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Thursday, 17 December 2020 |
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A few days ago several Emails pooped up - a free iPhone12! Just click the boxes and you might just win one. Why not? I thought stupidly. First click; WRONG! But good news; you get another free chance. Click another box. And surprise - I won. Oh yeah, I thought. Fill in address details and it will be with you within ten days. Why not? I filled it in. Oops; then - we simply need a £1 contribution for post and packaging. That's when I should have known SCAM. A year ago I would have binned. But now I'm 76 I'm old, doddery, stupid. If they had asked for £5 or £10 I might have thought "fair enough; that's probably the cost". But £1? SCAM. So I gave my card number. Cleared it. OK'd it. "Great; it's on its way. Oops - we're out of stock. Just click here and sister site will fulfil". More Oops. But I clicked. "Please send £1.78 as a contribution..."
I binned it. Oh well, £1 wasted. Never mind; lesson learned.
Then, next day, another £39.00 to MentalGenres (yes, I should have spotted the name). Based in Cyprus! So I told my bank; they cancelled the card; refunded the £39; notified police.
Pain in the arse, new card, had to notify regulars etc etc.
But a clever scam, if they had just grabbed the £1 and then demanded little bits more until I (and a million others) got fed up and cancelled. By trying to steal £39 they alerted me. I reckon they are making millions in 1£'s from stupid gullibles like me, prepared to lose £1 and then give up so MentalScams can say "we did nothing illegal".
So watch out!
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