Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 February 24

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February 24

American lady

A couple of hours ago I received a telephone call. I didn't pick up and the caller rang off. A minute later I received a voicemail from a lady with a husky American accent. The message ran thus:

Extremely time sensitive. This is Officer Moira Hawkins from Inland Revenue. The hotline to my division is 0203 896 5119. I repeat, it is 0203 896 5119. Do not disregard this message and call us back. If you do not call us back or we do not hear from your solicitor either then get ready to face the legal consequences. Goodbye.

I checked the number on the internet and found out

Please be warned that scammers may call you from 020 3896 5119 pretending to be from HMRC and tells you that you will be arrested for unpaid tax please don't worry. You can rest assured that this is not the Inland Revenue but is a well-known scam and there is no case against you. Please take a look how this scam works on video [1].

The video added that after receiving such a call "always make sure you report it so others don't fall victim." On the playback the lady gave her name as "Sarah Wilkin". Has anyone encountered her, and if so, which name did she give? 2A00:23C1:E104:5900:CDF1:12C8:E0EB:4B14 (talk) 17:07, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

By whatever name, it's a scam, ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:16, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia has an article on these types of scams called IRS impersonation scam. --Jayron32 18:45, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

That article has obviously expanded since it was created to now cover similar scams in the UK and Canada. I can report that such scams also exist in Australia, claiming to be from the Australian Taxation Office or Centrelink. I suspect they exist in many other other countries. Looks like it's time for a rename for that article, and a formal expansion of content. HiLo48 (talk) 23:05, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

It probably should be moved to a more descriptive title, such as "Taxation official impersonation scam" or something like that. I suspect any country that has taxes of any sort is vulnerable to such scams operating there. --Jayron32 13:49, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

If this was real I'm pretty sure you would've gotten a certified letter in the mail, not a phone call or voicemail which can be answered by any random person in your house. Given the kind of mundane crap I get certified letters about even here, I can't imagine they would communicate any other way in the UK. 93.136.117.148 (talk) 23:43, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

As our local news warns us every year about this time, this is a scam. It's not how the IRS operates. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:50, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

The UK Inland Revenue ceased to exist in 2005, so either they haven't done their research or they're using a variation of the technique of "use really bad English in your scam emails so you only catch the really gullible people". AndrewWTaylor (talk) 11:21, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

I've gotten most of the U.S. ones over the past few years: "This is the IRS. You will be arrested if you don't call us to pay your back taxes", "Your Social Security number has been deactivated", "This is <bank> Credit Services", "Microsoft Technical Support", "Confirm your Amazon purchase". They seem to come in waves: repeated calls for some days, then they stop. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 19:31, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

One I've been getting lately are calls urging me to renew the (non-existent) warranty on my old car. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:48, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

The ones that I've had claiming to be about credit cards generally either say "your credit card" or "Visa card" without even mentioning the name of a bank, which instantly makes it clear that they are not from any bank I deal with. --69.159.8.46 (talk) 20:40, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

But most of those imply they want to sell you a new card, so your existing card's issuer is less relevant. — I'm reminded of a call I once took for my boss, inviting to contribute to some worthy program run by the local university. Were I not so callow at the time, I'd have said "I don't believe you" partly because the caller disclaimed the ability to send us anything on paper, and partly because, in the university town where I grew up, no one would mention a program of "the university" without specifying a department. —Tamfang (talk) 05:58, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

OR but, I sometimes watched a Twitch scam baiter (kitboga). The IRD scam ones seem to rely significantly on fear, more so than the refund ones (although they're often also willing to use it). Whatever the scam, many of their basic stories don't make much sense e.g. we're going to charge you to renew your subscription. On you don't want to renew it? Well we'll give you a refund instead (they don't say they already charged you again, rather they seem to be refunding you for your old subscription). Even among IRD scammers, people who manage American accents seem to be rare. I don't think this is racism by the scam-baiter I watch, but it could be self-selection i.e. the ones who manage American accents are harder to bait. IRD scammers seem to often be hard to bait anyway as they often seem to check if they actually called you. Nil Einne (talk) 14:20, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

Does anyone here know the identity of this painting?

Does anyone here know the identity of the painting here? :

https://historum.com/threads/assistance-with-antique-painting.182738/

Futurist110 (talk) 22:32, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Unfortunately, login required to view the attachments (images). 2606:A000:1126:28D:A92F:64E4:A26F:F5A5 (talk) 23:36, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

There are several paintings. Which one is it? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:49, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Appears she's also uploaded/asked on http://forum.findartinfo.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15699&#35185 - images there do not require a login to view. Nanonic (talk) 00:07, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

Image on the auctioneers website also - https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/gotoauction.com.gallery/4862/177459/upload/1577493614_896b43b9_20fb_45eb_ad8b_4fbca2af88c2.jpeg Nanonic (talk) 00:14, 25 February 2020 (UTC)