A scam phone calls and emails discussion.

[Bald Rick]

I cannot understand why anybody whose job doesn’t need it answers calls whose number they don’t know, let alone ‘caller ID withheld’. If it’s that important they will text, email (yes I know) or send a letter.

And the websites like ‘who called me?’ can often point out scammers.

I’m writing this as I just got a scam call from a number that I remembered looked incredibly like Track and Trace number. After not answering I Googled it and it was a scam from ‘Lloyds Bank’ Now blocked, of course.

I have calls all the time from numbers I didn’t recognise / not in my phone / number withheld. Six today. All important - 5 work related, one from kids’ school. And I have over 1000 numbers in my phone. Maybe I’m unusual.

 

[johnnychips]

I have calls all the time from numbers I didn’t recognise / not in my phone / number withheld. Six today. All important - 5 work related, one from kids’ school. And I have over 1000 numbers in my phone. Maybe I’m unusual.

That’s why I said this might not apply if you get work related calls from people you don’t know. But I trust you save them by name afterwards.

 

[ainsworth74]

I cannot understand why anybody whose job doesn’t need it answers calls whose number they don’t know, let alone ‘caller ID withheld’. If it’s that important they will text, email (yes I know) or send a letter.

Because whilst most of them are bots these days occasionally you get a human which means you can mess with them and have some fun

 

[najaB]

I cannot understand why anybody whose job doesn’t need it answers calls whose number they don’t know, let alone ‘caller ID withheld’. If it’s that important they will text, email (yes I know) or send a letter.

Because it's impossible to know who is going to be calling you and what number they are going to be calling from. As an example @Bald Rick as a parent will never be 100% certain what number their child might be calling from or calls about that child might be made from (even if they have a mobile, there's no guarantee that they won't lose it or call from a friend's phone).

 

[Bald Rick]

But I trust you save them by name afterwards.

Generally not!

 

[C J Snarzell]

Because whilst most of them are bots these days occasionally you get a human which means you can mess with them and have some fun

I've had about three 'dodgy' scam phone calls in about six weeks from people claiming they work for some sort of 'professional' organisation. It's always a witheld number and the caller is English speaking but with a foreign accent.

They then ask me to confirm my name - and immediately I spring on the Data Protection defensive and terminate the call.

The last one I received - I couldn't help but have some fun and tell them I 'died' several months ago and the person they were in fact speaking to was a police detective investigating my 'murder' who had possession of my mobile phone which they were using to track the killer.

Funnily enough the caller hung up and I've never had any further calls since then.

CJ

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The last one I received - I couldn't help but have some fun and tell them I 'died' several months ago and the person they were in fact speaking to was a police detective investigating my 'murder' who had possession of my mobile phone which they were using to track the killer.

CJ

Remind me never to get on your wrong side!

 

[swt_passenger]

The last one I received - I couldn't help but have some fun and tell them I 'died' several months ago and the person they were in fact speaking to was a police detective investigating my 'murder' who had possession of my mobile phone which they were using to track the killer.

Funnily enough the caller hung up and I've never had any further calls since then.

CJ

I’ve been a widower 20 years, and my late wife still gets scam calls. I have loads of fun with them, I usually start by asking them to hang on while I search the house...

 

[Trackman]

I’ve been a widower 20 years, and my late wife still gets scam calls. I have loads of fun with them, I usually start by asking them to hang on while I search the house...

I'm going through a similar thing at the moment.
When they ask where she is I say the garden.
They say 'can you fetch her?'
I say 'I'll have to borrow a spade first'
'pardon, eh?' and so on..
I have had the mobile phone deactivated now as it was on PAYG.
At first it was really upsetting hearing her name but now I coming around to the more humorous side now.
A stranger stopped me in the shop once saying 'I haven't seen your ... for a bit' I told them I had buried her in the garden. Seriously I have.' (well the ashes)

 

[swt_passenger]

I'm going through a similar thing at the moment.
When they ask where she is I say the garden.
They say 'can you fetch her?'
I say 'I'll have to borrow a spade first'
'pardon, eh?' and so on..
I have had the mobile phone deactivated now as it was on PAYG.
At first it was really upsetting hearing her name but now I coming around to the more humorous side now.
A stranger stopped me in the shop once saying 'I haven't seen your ... for a bit' I told them I had buried her in the garden. Seriously I have.' (well the ashes)

It took a few years to get over the initial annoyance as you say, but here we are, life goes on...

One thing that certainly amused me was when the window cleaner finally got round to asking why he hadn’t seen her recently, now that was after about 8/9 years...

 

[High Dyke]

Not a scam call as such, but an organisation I'm involved with had received the customary "sorry you're leaving us" letter from BT. The secretary ignored the letter, thinking it was a mistake. The club then started getting phone bills from a firm called Onecom (part of Vodaphone) for their landline. Again thinking it was another mistake the secretary ignored these. The firm claimed that the account had been set up, but have not been able to provide a written contract - claiming the contract was a verbal one. Everytime someone rang the Onecom customer services to discuss the matter they kept stating "we can only speak to the authorised account holder, due to data protection laws." The club secretary even phoned and was told the same answer - however, it now transpires that he is the "authorised account holder", though he has no recollection of the set-up. The matter is now in the hands of a solicitor with a view to proceeding with a claim for mis-selling.

My point of this that the club secretary is a chap in his seventies and doesn't really have much to do with phone calls; if he wants to talk to you he gets his wife to phone or text. The gentleman doesn't have a computer or access to one at home either. So it's fair to say that he is of that age group that may lack the IT skills or not fully understand a particular situation; though I appreciate there are younger people that also struggle with technology.

 

[najaB]

Not a scam call as such, but an organisation I'm involved with had received the customary "sorry you're leaving us" letter from BT. The secretary ignored the letter, thinking it was a mistake. The club then started getting phone bills from a firm called Onecom (part of Vodaphone) for their landline.

It's known as slamming. It usually involves a phone call along the lines of "You're currently using BT Consumer line rental, would you like to switch to BT Wholesale Line Rental as it will be cheaper?" The capitalisation (which obviously you can't hear over the phone) is very important as WLR is the technical name for third-parties providing phone service over an Openreach line.

 

[High Dyke]

It's known as slamming. It usually involves a phone call along the lines of "You're currently using BT Consumer line rental, would you like to switch to BT Wholesale Line Rental as it will be cheaper?" The capitalisation (which obviously you can't hear over the phone) is very important as WLR is the technical name for third-parties providing phone service over an Openreach line.

Thanks for that info.

 

[C J Snarzell]

I had a nice chat with the lady in the O2 shop last week and she said scam e-mails and phone calls have increased since the start of Covid with these scumbags trying to target people in a variety of different scenarios.

CJ

 

[Journeyman]

I always try to deal with HMRC by post whenever possible, as that seems to me to be more secure.

Likewise. It creates an audit trail and spares you the horror of dealing with them on the phone.

 

[d9009alycidon]

I received one recently which was new on me, when I moved house the energy supplier changed the electricity meter to a smart meter bu the gas meter, which is one of the old "in a box outside" meters could not be changed to link into the smart meter. Twice I have had a call "from my existing supplier" about converting the meter to smart. First time I was in the car and told them I could not deal with it at that time, got hoe and checked the number on the website chat feature, they told me that this call had not come from them and they would investigate, so I was wary when I got the same call from a different number with the same story - I cut them short and told them if they were genuine to contact me via the website (unsurprisingly there was nothing). Tuns out this is a scam to have you change supplier without you knowing, and can lead to big bills for breach of contract with your existing supplier, they eventually ask for your bank details etc and it goes on from there

 

[steamybrian]

I moved house a few years ago but within the same locality so was able to transfer my landline phone number from my old house to my new house. When anyone phones me which I cannot identify I ask them to quote them the address they have registered for me. The scammers always quote my old address. I have said I have moved house (true) but they persist with my old address. Naturally I am not giving them my new address..!
I then only speak to those who have my new address.

 

[185143]

I've had two spam texts in the last 24 hours, which is a lot for me as I very rarely get them.

The first was from "Three Mobile" claiming problems with my latest bill and to click a link to update my details Which isn't surprising given I'm not a Three customer!

The second was from a bank, which is actually the one I bank with, stating that a scheduled payment to an individual had been confirmed, and to click a link if I didn't make it. Needless to say, I opened my bank's app and... nothing. My first instinct was to click the link (I didn't) so I can see how some people can fall for these scams. Looking back, my bank will always text me with part of my account number and the amount, as well as the recipient's name with an invitation to call the bank if it wasn't me.

 

[Trackman]

I've had 2 today on my mobile, local number.
Looked it up online, HMRC scam with wording like 'There is a warrant out for your arrest!'
Number blocked.

 

[185143]

I've had 2 today on my mobile, local number.
Looked it up online, HMRC scam with wording like 'There is a warrant out for your arrest!'
Number blocked.

I'd be tempted to reply to that along the lines of "I'll just ask my Sargeant to check the Police National Computer-can I ask who's calling please?"

 

[C J Snarzell]

I've had two spam texts in the last 24 hours, which is a lot for me as I very rarely get them.

The first was from "Three Mobile" claiming problems with my latest bill and to click a link to update my details Which isn't surprising given I'm not a Three customer!

The second was from a bank, which is actually the one I bank with, stating that a scheduled payment to an individual had been confirmed, and to click a link if I didn't make it. Needless to say, I opened my bank's app and... nothing. My first instinct was to click the link (I didn't) so I can see how some people can fall for these scams. Looking back, my bank will always text me with part of my account number and the amount, as well as the recipient's name with an invitation to call the bank if it wasn't me.

I've recently had a scam e-mail about some payment issue from my Lloyds Bank account - the e-mail link opens out onto a Lloyds on-line banking page where I assume customers would normally enter their bank details.

Funnily enough - I do not or have never banked with Lloyds!!!!!!!

These human parasites must send out hundreds of these e-mails. Out of many recipients, there is bound to be a victim caught out somewhere - probably an older person who does generally bank at Lloyds who would get quite concerned the e-mail is genuine and fatally log in to the scam e-mail.

CJ

 

[Gloster]

The whole system is not helped by the banks’ attitude. I am with HSBC, but I suspect their attitude is similar to the others. I don’t need or want online banking, but I cannot get them to mark my account ‘as no online banking’ so as to avoid any possibility of hacking. (I do realise that it is highly unlikely, but there have been periods when the loss of what little I had in my account could be very serious.) All they do is assure me that nothing could go wrong and tell me how marvellous it is. I know that if you ignore any e-mail you should be safe, but I am always concerned that, with my general technical incompetence, one day I will do the wrong thing.

 

[najaB]

I don’t need or want online banking, but I cannot get them to mark my account ‘as no online banking’ so as to avoid any possibility of hacking.

If you don't set up online banking then there's nothing for them to hack.

 

[Bald Rick]

If you don't set up online banking then there's nothing for them to hack.

Indeed, but the account is as open to fraud as any other, regardless of whether there is on line access or not.

 

[The Ham]

I had a call the other day claiming that my Amazon Prime account was up for renewal and that they had charged me £79.99, all very believable. Other than it was on my work landline which I've never linked to Amazon.

That and I wouldn't trust it anyway.

On insurance claim calls I knew someone who would ask if it was regarding the accident that his wife had died in (which could be seen as poor taste, especially from those who have had family members who have been harmed in an accident), however it did result in them hastily hanging up.

They also would ask which car they were driving at the time, on one occasion it turns out that they had a Jaguar which they didn't know about!!!

 

[SteveM70]

One of my mates generally tells spam callers he’s in bed with the next door neighbour’s wife, and her husband will be home in half an hour, so would they mind hanging on for a few minutes

 

[yorksrob]

Talking of Paypal, here's something that sounds like a scam but actually isn't! If you have a Paypal account and haven't used it for a bit, best log in to save yourself a £12 bill.

PayPal to introduce £9 a year fee for 'inactive' accounts – act now to dodge it

PayPal is set to introduce an annual fee of up to £12 for users whose accounts have been inactive for a year or more - but you can avoid the charge by logging into your account before the deadline in December

www.moneysavingexpert.com

Wouldn't it be better for security if they just de-activated dead accounts altogether ? This sounds like a big business scam to me.

 

[C J Snarzell]

I don't use PayPal, I don't use e-bay, I don't use Amazon Prime, I don't use dating sites, I don't use Facebook, I don't use Twitter, I don't use anything where I broadcast any personal information about myself. I have one bank account and one credit card. I might sound boring to many people but my life so much hassle free from these fraudsters and undesirables.

CJ

 

[JohnMcL7]

I don't use PayPal, I don't use e-bay, I don't use Amazon Prime, I don't use dating sites, I don't use Facebook, I don't use Twitter, I don't use anything where I broadcast any personal information about myself. I have one bank account and one credit card. I might sound boring to many people but my life so much hassle free from these fraudsters and undesirables.

CJ

You don't need to have any of those to be targeted by fraudsters as all they need is a phone line and they frequently hassle people who don't even have a PC as they won't believe it.

 

[C J Snarzell]

You don't need to have any of those to be targeted by fraudsters as all they need is a phone line and they frequently hassle people who don't even have a PC as they won't believe it.

Exactly, I still get the occasion phone call and e-mail despite keeping off the grid with certain things. I just prefer piece of mind that my personal information is not divulged here there & everywhere.

CJ