New scam hits Sky TV subscribers.

**Stuart C** · 24-07-2006, 11:33

I've put this in Current Affairs as ,although it is specific to Sky Subscribers at the moment, it won't be for long..

Basically, there is a new scam. Someone phones a whole load of people to ask if they are Sky subscrbers. The next week, someone else (posing as a Sky employee) phones all those who said yes, and says there has been a problem with their account and a balance has built up. They then ask for Credit card details.. I'm sure you can guess the rest..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/24/sky_tv_scam/

punky · 24-07-2006, 13:08

Cheers for the heads up mate. These are going to become a lot more common.

I read somewhere that this new form of phishing (human-to-human, rather than email-to-human) is growing expotentially... Also be wary of emails asking people to call (say Sky, in this case) on a professional looking number (0800 123 4567) - knowing people probably wont' double check that its no Sky's number (and even if its not on Sky's website, could still be a Sky number).

Its tough, battling fraud. As soon as you start convincing everyone not to take emails at face value for phishing, they start doing other things like this...

danielf · 24-07-2006, 13:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

Cheers for the heads up mate. These are going to become a lot more common.

I read somewhere that this new form of phishing (human-to-human, rather than email-to-human) is growing expotentially... Also be wary of emails asking people to call (say Sky, in this case) on a professional looking number (0800 123 4567) - knowing people probably wont' double check that its no Sky's number (and even if its not on Sky's website, could still be a Sky number).

Its tough, battling fraud. As soon as you start convincing everyone not to take emails at face value for phishing, they start doing other things like this...

It's called 'vishing' apparently

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5187518.stm

abailey152 · 26-07-2006, 07:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Basically, there is a new scam. Someone phones a whole load of people to ask if they are Sky subscrbers. The next week, someone else (posing as a Sky employee) phones all those who said yes, and says there has been a problem with their account and a balance has built up. They then ask for Credit card details.. I'm sure you can guess the rest..

Cheers for the info. I think my cousin has had the first phone call yesterday. When he answered the call, someone said they were from some company and asked if he had a Sky installation. He said yes, and they said "Oh, okay. Thank you very much" and hung up. Seemed a little strange at the time but we both thought it was someone trying to sell Sky. Now I've read your post, and I'm thinking otherwise.

I'll let my cousin know and await developements.

Vlad_Dracul · 27-07-2006, 11:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by abailey152

Cheers for the info. I think my cousin has had the first phone call yesterday. When he answered the call, someone said they were from some company and asked if he had a Sky installation. He said yes, and they said "Oh, okay. Thank you very much" and hung up. Seemed a little strange at the time but we both thought it was someone trying to sell Sky. Now I've read your post, and I'm thinking otherwise.

I'll let my cousin know and await developements.

Amazing--i would have said,who are you and whats it got to do with you? mind you,i trust no one.

arcamalpha2004 · 29-07-2006, 10:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by dooper786

Amazing--i would have said,who are you and whats it got to do with you? mind you,i trust no one.

And you ofcourse would be the 1 out of x amount of people who would do the right thing

sadly its the " x " amount of people they are scamming the money from.

**Maggy J** · 29-07-2006, 11:36

It is amazing how many people will actually talk to total strangers on the phone about their habits and finances that they would not tell to some person asking on the front door step.

Maybe it's just me but I think of folk phoning me up like this as like the 'hawkers' that appear on your doorstep.IF you have that mentality you won't get caught out..

Jules · 29-07-2006, 20:42

I got a call like this yesterday so I just put the phone down