't bolted down.
 
A 57-year-old Italian conman was recently arrested and charged with fraud and document forgery, after it was revealed that he had been posing as a member of the Montenegro Royal Family for years. His con was so elaborate that he had even managed to fool many real royals and celebrities.

The man, whose real identity has not yet been revealed, called himself “His Imperial and Royal Highness Stefan Cernetic, Hereditary Prince of Montenegro, Serbia and Albania”, and claimed to be a descendant of the Roman emperor Constantine, and the head of the Montenegrin royal family. He travelled all around Europe in a black Mercedes sporting Montenegrin flags and fake royal insignia, and stayed in luxury hotels, free of charge. To make his claims even more believable, Cernetic set up a website and several social media accounts, where he regularly posted photos of him alongside known royals, like Prince Albert of Monaco, and members of famous aristocratic families, like Savoy, Hapsburg and Hohenzollern.

On his website, Prince Cernetic described himself as “the head of the family that ruled Montenegro, Albania and Serbia from the XIV century to the second half of the XVIII century,” and published “family trees, photographs and illustrations of medals, seals, coats of arms and legal rulings”. It all looked very impressive, but according to Italian police officers who had been investigating him for more than a year, it was all just “nonsense”.

However, his elaborate con proved very effective for many years. He attended receptions organized by real royal families – just two weeks a go, he shared a table with Princess Irena of Greece and Denmark, in Athens – met with bishops at the Vatican, and attended lavish parties on yachts. Emilio Morani, mayor of the Italian town of Monopoli, even through a reception in his honour, a while back, after Cernetic promised to promote the town to businessmen in his country. But perhaps his greatest achievement was getting Pamela Anderson to kneel before him.

In June 2015, Prince Stefan Cernetic awarded Anderson the title of “Countess” in a solemn ceremony that saw the Hollywood actress kneel before the Montenegrin prince to receive the honour. She was also named “Great Lady of Montenegro” and her children received the title of knights. “Your Majesty, I’m truly honoured and grateful for this recognition of the Imperial house of Montenegro and I am moved by your generosity,” Pamela Anderson said.

To convince people that he was royalty, His Imperial and Royal Highness Stefan Cernetic even had an Honorary Consul, who travelled around Europe as an ambassador of the Royal House of Montenegro. His name was Maurice Andreoli, and like Cernetic, he was a total fake. But you couldn’t tell by looking at his formal attire and forged documents. He was a very believable character, and even got coverage in a major French newspaper, in April of this year, as “the honorary consul of a slave prince”.

“The truth is he is not from the Balkans, but from Trieste and his parents were Italian,” Italian police said about Cernetic, after his arrest. “But he was just amazingly good at playing the part. He was getting paid to attend public events and even had his own brand of wine.”

Indeed, everything was going great for the fake royal, but it all started crashing down last year. Cernetic had been staying in the luxurious Italian resort of Fasano, where he had set up an account with a hotel. At his instructions, they forwarded the bill to the embassy of Macedonia in Italy, but got this response – “Do not send us the bills, we don’t have a prince, and we certainly don’t share one with Montenegro.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was alerted about the situation, and an investigation into the dealings of Stefan Cernetic began in August 2016.

Police recently raided the homes of both the fake Montenegrin Prince and his ambassador, and found several fake titles and awards issued by the Royal House of Montenegro, diplomatic permits and even a royal seal. Both men were placed under arrest and now face several charges.


http://www.odditycentral.com/news/i...-years-by-posing-as-prince-of-montenegro.html

https://www.rt.com/viral/392485-montenegro-fake-prince-pamela-anderson/

3r7vlM0.png

tdafKvt.png
KcZ0XM7.png
 
A 57-year-old Italian conman was recently arrested and charged with fraud and document forgery, after it was revealed that he had been posing as a member of the Montenegro Royal Family for years. His con was so elaborate that he had even managed to fool many real royals and celebrities.

The man, whose real identity has not yet been revealed, called himself “His Imperial and Royal Highness Stefan Cernetic, Hereditary Prince of Montenegro, Serbia and Albania”, and claimed to be a descendant of the Roman emperor Constantine, and the head of the Montenegrin royal family. He travelled all around Europe in a black Mercedes sporting Montenegrin flags and fake royal insignia, and stayed in luxury hotels, free of charge. To make his claims even more believable, Cernetic set up a website and several social media accounts, where he regularly posted photos of him alongside known royals, like Prince Albert of Monaco, and members of famous aristocratic families, like Savoy, Hapsburg and Hohenzollern.

On his website, Prince Cernetic described himself as “the head of the family that ruled Montenegro, Albania and Serbia from the XIV century to the second half of the XVIII century,” and published “family trees, photographs and illustrations of medals, seals, coats of arms and legal rulings”. It all looked very impressive, but according to Italian police officers who had been investigating him for more than a year, it was all just “nonsense”.

However, his elaborate con proved very effective for many years. He attended receptions organized by real royal families – just two weeks a go, he shared a table with Princess Irena of Greece and Denmark, in Athens – met with bishops at the Vatican, and attended lavish parties on yachts. Emilio Morani, mayor of the Italian town of Monopoli, even through a reception in his honour, a while back, after Cernetic promised to promote the town to businessmen in his country. But perhaps his greatest achievement was getting Pamela Anderson to kneel before him.

In June 2015, Prince Stefan Cernetic awarded Anderson the title of “Countess” in a solemn ceremony that saw the Hollywood actress kneel before the Montenegrin prince to receive the honour. She was also named “Great Lady of Montenegro” and her children received the title of knights. “Your Majesty, I’m truly honoured and grateful for this recognition of the Imperial house of Montenegro and I am moved by your generosity,” Pamela Anderson said.

To convince people that he was royalty, His Imperial and Royal Highness Stefan Cernetic even had an Honorary Consul, who travelled around Europe as an ambassador of the Royal House of Montenegro. His name was Maurice Andreoli, and like Cernetic, he was a total fake. But you couldn’t tell by looking at his formal attire and forged documents. He was a very believable character, and even got coverage in a major French newspaper, in April of this year, as “the honorary consul of a slave prince”.

“The truth is he is not from the Balkans, but from Trieste and his parents were Italian,” Italian police said about Cernetic, after his arrest. “But he was just amazingly good at playing the part. He was getting paid to attend public events and even had his own brand of wine.”

Indeed, everything was going great for the fake royal, but it all started crashing down last year. Cernetic had been staying in the luxurious Italian resort of Fasano, where he had set up an account with a hotel. At his instructions, they forwarded the bill to the embassy of Macedonia in Italy, but got this response – “Do not send us the bills, we don’t have a prince, and we certainly don’t share one with Montenegro.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was alerted about the situation, and an investigation into the dealings of Stefan Cernetic began in August 2016.

Police recently raided the homes of both the fake Montenegrin Prince and his ambassador, and found several fake titles and awards issued by the Royal House of Montenegro, diplomatic permits and even a royal seal. Both men were placed under arrest and now face several charges.


http://www.odditycentral.com/news/i...-years-by-posing-as-prince-of-montenegro.html

https://www.rt.com/viral/392485-montenegro-fake-prince-pamela-anderson/

3r7vlM0.png

tdafKvt.png
KcZ0XM7.png

Excellent!
 
Fraudsters drain £10,000 from bank account of St Keverne man in bogus BT call centre scam
By G_WIlkinson | Posted: June 20, 2017

A man has spoken of how he was fleeced out of more than £10,000 in a bogus BT call centre scam.
The fraudsters were able to steal the cash without even asking for his bank details.
Tony Brown, 74, said he hoped his experience will now warn others not to fall for the same trap.

He was caught out after scammers called and asked him to download a 'system checker' software programme. He was then asked to log on to his online banking account.
In reality, the download file allowed the hackers to take control of his computer and drain his bank accounts and ISA savings.

Mr Brown, from St Keverne on the Lizard peninsula, said: "This was probably the worst day of my life. It started with a call from someone claiming to be from BT explaining that our computer was having problems that were causing it to run slowly.
"I could hardly understand what he was saying for the background noise. He said we had problems caused by hackers and BT had evidence that most of our files had been corrupted and infiltrated. They suggested I download a system file checker that would repair the damage and prevent any further intrusions. It would take a while but it would be a firm preventative."

Mr Brown said he was directed to a website and asked by the man on the telephone to click on a link to download a file.
He said: "I was doubtful at first but I allowed them to download the file and when they asked if I used the computer for official business, I told them amongst other things, I used it for personal banking. They asked me to turn it on and log into my bank account."

"After about half an hour of waiting, with intermittent apologies for the time it was taking and assurances that things were going well, Sandy, my wife, stormed into the room and asked what on earth was going on.
"When I explained, she said it was probably a scam and that I should turn it off immediately. But I took no notice until almost an hour had passed. She returned so I switched off the computer and went to my bank website."
Mr Brown said he was sickened to see that £10,615 was now missing.

"I couldn't believe my eyes and yet I had even asked the voice I'd been talking to if the whole thing was a scam," he said.
"The man laughed and, above the racket, he had assured me everything was above board and that he would not be asking for any private details. He said that they were unnecessary.
"I assume now that the background noise was there to represent a very busy office.

Mr Brown contacted his bank, the Co-Op, which was able to trace and return £2,500 from a bank account in London.
The rest of the money was lost and Mr Brown was told that because he had voluntarily allowed access to his bank account that it could not returned.

He added: "I felt violated. I was shaken and depressed. More than anything I was ashamed for being so gullible. Nothing like this has happened to me before. But Sandy gave me much needed reassurance and now we feel it's time to put the shame behind us and go forward. I hope this can serve as a warning to others."

http://www.cornwalllive.com/fraudst...-centre-scam/story-30400588-detail/story.html
 
Something very similar happened to a friend of mine. They got their money back, fortunately.
Even though I'm a computer-savvy person, I won't do online banking.
 
A loveable rogue? Taxpayers will pick up the shortfall though.

A ‘mild-mannered’ conman who stole over £1million from a cash-strapped council has been ordered to pay back less than a SIXTH of what he stole.

Stephen Crewdson, 47, drove an Aston Martin and splashed out £172,000 on credit cards and £38,000 on holidays.

The father-of-three was a contracts manager at Lancashire County Council’s Whalley engineering depot.

But Preston Crown Court heard in a four-year con he secretly established his own company ‘BBM’ to siphon off funds for contracts, some never seeing any work carried out.

Last November he was jailed for seven and a half years after a trial saw him convicted of two offences of fraud and two charges of money laundering.

But now a Proceeds of Crime investigation has concluded his only remaining asset is a house in Blackburn, Lancs - worth just £159,450. ...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/conman-who-stole-1million-council-10785155
 
Enterprising!

Beggars in the Saudi cities of Jeddah and Riyadh have apparently found a new way of getting hold of money - by posing as street sweepers.

According to Arab News, street sweepers in Jeddah only earn 400 riyals ($107; £82) per month, and rely on tips from passers-by to lift their income to a living wage, a fact not missed by people who the paper claims are largely "illegal foreign workers" looking for a slice of this largesse.

Street cleaners work an 11-hour day, six days a week, among rats and feral cats, journalist Essam Al-Ghalib writes. However, they can earn an extra 700 to 2,500 riyals per month in tips on top of the tiny salaries, with most of this extra coming from passing motorists motivated by "a sense of pity and charity".

An official in charge of street cleaning in some Jeddah districts told the paper that there is a problem with imposters "obtaining uniforms and pretending to be street cleaners in order to get money". This pretence involves loitering near traffic lights with a broom and a high-vis tabard, and pestering drivers when they stop at a red light. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-40642463
 
Surfs up for this conman.

Eduardo Martins' story was too perfect even for the world of internet celebrity.

The 32-year-old from Brazil said he had been abused as a child and beat leukaemia as a young adult.

But he had turned his life around and now worked as a UN photographer whose experiences helped him connect with human suffering in some of the world's most dangerous conflict zones.

His work appeared in reputable international outlets such as Getty Images, The Wall Street Journal, Vice and BBC Brasil.

In between trips to Mosul in Iraq, the Syrian city of Raqqa under the control of so-called Islamic State (IS) and the Gaza Strip, Eduardo Martins enjoyed surfing.

He shared glimpsed of his life with his almost 125,000 Instagram followers.

Until it all came crumbling down when a BBC Brasil investigation found out that Eduardo Martins was a completely fictitious character.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41174069?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
Yesterday's Guardian had an interesting piece on poetry plagiarism.

Ira Lightman is on a mission to detect and bring to light the word-thieves. Caught red-handed, the culprits plead that copies had snook into their notebooks unattributed and were then assumed to be their own.

Lightman has been called an obsessive and his work does not seem appreciated by the cosy world of poets and the tiny presses which publish them. Editions are small and the money motivation just doesn't really apply here.

It is obvious that these cases are wholesale swiping of chunks of other poets' work not the claimed intertextuality which alludes to and modifies quotations from earlier work.

It comes as no surprise at all to me. I first encountered it back in the eighties when I ran a poetry competition funded by the International Garden Festival in Liverpool. One of our judges was very taken by a poem by a 14-year-old so it became the 1st Prize Winner. A few years later, I happened across a collection of verse by the said judge and what should appear under her own name but an effort clearly derived without acknowledgment from the schoolgirl's poem!

At least the girl got a £50 prize, which is certainly more than Miss C.'s book is likely to have made! :evillaugh:
 
Wasn't Jeffrey Archer accused of using a prizewinner's short story for his own material, in a contest he had judged? I thought it was a one-off, but maybe not.
 
Back in the day James Herbert wrote a review on the back of then up and coming and largely unknown Clive Barker's debut novel The Damnation Game. A year or two later he produced Sepulchre, which had an almost identical plot.

I'm sure he was simply unconsciously influenced of course.
 
I preferred Sepulchre to The Damnation Game, but now you mention it...
 
http://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/20171011/bkn-20171011145713031-1011_00822_001.html
https://hi-auntie.com/2017/10/11/sexualrite/

Google translate gives a pretty garbled account, but from what I gather: a man named Ling Jing has been charging women money to do magic to help women get their ex-boyfriends back. He persuaded the young women to have sex with him as part of the magic (and to pay for the privilege). He is a practitioner of Thai Buddhism, which has many relics of pre-buddhist witchcraft and paganism. He also has a huge following on Instagram. Now, following complaints from clients who in fact did not get their boyfriends back as promised, the police are after him and he's gone AWOL.

https://auntienews.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/img_0318.jpg?w=1024&h=567&crop=1 - a picture of Ling with followers
 
Eeewww! Why do I get the feeling something really gross and extremely painful is going to happen to that asshole?
 
Was Trump conned? Or is he doing the conning?

A US museum says an Impressionist painting which President Donald Trump reportedly claims to own is a fake.

In a recent interview, Trump biographer Tim O'Brien said he was once told by the future president that his artwork was an original.

But the Chicago Institute of Art says the real painting, Two Sisters (On The Terrace) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, has hung in its gallery for 80 years.

A museum spokeswoman said "we have had this authentic painting" since 1933.

"We're proud and grateful to be able to share this exceptional work of art with our 1.5 million visitors each year," Amanda Hicks said in an email to the BBC.

The painting was given to the institute in 1933 from a donor who bought it for $100,000 (£76,000).

The donor acquired it from an art dealer who purchased it directly from the French Impressionist painter in 1881, she added.

But Mr O'Brien said during a recent interview with Vanity Fair's Hive podcast that Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed to him that his version of the painting was authentic. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41686623
 
The latest innovation in cons: conning convicts ...

Woman admits posing as lawyer, bilking NY prison inmates
Officials say a 48-year-old woman has admitted to passing herself off as a lawyer while bilking hundreds of New York prison inmates out of more than $20,000.

The state Attorney General’s Office says Antonia Barrone pleaded guilty to a scheme to defraud and will serve 16 months to 3 years in state prison. She has also been ordered to pay nearly $270,000 in restitution and fines.

Officials say Barrone created a fake persona as a parole attorney named Mario Vredenburg and swindled $23,000 from 400 state inmates and their families through a business called the NYS Prisoner Assistance Center, which purported to specialize in parole cases.

Authorities say Barrone tricked customers into believing the office was staffed with attorneys. ...

SOURCE: http://apnews.com/5bd1adc1ba2a4675a...s-posing-as-lawyer,-bilking-NY-prison-inmates
 
The first time I have ever heard of the term 'bilking'. Had to look it up although I could guess from the article what it meant.
Well I never..
 
In a similar vein, I used to assume that Acker Bilk was a pseudonym - a jazzers joke about stiffing people for money in some form or another, but Acker is Somerset slang for 'mate' & Bilk is his real surname.

One of my favourite names though.
 
Isn't that how Sgt Ernie Bilko got his name?

I presume so ... Phil Silvers' Bilko character is continually conning everyone around him toward advancing his get-rich-quick schemes.
 
I've seen this prank / con lots of times in comedy films and TV shows, but I never thought I'd see it attempted for real. I'm not sure whether the pranksters actually thought this should work ...

Pranksters-attempt-Little-Rascals-trick-to-get-into-Black-Panther.jpg


Pranksters attempt 'Little Rascals' trick to get into 'Black Panther'

A pair of California pranksters filmed their attempt to use a classic trench coat routine to get "two-for-one" tickets to Black Panther.

The video ... shows one fedora-wearing prankster sitting on the shoulders of another who is concealed by a long coat, a classic comedy routine made famous by The Little Rascals. ...

"We tried getting the two for one special at Black Panther. The manager was not having it," the tweet said. ...

"Nah, I don't know how but he knew something was up," the uploader said of the theater manager.

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/0.../?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=1
 
Considering the coverage this story has received, I wonder if the brats were not more interested in creating a viral image for the internet than getting in to see a movie.
 
This is rather sick.

Police have warned people not to donate to a fraudulent online fundraising account set up in the name of a six-year-old girl.

Daisy Dymyd was found unconscious at her home in Tuxford, Nottinghamshire on Monday and was pronounced dead at Sheffield Children's Hospital.

On Friday, her family told police a fake account purportedly set up by her uncle gathering donations for her funeral had appeared on JustGiving.com.

The account has so far raised £150.

A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire Police said: "The family reported the account to us. It is still online but we're in the process of getting it taken down now."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-43180682
 
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