Telephone Scam ??

Yesterday had a phone call from a lady of foreign extraction (sounded indian/Malaysian) very hard to understand. Said she was from British Telecom and as I was a longstanding customer I would be getting change in my contract to give me free mobile calls and various other bonus features. Could I verify my name was Colin Heseltine and my address was xxx, postcode was xxx. All perfectly valid information and I had no problem verifying this. I then turned the table on her and asked for my BT account number and details. A funny thing then happened, She went quiet for a couple of seconds and then the phone was put down.

Today I get another call from a similar sounding lady. She comes out with the same spiel only this time I asked her for my account number before she asked me to verify name etc. Immediately the phone went down.

Has anyone else had these calls recently.

I even had the famed Indian Microsoft Window Technical Support Team ring me yesterday. They got even shorter thrift. I educated them with some nice English language words and asked them kindly to go away.

Colin

Last week had one on the phone, had a year ago around 3 a day for 2 weeks, best is to answer with some xxxx words and hang up. Niko.

Edited By speelwerk on 30/11/2016 21:29:24

I always speak in a squeaky voice "Umm .There's no grown ups here "

Which is kinda true

If I have time I just wind them up if they ask for any details like bank or account numbers I just make them up just keep the format correct and wait to see what happens, or just generally wind them up after all they are paying for the call.

Bob

Yes I've had a recent call from 'BT' as well. Mine spoke good English and had lots of convincing detail: my name, address and phone number, plus correct BT business details. They didn't know my account number . If they had known it I would still have told them to write to me.

It seems to be a slicker version of the Microsoft scam. I thought it was new but according to the web it's been about for a while.

What I didn't know until recently is that incoming telephone numbers (like email addresses) are easily faked. Caller-id doesn't verify that the caller is who they claim to be, in fact an apparently 'real' number may be part of the con.

I never provide sensitive details when rung up or emailed out of the blue. It's too risky.

Dave

I had one who went though lots of 'generic' information about my recent no-fault car accident and why hadn't I claimed the compensation. Worked him up into a frenzy of excitement as I told him four people in the car...

Then I asked him for the date of the accident (which never happened)...

After telling him what I thought of such folk he got rude, so I got rude too.

When he rang back and asked for someone else with a different surname he got even more flustered, them completely panicked when I pointed out I was with the TPS and my next act would be to let them know (yes 1471 gave their phone number - same code as me so local ambulance chasers and well known on the check a nuisance number websites).

Neil

Never quite got a handle on how some get our phone number as we are ex directory, may be random dialling or off some other data base or other.

Hi, ex directory only keeps the honest ones away. Most of these types of calls are done on a block type of system, so I've been informed, the way it works apparently is that a whole block of consecutive numbers are called at the same time and the first one who picks up gets the call. I'm also ex directory and get random calls, but I've got caller display and if I don't recognize the number, I don't answer. I do sometimes get caught out, but as soon as I realise its a phishing call, I just interrupt them and say "I'm not interested. Goodbye." and hang up.

Regards Nick.

I had the bogus BT calls. I rang BT about it, and was told to ask for an 0800 to call them back. If they are genuin they will have one. I tried it the next time and had to explain to the guy calling me what it was ! Then I gave him the benefit of my opinion of him.

Maurice

Unscrupulous companies and charities sell customer details. On the web it pays to tick the 'no publicity boxes' carefully. Auto-diallers are common technology. They can be worked from a database, or generate random or sequential telephone numbers. I once worked in a large open plan office where one afternoon about 30 desks were called one after the other. It was the same salesman, who failed!

An auto-dialler works independently of the human team. When an auto-dialled number is picked up, a human operator is alerted, and one of them will speak to you. They probably have a computer screen with a script and information about the number that's been answered. If you get dropped calls, ie it rings and there's no one there, it's probably because the humans were too busy annoying someone else to speak to you. However the autodialler remembers all the numbers that work, and it gradually builds lists of valid and invalid phone numbers that can be sold to other cold callers...

Isn't technology wonderful!

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 30/11/2016 22:47:50

Yep ... it's common practice. However, the Telco computer knows where the call really originates - at least as far as the originating country goes.

Which leads to a potential means of fighting this insidious practice. It should be technically feasible for the subscriber to specify particular *countries* that they do not wish to receive calls from (it actually might be simpler to specify the countries that they *do* wish to receive calls from).

I'm in Canada and well over 80% of my incoming calls are spam/scam - virtually all originating outside the country, mostly in the East (judging by the "English" .... actual calling numbers are spoofed). It's been a growing problem over the last 10 or so years. If I could limit my incoming calls to those from Canada & US (obviously); UK; OZ; NZ and a couple of other European countries, it would take care of the whole problem. Those are countries with sensible laws and reasonable enforcement.

Some companies would howl that I'd be blocking their tech-support (so called) lines. So let them repatriate the Canadian jobs that they exported.

I love these .......... when they actually talk to you. They haven't a clue who you are and are just waiting to be wound up. I had an Indian gentleman who offered to fix my computer ending up shouting down the line "you are a liar, you are a liar" after I dreamt up a number for the various keys I should press to diagnose a fictitious fault. The line suddenly went dead, I guessed his boss pulled the plug.

I feel it is our duty to keep these shysters on the phone for as long as possible to protect other more vulnerable persons.

As for the record message merchants, they seem to have disappeared over the last few weeks. I believe the government is now going take action against the company directors and not the company. This means that the offenders cannot get away by liquidating the company. No doubt I will get two or three such recorded messages tomorrow.

JA

I take the opposite approach, if I'm just sitting enjoying the garden I try to keep them on as long as possible by giving incorrect but feasible replies, my record so far is 25 minutes. The people I really feel sorry for are those from the Indian sub-continet who are doing a real job, as my first response when I pick up the phone to someone with an Indian accent is to assume they are out to rob me, which isn't really fair.

As Bandersnatch says, the phone companies could do a lot more. I'm quite prepared to exclude all overseas calls except for a few I know to be genuine, relatives etc, but that would hit their profits, so no chance. When required to give phone number and e-mail, just make it up, or use SW1 2AA, which is Downing Street, and for phone number use local council, as they never answer the phone anyway

I had the 'about you recent accident' call and asked if that was the one where my wife and children were killed, bit of an awkward moment after that and I confessed I was just winding him up, haven't had one of those calls for a while now perhaps they crossed me off their list.

Mike

Whenever I get calls from "Microsoft Technical Support" I play them for as long as possible until they start to get a little impatient. I then tell them I'm running a Linux distro. . . . . . phones goes quiet.

Detecting the country usually won't help as they use VOIP to a dialler in the target country, so it will appear as a national call. And as someone has already pointed out it's easy to spoof the caller number. So many of these older comms technologies were created before anyone ever believed malicious use would become commonplace, they are based on trust of the remote end.

My record is only 15 minutes before the microsoft 'engineer' found I was using a Mac

got fed up of when with ex.

had one that asked for her so said she is in bath and paused for second before saying it's best place to cut up a body.

they hung up and never rang back.

Edited By naughtyboy on 01/12/2016 07:46:02

I had a call recently from "BT Broadband" telling me that they had some 'important information about my account' ... So I told the caller to send me a letter, and disconnected the call.

A few moments later, the same chap called again:

[Him]: "But I have something important to tell you, Sir ... Your account is about to be closed"

[Me]: "And I have something to tell you, Sir ... #### ### !!"

This is, to date, the only time when one of these con artists has tried an immediate follow-up, but it's a rather worrying development ... be warned.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 01/12/2016 08:03:46

I have my password ready for them. I would spell it phonetically. Golf Echo Tango Lima Oscar Sierra Tango. Not got that far recently as I am not wanting to waste my time. So I ask upfront if they want my bank details or even say 'here are my bank details'. They seem to hang up very quickly, althogh I don't know why - as that is what they really wanted in the first place!

Allowing the ansafone to trip in usually sorts out the scammers.

We never answer the phone

Mick