Alan Selwood;137580 wrote:
Answer came back 'No', so I knew that my suspicions were well-founded and deleted that dodgy email, and all others like it from that same group of friends. I still don't know how the villains harvested the email addresses from that very small number of people.......
An examination of the major companies that provide essential services (telephone etc ) to your household, that years ago transferred their customer services to India, might provide the answer for you.
These companies generally collect your payments by direct debit, and will have all your bank/email details.etc.
Of course, when contacted these companies will hotly deny there is any "problem" with their Indian Call Centres, yet a thorough TV documentary a while ago revealed widespread corruption within these call centres, including the selling of customer's personal details to criminal gangs operating scams both online and over the phone.
Despite the "hot denials" expressed upon contacting the company's HQ's in this country, at least one major provider of utilities is reportedly quietly transferring it's call centre back to the UK.