A scam phone calls and emails discussion.

[High Dyke]

Has anyone else noticed, that these people ringing saying they are from Microsoft and that your computer has been hacked are getting more and more aggressive. They are quite polite when they first introduce themselves, but as soon as they realise that you are not going to listen to them they then become very agitated and aggressive. I’ve had two or three of these calls recently from a withheld international number and they seem to have Indian accents.

Took one of those calls a few months ago. I made out I was struggling to understand the person calling and kept asking who they were wishing to speak to. The response from the caller was "do you think I'm stupid?" The lady then swore at me before hanging up. What annoyed me the most was that she hung up before I got chance to be angry with the caller.

Just this morning we had a couple of 'Out of area' calls. I let the first one talk to the answering machine, the normal thing we do for these type of numbers. If it is a genuine call then we can call them back. The second call was the same ID as the first; they rang off after three rings.

 

[dgl]

A few times recently I’ve had text message alerts purporting to be from my bank saying that there has been unauthorised activity on my account. This morning it was a £29.41 payment to a dodgy looking health company in Houston, Texas. The message quotes my name and the last 4 digits of my card no. And of course knows my phone number. There is an official-looking phone number to call, and a request to ‘verify whether this was you or not’ by replying YES or NO. What makes it seem legit is a simultaneous message alert under an official bank header, saying they are sending me a legitimate scam query.

It’s really easy to be misled by something like this. Don’t ever call a number quoted in a text message. If you want to confirm with the bank, call the number that is shown on the back of your bank card. What flagged it as fake to me, is that the number in the message didn’t match the number on the card.

Is this grounds for getting a new phone number I wonder? Or should I just block the numbers I received messages from. Seems a bit ineffective given that scammers can send messages purporting to be from any number, even official bank numbers.

Edit- the more I think about this, the angrier I get. A scam that works on the basis of playing to people’s fears about getting caught by a scam. People who do this stuff are scum.

It could not be a scam, I know by bank can contact me via text if they think a purchase is suspicious, best to check online banking and call your bank from the number on the card/on their website if you get a text like this and are unsure.

 

[Jamiescott1]

Has anyone else noticed, that these people ringing saying they are from Microsoft and that your computer has been hacked are getting more and more aggressive. They are quite polite when they first introduce themselves, but as soon as they realise that you are not going to listen to them they then become very agitated and aggressive. I’ve had two or three of these calls recently from a withheld international number and they seem to have Indian accents.

My generic response is to tell them that they have a sexy accent and can they speak to me whilst I touch myself.
They usually hang up, if they don't I make sexual noises

 

[Gloster]

My generic response is to tell them that they have a sexy accent and can they speak to me whilst I touch myself.
They usually hang up, if they don't I make sexual noises

Which would be fine until you get a bona fide call from an inept handler. After that you might have problems with genuine calls. Best avoided. (If this a humorous comment, then I have missed the joke.)

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

It could not be a scam, I know by bank can contact me via text if they think a purchase is suspicious, best to check online banking and call your bank from the number on the card/on their website if you get a text like this and are unsure.

Thanks, I will do tomorrow.

 

[Jamiescott1]

Which would be fine until you get a bona fide call from an inept handler. After that you might have problems with genuine calls. Best avoided. (If this a humorous comment, then I have missed the joke.)

I can tell the difference between a genuine call and a scam.

Same when I get phonecalls about my recent accident and when they ask for details I tell them I stole the car, I have no licence and I was on drugs.

 

[Trackman]

It could not be a scam, I know by bank can contact me via text if they think a purchase is suspicious, best to check online banking and call your bank from the number on the card/on their website if you get a text like this and are unsure.

Only happened to me a couple of times but it's usually an automated telephone call. You can tell it's legit because of the information they give you.

 

[Steddenm]

Thanks, I will do tomorrow.

If you bank with Barclays, Halifax, Bank of Scotland or Barclaycard this is the way that they authorise some card payments. I get it a lot with Barclaycard. Other banks, eg Monzo, the app will ping and ask you to confirm the payment.

 

[najaB]

You can tell it's legit because of the information they give you.

That's why I find it odd for a scam call - @Wilts Wanderer they know your name, phone number and last four digits of your card number. That either means it is your bank, or someone who has access to a disturbing amount of your PII.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Might the info have been accessed via a hacked retailer website?

 

[najaB]

Might the info have been accessed via a hacked retailer website?

That's a possibility.

 

[t_star2001uk]

I've just had a SCAM call claiming to be HMRC. The number is a spoofed Manchester number. Apparently, I'm going to be arrested if I don't go to my local store and buy some Google play gift cards to pay my overdue taxes...

Guess I'm going to be arrested then.....

 

[xotGD]

Last two days it has been robot calls from the 'BT Technical Department'. Makes a change from Amazon Prime.

 

[py_megapixel]

I've just had a SCAM call claiming to be HMRC. The number is a spoofed Manchester number. Apparently, I'm going to be arrested if I don't go to my local store and buy some Google play gift cards to pay my overdue taxes...

Guess I'm going to be arrested then.....

I wonder if buying gift cards to funnel money into the hands of a scammer posing as a tax collector "pay your taxes" is an excuse for an essential journey

 

[xotGD]

It gets better. A call from "Your Internet Service Provider". At least try and guess their name!

 

[py_megapixel]

It gets better. A call from "Your Internet Service Provider". At least try and guess their name!

They could at least say "this is a call from Openreach"; I know they aren't responsible for billing the customer but for someone who isn't familiar with the system it's believable, and that covers all bases except the odd person who uses Virgin Media.

"Your Internet Service Provider" is lame and really not believable in the slightest.

 

[najaB]

I know they aren't responsible for billing the customer but for someone who isn't familiar with the system it's believable, and that covers all bases except the odd person who uses Virgin Media.

There are a few other non-Openreach players - e.g. CityFibre - but yes, it would cover the majority of lines. I guess we can be thankful that the scammers are as incompetent as they are.

 

[Typhoon]

It gets better. A call from "Your Internet Service Provider". At least try and guess their name!

They used to be on fairly safe ground but with more and more services and people switching I guess they hope people won't listen. Most of those are recorded messages, unfortunately, otherwise you could invite them to guess what it is. Tell them they are wrong even if they are right.

 

[158747]

Coincidentally a few minutes ago as I was as reading this forum. I had a call from a mobile number. I didn’t hear clearly the first part of the call, but was an automated call that sounded quite threatening. Apparently my National Insurance number is being used in some criminal activity. It then told me I had to return the call to speak to an officer urgently or my National Insurance number would be suspended. I guess their plan is for me to return the call so they can get my NI number name and date of birth etc from me.

 

[najaB]

I guess their plan is for me to return the call so they can get my NI number name and date of birth etc from me.

It would almost be worth calling them (from a withheld number) just to see what they say. "Hi, I got a call saying that my NI number is being mis-used, could you tell me which one as I've got two...?"

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

At 0800 this morning, the female American recorded voice thanked me for renewing my NON-EXISTANT Amazon Prime account and stating I would be charged £79.99 for it (why do they always use £79.99 in scam calls?) and gave two options what to do. As usual, I made no response and ten seconds later, the call was terminated at their end.

This time on checking with 1471, it stated that the number had been withheld rather than a number being given.

At 1027 this morning, an identical call to this was received and now being mindful of a post on the thread saying such an actual charge was £79.00, not £79.99, I can again reiterate the cost was stated as seventy-nine pounds 99 (said as seventy nine point nine nine)

 

[ainsworth74]

I've looked at some reviews, never seen such a high percentage of 1*s, some pretty rubbish service (I'm surprised some posters did not move on earlier)

If they were anything like me it may well have be a result of there not being another realistic choice! Where I am you can either get service via a provider using BT Openreach which will top out at maybe 2 or 3mbps (copper all the way to the exchange I believe or at least it's a fair distance of copper) or you can get Virgin Media who offer up to 400mbps (might even be 500 actually) in my area. Obviously if all you doing is a bit of email and maybe some social media then you've got a wealth of choice as the speeds on Openreach's infrastructure will be fine. But if you want to do anything else? It's VM or nothing. We actually only plumped for broadband no phoneline or TV and when the engineer installed the kit he actually commented that it was quite a common installation type where we were!

Slightly more on-topic I have also had a couple of phone calls from a robo-voice telling me of issues with my NI number or tax fraud being associated with my NI number and if I don't press one to speak to the investigator a criminal proceeding will begin against me. Then last night I got a text from 'Lloyds' informing me that a new device had been linked to my account and I should visit this website if this was wrong.

Perhaps it's just me but I feel there's been a strong uptick in the volume of scams/spam like this over the last few months?

 

[najaB]

Perhaps it's just me but I feel there's been a strong uptick in the volume of scams/spam like this over the last few months?

It could be. Or it could just be that you're home more to notice them?

 

[ainsworth74]

It could be. Or it could just be that you're home more to notice them?

They all come to my mobile!

 

[52290]

At 1027 this morning, an identical call to this was received and now being mindful of a post on the thread saying such an actual charge was £79.00, not £79.99, I can again reiterate the cost was stated as seventy-nine pounds 99 (said as seventy nine point nine nine)

I had a call from someone called Eight Ace stating that I owed £1.49 for my Amazon Prime fee.

 

[Master Cutler]

I had a call from someone called Eight Ace stating that I owed £1.49 for my Amazon Prime fee.

Don't give Eight Ace any money, it's a scam, he will only spend it on lager down at Patel's corner shop.

 

[43096]

It gets better. A call from "Your Internet Service Provider". At least try and guess their name!

I’ve just had that one. The robot voice ones are a bit dull; the real voice ones are better as you can have some fun with them. I think of it as if I speak to them to wind them up a bit it wastes their time.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Another supposed "Amazon" £79.99 auto-renewal call received earlier, ostensibly from a (no doubt spoofed) 07303 xxxxxx (EE?) mobile telephone number.

Wonder where the calls actually originate from?

 

[BluePenguin]

Another supposed "Amazon" £79.99 auto-renewal call received earlier, ostensibly from a (no doubt spoofed) 07303 xxxxxx (EE?) mobile telephone number.

Wonder where the calls actually originate from?

It is definitely India. After getting enough of these calls you can tell from the way they speak to you and the syntax they use. The calls originate from computers running some sort of VOIP software with a typically inactive number set as the caller ID. The program calls hundreds of numbers at a time. Anyone who answers and presses 1 has their number marked as active for future calls and then put through to an employee.

Once I did press 1 to speak to an advisor when curiosity got the better of me. I was put through to a rather enthusiastic sounding Indian man who asked me about what I like to buy on Amazon and asked for all of my personal details. I gave a fake name, address and pretended the last item I ordered was Tassimo coffee machine sachets

After passing “security” the man said someone had ordered an item for £79.99 using my Amazon account. He dodged my questions and asked who I banked with and wanted various financial details to refund the item at which point I hung up. They didn’t even bother to tell me what the mystery item was.

 

[Westcountryman]

Another supposed "Amazon" £79.99 auto-renewal call received earlier, ostensibly from a (no doubt spoofed) 07303 xxxxxx (EE?) mobile telephone number.

Wonder where the calls actually originate from?

India?