NEW SCAM

Received a phone call from BT, informing me that he was disconnecting me because of an unpaid bill.. He demanded payment immediately of £31.00 or it would be £ 118.00 to re-connect at a later date. The guy wasn't even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media, allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental! I asked the guy's name - he gave me the very 'English' John Peacock with a very 'African' accent - & phone number -0800 0800 152. Obviously the fellow realized I didn't believe his story, so offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang up & try phoning someone - he would disconnect my phone to prevent this. AND HE DID !! My phone was dead - no engaged tone, nothing - until he phoned me again. Very pleased with himself, he asked if that was enough proof that he was with BT. I asked how the payment was to be made & he said credit card, there & then. I said that I didn't know how he'd done it, but I had absolutely no intention of paying him, I didn't believe his name or that he worked for BT. He hung up. I dialed 1471 -number withheld I phoned his fictitious 0800 number - not recognized. So I phoned the police to let them know. I wasn't the first! It's only just started apparently, but it is escalating. Their advice was to let as many people as possible know of this scam. The fact that the phone does go off would probably convince some people it's real, so please make as many friends & family aware of this. How is it done? This is good but not that clever. He gave the wrong number - it should have been 0800 800 152 which takes you through to BT Business. The cutting off of the line is very simple, he stays on the line with the mute button on and you can't dial out - but he can hear you trying. (This is because the person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back. You could almost be convinced! The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool many. By the way this is not about getting the cash as this would not get past merchant services - it is all about getting the credit card details which include the security number, to be used for larger purchases. Please Copy And Paste

Shared from a friend

If someone phones you and you hang up on them all they do is keep their phone connected (on hold) and it would indeed appear to be cut off, they are still connected, they then just hang up and ring you back.

Sorry, George ... but I think ‘Shared from a friend’ says it all

This is a well known ‘chain letter’ scam

You have done no harm by sharing it here ; but please don’t forward it to anyone by eMail.

MichaelG.

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Ref. https://www.hoax-slayer.net/bt-unpaid-bill-phone-scam-warning/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 09/05/2021 08:58:39

Just don't answer calls of unknown origin.

That doesn't always work when you are dealing with the new NHS 'system' of telephone consultations.

Tony

A call from BT Openreach is another one, it's one or the other as far as I am aware.

Recently advertised a car for sale, one of the messages I had started 'is car still for sale, said it was and they replied 'consider it sold, I am more than happy with details, can't fetch it myself as I am wheelchair bound so will send courier, will have to pay by Paypal as having technical problems with my bank account'

I can't believe that people actually fall for this, mention of Paypal was enough to put me off.

Bill D

Don't give any information, ask what the name of the account holder is and how long they have had the phone number. Unlikely they can answer both these questions even if you don't know the answers. The real suppliers of services have to deal with the account holder not the person who answers the phone.

Martin C

The levels of sophistication that todays scammers exhibit make it difficult to separate the corn from the chaff.

Remember Timeshare? Thirty years ago, a place in the Sun was a compelling inducement. After ten years of ever increasing and extortionate "maintenance" charges, the penny dropped that due to the various ties in the inability to sell your "Investment" , left the choice of two scenarios. One, to carry on being fleeced or two, cut your losses and walk away. So, twenty one years ago, I chose the latter.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. A phone call from a company in the Canaries, informed me that dissolved timeshare company records showed me as a previous owner.

First part of scam, these could only have been obtained by illegally hacking records.

Next, you can't "Walk away" from ownership and a company buying the "Assets" of a said dissolved timeshare operation can claim for back maintenance, in my case twenty one years. Last charge then was about 450Euros so quite a bob or two by now. Only way out is to "Hire" a lawyer versed in Spanish law to legally dissolve ownership, cost ?, about £7000 upwards. Would seem to depend on whether you have a second income or hold Offshore assets, otherwise, "New" owners can have English Bailiffs knock on your door to realise debt collection.

Second part of scam, the sweetener. When you've legally disconnected, the lawyers can then persue a claim for reimbursement of original timeshare purchase price plus ALL back maintenance charges as due to legislation, the original sale was illegal.

Caller seemed to loose interest when informed I was a single (now) septagenarian on basic state pension with no assets.

Any other muppets (Like me) who were sold the dream and now contacted like this? Tell them you sold on years ago and end the call.

Regards Ian.

.

As we appear to have drifted a little off-topic ... May I repeat that ^^^

George has [almost] fallen for the ‘chain letter’ scam ... Simply by relaying the totally bogus story which was “Shared from a friend”

When such hoaxes are forwarded by eMail, they accumulate ‘contacts’ from people’s address books ... then, one day, the scammer finds his way into someone’s account and scoops them all up.

MichaelG.

So the only "safe" way if you did think the message genuine and worth forwarding or publishing would be to copy the message only and paste into 'Word' or 'Notepad' as plain text, abridge it, then post a copy of that copy, stripped of the routing information.

I wonder though how many of these chains there are, still floating around and netting the criminals lots of useful names and details.

"As we appear to have drifted a little off-topic"

???

Thought topic was "New Scam".

Fell foul years ago of a very "Official" letter from Microsloth advising I should change my e-mail password as it had been compromised. No it hadn't, couple of hours later, wife sat opposite me on her own Laptop said Why are you in Spain needing money to pay for a hotel bill?"

Warning letters are not the problem, opening LINKS is.

Regards Ian.

.

My point being that the opening post reports, and risks perpetuating, an old scam

... did you follow the link I provided ?

That text has certainly been circulating since 2009

MichaelG.

.

Edit: ... and this explanatory note dates to 2003

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/01/spam.chainletter/index.html

... despite which; you claim that “Warning letters are not the problem”

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 10/05/2021 10:01:52

I am not nsure if this is new or not but yesterday I received a call that started with the usual, "Is that Mr. Gra-hamm? "

To which I replied, "That depends who you are and why you are calling."

"I'm from the Telephone Preference Service, calling about stopping unsolicited calls".

"Oh, " I said, "Well, I already have the system for doing that and am about to install it".

He hung up without another word.

~~~

As I typed that the 'phone rang. Silent one. Usually they drop out after a few seconds but this lasted for what seemed a full minute before giving up with me saying nothing beyond my initial "Hello?" . I do that to waste their money (I hope!).

Then something really weird happened.

 I rang 1471 a few minutes later, expecting a "With-held", apparently-spoofed or obviously foreign number.

It wasn't. The quoted number was my own! 

Next I found a1571 message, claiming from BT, that my e-mail account had been closed but not giving any details. There could be above-board. I had for some reason set up a secondary BTInternet account a year or so ago but used it so rarely BT genuinely did close it as disused within the last 6 months. It sent me an official e-mail saying so. 

The odd thing about that call was the originating number. It was only about 6 digits long and began with 6. I forget the rest and have deleted it.

It's now 10:26 (goes back to insert missing colon, as I am not that old). The phone is still telling me my own number rang me at 10:10 - so I tried the reply button. This elicited a recording saying "Sorry. To access [sic] voice-mail you need..." I hung up. 

So what the heck had been going on?

Had a scam attempt (the silent call) co-incided with BT trying to call me genuinely but from a strange service number?  

Edited By Nigel Graham 2 on 12/05/2021 10:34:08

I'm a victim of the 'forward email' scam. A friend living abroad gets emails from an ex-workmate in the UK. This chap trawls the internet looking for amusing videos and jokes. There are many websites catering for this, some of them honeypots. When the ex-workmate finds a good joke, he clicks on a link allowing it to be emailed to everyone he can think of. The email invites everyone who gets it to forward it to other friends, and I was one! Trouble is the dodgy website is a Blind Copy addressee and gets copy every time the email is forwarded.

At minimum the bad guy collects a big list of valid email addresses. Uf he's lucky the forwarded email also contains personal information that can be used to target a scam.

In exchange for a not very good joke I'd heard before, I get scam email from Vietnam...

Despite being asked to stop the ex-workmate is still sending weaponised emails. He's an intelligent chap, but he doesn't understand how this works. Therefore what he's doing can't be harmful...

Dave

Dave

This reminds me of raffles held at, or rather hawked around, bike shows in the late 1980s:

"Win a 750 Moto-Guzzi - free. Just fill in the stub with your name, address and phone number."

Most fell for it. I suppose we were a little bit more nieve then.

JA

I received a text message which said...

Royal Mail: Sorry we were unable to deliver your parcel today please reschedule your delivery via: https:royal-deliveries.com

I wasn't expecting any delivery but was curious, so I did a a search on the supplied link and was told the site was blocked..

Dave -

Could you not simply tell him that if he forwards you one more chain-message of unknown origin, you will block him?

As a more general point, how risky is a club round-robin? I recall having received one or two of those "Stranded abroad - please send money" messages, which I knew were dishonest but which were purportedly from a fellow club-member.

Many years ago, before the Internet indeed, one would occasionally receive a chain letter with a mysterious warning of Armageddon or something if you broke the chain. As I did and I am still here. As far as I remember though, they did not demand money; so seeing all the fraud attempts now described, I now wonder what those postal chains were trying to do.

'

Gary -

Perhaps the sender's been watching too many episodes of Call The Midwife...

Nigel Graham 2,

I once had a problem with some pest who kept calling promising cheaper elec and gas. He made mistakes in estimating the annual cost and that's when I smelled a rat. It got to the stage where I block his number, he calls next day from a different number. This happened several times and finally, he used a number identical to mine, which, if I blocked, my line would have been blocked! I then changed my number via my phone and broadband supplier. End of his antics. Apparently, this is a common response to victims blocking pests/scammers.

John

Interesting article from Wired ... featured in today’s News : **LINK**

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/royal-mail-text-message-scams

MichaelG.

Since teh scam thread is active again just another warning.

A week after getting an Argos delivery which legitamately had my mobile number for necessary last mile delivery instructions I got a text requesting I fill in a delivery satisfaction survey - link attached to text. Now the link was not an Argos website so I'm not going there. I have no idea if they stupidly outsource their surveys or their system is hacked but be warned as usual to check those links even if you have just had a seemingly legitimate interaction the scammers can easily be paying someone inside to hand over a USB stick of data.