[Misc] Scam Calls

[nicko31]

Run Linux at home and worked in IT for 35 years, so when I got a call from "Microsoft Support" I decided to have some fun. I pretended to type in the commands and gave her the answers I thought she would be expecting. Kept her going for nearly 10 minutes before I got bored and confessed. She sounded really upset and said "Why would you do that to me?". Oh, the irony!

Did something similar, acted really old pretending to understand anything with tech, then after 30 minutes confessed I had a Macbook, they were so furious

 

[studio150]

There's one going round at the moment where the message claims to be from your bank's anti-fraud team asking you to confirm a £600 transaction on your credit card. After the first one I put the phone down and called the bank number on the back of the credit card, who confirmed it was scam. 2nd and 3rd time it happened I just put the phone down.

Reminds me of a call I took previously when someone asked for my wife. Who's calling? Her bank, Which one? I can't give you that information as its against the Data Protection Act.
I just about stopped myself laughing and said if it's important put it in writing and put the phone down, needless to say no further correspondence was forthcoming.

You need to be careful all the time otherwise you may be caught out.

 

[Barrow Boy]

Mrs Saladpack had a recorded message call on our landline this morning allegedly from "our Internet Provider" saying we'd be cut off unless we rang them. I looked up the number and found that the prefix 01230 has not yet been allocated to a UK geographical area. Anyone else on here had a similar experience? We're always very wary of anything like this but others particularly the elderly may not be. Is there an effective way of blocking these things?

Yup, had this one this morning on my landline answerphone, knew it was a scam as it was a pre-recorded message, didn't identify me or as to which ISP it was, deleted it.

 

[MonkeyGland]

This is timely. In the last few days I've literally had at least 10 (probably more) of these (Pre-recorded message about Internet being cut off). I've been with current land line phone provider for months so not sure why I have started get so many this week. Interestingly they are coming from all over the place (UK. European and US numbers). It is getting a bit tedious now so also leaving it to goto answerphone but like others I wish we could prevent them in the first place....

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I had that one, knew it was a scam but hit the 1 button to speak to the scammer, when he picked up he started talking about my internet connection, so I told him he had the wrong scam, I was calling to be scammed about a credit card payment. He would not have it and insisted he was from Microsoft and that I knew nothing, I told him he should do something better with his life than do something where you have to leave your conscience at the door, is bad for his soul, or can't tell his Mother honestly about etc. He still maintained he was not a scammer, so I wished a painful disease upon him and hung up.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

This is timely. In the last few days I've literally had at least 10 (probably more) of these (Pre-recorded message about Internet being cut off). I've been with current land line phone provider for months so not sure why I have started get so many this week. Interestingly they are coming from all over the place (UK. European and US numbers). It is getting a bit tedious now so also leaving it to goto answerphone but like others I wish we could prevent them in the first place....

Sites get hacked, personal information of users is extracted, and then these get sold on illegally. We've had our phone line for four years, never given the number out, not even online and we've not had a single call. On my mum's phone it's a different story.

 

[KZNSeagull]

There is another one from people claiming to be from BT with the story that traffic from your computer is infecting their servers. If you just hang up on them, they call you back and ask why!! The buggers.

 

[East Staffs Gull]

Had one of those no fault car accident calls the other day. When asked to confirm the details I said that I had actually had three accidents recently and that all of them were 100% my fault. The chap said that they only had records of one accident and that their record said it was 50/50. I explained that all three were definitely my fault, but that I’d be more careful in the future. Of course he then wanted contact details for the three other parties. I told him it would take me a few minutes to dig those out, so I kept him holding on while I made a cup of tea. I then started to give him contact details for the fictitious third parties. Each time that he read the phone number back to me I told him that he had written it down incorrectly. After four or five tries he hung up on me.

 

[Igzilla]

We've had two scam calls today from our "Internet Provider", interestingly on our landline number, which NO ONE uses, not even our actual Internet Provider (they have our mobile numbers instead).

 

[rippleman]

HMRC have no power to issue warrants for arrest anyway.

Actually they do....but as their inactivity over large scale frauds (the HSBC list for example) demonstrates, they can't really be arsed.

For those interested, here is the link to HMRC's investigatory powers:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-investigation/criminal-investigation

But they will never contact you by telephone to threaten an arrest warrant. That would be dumb even by HMRC's standards; just gives the criminal time to destroy the evidence!

When it comes to the internet or unsolicited calls....."TRUST NOBODY - BELIEVE NOTHING". You won't go too far wrong.

 

[Saladpack Seagull]

This is timely. In the last few days I've literally had at least 10 (probably more) of these (Pre-recorded message about Internet being cut off). I've been with current land line phone provider for months so not sure why I have started get so many this week. Interestingly they are coming from all over the place (UK. European and US numbers). It is getting a bit tedious now so also leaving it to goto answerphone but like others I wish we could prevent them in the first place....

Yes, this is exactly what has happened this morning. After that first one that my wife answered, I've had four others from all over - I've not actually answered any. My guess is that they're all linked to the first one, and that they have a network of automated calls all with different numbers so as to hinder blocking efforts. So frustrating, but it's nice to hear from MonkeyGland that it's not just us! It was just starting to feel a bit personal!

 

[doogie004]

Think I’ve mentioned before but if you speak to BT you can have BT protect free of charge. Which means as soon as you receive one of these calls hang up then press 1572 that number will be banned for life . However although I currently have about 20 numbers on the stop list these companies have some kind of software that instantly makes up another number it is a pain I’ll agree but is a cheaper way of fighting back . I was also told that if I did not need international calls as have no relatives living abroad then getting this taken off and blocked also helps it hadn’t stopped but had cut down hope that helps .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Is it PotG?]

I just find it's nice to have someone to have a chat with.

 

[Saladpack Seagull]

I just find it's nice to have someone to have a chat with.

View attachment 113378

Comedy Gold. At least you've helped me laugh about it!

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Loads going around, ********.

Sent from my SM-A600FN using Tapatalk

 

[Brok]

I believe, (never tried it) that if you dial 1572 after a call you don't want, it gives you the choice of blocking the caller...

Edit, just seen post 32

 

[blue'n'white]

My landline has BT Call Guardian on it which prevents calls or asks them to state their name and then rings through to me and I cam decide if I want to answer. Have had barely any calls in the 5 years or so we've had it. However they've started using my mobile number so I either play with them or tell them to **** off. My favourites are the "You've had an accident which wasn't your fault" ones where I normally tell them that yes it's a bit embarrassing but I wet myself and what can they do about it.

 

[boik]

Good to see other Linux users. What distro are you running? Got Lubuntu on my laptop, and Kubuntu on my main box.

Mint 19, Debian, Raspbian and Ubuntu Studio. I was a Unix sysadmin for years so obvious for me really. Got my 86 year old Dad and 10 year old granddaughter both running Mint. No issues.

 

[bluenitsuj]

Got rid of my landline years ago due to lots of scam calls. Luckily get very few on my mobile

 

[Garage_Doors]

My mother In-Law had a call saying £600 had been taken out of her bank account by someone could she give her details so they can check
She put the phone down and then rang her bank. Now I worried that they sometimes they stay on the line.
The advice is don’t give your bank details over the phone.

When you say bank details, i assume you mean passwords and any security questions/ answers? there no issue with giving someone your bank name, sort code and account number, its on every invoice i send out. with just those details that can only give money not extract it.