[Misc] Scam Calls

Saladpack Seagull · Jul 25, 2019

Mrs Saladpack had a recorded message call on our landline this morning allegedly from "our Internet Provider" saying we'd be cut off unless we rang them. I looked up the number and found that the prefix 01230 has not yet been allocated to a UK geographical area. Anyone else on here had a similar experience? We're always very wary of anything like this but others particularly the elderly may not be. Is there an effective way of blocking these things?

dazzer6666 · Jul 25, 2019

Saladpack Seagull said:
Mrs Saladpack had a recorded message call on our landline this morning allegedly from "our Internet Provider" saying we'd be cut off unless we rang them. I looked up the number and found that the prefix 01230 has not yet been allocated to a UK geographical area. Anyone else on here had a similar experience? We're always very wary of anything like this but others particularly the elderly may not be. Is there an effective way of blocking these things?

Yep, quite a common scam - had one purporting to be from BT a couple of weeks ago. Usually if you call back it'll be to a hugely expensive premium rate number and/or the person at the other end will try to extract passwords etc out of you with a view to hacking into your PC/home network.

Tom Hark Preston Park · Jul 25, 2019

There's one going round at the moment where the message claims to be from your bank's anti-fraud team asking you to confirm a £600 transaction on your credit card. After the first one I put the phone down and called the bank number on the back of the credit card, who confirmed it was scam. 2nd and 3rd time it happened I just put the phone down.

Saladpack Seagull · Jul 25, 2019

Yep, there's a lot of it about. My wife is a Home Help for a lady with dementia who trustingly gave her bank details to a scammer and lost the lot. Luckily her son-in-law was onto it very quickly and with the bank's help got her savings restored. But what a bunch of b*st*rds to take advantage of the old and helpless. Blood currently boiling!

Beach Hut · Jul 25, 2019

Benn getting an automated call from BT about my IP address being corrupt around 3 times a week, shame EE provide our phone and internet

Left Footer · Jul 25, 2019

i had an automated message from Virgin Media allegedly saying that my IP address had been compromised and they would cut me off unless i called them back. clearly a scam

Braggfan · Jul 25, 2019

I had a similar one a year or so ago. Call from "internet provider" asking me to confirm certain details, when I asked them to prove who they were they threatened to cut me off. No internet provider is going to threaten to cut you off if you don't provide "details" for them. I told them I thought they were full of sh*t and challenged them to cut me off there and then. They hung up.
Don't ever phone a company back on any number they give you. If you need to call them look up the number yourself, if they original call was legit the company should have a record of it on the system.

The Birdman · Jul 25, 2019

My mother In-Law had a call saying £600 had been taken out of her bank account by someone could she give her details so they can check

She put the phone down and then rang her bank. Now I worried that they sometimes they stay on the line.
The advice is don’t give your bank details over the phone.

boik · Jul 25, 2019

Run Linux at home and worked in IT for 35 years, so when I got a call from "Microsoft Support" I decided to have some fun. I pretended to type in the commands and gave her the answers I thought she would be expecting. Kept her going for nearly 10 minutes before I got bored and confessed. She sounded really upset and said "Why would you do that to me?". Oh, the irony!

Horses Arse · Jul 25, 2019

Calls from HMRC saying there's a fraud case taken against me, if i don';t dial 1 and speak to an operator then a warrant will be immediately issued for my arrest.

Twice now in the last couple of months. They also say if the line is cut off then the arrest warrant will also be issued. That's the really daft bit that convinced me it was a fraud the first time round when in a bit of a panic.

Apparently HMRC do send automated messages but not ones claiming they can issue a warrant for your arrest

Driver8 · Jul 25, 2019

Horses Arse said:
Calls from HMRC saying there's a fraud case taken against me, if i don';t dial 1 and speak to an operator then a warrant will be immediately issued for my arrest.

Twice now in the last couple of months. They also say if the line is cut off then the arrest warrant will also be issued. That's the really daft bit that convinced me it was a fraud the first time round when in a bit of a panic.

Apparently HMRC do send automated messages but not ones claiming they can issue a warrant for your arrest

HMRC have no power to issue warrants for arrest anyway.

Eeyore · Jul 25, 2019

I don't have my landline plugged in anymore. I did once keep a Microsoft caller on for a while to play with him but got a little bored.

juliant · Jul 25, 2019

I used to get them weekly until i changed providers a few weeks back. I must be a scammers worst nightmare as i work from home so have time on my hands. 45 minutes long is my record and then i just got bored. Amazing that a command window can spring a message on my screen advising scammers are w*****s. They hung up after that

Baldseagull · Jul 25, 2019

Tom Hark said:
There's one going round at the moment where the message claims to be from your bank's anti-fraud team asking you to confirm a £600 transaction on your credit card. After the first one I put the phone down and called the bank number on the back of the credit card, who confirmed it was scam. 2nd and 3rd time it happened I just put the phone down.

I had that one, knew it was a scam but hit the 1 button to speak to the scammer, when he picked up he started talking about my internet connection, so I told him he had the wrong scam, I was calling to be scammed about a credit card payment. He would not have it and insisted he was from Microsoft and that I knew nothing, I told him he should do something better with his life than do something where you have to leave your conscience at the door, is bad for his soul, or can't tell his Mother honestly about etc. He still maintained he was not a scammer, so I wished a painful disease upon him and hung up.

ferring seagull · Jul 25, 2019

I have had numerous such calls from a wide variety of numbers all of which have been added to my blocked numbers. Surely there must be some regulatory body or such who are able to see where these phone numbers are being allocated to !

Deleted member 22389 · Jul 25, 2019

I really wish these scammers could be caught and banged up. Trouble is a lot of these scammers are abroad and pass off as UK numbers. I shouldn't have got involved last time, as in the end it got abusive, swearing down the phone, and then the ******** kept calling me over and over again. In the end I had to pull the phone plug out.

Horses Arse · Jul 25, 2019

Driver8 said:
HMRC have no power to issue warrants for arrest anyway.

That's right, when you receive a call like that the surprise element means you don't think logically though.

Deleted member 22389 · Jul 25, 2019

boik said:
Run Linux at home and worked in IT for 35 years, so when I got a call from "Microsoft Support" I decided to have some fun. I pretended to type in the commands and gave her the answers I thought she would be expecting. Kept her going for nearly 10 minutes before I got bored and confessed. She sounded really upset and said "Why would you do that to me?". Oh, the irony!

Good to see other Linux users. What distro are you running? Got Lubuntu on my laptop, and Kubuntu on my main box.

Thunder Bolt · Jul 25, 2019

I had numerous calls about my internet being cancelled, going to be arrested for tax by HMRC, etc etc.

I have call recognition on my new house phone so if I don't recognise the number, I don't answer. The answerphone kicks in, and if anyone is genuine, they leave a message.

I did have one scammer before I got the new phone, who, when I told him it was a scam, started threatening me, he knew my address and was coming to rape me. I hung up and did report that one to the police 101, as it was a Burnley number not some random overseas call.

This is a good website to report and to check any unknown number.
https://who-called.co.uk/

Baldseagull · Jul 25, 2019

ferring seagull said:
I have had numerous such calls from a wide variety of numbers all of which have been added to my blocked numbers. Surely there must be some regulatory body or such who are able to see where these phone numbers are being allocated to !

On a few occasions I have taken the internet connection scammers to the point where they want to get remote access to my Computer, I take note of the service and the log in number they provide, then say it's not working, they then give you another number sometimes from a different provider, and keep doing this for as long as you or they can take it. I then email the providers and tell them that their service and the log in number provided was used in an attempt to scam, along with a request to please make it plain on their log in pages that scammers sometimes use remote access software and to beware of giving remote access to anyone who called cold. Not sure it has done any good other than waste a bit of scammers time so he is not getting anyone else.

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