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Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

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richfool
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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#509529

Postby richfool » June 25th, 2022, 12:02 pm

Infrasonic wrote:I know a few Thailand regulars who recommend Kasikorn.

Bangkok bank has a UK presence...https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Internat ... ss-Banking
Last edited by Infrasonic on June 25th, 2022, 11:16 am, edited 3 times in total.

Yes, I lived there for 15 years and had a retirement visa and bank accounts (mainly with SCB - Siam Commercial), but my bank accounts died a death after I left. My daughter had one with Kasikorn who did seem more easy going about various things.

If I visit nowadays (which is very infrequently), I don't usually bother with even a tourist visa, just get the 30 days "visa-exempt" stamp on arrival, so I doubt they will open a bank account based on that, though it's worth a try. (I would have Kasikorn in mind).

stevensfo wrote:Hi Julian,

Would it not be easier just to have two phones? I'm in a similar situation to you and have many times been using an app on one phone and receiving the 2FA on the other.

Steve

The danger with running with a UK SIM turned on is that I might incur all sorts of roaming charges, unless I guess it was kept turned off until the exact moment it was needed. Hmm. Some phones have 2 SIMS, but I don't know if you can keep one fully turned off.

I recollect arriving into Bangkok on one occasion and briefly turning my phone on when the UK SIM was still in it and I was suddenly inundated with text messages, from O2 in the UK, telling me that roaming would only cost £7.50 per day. So I quickly turned the phone off and removed the SIM. So I don't know whether I would have had to activate those roaming arrangements, or whether O2 would have done so automatically, or whether they would only have been activated if I had used the UK SIM. I didn't want them or to be caught out.

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#509536

Postby Infrasonic » June 25th, 2022, 12:27 pm

You can set phone/data roaming rules in the phones OS settings - off by default would be the sensible choice... :)

Dual (e)SIM/card phones vary in type so you'd need to find out what the exact options are for your specific model and also your host domestic network. There's a roaming charges thread here that discusses all the minutiae, as you'd expect it isn't remotely straightforward...viewtopic.php?f=39&t=30024

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#509556

Postby Julian » June 25th, 2022, 2:32 pm

richfool wrote:
Infrasonic wrote:I know a few Thailand regulars who recommend Kasikorn.

Bangkok bank has a UK presence...https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Internat ... ss-Banking
Last edited by Infrasonic on June 25th, 2022, 11:16 am, edited 3 times in total.

Yes, I lived there for 15 years and had a retirement visa and bank accounts (mainly with SCB - Siam Commercial), but my bank accounts died a death after I left. My daughter had one with Kasikorn who did seem more easy going about various things.

If I visit nowadays (which is very infrequently), I don't usually bother with even a tourist visa, just get the 30 days "visa-exempt" stamp on arrival, so I doubt they will open a bank account based on that, though it's worth a try. (I would have Kasikorn in mind).

stevensfo wrote:Hi Julian,

Would it not be easier just to have two phones? I'm in a similar situation to you and have many times been using an app on one phone and receiving the 2FA on the other.

Steve

The danger with running with a UK SIM turned on is that I might incur all sorts of roaming charges, unless I guess it was kept turned off until the exact moment it was needed. Hmm. Some phones have 2 SIMS, but I don't know if you can keep one fully turned off.

I recollect arriving into Bangkok on one occasion and briefly turning my phone on when the UK SIM was still in it and I was suddenly inundated with text messages, from O2 in the UK, telling me that roaming would only cost £7.50 per day. So I quickly turned the phone off and removed the SIM. So I don't know whether I would have had to activate those roaming arrangements, or whether O2 would have done so automatically, or whether they would only have been activated if I had used the UK SIM. I didn't want them or to be caught out.

After my more-times-than-I-can-count number of SIM swaps on my last trip whenever I needed a we-will-only-send-it-to-your-mobile 2FA code I plan to do exactly what you suggest Steve when I next head off to South Africa in October. I have a very old iPhone lying around here in the UK so I will take that out to South Africa and leave it permanently in my apartment there with, as Infrasonic suggests, mobile roaming permanently disabled.

Those "Welcome to <somewhere>, the roaming charges for your account are <WTF - You must be joking!>" messages are quite alarming aren't they. With mobile data disabled though it's only phone calls and texts that could come through. With phone calls those that know me well enough for me to want to talk to immediately know that I am not in the UK so will either email/WhatsApp me or call my South African mobile number if it is really urgent. For other calls to my UK land line I simply don't pick up so that they go to my UK voicemail and, at least as I understand it, that doesn't incur any roaming charges. Admittedly that leaves text messages as a vulnerability but I don't get too many of those so my top-up credit can handle it. Maybe I'm lucky because if roaming was a fixed cost per day that would scupper my scheme but for my Lebara (running on the Vodafone network) plan it's a (different) per-unit cost for each MB/voice-minute/text-message used so about 5 texts a month at 49p per text isn't a show stopper for me.

Since this is my recently devised plan for my next trip I have yet to see how it works out in practice though. I probably will leave my second phone powered off most of the time so pending text messages will come in whenever I switch it on. Switching on and off the phone when needed to complete a 2FA transaction is still a lot more convenient that getting out the paper clip and fiddling with swapping a nano-SIM in and out of my iPhone multiple times with the increased chance of scratching the case every time thus reducing its resale value when I upgrade.

One thing that I will need to be very careful about, since I am leaving the spare phone in SA, is to remember to remove my UK SIM from it before flying back to the UK. I'll work out some way to give myself some massive reminder about that, perhaps a big note blutack-ed to the front of my passport since that is one of the things I always check before departing for a flight. I'll probably put multiple safeguards/reminders in place to ensure that I don't end up leaving my UK SIM in South Africa.

- Julian

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#509576

Postby richfool » June 25th, 2022, 4:41 pm

Julian wrote:
richfool wrote:
Infrasonic wrote:I know a few Thailand regulars who recommend Kasikorn.

Bangkok bank has a UK presence...https://www.bangkokbank.com/en/Internat ... ss-Banking
Last edited by Infrasonic on June 25th, 2022, 11:16 am, edited 3 times in total.

Yes, I lived there for 15 years and had a retirement visa and bank accounts (mainly with SCB - Siam Commercial), but my bank accounts died a death after I left. My daughter had one with Kasikorn who did seem more easy going about various things.

If I visit nowadays (which is very infrequently), I don't usually bother with even a tourist visa, just get the 30 days "visa-exempt" stamp on arrival, so I doubt they will open a bank account based on that, though it's worth a try. (I would have Kasikorn in mind).

stevensfo wrote:Hi Julian,

Would it not be easier just to have two phones? I'm in a similar situation to you and have many times been using an app on one phone and receiving the 2FA on the other.

Steve

The danger with running with a UK SIM turned on is that I might incur all sorts of roaming charges, unless I guess it was kept turned off until the exact moment it was needed. Hmm. Some phones have 2 SIMS, but I don't know if you can keep one fully turned off.

I recollect arriving into Bangkok on one occasion and briefly turning my phone on when the UK SIM was still in it and I was suddenly inundated with text messages, from O2 in the UK, telling me that roaming would only cost £7.50 per day. So I quickly turned the phone off and removed the SIM. So I don't know whether I would have had to activate those roaming arrangements, or whether O2 would have done so automatically, or whether they would only have been activated if I had used the UK SIM. I didn't want them or to be caught out.

After my more-times-than-I-can-count number of SIM swaps on my last trip whenever I needed a we-will-only-send-it-to-your-mobile 2FA code I plan to do exactly what you suggest Steve when I next head off to South Africa in October. I have a very old iPhone lying around here in the UK so I will take that out to South Africa and leave it permanently in my apartment there with, as Infrasonic suggests, mobile roaming permanently disabled.

Those "Welcome to <somewhere>, the roaming charges for your account are <WTF - You must be joking!>" messages are quite alarming aren't they. With mobile data disabled though it's only phone calls and texts that could come through. With phone calls those that know me well enough for me to want to talk to immediately know that I am not in the UK so will either email/WhatsApp me or call my South African mobile number if it is really urgent. For other calls to my UK land line I simply don't pick up so that they go to my UK voicemail and, at least as I understand it, that doesn't incur any roaming charges. Admittedly that leaves text messages as a vulnerability but I don't get too many of those so my top-up credit can handle it. Maybe I'm lucky because if roaming was a fixed cost per day that would scupper my scheme but for my Lebara (running on the Vodafone network) plan it's a (different) per-unit cost for each MB/voice-minute/text-message used so about 5 texts a month at 49p per text isn't a show stopper for me.

Since this is my recently devised plan for my next trip I have yet to see how it works out in practice though. I probably will leave my second phone powered off most of the time so pending text messages will come in whenever I switch it on. Switching on and off the phone when needed to complete a 2FA transaction is still a lot more convenient that getting out the paper clip and fiddling with swapping a nano-SIM in and out of my iPhone multiple times with the increased chance of scratching the case every time thus reducing its resale value when I upgrade.

One thing that I will need to be very careful about, since I am leaving the spare phone in SA, is to remember to remove my UK SIM from it before flying back to the UK. I'll work out some way to give myself some massive reminder about that, perhaps a big note blutack-ed to the front of my passport since that is one of the things I always check before departing for a flight. I'll probably put multiple safeguards/reminders in place to ensure that I don't end up leaving my UK SIM in South Africa.

- Julian

Yes, I think I am coming to a similar conclusion, Julian,.... to use a second old phone and put my UK SIM into that, with "Roaming" turned off. I noted that roaming is already set to off in the phone. The only slight worry is if some text or incoming call triggers a charge in some way. I do get a few scam text messages.

Also, I thought I would try amending my telephone number in my banking app to the local overseas number, if it allows an overseas number. I did have the thought, maybe when making such an amendment, it might send a text to the original UK number to "authenticate" the change request! :oops: And, I could only make such a change when overseas, as I wouldn't know the local number until I got there and bought a local SIM.

I note if I use my laptop instead of my smartphone, some organisations start messaging me asking me to confirm I am setting up/changing to a new device, which leads me to think I may well cause some confusion if I move my UK SIM from my current phone into an old phone.

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#509580

Postby mc2fool » June 25th, 2022, 5:30 pm

richfool wrote:Also, I thought I would try amending my telephone number in my banking app to the local overseas number, if it allows an overseas number. I did have the thought, maybe when making such an amendment, it might send a text to the original UK number to "authenticate" the change request! :oops: And, I could only make such a change when overseas, as I wouldn't know the local number until I got there and bought a local SIM.

Yes, but that's easy to handle, it'd just mean you'd have to do the SIM shuffle just that once.

richfool wrote:I note if I use my laptop instead of my smartphone, some organisations start messaging me asking me to confirm I am setting up/changing to a new device, which leads me to think I may well cause some confusion if I move my UK SIM from my current phone into an old phone.

If you are using an app from the card provider on your smartphone then it may detect that you are running the app on another device to where it was run previously, but I don't believe there's any way for an SMS sender to know that your phone number has moved from one device to another, so simply moving your SIM from your current phone into an old one should be undetectable by the card companies.

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#509701

Postby Infrasonic » June 26th, 2022, 10:19 am

Not banking related but Microsoft's Authenticator 2FA app can be run from a phone and the Android container on a Chromebook with both apps active in parallel.
(Weirdly Google won't let you do this with their 2FA authenticator app. Phone only)

It's very handy as it gives redundancy should your 2FA phone start playing up - both apps will generate offline codes too, work over wifi etc. Obviously it needs setting up in advance with all the relevant services.

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Re: Another scam

#536977

Postby bungeejumper » October 13th, 2022, 12:38 pm

Just to say that this SMS message scam is still around - I had it this morning. The message tells me to book a covid test from a website called n@t!onal-he@lth-serv!!e (spellings deliberately amended by me, natch).

I have to admit that my first thought was to ask "what good would a test do now that every 20th person you meet already has covid?" - not "who the hell are these imposters anyway?" More fool me - I should have rumbled them faster than that. :(

richfool wrote:Another scam doing the rounds, which I have received twice, is purporting to be from the NHS and suggesting that I have been in contact with someone who has tested covid positive and asking me to order a test kit through the NHS.
Unsuspecting and vulnerable victims have lost thousands of pounds after changes to Covid testing rules triggered a surge in scammers impersonating the NHS.


More on this one from https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-secur ... -messages/ Stay alert, people.

BJ

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#536981

Postby pje16 » October 13th, 2022, 1:07 pm

I had a text message this morning from NHSvacine asking me to book a flu jab (no link) it just asked me to book an appoinemt with my GP practice
The weird thing is I went there on Tuesday to get one (and that was booked)

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#536990

Postby bungeejumper » October 13th, 2022, 1:29 pm

pje16 wrote:I had a text message this morning from NHSvacine asking me to book a flu jab (no link) it just asked me to book an appoinemt with my GP practice
The weird thing is I went there on Tuesday to get one (and that was booked)

My wife had the same experience. She'd booked (and received) her jab at the GP surgery a week previously, but then she got an NHS reminder urging her to turn up at the local vaccination centre. She declined the kind offer to double down on her protection.

Still, I suppose it's nice to know that somebody out there cares. :) Although it might not have been so good if she'd had memory problems that resulted in her getting the flu jab twice. Sometimes I think the right arm doesn't know what the left arm is doing. ;)

BJ

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#537211

Postby UncleEbenezer » October 14th, 2022, 10:40 am

pje16 wrote:I had a text message this morning from NHSvacine asking me to book a flu jab (no link) it just asked me to book an appoinemt with my GP practice
The weird thing is I went there on Tuesday to get one (and that was booked)

I got both jabs on Monday, at my GP. I had booked the covid; they offered me the 'flu alongside it and it might have seemed ungrateful to refuse ;)

On Tuesday I got both text and email reminding me to book that covid jab.

I wonder if there's a bug in the IT system, whereby getting the jab triggers the reminder?

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Re: Suspected scam this time re (Transfer)Wise

#537213

Postby pje16 » October 14th, 2022, 10:43 am

I am going for my next Covid Jab tomorrow morning
I expect to get a text on Monday telling me to book it :lol:


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