I've had three scam calls today, all concerning. 'HMRC and tax fraud'.
I blocked the first call number and they phoned from a different number an hour or so later. Blocked that number and they called. On yet another number.
Each call was a recorded message which sounded like individual words pasted together.
As its a recorded message you don't even get the satisfaction of telling them to p### off.
How do you stop these calls? Taken to just leaving the answer phone on now.
:veryangry:
Quote from: austinbob on October 22, 2018, 05:02:56 PM
Taken to just leaving the answer phone on now.
I leave it on all the time and tell everyone to leave a message and if I'm at home I'll pick up.
Works!
Yes, I think that's the best solution for the moment. I get few genuine calls on my landline anyway. Most people call my mobile and, so far, few scam calls on that.
If it wasn't for the fact I need a landline connection to get broadband then I'd dump my landline.
:beers:
There is no easy way to block them completely, most of the scammers are using VOIP, they are using it to create hundreds, thousands of fake numbers, and then use a computer to robo-call as many genuine numbers as possible, all in the hope of freaking you out enough to give them vital info including bank account info, one thing that answering the phone does do for them is verify that it is a legit number (one of many things a scammer will link to you in order to steal identities).
The problem with VOIP is you can use it from any country then route the IP address through different servers to mask your location.
If you don't know the number, don't answer the phone (a person really needing to get hold of you will already know how or leave a message)
Also of the subject of taxes, bank accounts etc, they never call you on the phone to discuss delinquent accts or back taxes, these genuine communications in my experience have always been on letterheaded paper in the snail mail, still not sure contact said company direct (not through links in suspect emails, use the official website info)
Like you Bob my landline is mainly a broadband service requirement, so though family and friends use it to call us (and vice versa), most of our contact is by mobile or email. Consequently the landline is always on ansaphone and I only answer to numbers or names I recognise.
We used to get rogue calls, but not since we started this ansaphone system. As I was told once, scammers can only latch on to valid numbers once you answer, and if they get an ansaphone message their system should ignore the number in future. How true this is I know not, but it makes sense from my experience and that of other family members. Perhaps someone here can throw light on this.
I am with Talktalk and they provide a call screening system. The caller has to state who they are and what the call is about, having done that I can either accept or reject the call.
If I accept the call they are then connected to me and as I have accepted them once any further calls from that number are connected automatically. Since having this system I no longer get scam calls.
Geoff
Answerphone on all the time, and on the longest number of rings before it picks up. Simples. I've operated that way for decades, keeps nuisance calls to a minimum (including the family when I'm trying to watch telly or play trains :D ) If anything is important they can leave a message and we'll call back.
Quote from: geoffc on October 22, 2018, 06:58:06 PM
I am with Talktalk and they provide a call screening system. The caller has to state who they are and what the call is about, having done that I can either accept or reject the call.
If I accept the call they are then connected to me and as I have accepted them once any further calls from that number are connected automatically. Since having this system I no longer get scam calls.
Geoff
Ditto with me as well, used to get loads of scam calls claiming to be from talk talk, as soon as I subscribed to their free call screening service they all stopped.
They were the only calls I got on my landline as the number has never been given out, as like many the landline is only for the broadband.
Paul
Caller ID on my landline and if I don't recognise the number or the phone doesn't have it listed in the directory I don't answer it. I have an issue with trying to remember people's mobile numbers as they seem to me to be a bugger to remember but that's just tough luck. If they leave a message I'll get back to them.
I had a very nice Indian gent claiming to be from BT stating my broadband was going to be off for a week. However if I pressed certain keys on the computer they might be able to sort the problem remotely. Needless to say he spent some time talking to the spuds on my veg rack.
Martin
Yeah, if the home phone rings, I simply ignore it. As in many posts above, all coms with me is on the mobile.
one of the latest scams is they do leave a message asking you to phone back and say "yes", this is then inserted into a voice contract for a product you did not want.
Don't like the sound of that!! :thumbsdown:
One rainy summer day two years ago I spent 45minutes stringing along some 'IT engineer' who assured me my p.c. had a virus. We went through turning on, logging on, etc. He was getting so frustrated with me playing the 'buffoon' . In the end he hung up, spoilsport, I never even got to tell him I was sat in my van watching the summer rain!
:D
Quote from: Graham on October 22, 2018, 11:00:01 PM
one of the latest scams is they do leave a message asking you to phone back and say "yes", this is then inserted into a voice contract for a product you did not want.
A variation on this that I have heard of is that the caller asks if, (the number they have rung), is correct. When you answer "Yes", they have got you! SWMBO has now got the message, after me telling her often enough, not to answer unknown calls and, under no circumstances, to use the word "Yes".
Must remember to tell Mrs Bealman! :thumbsup:
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.
This morning we had Shirley from ' Internet Service provider'
Haven't heard from her for a few days.... :no:
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
:veryangry:
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
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.
:laughabovepost:
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
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.
:veryangry:
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.
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.
:laughabovepost:
I had my first "Have you been involved in an accident that wasn't your fault?" call. I was tempted to say "Yes" then I could have sued the stairs I fell down :smiley-laughing:
:laughabovepost:
Somebody has already mentioned Sky Shield which we in the Skyline household make good use of.
I do get scam calls on my mobile occasionally (comes with the territory of having the same number for so long), and I can't just ignore unknown numbers for various reasons.
However, my trusted technique is to accept the call, and simply say nothing. 9 out of 10 times the line goes dead, and if it doesn't I weed out scams in other ways.
My dear old mum has recently come very close to being scammed however; she was actually messing around with her laptop as instructed until the alarm went off in her head and she hung up. Fortunately I have a very good friend who is local to her who is a complete IT genius. He was able to restore security on the system fully but informs me she was dangerously close to opening up full control to these clowns.
It's not a pleasant world online these days.
Skyline2uk
This forum excepted ;) :thumbsup:
Quote from: Bealman on October 24, 2018, 12:16:50 PM
This forum excepted ;) :thumbsup:
But of course :thumbsup:
Skyline2uk
Quote from: Bob Tidbury on 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
I've had several of these and have also strung a few along. I acted like a real numpty (no need to try says the wife) including when he told me to open windows. Of course I told him to hold on, came back 2 minutes later and told him I was now getting cold. After 30+ minutes I was passed to a supervisor as I think they thought they had a mug (me) on the line. As soon as the supervisor came on I apologised and said I needed a pee and could she wait. I walked to the kitchen tap, ran it, sighed loudly as I started and thanked her for being so patient. The call continued for around 2 more minutes before SHE accused ME of wasting her time and she hung up on me :D
:smiley-laughing: :smiley-laughing: