Possible Scam?

rapid_uphill

I just recieved an email from somebody i dont know, who seems to know my email adress (my email doesnt contain my name), my name and my full home address. the email states:
You may be eligible to receive upto 66,562 GBP in government money that you would NEVER HAVE TO REPAY.

Complete your application at http://ukgrants.be

I visited the website and it looks genuine, what do you guys think?

whyamihere

Something that instantly pops to mind... We're not a federation. We therefore don't have a federal government, making it impossible for federal grants to be given out...

Steer well clear.

Edit: Also, why has it been seen on so many US news networks, but not a single UK one, if it's supposedly for UK citizens?

And finally, if you remove the uk part of the address in the site it forwards to, you'll find the original American version. You may notice than Jon P has indeed moved to a new house. In the USA. Mike S was even luckier. His grants allowed him to keep his homes in both Chicago and Newcastle. He only kept his share of the American Dream in Chicago though, I assume he wasn't able to keep up repayments on the one he kept in Newcastle.

AidanR

http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.grantsdot.com

Yeah, it's a scam. Oddly.

Somebody somewhere has sold your personal information.

kafkathedog

Classic

It's only going to cost you $57.61 (strange amount :? ) every 30 days

Go on, give em your credit card - I dare you

zebturner

i had this same email, obviousl a scam but how do they know my address? i dont use this email addy for anything.

Bunneh

I AM NIGERIA GENERAL WHO WAS KICKED OUT OF MY COUNTRY BY REBELS IN 1976. DURING MY TIME IN EXILE I PUT MUNNY INTO THE SEX DRUG VIAGARA AND NOW I HAS LOTS OF MONEY BUT SINCE I CANNUT GET BACK TO MY COUNTRY TO EAT CAKE CAN I HAVE YOUR BANK DETAILS?

THIS IS VERY URGENT MY CAKE IS GOING HARD AND I NEED YOUR BONK DETAILS

THANK YOU SIR

Do it do it :P

tebbit

Do not believe Bunneh! It is not the real Bunneh, I helped a Nigerian general and have had all my money taken out of my bank account, don't do it, on the plus side I have become an expert in the use of Viagra due to my inability to "get it up" naturally, due to the stress of having all my money emptied out of my bank account by a Nigerian general.

balthazar

rapid_uphill wrote:

http://ukgrants.be

I visited the website and it looks genuine, what do you guys think?

In what sense does that website "look genuine"?! Try closing the window – it even triggers a "I'm trying to scam you by the way" popup..!

RichN95.

rapid_uphill wrote:

Complete your application at http://ukgrants.be

Why would a legitimate UK operation be using a Belgian web address? 100% scam.

bagpusscp

Yep says this pair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14njUwJUg1I

rapid_uphill

I have received a few scam emails in my time, but what suprised me about this one is all the details they have on me.

stevie1981

-

donark

rapid_uphill wrote:

I just recieved an email from somebody i dont know, who seems to know my email adress (my email doesnt contain my name), my name and my full home address. the email states:
You may be eligible to receive upto 66,562 GBP in government money that you would NEVER HAVE TO REPAY.

Complete your application at http://ukgrants.be

I visited the website and it looks genuine, what do you guys think?

i have just had this same email, i want to know how they got my name and address
also i sent the person who sent me the email one back asking how he knew me and how he got my details lets see if i get anything back i wonder if there is any way to report these emails if they are scams

northernneil

donark wrote:

rapid_uphill wrote:

I just recieved an email from somebody i dont know, who seems to know my email adress (my email doesnt contain my name), my name and my full home address. the email states:
You may be eligible to receive upto 66,562 GBP in government money that you would NEVER HAVE TO REPAY.

Complete your application at http://ukgrants.be

I visited the website and it looks genuine, what do you guys think?

i have just had this same email, i want to know how they got my name and address
also i sent the person who sent me the email one back asking how he knew me and how he got my details lets see if i get anything back i wonder if there is any way to report these emails if they are scams

hmmmmm never ever a good move that, if you reply using your email you will be added to a list of 100% 'live' emails and will likely to be targeted MORE ! never reply to these guys

dennisn

rapid_uphill wrote:

I just recieved an email from somebody i dont know, who seems to know my email adress (my email doesnt contain my name), my name and my full home address. the email states:
You may be eligible to receive upto 66,562 GBP in government money that you would NEVER HAVE TO REPAY.

Complete your application at http://ukgrants.be

I visited the website and it looks genuine, what do you guys think?

I think you'll go rapidly downhill if you buy into this. And I'm being on the kind side.

Chris75018

My Mrs just received the same thing - and this post is showing up highest on google for it at the mo.

she's a cyclist too, which makes me wonder if the one of the online bike shops (she reckons she's only used evans...) has had its database hacked?? had all her address details, etc. correct so must have acquired the info from somewhere.

Mr_Cellophane

I'd like to apply. Problem is my Halifax account (which I must have forgotten about) has been locked and I need to re-enter all my personal information on their website.


Or at least that what an e-mail I received said. :roll:

doolittle

I received the same email tonight so I was suspicious straight away. I googled all the info i could and ended up here.

A little sus if you ask me :roll:

shockedsoshocked

pottssteve

Greetinds,

I live in Hong Kong and have GENUINE TEAM REPLICA kit for sale. Lickquigas, Skye, Sirvelo, Robabank and more. Please PM me your bank details and PIN number and I will send you what you deserve. But hurry, I will soon be arrested.

God Bless

rapid_uphill

The email they contacted me at is not one that i use very often, and i have certainly not purchased anything from anywere online using it.

Ollieda

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Good old George........ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coVp1sfCr44

rapid_uphill.... there are a lot of ways that people can get your details. most of the time its where you've used your details on a website and seening as a lot of cyclists seem to be getting the same email it's likely that its a cycling website thats been hacked.

If you didnt use that email address for anything it is possible that if they have your IP address (basically the address of your coputer on the internet) then they could have tracked your internet usage and found this email as well, although thats a lot of effort for them when they would have harvested a lot of info for others from the original website where your data was first picked up so.

rapid_uphill

Finding my email is one thing but linking my full name and full home address to it, is something else.
Alot of the people who have posted have only joined to do so, as they have been searching for info on the web and this thread comes up first. So i dont think its cycling related.

Ollieda

Then it could have been on any site.

As you say you don't use this email often it might be that they got the details linked to another email address you use regularly and then also found that your IP address links to another email as well.

For example, I have 3 email addresses. General one that I use for things like this forum and facebook, a more private one i use for work and a university provided address. When ordering online I only ever use my general one, but it wouldn't take a hacker long to track my IP usage and link my general one to my other two accounts and once established that they are all mine they would apply the details to all 3 addresses.

Have you checked your other emails to see if they recieved the same email? remember to check spam folder as it might have been automatically blocked. As i said, it seems odd that a hacker would go to the effort to search out other email addresses if he got a good haul from where they got the original addresses, it could be that they are pushing it hard and trying to squeze out every opportunity

rapid_uphill

I have checked my other emails and spam filters and there are no other emails.
I use a similar email setup like you Ollieda.
But i cant help wondering what other info they have on me?

Just a thought but maybe its something to do with yahoo.com as thats were the original email came from.
p.s i dont have a yahoo email account.

Ollieda

I think Horizen did a program on it a while back.....ok so it's "OMG the world will die tomorrow becuase of this" Horizen but some of the things they came across were interesting.

Theoretically, unless you have a high level of encryption on everything you do and the people you contact on the internet have a similar level of encryption then a lot of data can be harvested. If the hacker is good enough he could probably find out your mobile number, where you work, how much your paid, how many clubcard points you have and what the last few things you brought is the shops were. But to get these things its a lot of work so that person would be targeting you individually, realisticly its not worth it and they are better off doing a small amount of work, getting basic info: email, name, address the using a website to phish for more info like they tried with you. Not even 30 minutes work and all they would need is for one person to fall for it and they they can get paid!

I'm not trying to scare you but its just the reality of the internet. Best thing to do is to just ignore the email. hopefully they will just think you're a dead lead and forget about it, maybe even delete your info......however if you reply then as someone else said they will know the address is "live" and will attack.

cooldad

We know everything about you. The NWO sattelite has eyes everywhere.

Seriously at some time your info must have been available. As is most of ours.

rapid_uphill

Here is the same type of chat from other forums which are not bike related.

http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pbgt&action=display&thread=356587

and

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2496233

and

http://www.playstationrevamped.co.uk/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=4896&page=1#45939

Ollieda

Have you used your email for anything playstation related. A quick search on this forum shows that you play playstation online and being that one of the links you've shown is other playstation users getting the same email it is possible its linked to that.

Or it could just be any sight on the interent, it would be really hard to tell where they got the info from without having a internet history of a large selection of people who got the email

bails87

Ollieda wrote:

it would be really hard to tell where they got the info from without having a internet history of a large selection of people who got the email

And who'd be willing to share that :oops:


Two things:
1. I can't believe the OP thought it was genuine. No-one emails out of the blue to tell you you can claim money if you just pay a few dollars to them.
Also, it's a .be website address :? Also, it's the internet. Everything is a scam until proven otherwise.

2. Check your computer for viruses. If something is on there that's recording your details I'd be very worried. Run scans with a few different reputable AV and anti-spyware/malware/adware programs. Try download.com for safe software. Then change your passwords. And keep a close eye on your bank accounts if you do any online banking.

I had a situation after using a uni computer where my email account was set up to automatically put any new messages from paypal or ebay into the 'trash'. Then someone bought a load of stuff with my paypal account, logged in with someone else's ebay account, and vice-versa. But any emails telling me "Congrats, you won item #1234...." were deleted straight away and it was sheer chance that I found it out about as soon as I did.

Aggieboy

bails87 wrote:

Ollieda wrote:

it would be really hard to tell where they got the info from without having a internet history of a large selection of people who got the email

And who'd be willing to share that :oops:


Two things:
1. I can't believe the OP thought it was genuine. No-one emails out of the blue to tell you you can claim money if you just pay a few dollars to them.
Also, it's a .be website address :? Also, it's the internet. Everything is a scam until proven otherwise.

2. Check your computer for viruses. If something is on there that's recording your details I'd be very worried. Run scans with a few different reputable AV and anti-spyware/malware/adware programs. Try download.com for safe software. Then change your passwords. And keep a close eye on your bank accounts if you do any online banking.

I had a situation after using a uni computer where my email account was set up to automatically put any new messages from paypal or ebay into the 'trash'. Then someone bought a load of stuff with my paypal account, logged in with someone else's ebay account, and vice-versa. But any emails telling me "Congrats, you won item #1234...." were deleted straight away and it was sheer chance that I found it out about as soon as I did.

Unfortunately, some people do believe these things and are either too trusting or nieve. Luckily, last year, my old Dad called me for advice re a 'lottery scam'. I thought we all knew that adage 'If something appears too good to be true, it probably is'