My internet has been "compromised"..... have you had this scam phone call?

[Smokin Joe]

The potential 'scam' on that one is they don't put their phone down and just play a recording of a 'dial tone' down the phone then pretend to answer the phone but you are still connected to the scammers

Call back to a random number like the speaking clock and if it gets through to the original caller you know it's a scam.

 

[Lozz360]

I have never ever heard of a genuine bank asking customers to hand over passwords.

They didn't ask for passwords, but I used to quite often get Barclay's "premium service" phone me and ask me to verify my identity by asking me my date of birth and mother's maiden name. Naturally I was suspicious and I used to point out that Barclay's own website states that they will never contact a customer and ask for personal details and this is exactly what they were doing. The caller then would suggest I phoned a number that they gave (yeah right) as I was not comfortable with parting with security information to a complete stranger. After quite a number of these calls I gave false DOB and mother's maiden name only for the caller to state that these details did not match their records and the caller suggested I went to my local branch to sort this out. So the calls did appear to be genuine after all.

 

[classic33]

The potential 'scam' on that one is they don't put their phone down and just play a recording of a 'dial tone' down the phone then pretend to answer the phone but you are still connected to the scammers

Any call like that is returned on another number by me.

 

[Crackle]

I've begun asking them is this the career their parents wanted for them, is this how they saw their future, where did it go wrong, what led them down this path. No one has stayed on long enough to tell me yet but maybe one day.....

 

[Syd]

The potential 'scam' on that one is they don't put their phone down and just play a recording of a 'dial tone' down the phone then pretend to answer the phone but you are still connected to the scammers

True it can be done like that on a landline, not so easy (if at all possible) on a mobile. I haven’t used a home landline in over a decade.

 

[mjr]

I don't either. I liked the thread that was on YACF, basically the IT bods on there were having a competition to see who could get the scammers to talk the longest before they rang off.

After you do it often enough for long enough, your number seems to get deleted from the scammer calling lists. I had some fun after I moved here but I've not had a scam call for years!

Best IT response is still the person working in the phone system who noticed someone trying to call every number in their direct dial range in sequence, used or not, so they quickly reprogrammed all the vacant numbers to wait a random number of seconds and then play the screaming chimp wav file down the line.

 

[Saluki]

On Radio 4 the other week there was, what sounded like a reasonably intelligent woman, who had a similar call from 'her bank'. The fraudster got her to transfer over £200k into a bogus account. Her genuine bank told her she had no recourse to refund.

So, whilst it seems like an obvious scam, there are plenty of honest people being caught out.

When I worked at BT, I took a call from a very upset lady who had been scammed for £40k the evening before. I got her through to the fraud department where she promptly told them that she had recognised my voice when I answered the phone - clearly a lie - and I left them to it.
I felt for her but there was no benefit of blaming a random call centre agent for her stupidity. BT had called her and asked for her bank details and passwords or they would have to cut off her service, it seemed.

 

[Drago]

I don't either. I liked the thread that was on YACF, basically the IT bods on there were having a competition to see who could get the scammers to talk the longest before they rang off.

I kept an email scammer going for some days for a laugh. His English wasn't good, and when I began my daily emails to him with "Greetings and Coronation Street to you today good Emmerdale Sir..." he never twigged. I pretended to prefer the company of men, so to speak, and was coming on to him, and strung him out for a while. I got bored in the end and told him he was a doofus.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

[QUOTE 5377442, member: 9609"]thnkfully we should all stop getting the uk based marketing calls with the recent change in law. but I guess these foreign based scammers will just carry on undeterred, it puzzles me how the gov can't block these calls.[/QUOTE]
What do you expect the Government to do, they have no involvement with telecom's they handed it over to the toothless wonder that is Ofcom

The potential 'scam' on that one is they don't put their phone down and just play a recording of a 'dial tone' down the phone then pretend to answer the phone but you are still connected to the scammers

This shouldn't work anymore, once you have put down your phone, it should release the line, a new directive came out a few years ago covering this.

 

[Drago]

Indeed, OFCUMs only interest is income. The time, and therefore money, they expend on enforcement is derisory, unless the fines are liable to be huge and generate them even more income. As a regulator they're a waste of oxygen.

 

[slowwww]

Ever since the Talk Talk data breach in 2015 we've had loads of calls. Even our kids who are 11 and 13 now wind them up, pretending that they are the account holder and then spouting all manner of childish rubbish. It's amazing how much of this they 'll suck up before the penny finally drops......!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

[QUOTE 5377785, member: 9609"]I know a few people who live in Germany and they reckon these phone calls just don't happen out there ? [/QUOTE]It's very easy to stop, but they won't invoke the rules to make it happen, every meeting I have with them their stock answer is that they will let industry sort it out for themselves. They also listen far too much to BT still,

 

[Paulus]

[QUOTE 5377785, member: 9609"]


Completely agree about Ofcom, I think their only purpose is to pay themselves a lot of money, it seems to be the only thing they do well
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2004/sep/17/executivepay.citynews[/QUOTE]

Not only Ofcom, but all the other Of whatevers. All toothless lackies of the government and industries.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Just had the BT technical department call me - my internet service is going to be withdrawn TODAY. Odd thing is that BT's 1572 service doesn't recognise one of their own numbers, apparently. Recorded message - I much prefer the live calls - I can tell them exactly what I think of them.
Seriously though - these people are criminals, fraudsters, and are out to ruin people's lives, and it's often the most vulnerable that will be taken in, and suffer most. Anything that can be done to stop them, should be done.

 

[Andy in Germany]

[QUOTE 5377785, member: 9609"]I know a few people who live in Germany and they reckon these phone calls just don't happen out there ? (@Andy in Germany would you agree with that ?)
so if they can intercept/stop these international based scammers then why can't we.

Completely agree about Ofcom, I think their only purpose is to pay themselves a lot of money, it seems to be the only thing they do well
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2004/sep/17/executivepay.citynews[/QUOTE]

It happens , although it's less frequent because the rules about unsolicited calls are different: you have to opt in rather than opt out. Wierdly they generally speak English which rather gives the game away.