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back to article Phone phishers hop on filesharing legal threats bandwagon

Fraudsters have begun cold-calling householders to accuse them of copyright infringement online and threaten them with court action, an ISP has reported. The development comes soon after the law firm Davenport Lyons won a widely-reported £16,000 default court award for a videogames firm from an alleged filesharer. Davenport …

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  1. Pete Silver badge

    phone the mark? how 1990's

    Why bother going to the trouble of calling people to extort money. Isn't that what the internet's for?

    Now I may be a bit out of touch, what with receiving almost no spam - ever. However it seems that a few million emails, sent at virtually no cost, would prick a few consciences and reap more rewards than spending time and money on old-fashioned methods like phone calls, as this gives the victim the opportunity to question their fraudsters.

    This is where everyone else tells me that they already get a bazillion of these emails every day - oh well, there goes another make-money-fast idea!

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Don't know about phone and email phishers

    But I keep getting legal looking letters from some outfit called Davenport something demanding money with menaces. It is illegal and tantamount to blackmail. Legal eagles (the nice sort) might want to look into it.

    Death to P2P (not)

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  3. Gordon Pryra

    Im not sure on the difference

    Between the actions of the scammers and those of the lawyers

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    finally...

    someone who actually didnt get caught out.

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  5. Mike Crawshaw
    Thumb Down

    I'm actually surprised!

    That the scammers are using the phone first, at least. E-mail is less effort, more time-effective, and requires less manual input, not to mention easier to "scattergun", sending out hundreds of the same template at once.

    Either way, scammers and lawyers - who can *really* tell the difference? Is there one?

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    "Email phishers can't be far behind."

    I recall reading some messages with "you're being investigated by the Interpol in a child porn case, click here to see the report" at least two years ago. Just change the message for "RIAA/MPAA/whatever" and "illegal downloading" (or "FBI" and "terrorism!") and you're set.

    Make money fast! Ask me how.

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  7. dervheid
    Joke

    Just remember to pass any phishing attempt details...

    onto the National High Tech Crime Unit.

    Now, how do you contact them again?

    Oh dear...

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  8. Luke Wells

    Win!

    Glad to hear that the customer had some brains. We usually hear of these storys after a victim has parted with their money.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    fraud is fraud

    I would have told them I couldn't post the money and invited them to stop by to collect it so that I could fasten a set of vise-grips to their bollocks.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Amazed

    I am amazed this company has a customer looking at their website pricing structure

    512K - £23.50

    1Mb - £29.99

    2Mb - £35.24

    Up to 8Mb - £168.00

    http://www.ukfsn.org/home/internet/adsl/unlimited.html

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Re: Don't know about phone and email phishers

    AC, any chance of sending a scanned copy (minus identifying data, of course) to El Reg so that they can do an article on it?

    It looks like something that we should all be aware of, either because it's real and enforceable (so that we can comply), or ceause it's a scam or a con by someone who is just scaring the good folks using t'Internet, in which case they should be exposed as such.

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  12. Dan
    Alert

    @Amazed

    REAL unlimited ADSL is very expensive to do. Capped is much more competitive without being fakey.

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  13. Christopher Woods
    Thumb Up

    @ "Amazed", Anonymous Coward

    UKFSN are one of a group of small businesses who resell Entanet's ADSL packages as part of their portfolio (I do so also on a small scale) - Entanet's ADSL service runs on a basis of peak-time and off-peak traffic allowances, and they are very reasonably priced. There's a small markup (of course, each provider might charge their own amounts anyway, but that's up to them) but their truly unlimited packages pretty accurately reflect the actual potential cost of 'unlimited', constant usage through a 28 day period - if that's what it costs the carrier, then why shouldn't they charge the actual amount?

    Businesses looking for quality broadband with guaranteed unlimited service are likely to sign up for those kinds of packages anyway. Personally I prefer services like Zen's (although I have ADSL2+ at my gaff anyway!)

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  14. Neoc
    Thumb Down

    Hey, Moderators...

    How the heck did we go from comments about a Phishing article to comments about web-hosting?

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  15. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Stop

    Easy Peasy

    If that nasty Davenport mob write to you. Ask for proof they are not scammers!

    I bet they can't prove it.

    B@st@rds the lot of them.

    Mine's the one with the broad arrows printed on it.

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  16. Frederick Karno

    This is the cost

    " I am amazed this company has a customer "

    These companies have loads of customers because they are worth every penny.....

    they also raise issues such as this and dont give out your details without checking the documentation.........(something which i just cant see BT et al doing they will give there normal customer service to dealing with matters of this kind and will pass on regardless of content all claims for infringement........) now is that few quid a month you save important ??? when you start getting letters for things you havent done ????

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  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Im not sure on the difference

    The difference is the scammers aren't offering record companies money. Though why they don't is beyond me, tracking torrents is easy, easier than disguising them, which is easy enough.

    It's just the 21st Century/Digital equivalent of Ambulance chasing.

    Great industry to be in, if you have no soul to worry about.

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  18. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Never!

    If you're a small ISP (especially a reseller), you shouldn't offer "unlimited" for this sort of cost!

    I work for a medium to large ISP and even our cheapest adsl max connection, which is unlimited usage, not port blocked, and is relatively un-contended, Is less than £20.

    I'll grab my coat... it's raining again.

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