A scam phone calls and emails discussion.

[najaB]

sounds like it's a full release at that point, so I don't want to take the risk with it.

I agree - you don't want to take chances with a full release. (Oooh Errr! )

 

[greatvoyager]

I keep getting the classic router being turned off call. I might have fallen for it I’d they hadn’t referred to the company who provide it as “your provider”.

 

[Westcountryman]

I keep getting the classic router being turned off call. I might have fallen for it I’d they hadn’t referred to the company who provide it as “your provider”.

Had that today. My internet is going to be cut off in 24-48 hours. What, again??

 

[swt_passenger]

Had that today. My internet is going to be cut off in 24-48 hours. What, again??

I’m reassured today by the scammers that my McAfee AV (which I‘ve never had) has now expired, as I’ve not actioned their earlier reminders. So might their reminders now stop?

 

[ChrisC]

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.

 

[swt_passenger]

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.

Them: “Hi this is Dave from Microsoft”
Me: “You don’t sound much like a Dave, what’s your real name?”
That usually gets them off the script...

 

[Master Cutler]

Best thing I ever did was get rid of the land line. I was on an ex-directory Virgin Media land line, but started getting increasingly regular scam calls.
I suspect that Virgin Media were not respecting my ex-directory line status and selling information to anyone wiling to pay for it.
My wife and I now only use personal mobile phones, but I get occasional scammers from the random number dialling computers. Once recognised as a scam I simply end the call.

 

[Typhoon]

I’m reassured today by the scammers that my McAfee AV (which I‘ve never had) has now expired, as I’ve not actioned their earlier reminders. So might their reminders now stop?

They are taking a reasoned guess. I have had two computers that have had McAfee installed as bloatware as new; I used it on one until the free period ran out and you do get silly pop-ups reminding you that you are 'not completely protected' (although I had installed a higher rated product by then) so I guess they are counting on people having bought a new computer during lockdown/ at Christmas having done nothing and scaring them into responding.

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.

That wouldn't be 'Michael' and 'Anna' would it? It must be becoming so much harder for them, as the 'Microsoft' scam is so well known.

 

[BluePenguin]

There has been an increasing number of people falling victim to these so called competitions recently. I see right through them all and thought everyone else did too. I believed that I had sensible friends but clearly some of them are clearly very gullible. One of my friends posted on facebook that last night they received a friend request from an account called Nitrous Competitions. They proceeded to sign up with their details and had jumped at the chance to get a "free gift" only to find out that it was all fake when they stopped replying on messenger. The English in their messages is a dead giveaway too - "Your prize will be finished in 45 minutes please wait".

I seriously cannot understand how anyone could be so stupid as to hand over their bank details to strangers on the internet. From the looks of the comments my friend has learnt their lesson for now. Please keep an eye out for anyone you know who might be vulnerable to these scams, it is not necessarily the elderly in this case but foolish young people. More often than not you have not been randomly selected to win a prize no matter how tempting and genuine it may seem. Amazon, Tesco, Asda and eBay have no intention of giving you a free gift card

 

[Westcountryman]

I don't know if this is s scam or not. I can't remember exactly what the call said, but I will paraphrase.

First a little background. My mother-in-law is 90 and has had a bit of a problem with mobility, so we ordered one of those remote alarm systems, which duly arrived. I installed and tested it and all was OK.

Forward to today. My phone rang and I answered. After a few seconds of silence, a man introduced himself and said he was from a personal alarm company. I tried ask whether this was a call for me or was it about my mother-in-law's system. He just continued and asked if my details were correct. I said 'stop....stop....stop. he then said that I was eligible for a free alarm. At this point I realised that, as he didn't appear to be listening to me, and I appeared to be talking to a very realistic, non-robotic sounding bot. So I just hung up.

Anyone else had anything similar?

 

[Typhoon]

I don't know if this is s scam or not. I can't remember exactly what the call said, but I will paraphrase.

First a little background. My mother-in-law is 90 and has had a bit of a problem with mobility, so we ordered one of those remote alarm systems, which duly arrived. I installed and tested it and all was OK.

Forward to today. My phone rang and I answered. After a few seconds of silence, a man introduced himself and said he was from a personal alarm company. I tried ask whether this was a call for me or was it about my mother-in-law's system. He just continued and asked if my details were correct. I said 'stop....stop....stop. he then said that I was eligible for a free alarm. At this point I realised that, as he didn't appear to be listening to me, and I appeared to be talking to a very realistic, non-robotic sounding bot. So I just hung up.

Anyone else had anything similar?

A neighbour had a similar call but from a real person some time ago. I seem to remember that 'free' doesn't mean that, it was something like the alarm itself was free but the 'service charges' cost an arm and a leg.

 

[najaB]

I suspect that Virgin Media were not respecting my ex-directory line status and selling information to anyone wiling to pay for it

As I noted above, even being NQR doesn't stop people from dialling your number. So they just dial at (psuedo)random and keep the ones that ring.

 

[Typhoon]

I suspect that Virgin Media were not respecting my ex-directory line status and selling information to anyone wiling to pay for it.

@najaB summed it up succinctly, however I would like to go further. The chances of Virgin Media or any other telecoms company selling your details on are infinitesimal, it really would not be worth it. If caught, and they would be sooner or later, the fines the company would face and the crater in their reputation would damage them irreparably. (And prison sentences may follow.) Look at what happened to Talk Talk and Baroness Harding, who appears to now be only employable by reason of her husband's position (and because our PM seems to prefer having people in post who even less competent than him). I guess scammers have a pretty comprehensive list of landline numbers by now, some will cease to be used, others put into use, but largely the same but mobiles will be expanded, they probably haven't got round to you yet.
I had a phone call this morning (too early to be anyone I know), checked the number on an online site, I suspect my 'internet provider' is going threaten to cut off my service in the next 21 hours (now) unless I allow the caller to raid my bank account. I'm not going to have a sleepless night over it. I should have expected it, a silent phone call that rang off almost immediately a couple of days before. Hopefully it will be a real person so I can lighten up a dull day.

By all means quit Virgin for a better service but they did not sell your data.

 

[Master Cutler]

Without going into too many details on line,basically I had several repeat experiences with regular phone calls from Virgin Media offering additional packages and mobile phone services, where the quality and aggressive nature of the caller led me to suspect the integrity of the call.
When I terminated my VM contract I physically disconnected phone, TV and hub, however my final bill for landline showed £16 of phone calls that hadn't been made.
When I queried this they told me someone else in my house must have made the calls as it was all recorded on the computer.
When I asked them to check my line connection status with their engineers to prove it was disconnected the person immediately apologised and explained it must have been a computer error.
I received a £15 credit note from them.
Not a very good experience on my part which casts doubts in my mind about some of VM's business practices.

 

[najaB]

Not a very good experience on my part which casts doubts in my mind about some of VM's business practices.

Yes, they have pretty poor customer service but I can pretty much guarantee that they (at least at the corporate level) aren't selling contact details. Way too much risk for very little reward.

 

[Master Cutler]

Fully agree with this najaB.

 

[Typhoon]

Not a very good experience on my part which casts doubts in my mind about some of VM's business practices.

Sounds like they use high sales targets and payment by results. 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), your experience seems to mirror that of many. They seem to spend a lot on getting new customers and not much on keeping the customers they already had.

However, although we post anonymously, I think we have a duty to to ensure that anything we do include will not incur the attention of Messrs. Sue, Grabbit and Runne.

Yes, they have pretty poor customer service but I can pretty much guarantee that they (at least at the corporate level) aren't selling contact details. Way too much risk for very little reward.

Exactly. Why risk a business which, based on what I have read in reviews, seems to be based on exploiting small print and customer loyalty, taking ages to rectify problems and trying bully-boy tactics to get customers to take products they don't want for a gain that will be leaked sooner or later. Fortunately Virgin Media has never been on my shopping list.

 

[Trackman]

Without going into too many details on line,basically I had several repeat experiences with regular phone calls from Virgin Media offering additional packages and mobile phone services, where the quality and aggressive nature of the caller led me to suspect the integrity of the call.

I've had them from VM, they are asking you to confirm your details. As they sounded like they were in a foreign call centre alarm bells started to ring. They kept ringing on different numbers. In the end it was them, I ended giving the wrong details (twice) which they said were wrong. After a long conversation explaining why I wouldnt confirm who I was they gave me the last 3 digits of something or another.
Today I had a pre-arranged call with a company and they asked me security questions like 'Pet's first name' etc.. it made me think afterwards that could have been anybody calling, imagine if I received another call from the same company? Chances of that happening are slim, but you never know.

 

[dgl]

Them: “Hi this is Dave from Microsoft”
Me: “You don’t sound much like a Dave, what’s your real name?”
That usually gets them off the script...

Just reply with,
"I know Dave from Microsoft, and you sound nothing like him!"
or
"I work for Microsoft, we have your number, we know where you are, we have access to your network and have collected all the evidence we need, our fraud team have been contacted and are coming round straight away to shut you down"

 

[xotGD]

We've had three dodgy calls in the past two days from 'Amazon Prime'.

I suppose at some stage someone would be asking for my bank details but of course I don’t get to that point.

 

[Romsey]

We've had three dodgy calls in the past two days from 'Amazon Prime'.

I suppose at some stage someone would be asking for my bank details but of course I don’t get to that point.

All the calls from "Am-Az-On" Prime over the last week have been automated voices, so tough the phone goes down. We don't have an Amazon prime contract.

A few years ago an answer for the alleged Microsoft Security was "which version of windows?" With 7, 8,2 and 10 in use in the house it was a good start for getting them off script. Saying you use apple stops them for a while as well.....

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

A few years ago an answer for the alleged Microsoft Security was "which version of windows?" With 7, 8,2 and 10 in use in the house it was a good start for getting them off script. Saying use use apple stops them for a while as well.....

One of our neighbours once had a similar call and informed the caller that as a manager in the European corporate offices of AT & T, he was well aware of any technical problems with their IT division. This totally threw the scammer, who then hung up on him.

 

[Hardcastle]

I notice that if you hang up on these spam calls they never seem to ring back.

 

[najaB]

I notice that if you hang up on these spam calls they never seem to ring back.

They're less likely to call back, but sometimes they do.

 

[Hardcastle]

They're less likely to call back, but sometimes they do.

I must admit towards the end of last year i kept hanging up on this caller it turned out it was a takeaway trying to deliver someones order they had been given the wrong number whoops.

 

[GusB]

I had a call last week from someone saying they were from Virgin Media. As far as I'm aware they don't cover my area at all, and as the call was at 08.45 my second word was "off". I didn't hear anything back after that.

 

[greatvoyager]

I had a call last week from someone saying they were from Virgin Media. As far as I'm aware they don't cover my area at all, and as the call was at 08.45 my second word was "off". I didn't hear anything back after that.

I got one of those too. I’ve temporarily unplugged my landline as at the moment I seem to only receive spam calls.

 

[GusB]

I got one of those too. I’ve temporarily unplugged my landline as at the moment I seem to only receive spam calls.

I'm not unplugging my landline. If anyone dares to phone me before noon they should be fully aware of the consequences

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

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.

 

[najaB]

The message quotes my name and the last 4 digits of my card no. And of course knows my phone number.

That's unusual. That indicates that they've got your info from a legitimate source.