New Phone Scam

[Old-Guy]

This has nothing to do with cars - but everything to do with saving money, especially for those who aren't naturally suspicious. I've just received this as first hand experience from a savvy friend.

Apologies in advance for breaking Forum rules

A new telephone 'scam' has arrived.

I received a call from a 'representative' of BT, informing me that he was disconnecting me because of an unpaid bill. He demanded payment immediately of £31.00, or it would be £118.00 to re-connect at a later date.

The guy wasn't even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media, allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental!

I asked the guy's name - the very 'English' John Peacock with a very 'African' accent - & phone number - 0800 0800 152 0800 0800 152 .

Obviously the fella realized I wasn't believing his story, so offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang up & try phoning someone - he would disconnect my phone to prevent this.

AND HE DID!!
My phone was dead - no engaged tone, nothing - until he phoned me again.

Very pleased with himself, he asked if that was enough proof that he was with BT. I asked how the payment was to be made & he said credit card, there & then.

I said that I didn't know how he'd done it, but I had absolutely no intention of paying him, I didn't believe his name or that he worked for BT.

He hung up.

Did 1471 & phoned his fictitious 0800 number - not recognised.

I phoned the police to let them know, I wasn't the first! It's only just started apparently but it is escalating.

Their advice was to let as many people know by word of mouth of this scam. The fact that the phone does go off would probably convince some people it's real, so please let as many friends & family aware of this.

This is good but not that clever. He gave the wrong number - it should have been 0800 800152 0800 800152 which takes you through to BT Business. The cutting off of the line is very simple , he stays on the line with his phone on 'Hold' and you can't dial out - but he can hear you trying. (The person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back. You could almost be convinced! The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool the elderly and vulnerable. Obviously, if this scam is real, once they have your credit/debit card details, there is nothing to stop them cleaning out your account.

[KevMayer]

You're obviously thinking of your mates here on the forum so thanks for the tip off.

[red_dwarfers]

Thanks for the heads up Guy.

[HDI Dave]

Obviously the fella realized I wasn't believing his story, so offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang up & try phoning someone - he would disconnect my phone to prevent this.

AND HE DID!!
My phone was dead - no engaged tone, nothing - until he phoned me again.

Very pleased with himself, he asked if that was enough proof that he was with BT. I asked how the payment was to be made & he said credit card, there & then.

The cutting off of the line is very simple , he stays on the line with his phone on 'Hold' and you can't dial out - but he can hear you trying. (The person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back. You could almost be convinced! The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool the elderly and vulnerable. Obviously, if this scam is real, once they have your credit/debit card details, there is nothing to stop them cleaning out your account.

"This is good but not that clever."

I'm not so sure it's not clever, see bold bit above,quite resoursvle (sp??) but very simple! You could almost think,hmm,well done!!
It's like inventions / ideas etc, it's always the brutally simple, smack you in the face type 'omg why didn't I think of that' kind of thing that pays dividends,either be it for good intention or the unscrupluous side of humanity..

Either way, good call, cheers,
Where's the thumbs up smilie? I'm sure I'm getting thicker with age,can't find it!

[Xaccers]

In this case the process of the scam is factual, and people have fallen victim.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8263637.stm

Normally these things are hoaxes, such as the old "if you see a bit of paper on your rear wiper, don't get out, there's someone hiding waiting to jump in your car!" so it's always worth grabbing a line from the text and sticking it in google.

If the reported incident is directly written by your friend, then he's been posting it all over the internet for several years

Remember, if someone phones you asking for bank details, ask for a reference number and a phone number and call them back.

If you get an email warning you of something and saying that the police recommend forwarding it to as many people as possible, use google to check if it's actually a spam mail that's doing the rounds.

[XMX]

..........................
The guy wasn't even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media, allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental !
.......................

As 'Virgin Media' has its own cabling system to BT, VM line's are independent to other phone provider's and therefore don't pay towards any line rental to BT, as confirmed in this morning's dialogue with them (Thus concerned being a Virgin Media Customer too) !

.
Obviously the fella realized I wasn't believing his story, so offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang up & try phoning someone - he would disconnect my phone to prevent this.

AND HE DID!!
My phone was dead - no engaged tone, nothing - until he phoned me again..............................

The cutting off of the line is very simple , he stays on the line with his phone on 'Hold' and you can't dial out - but he can hear you trying. (The person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back. You could almost be convinced!

As stated /\ all that they've done is kept your line blocked by NOT putting the phone down at their end (As when the caller makes the call, even if the person they've called puts the phone down), so that they can effectively block your line for approx. five minutes until eventually the line cut's off the call automatically from the out going to the called number (i.e. YOU) to a phoned line where the receiving line has terminated the call !

So all then what happened was when the Auto cut off tripped in (Or they cut the call) they called you back to try and con/scam you which you had non-of (Obviously been sensible) and then you said you called the the Police with no trouble which proves that they'd got no real way of cutting you off whether your on a VM or BT phone line package !

It's just the fact these scammers know that the 'Hi-jacking' of your line for approx. five minutes makes you think that they do have some 'Magic Power's' so as just to get the vulnerable folk they prey on, what will it be next I wonder ?



XMX

[addo]

I reckon the bigger "phone scam" is everyone being so terribly attached to their mobiles! Mine costs over £700/yr...

[Gregg1100]

Hi,
I have had similar calls from someone supposedly from Sky. This is to tell you that your skybox guarantee is about to run out. I phoned Sky direct, and they said that it was a load of tosh- a scam. So when they ring again, and they will, I will tell them to F off and will give number to the cops. The number as you can guess is not available on 1471. Fancy that.
Greg

[Homer]

Hi,
I have had similar calls from someone supposedly from Sky. This is to tell you that your skybox guarantee is about to run out.

I've been getting that regularly despite the fact that I cancelled the digibox cover several years ago when I found out how cheap and easy it was to replace the whole lot DIY.

Another to watch out for is a call claiming to be from or on behalf of Microsoft warning you of a problem with your PC. They will take you through some checks designed to fool you into thinking it's genuine but all you are seeing are harmless errors in a log file. They will then get you to go to their website, install some software which allows them to take control of your PC and then show you more fictitious errors. Then they will ask for your credit card.

Either hang up on them or (as I do), see how much fun you can have keeping them on the line while pretending to clumsily follow their instructions. They always wind up hanging up on me.

[myglaren]

Makes me glad that I never answer the phone!

[Xaccers]

I reckon the bigger "phone scam" is everyone being so terribly attached to their mobiles! Mine costs over £700/yr...

Ouch! Who on earth (or maybe another planet) are you calling??

Mine's £540 with unlimited internet use, unlimited texts and 1000 minutes of UK calls a month. Free HTC HD2 as well.

[Sid_the_Squid]

I've had a similar scammer as you mentioned Homer, 'fix on click 123' phoned about 'errors' they have noticed on my pc when going online... lol

Anyway I decided to have some fun with them, they made me look at the event viewer, told me all the logged messages were due to many different viruses on my pc, and to go to their web site give them remote control and they will fix it.. how nice..

At that point I told them thanks for the laugh, but I'm a programmer and know 90% of what you've just been telling me is bunk now go away, then i hung up.

Even more amusing they phoned me back in 5 mins, demanding to know why I had waisted their time!

I can see the scam, but for the average user their sales pitch was very convincing. the basic goal of this type of scam is to try one of two things, 1) gain remote control of your pc by sending you to their web site, or 2) get you to break your pc by deleting a 'virus' file or files they show you then giving you a number to call back on should there be any more troubles, which of course there will be.

[red_dwarfers]

We've had a couple of computer related ones in the past about detecting problems with our PC. This is answered with "I didn't think typewriters could get viruses?" The phone is hung up soon after that.

I didn't realize you were a programmer Sid_the_Squid! What are your weapons of choice?

[Sid_the_Squid]

yarrp Kev I am indeed.
My main languages are Omnis Studio, and SQL 2000/2005, but starting to do more and more in C#, I rather like C# actually.
I'm mainly a winforms developer, don't really do web stuff, also do a fair bit of SSRS stuff as well. Thing is I dont really like software, I'm a hardware fanatic by nature, specing and assembling a pc is far more exciting to me, optimal air flow, optimal cable layout, much more exciting. I'd love to work for AlienWare or Vadim* but demand for custom Pc's is so low on a professional level software engineering seemed to be the only option avilable.
I'm also having a play with Xbox360's at the moment get my pc hardware fix that way

Opps I've kicked this thread way off topic, sorry mods.


*Vadim now defunt custom pc buliders, used to be fantastic.

[red_dwarfers]

Very interesting!
Ah, "SQuirreL Server" as one of our teachers likes to call it. Thats something I've dipped my toes into at work. It looks very powerful

The trick is to gradually evolve the thread by linking the current subject into what you wanted to talk about but still leaving the ability for the thread to turn back on track just in case