Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

I got a text message from nat west bank UK

Status
Not open for further replies.

large_ghostman

Well-Known Member
Most Helpful Member
When I got home today I noticed my mobile phone flashing the blue ' you have a text message light', strange I thought, no one messages me in the morning as I dont normally have a signal or I am at school with them.

So read the TXT and I get something like the following (paraphrased)

URGENT FROM NAT WEST BANK. FRAUD
Dear Logan could you please click the link below (the link said natwestfaud) as we have reason to believe your bank account may be the subject of a fraud. Prompt action is required before money is taken from your account. If you prefer you may call the following fraud action line for assistance.

Under this was an 'EMERGENCY' Number to call.

Now I was a bit worried by all this!! But maybe not for the reason's you would be worried, what worried me was they used my name!! That struck me as really odd. It mainly struck me as really odd because I dont have a NAT WEST bank account! Then again I dont actually have a bank account in my name!!

The odd bit apart from bad spelling and funny English is, the phone isnt in my name!! I am too young for a phone contract. So there I am standing by the phone, a victim of a bank fraud on a bank account that dosnt exist, whats more it couldnt be bank error or a multi bank getting the name wrong as I dont have any bank account! What annoyed me was the phone wasnt in my name, I dont give out my phone number to people I dont know, I use a very old and very defunct phone number for silly online forms that insist on a phone number, and for couriers etc I give my mums number!

So I sat down for a bit and got more and more annoyed, so after a while I thought................. Well lets see what they got to say! maybe my non existent bank account has been emptied?? Maybe some one has stolen ALL the money I DONT have!! OMG

So I call them on the number :cool:.

And someone answers........ now upto this point its been really simple, i am the victim of bank theft!! from an account I dont have and have been informed on a phone not linked to me! So things get really bizarre, the guy on the phone sounded like he worked at a call center (UK people know exactly what I mean ;)) and very politely asked me for my name and phone number! So I said my name was Donald Trump and gave the mobile number they had used, within 2 seconds he said ah yes Mr Trump you bank account has been hacked!! We need your credit card details immediately so we can transfer the money from your account to the card so its safe (thats funny I thought they had taken my cash??), so I said well cant you just shove it all in a shoe box for me?? keep it under the desk? So the guy says No it MUST be done on your credit card.

I explain I dont have a credit card (I am too young anyway!) so having been told I must transfer it to my credit card he says....... Thats ok Mr Trump we can transfer it to our account and transfer it back once the threat has passed. So I said great Ok go ahead, so he says transfer your funds to this account immediately, and starts giving me the details to a non UK bank!!

So I said to him... erm arnt you calling me from Nat West Bank? Oh Yes he said, So I ask why he is asking ME to transfer my non existent money to a different bank. There is a pause for a split second and without hardly missing a beat he whispers, I shouldnt tell you this but all the bank has been hacked!! send money now. So I am now slightly bored and my free mins are being used up, so I say to him hang on I dont have a pen can you text me the bank account details? yes he said but you must do it now, so I ask how long do I have and he says less than 5 minuets before its all gone.

Anyway a long story short I go back through the conversation with him and point out a few of his errors. By this time 10 mins have passed, so he says look you must do this in the next 5 mins or your money will all be gone, so I say well its gone anyway. Silence then he says why has it gone? so i say because 10 mins ago you said I had 5 mins and we have talked for ten, ten minus 5 is 5 so I lost it 5 mins ago. Cheeky whats it says to me, Hurry hurry and transfer I have been stopping them hacking your account while we have been talking. So I tell him in very unfriendly terms to carry on the good anti hacking work and to go and reproduce a couple of times with himself or a close female relative.

I put the phone down and tell my mum. Just when I thought the stupidity had stopped my mum says................... Well hadnt you better check your bank account!!

I now know what Alice in wonderland felt like!! So I said to my mum......So I have a bank account then? with money in?, she says dont be silly your money is kept in my saving account!! So I ask her what account I should check, she looks at me and says the Nat West one!!

5-10 seconds later the penny drops and because NOTHING gets past my mum she says... Maybe its an attempt at fraud!! Yeah do you think mum?
Anyway she calls the police and gives them the details they have text me of the bank account in a country beginning with N, they just say not much we can do its outside of the EU. Now having fully explained EVERYTHING to the police on my behalf with the speaker phone on, the last thing the police say is.......

Get your Son to call His bank and check for suspicious activity!!

Is it me or have I just been surrounded by stupidity today? Anyway the number the txt message came from has been put on every spam site and used on every well know iffy site that ask for phone numbers that I could find in a 3 hour period :smug::cool::cool::cool:. I hope him and the bible sales people sort something out, no idea how he will do with the scam artists about to call, I so wish I could hear his calls for the next two weeks lol.

So does anyone think I should check with Nat West that Mr LG Donald Trump has still got his cash :p
 
Hi LG,
One other scam is to give you a phone number to ring that is a very high rate premium rate number so that they make a lot of money just by you phoning them.

Les.
 
Hi LG,
One other scam is to give you a phone number to ring that is a very high rate premium rate number so that they make a lot of money just by you phoning them.

Les.
Exactly...
 
Hi LG,

I greatly enjoyed reading about your conversation. I am glad you knew that it was a scam and didn't give them any sensitive information. That being said, calling the number was probably not a good idea, and neither would be clicking the link (which I don't think you did). Those types of messages should usually be ignored and reported immediately without responding. It's just safer to do it that way. Now they know someone is at that phone number, which they will sell to other spammers and scammers and still make money off of your call. In a way they still got what they wanted, they just didn't hit the jackpot (credit card information).

Regards,
Matt
 
LG I don't think I would have responded , but it is easy to get annoyed, a question I would ask is why is it so easy for theses scammers to set up bank account numbers etc, these days the UK banks seem to want a loads of info before opening an account .
 
When I got home today I noticed my mobile phone flashing the blue ' you have a text message light', strange I thought, no one messages me in the morning as I dont normally have a signal or I am at school with them.

So read the TXT and I get something like the following (paraphrased)

URGENT FROM NAT WEST BANK. FRAUD
Dear Logan could you please click the link below (the link said natwestfaud) as we have reason to believe your bank account may be the subject of a fraud. Prompt action is required before money is taken from your account. If you prefer you may call the following fraud action line for assistance.

Under this was an 'EMERGENCY' Number to call.

Now I was a bit worried by all this!! But maybe not for the reason's you would be worried, what worried me was they used my name!! That struck me as really odd. It mainly struck me as really odd because I dont have a NAT WEST bank account! Then again I dont actually have a bank account in my name!!

The odd bit apart from bad spelling and funny English is, the phone isnt in my name!! I am too young for a phone contract. So there I am standing by the phone, a victim of a bank fraud on a bank account that dosnt exist, whats more it couldnt be bank error or a multi bank getting the name wrong as I dont have any bank account! What annoyed me was the phone wasnt in my name, I dont give out my phone number to people I dont know, I use a very old and very defunct phone number for silly online forms that insist on a phone number, and for couriers etc I give my mums number!

So I sat down for a bit and got more and more annoyed, so after a while I thought................. Well lets see what they got to say! maybe my non existent bank account has been emptied?? Maybe some one has stolen ALL the money I DONT have!! OMG

So I call them on the number :cool:.

And someone answers........ now upto this point its been really simple, i am the victim of bank theft!! from an account I dont have and have been informed on a phone not linked to me! So things get really bizarre, the guy on the phone sounded like he worked at a call center (UK people know exactly what I mean ;)) and very politely asked me for my name and phone number! So I said my name was Donald Trump and gave the mobile number they had used, within 2 seconds he said ah yes Mr Trump you bank account has been hacked!! We need your credit card details immediately so we can transfer the money from your account to the card so its safe (thats funny I thought they had taken my cash??), so I said well cant you just shove it all in a shoe box for me?? keep it under the desk? So the guy says No it MUST be done on your credit card.

I explain I dont have a credit card (I am too young anyway!) so having been told I must transfer it to my credit card he says....... Thats ok Mr Trump we can transfer it to our account and transfer it back once the threat has passed. So I said great Ok go ahead, so he says transfer your funds to this account immediately, and starts giving me the details to a non UK bank!!

So I said to him... erm arnt you calling me from Nat West Bank? Oh Yes he said, So I ask why he is asking ME to transfer my non existent money to a different bank. There is a pause for a split second and without hardly missing a beat he whispers, I shouldnt tell you this but all the bank has been hacked!! send money now. So I am now slightly bored and my free mins are being used up, so I say to him hang on I dont have a pen can you text me the bank account details? yes he said but you must do it now, so I ask how long do I have and he says less than 5 minuets before its all gone.

Anyway a long story short I go back through the conversation with him and point out a few of his errors. By this time 10 mins have passed, so he says look you must do this in the next 5 mins or your money will all be gone, so I say well its gone anyway. Silence then he says why has it gone? so i say because 10 mins ago you said I had 5 mins and we have talked for ten, ten minus 5 is 5 so I lost it 5 mins ago. Cheeky whats it says to me, Hurry hurry and transfer I have been stopping them hacking your account while we have been talking. So I tell him in very unfriendly terms to carry on the good anti hacking work and to go and reproduce a couple of times with himself or a close female relative.

I put the phone down and tell my mum. Just when I thought the stupidity had stopped my mum says................... Well hadnt you better check your bank account!!

I now know what Alice in wonderland felt like!! So I said to my mum......So I have a bank account then? with money in?, she says dont be silly your money is kept in my saving account!! So I ask her what account I should check, she looks at me and says the Nat West one!!

5-10 seconds later the penny drops and because NOTHING gets past my mum she says... Maybe its an attempt at fraud!! Yeah do you think mum?
Anyway she calls the police and gives them the details they have text me of the bank account in a country beginning with N, they just say not much we can do its outside of the EU. Now having fully explained EVERYTHING to the police on my behalf with the speaker phone on, the last thing the police say is.......

Get your Son to call His bank and check for suspicious activity!!

Is it me or have I just been surrounded by stupidity today? Anyway the number the txt message came from has been put on every spam site and used on every well know iffy site that ask for phone numbers that I could find in a 3 hour period :smug::cool::cool::cool:. I hope him and the bible sales people sort something out, no idea how he will do with the scam artists about to call, I so wish I could hear his calls for the next two weeks lol.

So does anyone think I should check with Nat West that Mr LG Donald Trump has still got his cash :p

:p:p

We got this email a few years ago. It is a real gem- note the language and the fella's name!. Of course, we cooperated and made a fortune.:

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL & URGENT.
I am Mr., M GROTE an Executive Accountant with the Department of finance of mineral resources and energy South Africa. First and foremost, I apologized using this medium to reach you for a transaction/business of this magnitude, but this is due to confidentiality and prompt access reposed on this medium. I have decided to seek a confidential co-operation with you in the execution of the deal described Hereunder for the benefit of all parties and hope you will keep it as a top secret because of the nature of this transaction.

Within the Department of finance where I work as an Executive Accountant and with the cooperation of four other top officials, we have in our possession as overdue payment bills totaling Twenty - One Million, Five Hundred Thousand U. S. Dollars ($21,500,000.) which we want to transfer abroad with the assistance and cooperation of a foreign company/individual to receive the said fund on our behalf or a reliable foreign non-company account to receive such funds. More so, we are handicapped in the circumstances, as the South Africa Civil Service Code of Conduct does not allow us to operate offshore account hence your importance in the whole transaction.

This amount $21.5m represents the balance of the total revenue collections from income tax, mining lease and export duties in respect of diamond mines, expressed as a percentage of total tax revenues (net collections, National Revenue Account. From these projects we have been able to secure this reasonable ammount. $21.5m as commission resulting from over invoice, hence all the necessary approvals has been completed. This amount $21.5m represents the balance of the Estimated revenue total value executed on behalf of my Department by foreign contracting firm, which we the officials over-invoiced deliberately. Though the actual Estimated revenue cost have been paid to the original contractor, leaving the balance in the Tune of the said amount which we have in principles gotten approval to remit by Key tested Telegraphic Transfer (K.T.T) to any foreign bank account you will provide by filing in an application through the Justice Ministry here in South Africa for the transfer of rights and privileges of the former contractor to you.

I have the authority of my partners involved to propose that should you be willing to assist us in the transaction, your share of the sum will be 25% of the $21.5 million, 70% for us and 5% for taxation and miscellaneous expenses. The business itself is 100% safe, on your part provided you treat it with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. Also your area of specialization is not a hindrance to the successful execution of this transaction.

I have reposed my confidence in you and hope that you will not disappoint me. Endeavor to contact me immediately on my e-mail address or phone number whether or not you are interested in this deal. If you are not, it will enable me scout for another foreign partner to carry out this deal I want to assure you that my partners and myself are in a position to make the payment of this claim possible provided you can give us a very strong Assurance and guarantee that our share will be secured and please remember to treat this matter as very confidential matter, because we will not comprehend with any form of exposure as we are still in active Government Service and remember once again that time is of the essence in this business. I wait in anticipation of your fullest co-operation.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. FORTUNE M. GROTE.
Please reply only to this email account below
(supplied)@netscape.com
 
I got another one today!! this time same number but claiming to be from LLYODS bank!! Keep trying guys and you might hit the bank we actually have accounts with, to give them a clue Scotland only has 3 main banks in, Nat West and most others dont have branches in Scotland. So if any scammer is reading this that is a free tip for you ;).

But some of the advice has given me an idea, although I try to be really careful with the PC and which sites and software I use, clearly somewhere this has slipped a little. So seeing as I dont have a bank account in my name or a credit or any chance of getting an overdraft or credit card for 2.5 years I am fairly safe, so.......................................

Someone mentioned that some the scams use premium numbers, well my phone is on contract but its zero capped (after I ran a bill up), so I can only spend my free mins and the phone wont connect to phones that can not be used outside my free mins. So seeing as i have started getting calls over the last few days from different sales people (great as no one ever calls me!! nice to have a chat) I might see what a premium number costs to get. Then I will happily go out and seed the number in as many scam holes and sales botherrers as i can find!! I will happily sit chatting away to them if I am being paid £15 an hour for it. If I am in bed then no problem I will have a 15 min long answer phone message.

The other update is my mum on the advice of the police calls Nat West to warn them of the scam, they were not interested especially as we dont bank with them. But interestingly the reason I think they are not bothered is because if the customer transfers money onto the credit card out of there bank account and then transfers it to the scammers the bank dont pay!! YOU DO.

I feel for the people that get caught but if you use online banking an email then FFS get clued up, For a start although there was NATWEST and LLOYDS in the link it also started with an IP Address, so anyone not very clued keep this in mind.......... BANKS and businesses NEVER use an IP address in the name. You will NEVER have to type an IP address into the address bar of the browers, it will be the 3w's and the bank name. ANYTHING different from this is just wrong. Bank sites wont redirect you in an ad normal way, so watch what the address bar says, always use your fire wall effectively.

Most firewalls are set out the box to let alot of programs you install to send for updates etc or leave all sorts of ports open, spend some time and go through your firewall regularly and BLOCK ALL traffic you have no idea about, if you break something that matters its ok, you simply allow that program access inbound or outbound access only.

If your pestered non stop with sales calls then wait till i have my number and tell them to call you back on that :cool: (5% commission for all referrals will be paid!). I am only half joking with the number, if its not mad money then why not scam the scammers? Most are greedy and greedy = stupid, so ask them to call you back (as long as theres isnt a premium number) and they will out of greed.

the llyods one I am considering what to do, I am tempted to film the conversation on speaker phone or use the call record app and post the files here for a laugh.

One final thing

My mum says tonight when I got home " Dont call Natwest as I have" so I explained really slowly we dont have a natwest account!


The oddest thing I am getting is already approved credit card forms through the post! they assure me I have been passed credit check wise for a card, all I have to do is sign the form. These are really from credit card companies. Would serve them right if I filled them out and went on a spending spree, then told them my age!

The utility switch sales people are nice though, I had a chat with one for an hour tonight about chemistry! I enjoyed the chat and enjoyed knowing thats one hour out of an 8 hour day they didnt make JACK @@@ commission!

The OVER 50 insurance plan women wasnt so nice, so in the end I agreed she could send me the free gift (I think its a pen) and the form and I will think about filling it out......

TOP TIP!!

Insurance sales calls that want to send you forms..... Always point out you dont have a pen! and tell them you MIGHT sign if they send you a decent one, point out if they send a cheap one then the service is likely to be cheap and that will influence your decision! I have 2 nice parker pens (one is obviously a personal one as no name of the company on) and one as yet unknown pen on the way.

I have also got emails trying to sell me certain blue pills!! I am highly offended at 15 that they think i need them!! And as for the you know what extenders.....:confused::confused: seriously stop sending me those emails they are most certainly NOT NEEDED!!! And looks bad when my mum reads the emails and gives me the 'talk' about being careful of going on 'THOSE' kind of sites!!.....................:sorry: as if I would

Anyway not around much for a couple of weeks as i am upto my eyes with stuff to get done, I will be doing some stuff for Mr Deb as this also helps me out with doing something closely related, so might as well help him while i do a similar thing.
 
what was the phone number , you should post it public so we can all take a turn calling them..,. just to chew them out
..... just like hammering an IP address, you flood it and it will crash, A scammer company cannot operate if people are tie-ing up the line to tell them off, if 20 of us each waste 5 min of their time, thats an hour pay to employee with no revenue, business's cannot operate this way...
one time i told them if they kept calling i'd give them a stolen card number, since they were a bunch of thiefs anyway, so then the authorities would have jurisdiction to deal with them.... just a bluff... i dont think the law would work that way...

one time a creditor tried to hassle me for a few bucks, I told them if they called again there would be trouble...
they called back....
after that i called them every 5 minutes for 4 hours for 2 days, i made sure to cuss them out well before they had a chance to hang up on me, I would even ask the employee if listening to me was worth their minimum wage job, or if they got commission for trying to * me.. it got to the point where they switched off the phone for hours just to avoid me, after that and several more nasty phone calls a manager answered the phone, she explained that what i was doing was harassment and that I would be charged if i continued..... I asked them why they couldnt handle their own medicine..... they stopped after that.....

back to the topic though, it is BS that telemarketers are allowed to do that, whats more is they are hijacking personal cellphones to do the dirty work, so you cant trace them on the phone network.. all you get is another victims number, I would really like to develop some android software that would sniff back to their ip, then we would see whats what.......then again , I prolly wouldn't fit in very well in the Big House..
 
Last edited:
Waaaaayyyyy back when I was young, which of course was well before internet, my friend and I spent a day filling out coupons for various offers from the back of a magazine. We received lots of thick envelopes full of glossy brochures and stuff. One day, the doorbell rang and my mom answered. There was a man in a suit and hat standing there, asking for me.... he had some very nice swampland in Florida to sell to me. Mom explained I was 10 or 12 years old, and wouldn't be buying any swampland that day :)
 
Waaaaayyyyy back when I was young, which of course was well before internet, my friend and I spent a day filling out coupons for various offers from the back of a magazine. We received lots of thick envelopes full of glossy brochures and stuff. One day, the doorbell rang and my mom answered. There was a man in a suit and hat standing there, asking for me.... he had some very nice swampland in Florida to sell to me. Mom explained I was 10 or 12 years old, and wouldn't be buying any swampland that day :)
Should have got a good deal on it ;). I hear a while back some cold useless land was sold in Alaska very cheaply.............apparently its not so cheap now
 
I'm not sure how far my 50 cent a week allowance would have gone towards being a real estate mogul! I guess even a small parcel of land would have been valuable if it was in the middle of what would become Disney World!
 
I have spent an hour on a call with a "Microsoft" representative. Acted dumb, clicking the wrong thing, acting surprised at all the errors, pretended to believe his spiel, being very chatty... Until he gave me a link. Pretended to go to the link. When he said he couldn't see my machine; I must have typed the link wrong, I got all upset. Accused him of calling me a liar. Demanded to talk to his supervisor. Surprisingly, he transferred me to someone else. To whom I revealed that I was an IT professional, specializing in security and that I had traced the call and would be reporting it to the FBI. Click!
 
I have spent an hour on a call with a "Microsoft" representative. Acted dumb, clicking the wrong thing, acting surprised at all the errors, pretended to believe his spiel, being very chatty... Until he gave me a link. Pretended to go to the link. When he said he couldn't see my machine; I must have typed the link wrong, I got all upset. Accused him of calling me a liar. Demanded to talk to his supervisor. Surprisingly, he transferred me to someone else. To whom I revealed that I was an IT professional, specializing in security and that I had traced the call and would be reporting it to the FBI. Click!
I am so glad its not just us that has the occasional call from IT pros and MS telling us we have an infected machine! The last time it was from a IT guy who was working for a 'special' anti malware branch of MS (yeah right, and I really am Donald Trump). He explained in great detail about the infection and potential for ID theft, I let him go on and then say............. Yeah I know its infected, thats ok its all the porn sites and torrent sites I go on, anyway this version of windows is a rip off copy from a torrent site. There was a pause and then he carried on, so I said.........So although you work for MS on a special malware and fraud team your not bothered I am using a fake copy?

No he said thats ok, everyone does it no one pays for the software! By the time I had finished telling him how many alerts I was getting from the virus checker and how I had already had loads of info stolen off the machine, he wasnt so keen to connect to me, I dunno why.

I was legit with a paid for license BTW before the new know whos get all bothered. The only time I dont use a real copy is when I set up a VM to mess with something or when I use Linux. I dont see why I should pay for another copy of windows to run for a couple of days on a machine that already has a legal copy!

As for the porn sites....I plead whatever number it is where you dont have to dob yourself in!! And as such that ISNT an admission of guilt..............:sorry:
 
A friend of mine spent half an hour on the phone with one of these software guys, making him repeat things slowly, explain in more detail, etc...and then finally said "I have a Mac. Does that change anything?"

Then he went on to ask if his mother knew he was a cheat and a liar. :)
 
A friend of mine spent half an hour on the phone with one of these software guys, making him repeat things slowly, explain in more detail, etc...and then finally said "I have a Mac. Does that change anything?"

Then he went on to ask if his mother knew he was a cheat and a liar. :)

See a good conman would of said.No she dosnt I killed her years ago :D, whats your address again?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top