Amazon scam again

[This posting has been removed]

Don't bother with the changing numbers, just treat all Amazon calls as scams.

Must still be worth their while, or they wouldn't do it.

'Authorities' not interested in stopping it either.

[This posting has been removed]

The incidence of scam phone calls predominantly to mobiles (from a moble) is rife at the moment.

They call, you answer, they interrogate your phone in the 20-30 seconds your saying "hello, hello" and they have your info

Its simple to avoid, DON'T answer any calls not recognised by you (or your phone if it has 'smart calling'

If it is someone genuinely trying to get hold of you they will either leave you a message, or call you again on the same number (which a scammer would not ever do) for risk of getting traced.

Other than confirming that the number exists and is able to be answered, not sure what the scammer is going to be able to extract from your phone in the space of a voice call.

It may be much more sinister than that. I am not sure how track and trace works but even in the early days the receiver of a mobile call could get the geoographic location of the caller. Rescue services such as the RAC and AA were using this over 15 years ago. It is possible that once you have answered the call they are mapping your position. We know where you live.

JA

Position - I mean location.

Edited By JA on 11/02/2021 16:25:50

I think many of them already know where you live...

If though they can detect your location from your phone, clearly they know how far from home you are at that time.

Other than when calling my sister who has only a portable phone, all my home calls are by land-line. Anyone trying without my authority to trace me by my portable phone might find it difficult to work out anything useful to them, as it spends most of its time switched off, both at home and away.

The land-line fraud calls seem to come in irregular episodes, possibly indicating each episode being from one gang who gives up when they realise I will not play nicely with them.

Speaking from some experience within the telecoms industry, the geo-location of a mobile is something that can be easily determined at the network level. In the earlier days of mobile networks, specialised components were deployed to give the cell information and estimates of the physical location based on signal strength, etc. These days, such elements are highly integrated at the core network and are as secure as any of the rest of the network - I expect GCHQ/NSA/FSB/etc have access but not to be downloaded on an app...
Your reference to the RAC and AA having location information was almost certainly thanks to a commercial agreement between them and the mobile operator(s) enacted by system to system level query-responses. This was not and to the ebst of my knowledge is not available to the public - including scammers who have no system level access to networks.

Accessing your mobile via virus and IP network attack is more likely - but falls into the same category as attacks on your PC or Mac IMO.

As Nigel says, "'they' may well know where you live anyway" since there is so much data out there to identify each of us to the nth degree.

Hope this helps!

Simon

Probably, Nigel you are right.

My mobile is for emergency use only, so very little used (often just to keep the number live )

" Amazon" call fairly regularly for a week or so, until you recognise the number and ignore it.

Increasingly, we ignore unfamiliar numbers. The scammers give up, and genuine ones leave a message or call back.

They are pests, to put it very delicately., rather like the amateur musicians who are "Budding Goosens".

Howard.