scam

This spam-scam is fascinating: it looks like an old telex message. Very clever.

But it's still an obvious fraud when you read it.

The voice sounds vaguely Scandinavian. It claims to represent "Capital Loan."

But the calls come at the same time each day, always from a number that purports to be in Edinburgh.

Here's a list of numbers that the authorities should investigate, that OFCOM should block and that you should ban from your telephone systems. If you get more, let us know and we'll add them.

This spam scam is a fake from Santander in the UK

A spam appearing using the name of Santander links to a fake website.

This morning's crop of overnight spam that made it through the preliminary filters arrived via a contact form relating to this very site. Ordinarily, form spams are either destroyed or reported on, partly because, even using bots, the scams that get through the anti-spam systems on the forms are a cut above the junk that comes in by mail and, often, present new - or at least new to us - threats. This one is carefully crafted, almost as if it's been revised several times to get it right. And, if it were to hit its intended target - investment businesses - it would at least cause a costly waste of time. But only time because, good as it is, it suffers from a significant flaw.