Telephone / Internet Scams

An elderly friend plays along when he receives a scam call.. When asked to switch on his pc he explains it is another room and it will take a little time as he uses a walking stick. He then walks away from the phone, drops a biscuit tin and shouts as in pain for the caller to call an ambulance as he thinks he has broken his hip.

Without exception the line goes dead.

One of the worst through the letter box is the Sun Life over 50 insurance ! I must get at least 1 sometimes 2 per month I return them all with 'not known at this address' to no avail Oh I hope I never bump into 'Parkie'

H

Some of those telephone calls telling you "... press 1 now." are not directly from people but are recorded messages, complete with background sounds to suggest a call-centre.

It's easy to establish that: just talk to it. A human will respond, a recorder won't.

My usual response to the "... from the Windows Corporation " or some other dubiously-named organisation is to tell the caller, "No you are not, Windows is a Microsoft trade-mark, and oh, by the way, I work in IT Security. Goodbye", and then it's a race to see who hangs up first.

The alarming ones are not those, but the silent calls probably from some automatic ring-round system, because you can never know their origins and purposes.

There's a grain of truth in my "IT Security" claim... A very small grain, from my last couple of years at work. You'd be surprised how many examples of cardboard origami and polystyrene packing the IT people can accumulate in their security-locked server room; for me as a "lift-and-shift" gang member given appropriate access, to remove for proper disposal!

re Ian Parkin's caller being selective.

One of the oddest I've received was selective by sex rather than age:

I had answered the call itself as I usually do: just "Hello?"

"Is that Mrs. Graham?" a man with a British accent asked.

"No, I'm Mr. Gra.." Click! He rang off so fast I barely finished my name. Err, do I sound female on the phone?

Goodness why he wanted my wife not me, or what he wanted to ask / sell. Still, he'd proved he didn't know my marital status.

(A status at least making the Domestic Management's permission to bake a 4"-scale steam-wagon's steel tyres at Regulo 9 for 30 minutes to shrink-fit them, readily obtainable!)

I turned the tables once on a YL with an Asian accent, trying to sell me a 'phone contract. The initial caller had been male, but clearly unable to convince me a monthly £8 contract was cheaper than my £5 max / month PAYG rate, had transferred to her, hoping she'd sweet-talk me into complying.

I soon moved the conversation away from phone contracts, and "Angel" and I enjoyed not just that first but two more very pleasurable, social conversations, one a week, all at her firms' expense. Then it stopped. I hope they'd not twigged our game and had fired her.

I hope there is a special place in hell for those who engage in such scams, a nice hot one preferably.

I've post count of the varied and devious ways people have tried to separate me and my friends or family from our cash.

Its easy to say that anyone who falls for these scams is gullible etc. But my mum received a letter saying she was sole heir to a distant relatives estate and all she needed to do to claim her inheritance was fill in her details. You know its a scam, mum knew it was a scam, I knew it was a scam! But when you see a promise of 14 million squiddlies your mind does back flips unless you take a good grip of your senses and bin the letter.

What gets me is most of these scams are well known but nothing seems to shut them down. Maybe the web has become too powerful and needs resetting.

Had a nice (pathetic) email yesterday,

"Your mailbox is full, please click here to fix the problem"

Traced the IP to an Eastern European server so obviously not on Australia.

* Danny M *

I have watched a few videos on YouTube by a chap called Jim Browning (Tech Support Scams). He gains access to scammers computers and strings them along eventually exposing them for what they are. It is alarming to see how much money these scammers make in a week which seems to suggest there are many gullible people about. Although it mainly centres around support calls for Windows computers he does touch on other scams.

So far all the scammers have originated in India and it seems to be a very sophisticated set up to fool people into thinking they are contacting genuine support. As far as shutting the companies down, it seems that there is so much money involved even the authorities (for some reason) don't act very often when informed.

If you have 40 minutes to spare take a look at one of his videos.

I've been getting messages left on my mobile by a company called Lowells. UK debt collections mob. Net is full of complaints about them. They leave messages with a made up name, ref no and says they need to speak to you urgently, yeah right. I thought I had blocked all of their numbers but got a text yesterday with the same crap from them. Another number blocked now. If you get any calls from these people block their numbers and don't give them any info.

Probably an old one for the Brits, but here in Ireland the phone rings. I answer it. No one speaks. Hang up phone. The caller is obviously hoping I will call him back and be charged some exorbitant rate for the privilege. Get wife to call the house phone from her mobile thereby ensuring the phone line is not open.

Another recent one is a scam call coming from a local number. (My local land line number is only 5 digits) On answering it, the Indian sounding voice goes into his repertoire. How can they get hold of a local number from (presumably) India? The phone provider does not appear to give a damn because calling their help line nobody answers! The gards and local radio station have been informed.

Dave
The Emerald Isle

I've been getting a lot of calls recently from people with a US accent claiming that they're BT and my internet is about to be cancelled. Sometimes I have fun with them, like telling them that my router light is orange say, not blue or green. Then I tell them I have FTTP and obviously they don't know what that is. So I tell they must know, and can I speak to a supervisor.

Last Friday I had a new one, same style, but claimed they were HMRC and I was about to be arrested. When I spoke to the guy he asked what I wanted so I told him he must know as they rang me. He claimed I rang them, so I said if I had which HMRC office was he based in, obviously he didn't know. So I told him to stop bull sitting. That totally confused him and he kept asking about a cow. Then he got fed up and hung up.

Andrew

Can one of you tecc savvy people tell me why these premium rate numbers are allowed to exist?? Seems they are only useful to rip people off.

Tony

You got the answer yourself, Tony. 'They are only useful to rip people off.'

Mostly, anyway. I suppose there must be examples where ringing the number buys valuable advice, perhaps an accurate local weather forecast at harvest time. I'm hard put to think of another example though!

Fake calls from 'HMRC', 'Microsoft', and 'British Telecom' etc. are more worrying. Pretty sure it was mentioned on the radio last week that the type of fraud in the UK cost £93M last year.

Usually, fake calls are easy to spot. But it pays to be wide-awake suspicious at all times. If you get a call from 'HMRC' when your tax affairs coincidently happen to be a little confused, then you might well fall for it. Or 'Microsoft', 'British Telecom' or 'TalkTalk' when by chance your computer or network is acting up. Or your 'bank' rings urgently wanting to move your account when you are already worried about the last statement. You don't have to be stupid to fall for con-tricks, more likely they hope to catch you at a time when their story seems to make sense.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 01/04/2019 14:41:15

Has anyone else noticed that about 20 minutes after making an outgoing phone call I get a nuisance call?

Has all sorts of implications for how the concept of subscriber privacy is perceived by the telephone provider.

Rgds Simon

Some time ago I had a call from a very nice sounding gentleman with a pronounced foreign accent. The call went thus:- " Hello; Mr.Cox"? "Yes". "I work for Microsoft and I need to speak to you about your computer". "Oh.....you work for Microsoft?" "Yes". " My computer is an Apple. What has that got to do with Microsoft?" Long pause.......

"Mister Cox; you are a BAD man!!!"

I think he was the bad man.

Maurice

This morning my wife answered the phone to be greeted by someone, a male, who claimed to be a police officer. The conversation went along the lines of, 'Sorry to disturb you but are you xyz etc., which of course was correct, as any fool could find that data on the net if they wanted. He then went on to say that 'We have arrested some people in London and found in their possession a VISA credit card in your name'. My good lady being pretty streetwise asked, before entering into any conversation with aforementioned "officer", to identify which bank/building society the card had been issued by.

This proved too much for "said officer" who immediately hung up. What amazed me is that he didn't just reel off a high street bank as a wild shot; not the brightest con artiste out there evidently.

So be warned they may start to smarten up their act, but knowing my good lady they will meet a brick wall when it comes to her supplying any important data; still sharp at 70 plus.

Martin

Finally got fed up with the unwanted calls that seem to have increased recently, we went out last week & purchased a new set of 3 BT Premium phones for £80. These are the ones with 100% call blocker on, since installing them we haven't had a single unwanted call. You can go into the phones memory & it will show you the calls including the numbers of these unwanted numbers that it has stopped, recognised the usual suspect numbers that we usually get that have been stopped. Our old phones that we have had quite a number of years were due for an update really any way, this is the best £80 that we have spent in years. I now know what the sound of silence is like & very happy now.

Oddest I had went like this:

Me: "Hello?" (I never quote my name or number outright.)

Him: Is that Mrs. G...?" - the caller had a British accent.

Me: "No, Mr. G-"

Click!! I'd barely finished saying my name before the bloke rang off abruptly, without a further word. God knows what he was trying to sell, or whatever he'd intended.

'

I have received one of the false HMRC calls but failed to fall for it, which may be why I've received no more like it. I think if you reject enough, word gets round and they leave you alone for a while, until new gangs come along.

I have told a few of the "This the Windows Corporation and your computer's reported a fault" liars, liars by that word, my finger on the switch-hook ready to end the call faster then they could.

The "survey" types may be real, engaged by advertising-agencies, and I demand to know who wants the information. That question alone usually floors the caller, who probably does not know anyway but seems unable to grasp the point of my question. They tend to hang up quite quickly.

I got a crime update from my local force telling me there were substantial amounts of forged £20 notes in circulation in my area at present. I thought we had seen the end of such fraud.

Had to rig up a UV lamp to check our notes.

Good old fashioned crime at it's best.

Mick

Just had a call from an oriental "gentleman" had my name, usual start "how are you today sir? it seems the warranty on my washing machine is running out & I need to extend it really? sez I & what make is it , indesit sez he , ours is a hotpoint sez I so you're talking b******s aah so would you like to extend it then? err I don't believe in warranties sez I , phone promptly cut off by him,The best it it's a second hand one we got from my wifes late Auntie & the one before that was second hand from my wifes Brother.

Like many others I have received these scam calls over the years. However, having tried most of the discussion tools mentioned here, i thought that as they had probably heard them all before I would try a new one.

Again like others I merely respond "hello" for any incoming call. Then allow them to have their initial introduction and at a key moment before they finish, I demand to know how they got my number and why are they calling it. They try to ignore the question so I then very loudly ask again but continue with......." This is an ex-directory number and is a Security Services phone line, so tell me how and why you called as I have put a trace on this line. Your own security services have been notified......at which point they instantly hang up.

A bit of fun, but interestingly the frequency of these calls has diminished noticeably to the point of almost disappearing altogether.

My daughters ploy is to stop them in their tracks and tell them that she is just a squatter.