Oh please, please, please, dear sweet friends and relatives and random internet boards of which I happen to be a member, please don’t send me any more scam warnings. At least not without checking on their validity first!
I had this one in my inbox today. Again.
“Postal Scam:
Can you circulate this around especially as Xmas is fast approaching – it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:
A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a Premium rate number).
DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize .
If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £315 for the phone call.
If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 020 7239 6655.
THIS IS NOT A JOKE.”
No, it most certainly is not a joke. It is a form of junk mail.
I know the people circulating these things are well-meaning, and only want to save us from being taken in by con-men and wasting our hard-earned cash, or worse – remember the ‘perfume sample’ offered in car parks, which knocked you out so you could be mugged? That had no basis in fact, by the way – but it doesn’t take long to pop along to Snopes and check out the facts.
Doing so for the above email would have quickly informed my friends and relatives that while this was a genuine scam, it was very quickly dealt with by Phone Pay Plus, the telephone company concerned, and it was dealt with in December 2005!! That’s over four years ago, people! And this wretched email is still clogging up inboxes all over these sceptred isles.
In case you haven’t heard of Snopes, it’s a really good site where you can go and check out whether urban myths are true, and whether scams and rumours are genuine.  In fact, why don’t you pop along there right now and have a browse. It’s entertaining, even if you have nothing to look up!
And bookmark it. That way, next time someone forwards you a scam warning you can check it out before you hit that ‘forward’ button and open up your address book.
Thank you so much.
I too get furious with these and have a couple of friends who persist in emailing such silliness. Snopes is fantastic, updated regularly and you’ll find that half of these ‘scam’ emails originated some time ago. Lately I’ve been getting the “Click on the RSPCA page and each click makes a donation” scam. a) it’s the North American SPCA and b) you have to click on an advertisement to generate any income for the site. People can be so gullible.
Baino´s last blog ..Me Tarzan . .Need Ladder
I am married to a man that know about all that so I am lucky, I just call him!
Did you see the white spider in my post also and not only the hoverfly?
So the fly was dead and not hard to take a photo of…
http://mariaberg-foto.blogspot.com/
/MB
Maria Berg´s last blog ..I heart faces – Pumpkin face
I think you’ve really hit the spot with this one Jay. it really does get me annoyed when I receive these emails and it doubly annoys me when one particular person always adds ‘this may not be true but you can check it out can’t you?’ Some of them are so out of date that you have to be stupid to believe them. I keep getting a petition to sign saying that Thompson and Venables who murdered little Jamie Bulger are appealing to be released, and should never be let back into our society. Like it or not, these two lads were released from prison approx nine years ago! I always search Snopes when I receive ‘strange but true’ stories. It’s rare that one of them is true!
granny grimble´s last blog ..SINDIE AND THE CAVENDISH CENTRE
I can’t believe some of the totally stupid scam alerts I get. Some I don’t bother checking on Snopes because I’ve had it before – more than once. Some have been doing the rounds for years and the same person often sends it more than once! I am constantly sending out the Snopes link to people.
babs – beetle´s last blog ..Unexpected day at the hospital!
Snopes is already in my bookmark, another one worth looking at is http://urbanlegends.about.com/. Whenever I received spams, I just hit the delete button!
Jama´s last blog ..EMPS # 64 – TRAINS
Ooooooh, great post Jay – we ALL know never to open spam mails, but these are sent (well intentioned, granted) from our friends! The only thing I hate worse? Those corny “feel-good” life-affirming circulars that casually add in on the end “Now send this to three thousand other friends within the next minute to recieve good luck – or you will be cursed for the whole of eternity.” (Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!)
shrinky´s last blog ..Lightening Bolts and Cattle Prods
I am so with you I hate chain letters and watch out this is for real scams Iask my friends not to send them and it’s deaf ears…thus thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com
Dorothy Stahlnecker´s last blog ..Wishing you a great week because life is hard at it’s best
Baino – Yep. I’m always suspicious of those ‘click for charity’ things. It seems to me someone could so easily add one in that does something evil when you click, so I seldom even think about going there. On the other hand, genuine charity money earners do exist. Oh well, they’ll have to make their money some other way from me.
Maria – I have a man who knows, too! It’s good, isn’t it?
No! I didn’t see the white spider! Wow… that’s an even better picture than I thought! Thanks for pointing it out to me.
Granny – Wow, yes, your nine years beats my four!!
And yes, it’s rare that a rumour proves to be true, isn’t it? Why don’t people check!
Babs – Yep, and yep. I’m always sending the link to people, but they ignore it! What’s up with that? They’re happy to pass along a random email which might or might not contain a virus, and yet they’re suspicious of a site like Snopes? *Shakes head in disbelief*
Jama – Thanks for that! I just spend an hour or so doing their quizzes! Fun site!
Shrinky – Oh yeah, I hate those too! I used to feel bad about ignoring them, but now I just delete without a second thought. The worst thing about them is that I’ve started to look at acquaintances’ names in the list and finding my heart sink because I know it’s likely to be one of these things. And then after a while, I don’t even bother to open their mails…
Dorothy Stahlnecker – You’re right, these are almost like a form of chain letter, although most of the ‘scam’ type forwardings don’t threaten you with anything.
And I was oohing and ahhing over the beautiful flowers and panting over there beauty and suddenly there was that beautiful Greyhound…I’m in love.
Sandi
ps
Greyhound racing in Wisconsin will be over as I read in an e-mail earlier today!
sandi mcbride´s last blog ..The Thanksgiving Challenge Post 18: The Cats have their Say
It’s like the emails I get sometimes about the little boy in a cancer ward who wants this email circulated blah blah. I’m afraid I ignore them all now.
liz´s last blog ..Saturday Photohunt – Birds
Ugh, I hate these, too. Luckily, computers is one of my husband’s fields. It’s so frustrating to explain to others who don’t understand they are actually spreading the potential for virus by FW these to people. (Not to me, because I have virus software protection, but many people do not!)