Todays scam phone call.

[Mad Doug Biker]

That's fine until you find that the agency's client is your GP surgery, and the messages you've been ignoring are telling you to contact them about your test results, or getting vaccinated, or whatever. Most of the people leaving messages on telephone look-up sites slating a number for being a scam caller don't realise they're blaming the messenger for the message, and the site operators don't care.

My G.P. sends me texts, but I get the jist.

 

[Mike_P]

Dumbest ones I get are "This is your banks security", really? And why are they calling me on my work mobile whose number I never use for personal matters.

 

[Drago]

but I get the jist.

Your pharmacist can give you some cream for that.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Your pharmacist can give you some cream for that.

I already have it for... No I wont even go there. 😆

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

That's fine until you find that the agency's client is your GP surgery, and the messages you've been ignoring are telling you to contact them about your test results, or getting vaccinated, or whatever. Most of the people leaving messages on telephone look-up sites slating a number for being a scam caller don't realise they're blaming the messenger for the message, and the site operators don't care.

Awwright, unblocked then... Lets see who they are! 🤔

 

[chris-suffolk]

Unrecognised calls just go to voice mail. If they can convince me they're genuine, then they might get a call back. Most don't leave a message, so that's good. Issue comes when it's somebody like the NHS who seem to refuse to leave messages, and hence will never get a call back. Eventually they send via Royal Mail, but it's all a bit drawn out for the sake of leaving a message.

The other one that gets me is when they want to go through security, when it was them that phoned me. I've started asking my own security questions, which tends to throw them. Things like "what was my last purchase?" "how much was it?" and "what's my current balance?". They don't normally like it, but I'm not there to be liked, I need to make sure I'm safe.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

.

Unrecognised calls just go to voice mail. If they can convince me they're genuine, then they might get a call back. Most don't leave a message, so that's good. Issue comes when it's somebody like the NHS who seem to refuse to leave messages, and hence will never get a call back. Eventually they send via Royal Mail, but it's all a bit drawn out for the sake of leaving a message.

The other one that gets me is when they want to go through security, when it was them that phoned me. I've started asking my own security questions, which tends to throw them. Things like "what was my last purchase?" "how much was it?" and "what's my current balance?". They don't normally like it, but I'm not there to be liked, I need to make sure I'm safe.

I enabled Apple's iPhone screening thing on my burner number, where the caller gets diverted to a system where they have to state their name and what they are calling about and only then will my phone ring and display text transcription of their name and what they wanted.

I found quite a few callers (valid calls) just didn't/wouldn't respond and just hung-up (then their name/reason for call gets saved to voicemail with text transcription).

 

[presta]

Issue comes when it's somebody like the NHS who seem to refuse to leave messages, and hence will never get a call back.

Once when I was at the hospital the nurses were sniping behind my back about patients who don't respond to their messages, so I checked when I got home. It turned out that Plusnet had put an ansafone on my line without telling me when I'd switched from BT a few weeks earlier, so I had no idea that anyone could leave any messages.

 

[DRM]

I've had two calls from 020 35** **** numbers today that don't ring long enough to go to voicemail, I don't know anyone in London so duly ignored, Google suggest it's pretend BT/Open Reach scammers

 

[DaveReading]

I've had two calls from 020 35** **** numbers today that don't ring long enough to go to voicemail, I don't know anyone in London so duly ignored, Google suggest it's pretend BT/Open Reach scammers

A colleague of mine despairs of his elderly father, who insists on returning every missed call "in case it was something important".

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The local energy advisors are rampant in my area. Breeding like rabbits. They do like talking to the answer phone.

 

[Dave7]

I've had two calls from 020 35** **** numbers today that don't ring long enough to go to voicemail, I don't know anyone in London so duly ignored, Google suggest it's pretend BT/Open Reach scammers

That is a recognised scam. They only let it ring 2 or 3 times in the hope that you will phone them back. One scam was** that you actually phone a premium rate number which costs you a small fortune.
**I say 'was' as I dont know if that's still possible.

 

[Mike_P]

A colleague of mine despairs of his elderly father, who insists on returning every missed call "in case it was something important".

Thats probably down to the NHS refusing to leave messages or if they do not being clear. I had one where they simply said the doctor on the ward wanted to speak to me
That did not make sense so I put it down as a wrong number, it was 2 days later I found out dad had been taken into hospital.

 

[presta]

Thats probably down to the NHS refusing to leave messages or if they do not being clear. I had one where they simply said the doctor on the ward wanted to speak to me
That did not make sense so I put it down as a wrong number, it was 2 days later I found out dad had been taken into hospital.

A number I'd been ignoring was a recorded message telling me I was eligible for a covid vaccine. When I warned people that the number was a message handling agency used by the NHS and not a scam like the lookup websites say, I got a tirade of abuse accusing me of being a scammer. I had to close down a couple of forum accounts, but I know it was a genuine caller because I subsequently had calls about my MRI scan results. Some of the messages left on the lookup site are from people saying that it's the NHS, but nobody takes any notice because there are other people who have had telesales calls from other clients.

One of the agencies that deliver recorded messages is a market research company called Kantar. I assume they're fairly reputable, as I've seen their name on statistics presented on BBC news.

 

[DRM]

That is a recognised scam. They only let it ring 2 or 3 times in the hope that you will phone them back. One scam was** that you actually phone a premium rate number which costs you a small fortune.
**I say 'was' as I dont know if that's still possible.

I just ignore them, you seem to get a load then, nothing, I believe if ignored your number gets logged as a dud number, then you don't get bothered for a while