Phone Scam

Just had a phone call from 'Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue Service' telling me an arrest warrant had been issued in my name, and inviting me to press 1.

Naturally it gave no personal details and was just intended to frighten and initimidate the vulnerable.

Much as I would have been delighted to speak to one of the **** scum operating this scam, I feared a premium rate ripoff.

1471 gave me the callers number and I have reported it to

www.actionfraud.police.uk/scam-phone-call-warning-feb11

If you get a similar call,m don't panic, just report it.

Yes, and similar variants. Don't give information to people on the phone unless you really know who they are.

Last week one of mum's friends got an urgent call from her bank saying money had been taken from her account and they needed to work out which of her cards had been misused. They needed all her card and account details so they could trace the fraudster. Fortunately, she is somewhat disorganised and took so long collecting her details that the nice man had rung off by the time she got back to the phone. It was only after she'd rung her bank to be told there was no problem that she realised she'd been conned, and was about to give away all her money!

My son's slightly wrong details were recently used by a stranger in Leicester to take out a car insurance policy and loan to pay for it. My son has no idea why they chose him, or how they got his information, or why the data wasn't quite right. Most likely hints collected from his internet activities coupled with intelligent guesses sufficient to fool the insurer. The insurance company said it was 'quite common' and voided the policy. I don't understand what advantage there is in taking car insurance out in someone else's name, unless there's some way they get their hands on the loan.

Much naughtiness about - be careful out there!

Dave

We recently moved to a new house where there was no phone/internet.

Having decided on BT as a service provider, we were issued with a BT phone number, ex-directory of course...

Since then on several occasions we have had phone calls from people purporting to be from BT's technical dept. Telling us there was an issue with our router.

To cut a long

As the conversation progressed, I became more suspiscious and hung up. Rang BT, told them what had transpired, they checked my line/number for calls and told me the people doing this were being investigated by their fraud team.

I've also had emails from HMRC about tax, referred the matter to the Met Police Fraud Squad and to HMRC....received replies advising they were aware of this type of fraudulent activity.....

Like Dave says, some nasty people about....

Edited By John Rudd on 23/04/2018 13:28:44

Mr Dodgy can tax a car so it doesn't get stopped by PC Plod.

They are persistent - the message is now on my answerphone.

Now my comment added to 79 others at:

who-called.co.uk/Number/4,02030956482

An excellent resource all phone owners should know about.

Not exactly the same, but sort of:- When we moved into this house in 1985 we got the phone re-connected (house had been empty for 3 years). After a while, we started getting aggressive phone calls from the revenuers asking if we were a particular company and we owed them a lot of money. We kept telling them that we were a couple living in a house and they kept coming back. After half a dozen calls, I asked them to tell me what details they had of the company and to give me a number to call them back on. They gave me the name and address they'd got for the company and I went to visit them, a small engineering firm. I wandered in and asked one of the employees if they were that company and he told me that the owners had gone tits up, declared bankruptcy renamed the company, got new phone numbers etc. to carry on trading. I phoned up the tax people and gave them all of the details, for which they were most happy. I believe that they bankrupted the company for real when they collected the owed tax .

Edited By Mark Rand on 23/04/2018 21:12:08

A few months ago I arrived at my 90 yr old mum's home to find her very distressed. Scumbag had called her and told her HCRS had issued a warrant for her arrest following unpaid tax bills. I have never seen her so frightened. Police were brilliant, officers came and had a calming chat with her.

Later that day the police issued a statement that there had been hundreds of similar calls in her area.

There must be a way to track down these b******s!

I have found these scammers to be very patient people. Several times I have had Talk Talk ( who provide my phone ) ring me up to tell me there is a problem with my computer. The conversation goes like this :-

Is your computer on?

No, should I put it on?

Yes.

OK hang on. (carry on with something else for 5 minutes)

Is it on yet?

No it's saying do you want to start in safe mode. Should I say yes?

Yes.

( Carry on working for 5 minutes )

Is it on yet?

No the screens gone blue. Hang on I'll try again.

( carry on working )

This can go on for over an hour. I even managed to nip out and buy teabags once and he was still waiting patiently.

I have tried phoning action fraud and am not convinced that they are actually doing anything.

My method works in as much as while he's on the phone to me, he isn't fleecing your Mum. The trick is to be productive while all this is going on.

Use things like:-

Where did I put those statements?

Hang on I've lost my card.

I'll just ring my wife to get the number.

Also don't be too bright. They like dealing with idiots it makes them feel like they are going to get a result and it is fun to hear the frustration in their voices as you ask the next dumb question.

Good luck if you try it.

Regards.

David.

I am afraid one day it will be for real. Bankrupting government can try anything, even invent unpaid taxes.

Martin

Don't worry. At some point someone will give away *your* details too.

Martin

Hi,

I had a guy saying there was a problem with my computer and I played him along for a while until he said "I cannot see you computer screen" to which I replied "Thats strange I can see yours and I see from your IP address that you are in Chennai, India" .

The line went dead instantly and I haven't heard from them again.

Alistair.

A week or so ago I had a few phone calls from an unknown number. Picked up the phone...no one speaking.
Put the phone down, but did not call back (sky high premium rates, etc.) and checked the number. The international code was 0028, which is an unassigned code (I believe). If this is the case how do these fraudsters manage to use such numbers?

Dave
The Emerald Isle

This sort of stuff seems to almost exclusively be land line issues

I use my land line for net stuff and a PAYG phone for calls

They must be the really dumb ones; I've found that they hang up after 20 minutes when they realise they're not getting anywhere. One idiot even spent a few minutes listening to the BBC news - he was still on the line when I picked the phone up again. Presumably his English was so poor he didn't twig he'd been listening to the TV.

Andrew

They rang again.

I pressed 1 (looks like this doesn't have a risk of being charged, they make money from getting you to pay a 'fine' and told them to get out quick as the police were arriving in 10 minutes.

Silly fellow tried to argue with me about which of us was going to be arrested ...

Neil

Number now barred, interestingly after barring I got a 'if fraud or scam press1' message, so hopefully they collect data to help find repeats.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 24/04/2018 15:57:58

Ho Ho, I've been playing this game for a while. I lead them on, saying I've done what they ask, until they get to a point where they ask, "What does it say now?"

I say, "It says this is a scam and you are trying to defraud me"

Oh, I get called all sorts! Instructions to go forth and multiply, to commit various violence on me and disconnect my computer. I say '"That's what your colleague said last week"

Click...

I started getting calls a few weeks ago from a man with Indian accent claiming to be the Telephone Preference Service and that my DR Card details were out of date. Could I tell him the up to date ones to enable the service to continue. I told him "It's free, you......" so he rang off. He tried it on again later and got a repeat response. Later still, yet another call by someone else, same response. Either it finally sunk in that they have been rumbled or they object so strongly to my response that they have black listed me!

Not had too many scam calls since but today I had a man saying he was from "Warmer homes", saying it was not a sales call but it turned out that it was. Played him along, giving him incorrect answers to his questions about age group, living alone or with someone, ownership of property. Flatly refused to answer financial means questions. He eventually made appointmant for rep to call next day, who would be ringing later. Got reps no: 07745881956. Told him I had my number reg. with Tel. Pref. Service and cheeky blighter said it has to be registered annually or it lapses. HE Said that they buy in lists of numbers. I know that is normal practise. I checked TPS website and it confirmed no. is registered.

Have put in complaint to TPS.

My phone provider offers a service blocking unidentifiable nos., but that could cause a problem. My Drs surgery requires that I ring for appointment or to speak to a Dr and reception say the Dr will call back. The number is always with held.

I always answer phone with "Hello", don't give out the number. I have told callers that I don't do business over the phone. How does anyone know who they are really speaking to? I once told a caller that since you know so much about me, use my address to write to me and I might think about it.He rang off. Doorstep callers are rare these days but get told that I don't do business at the door. Religious callers get told that religion is sacred and cannot be bought on the doorstep!

Oh, would that it were possible to get blacklisted by scammers/spammers.

I got a text from the HMRC a couple of weeks ago about an unclaimed tax rebate. Obvious scam so forwarded the text to the HMRC fraud number. Got a nice reply from them a short time later confirming it was a scam.