Scam phone calls

Bealman · October 23, 2018, 08:54:53 AM

Must remember to tell Mrs Bealman!

trkilliman · October 23, 2018, 09:44:28 AM

Around 3 years back I became embroiled in a scam as a direct result of data loss from talk-talk. They had "lost" an unspecified level of their customers details. We had a letter in the February telling us this but in the most basic form, and just saying be cautious. A lot happened during the year and come September I had really forgotten about talk-talk customer details having been hacked. Indeed I had upgraded to a faster package as our daughters were using the net so much it was slowing down when yours truly, the bill payer, wanted to use it.

Had a call from an Asian person saying they were from talk-talk and I hadn't been getting the internet speed I should have given I had recently upgraded. YES, they knew I had upgraded and gave me my account details. It was convincing given they knew so much about my recent account changes. I'll leave it there, suffice to say I came very near to having money taken.

The response from talk-talk was utterly disgraceful. They had lost my details (data protection?) and even wanted money from me to close my account early around £300 the bar-stewards. I was lucky, many older and solo persons lost varying amounts of their money, some very substantial. After lying low for a while the company has bounced back with brash ad's as though nothing has ever happened. Their CEO, a Uni pal of David Cameron, and her Woodspring MP husband must be living it up, whilst many people lost their life savings due to the data breach. I am sure much of this hacked/stolen money is finding it's way into very dubious activities, yet no politicians ever touch on this. It makes you wonder why? You need to be very cautious. As an officer from the fraud squad said to me crime has taken a very different direction since internet banking. The criminals do not even need to leave their homes to steal often substantial sums of money.

austinbob · October 23, 2018, 09:53:00 AM

This morning we had Shirley from ' Internet Service provider'
Haven't heard from her for a few days....

Bealman · October 23, 2018, 10:18:42 AM

Quote from: trkilliman on October 23, 2018, 09:44:28 AM
Around 3 years back I became embroiled in a scam as a direct result of data loss from talk-talk. They had "lost" an unspecified level of their customers details. We had a letter in the February telling us this but in the most basic form, and just saying be cautious. A lot happened during the year and come September I had really forgotten about talk-talk customer details having been hacked. Indeed I had upgraded to a faster package as our daughters were using the net so much it was slowing down when yours truly, the bill payer, wanted to use it.

Had a call from an Asian person saying they were from talk-talk and I hadn't been getting the internet speed I should have given I had recently upgraded. YES, they knew I had upgraded and gave me my account details. It was convincing given they knew so much about my recent account changes. I'll leave it there, suffice to say I came very near to having money taken.

The response from talk-talk was utterly disgraceful. They had lost my details (data protection?) and even wanted money from me to close my account early around £300 the bar-stewards. I was lucky, many older and solo persons lost varying amounts of their money, some very substantial. After lying low for a while the company has bounced back with brash ad's as though nothing has ever happened. Their CEO, a Uni pal of David Cameron, and her Woodspring MP husband must be living it up, whilst many people lost their life savings due to the data breach. I am sure much of this hacked/stolen money is finding it's way into very dubious activities, yet no politicians ever touch on this. It makes you wonder why? You need to be very cautious. As an officer from the fraud squad said to me crime has taken a very different direction since internet banking. The criminals do not even need to leave their homes to steal often substantial sums of money.

I agree. I use online banking all the time because of it's convenience.

But what you say is certainly scary.

woodbury22uk · October 23, 2018, 11:10:04 AM

We do not answer the landline to unknown callers. One occasionally gets through and my wife plays dumb to wind them up. I am not allowed to speak to them because me deliberately winding them up by keeping them on the line "embarrasses" her.

There is no mobile signal where I live so I am bound to using a landline to make calls, as well as providing a broadband connection.

Malc · October 23, 2018, 05:26:04 PM

From Snopes about the say "yes" calls.
Primarily, we haven't yet been able to identify any scenario under which a scammer could authorize charges in another person's name simply by possessing a voice recording of that person saying "yes," without also already possessing a good deal of personal and account information for that person, and without being able to reproduce any other form of verbal response from that person.

Moreover, even if such a scenario existed, it's hard to imagine why scammers would need to utilize an actual audio recording of the victim's repeating the word "yes" rather than simply providing that response themselves. As far as we know, phone companies, utilities, and credit card issuers don't maintain databases of voice recordings of their customers and use them to perform real-time audio matching to verify identities during customer service calls.

Bob Tidbury · October 23, 2018, 05:44:05 PM

I've lost count of the number of times the scammers have told me that our computer is sending out spurious messages and we are going to be cut of off the internet and like emjaybee I decided to string one foreign gentleman and I use the word loosely ,He was telling me to go to this screen and that screen click on this that and the other ,I was trying to pretend that I was doing what he said and kept this up for quite a while ,I then told him that I couldn't see the particular thing he told me to do ,on my IPad , the line went quiet ,so I said I hope I've wasted enough of his time and suddenly the phone went dead.
But I hope no older person gets worried and falls for the scam ,I did tell our next door neighbor as he relies on his internet to keep in touch with his family on FaceTime he said he had the same call and did wonder if it was real or not.
But luckily he decided to ignore it and see what happened.
Bob Tidbury

Intercity · October 23, 2018, 05:54:28 PM

I read one person (it may have been on this forum) that strung a scammer along and after a while and much frustration from the scammer because they were getting no where, the potential victim asked if they should turn the computer on first.......followed by the dial tone as the scammer hung up.

austinbob · October 23, 2018, 06:56:28 PM

I really feel sorry for all the vulnerable people who can't recognise these scams for what they are. Even if they don't suffer financial loss think of all the worry and concern for them.
Surely something more can be done to stop this outrageous scamming and to bring the ######'s to account.

Bob Tidbury · October 23, 2018, 07:06:26 PM

We were on SKY for TV , PHONE and BROADBAND they have a really good call blocking system but My son pays for it all and he was getting fed up with the slow Broadband so he decided to keep Sky TV but switch to BT for phone and Broadband and so we lost the call blocker , the BT system is not as good but the Broad band is actually really fast in our area ,so he is happier though he doesn't have to answer the phone every day as he is at work.
My neighbour now just totally ignores any number he doesn't recognise and said if it really is important then the caller will leave a message.
Bob Tidbury

guest311 · October 23, 2018, 07:35:36 PM

I'm feeling quite left out, the only calls I seem to get is the ones about my recent accident.

even they seem [touch wood] to have tailed off after I explained that I couldn't understand how they were involved, as the accident had been investigated by the Military Police, MOD Police, and local Police jointly, and their conclusion was that if he hadn't parked his car on the tank tracks, I wouldn't have run over it with a Challenger tank.
I then requested their details and file number so I could pass them on to my Regimental Police detachment.

must have had a technical problem as the call seemed to get cut off. they haven't phoned back either.

dannyboy · October 23, 2018, 07:38:24 PM

Izzy · October 23, 2018, 07:53:42 PM

If you are prepared to buy a new phone to stop all this nonsense then I can highly recommend the BT ones with 'Call Guardian'. They intercept any call made that isn't a number that you have logged as known/allowed, and the caller has to give their name. The phone then rings with the callers identity and you can decide whether to answer it or not or block them. If you block a caller then they could call all day long and you won't know because the phone just doesn't respond to them.

As a result our phone now never rings with other than those we wish to speak to. It's sheer heaven compared to how it used to be. Not had a single scam or unwanted call since we bought the phone/s. Automated services can't get past the first hurdle of giving their name and most scammers can't be bothered either. Generally they only respond when their automated dialing machines have first got someone to answer their call.

Izzy

trkilliman · October 23, 2018, 09:39:37 PM

Quote from: austinbob on October 23, 2018, 06:56:28 PM
I really feel sorry for all the vulnerable people who can't recognise these scams for what they are. Even if they don't suffer financial loss think of all the worry and concern for them.
Surely something more can be done to stop this outrageous scamming and to bring the ######'s to account.

You are correct about the worry. As I said I was near to losing money but thankfully didn't. When I refused to play ball once I realised what was happening, this guy came on the phone and started TELLING me what I had to do. It would surely have frightened some older or frail person/s. I told him to go forth and multiply. Afterwards I felt shook up and insecure for several days, probably the shock of what could have occurred. I agree fully that more should be done to weed out these scammers but the will just does not seem to be there with Government/s. How can it be that talk-talks systems were insecure and their customers data was hacked, with no come-back on them as far as I am aware of? Who are these hackers/scammers, and where is the money going? Everything is so linked to the internet these days I'm sure that a terrific crash involving vast sums of money is just waiting to happen...if it hasn't already and been kept quiet. Internet banking, never again, but each to their own.

Newportnobby · October 23, 2018, 09:41:44 PM

Quote from: Malc on October 23, 2018, 05:26:04 PM
As far as we know, phone companies, utilities, and credit card issuers don't maintain databases of voice recordings of their customers and use them to perform real-time audio matching to verify identities during customer service calls.

Only last week I was asked by NatWest if I'd like to be provided with voice recognition identity for my credit card helpline enquiries. I couldn't think which impression I was best at so told them where to stick that idea.

Scam phone calls

guest311