A scam phone calls and emails discussion.

[Bald Rick]

Had a call come through on Thursday from a Durham number that I didn’t recognise which I would usually not have answered, however coincidentally I was half expecting a call from someone in that neck of the woods so I answered.

Somebody with a very strong Indian accent announced he was from Vodafone, and there was a problem with my SIM card. Vodafone had updated the SIM card and there had been a problem. (Fortunately I was walking to the station so had a bit of spare time, so thought I’d go along).

Me: Oh dear, that’s a worry. What sort of problem.

Durham / Delhi: Well, vodafone had done an update to my SIM card, and there was a problem.

Me: Yes, I heard you the first time. That’s really worrying.

Durham/Delhi: So you understand there’s a problem with your SIM card.

Me: Yes, Yes. What do I do?

Durham/Delhi: (Something I couldn’t understand in full, but about going to a website )

Me: I’m sorry I didn’t understand that - can you say again please?

Durham/ Delhi: There’s a problem with your SIM card after vodafone did an update.

Me (getting bored already): Yes, that is a worry, because I don’t have a vodafone SIM card.

Durham / Delhi: (long pause, presumably checking script) You need to understand that Vodafone has done an update to your SIM card.

Me (almost at station,): Yes I understand that. Can you tell me how you vodafone have done an update to a secure Government phone*?

Durham / Delhi: CLICK hangs up.


*I don’t have a secure Government phone.


30 minutes later, the same number rings….

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Just had my first scam call for quite some time. My landline rang and at first all I heard was a cachophony of voice chatter then a male person with a strong Indian accent immediately asked me to put the "lady of the house" on the line. I did not bother asking which company was calling, but just informed the caller that "The Lady of the House" died of Vascular Dementia in November 2021. The caller then just hung up.

 

[swt_passenger]

Over the past few weeks i've been getting texts with group chat requests including one asking me to claim my 300 winter payment. 300 what I wonder. All the group chat things were deleted.

Stan

I think the £300 winter fuel payment scams are usually aimed at pensioners. I’ve noticed a few emails about it, they started very soon after the government U-turn to reinstate them. You don’t need to claim if entitled, but if you‘re not entitled (as it’s now means tested), you can log into DWP and ‘opt out’ of it. I think it’s a good example of scammers reacting quickly to a news announcement in the hope people won’t have seen the details.

 

[Trackman]

Had three parking charge notices texts today.
I must pay before tomorrow otherwise my driving licence will be revoked.

 

[dcbwhaley]

Had three parking charge notices texts today.
I must pay before tomorrow otherwise my driving licence will be revoked.

I had a parking charge notice last month.
I knew it was a scam because there is no vehicle registered to me.

 

[Eyersey468]

Over the past few weeks i've been getting texts with group chat requests including one asking me to claim my 300 winter payment. 300 what I wonder. All the group chat things were deleted.

Stan

I've had some of those recently as well, shows its a scam as I am not a pensioner nor will I be one for about 30 years

 

[John Webb]

Had three parking charge notices texts today.
I must pay before tomorrow otherwise my driving licence will be revoked.

I had a parking charge notice last month.
I knew it was a scam because there is no vehicle registered to me.

Knowing these are scams, do you just delete the text messages? I assume to respond gives the scammers the knowledge there is someone using that phone number and would only encourage them to send more?

 

[Buzby]

Knowing these are scams, do you just delete the text messages? I assume to respond gives the scammers the knowledge there is someone using that phone number and would only encourage them to send more?

Far better to forward each of them to your network to block - remembering to add the sending number if not part of the original message. For UK mobiles, the number is the same 7726 (It spells SPAM on the keypad to make it memorabl).

 

[Trackman]

Knowing these are scams, do you just delete the text messages? I assume to respond gives the scammers the knowledge there is someone using that phone number and would only encourage them to send more?

I click delete and report spam on my iPhone.

 

[John Webb]

Far better to forward each of them to your network to block - remembering to add the sending number if not part of the original message. For UK mobiles, the number is the same 7726 (It spells SPAM on the keypad to make it memorabl).

I click delete and report spam on my iPhone.

Thanks - that's what I do as well, but thought it was worth asking!

 

[londonbridge]

I mostly let numbers I don’t recognise go to voicemail nowadays, if they’re genuine they will leave a message. If there is no message or the call is flagged by the network as “suspected spam” I search the number and check “who calls me” and similar websites, then block the number if necessary.

 

[najaB]

Is it actually risking being done for "assault" to do (or attempt to try!) this over the phone, and are there any known prosecution cases for this?

Yes. And I believe yes.

As I mentioned upthread, when I worked in the call centre one of my co-workers had this done to her and was off work for a few days and had balance issues for a week or so. What made this even more infuriating is that we were working on an inbound campaign, so it's not like we were bothering or harassing anyone. I do know that the caller was reported to the police, but I don't think any prosecution resulted.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Aug 2025 ==

I have heard that hotels are tricked into downloading malware that opens their bookings.com portal to the fraudsters. This means that the emails come from the hotel's real account.

No, the issue was (is) on Booking.com's side. I know a hostel owner who was affected by this in the past (and do ad-hoc IT for them) and the emails definitely didn't originate on their side.

 

[zero]

I recently received calls from two banks which could have been scams, but weren't.

Two of my cards' details seem to have been stolen (probably from the same source) and were then used at different merchants. The respective bank apps notified me of the fraudulent transactions in real time. With the first transaction, I instantly froze the card in the app, but was not available to contact the bank straight away. I received a phone call about 3 hours later.

The caller asked if she was speaking to [my name], said she was from [bank]'s call centre in [northern English city] and then said "I know this sounds like a scam call but..." the bank was suspicious about a recent transaction. Her accent sounded like someone from near to that city.

Next she mentioned that if I was unsure about this call, I could hang up and call the bank back on the normal number. As I was happy to continue, she reminded me to never provide OTP/2FA codes over the phone, and ordinarily not to give personal information to an unsolicited caller. However, in this case she would need two pieces of information: firstly, my address, to make sure that they were sending my new card to the right place, and secondly she asked me to confirm that a recent payment to [merchant] on [date] was genuine, and as a quick security measure she asked me to say the time of the transaction and the amount of pence (not the pounds).


Following the fraudulent transaction on my other card, the phone rang almost immediately. This time it was a man with a heavy Indian accent who asked if he was speaking to [my name] and said he was in [bank]'s fraud operations team. He read out the details of the transaction and said their system had flagged it up. (At this point I was still considering whether it was the actual fraudster wanting more info from me.) Suddenly he got very excited and said something like "they are trying again!" followed by "I have stopped it". Two transaction notifications to similar merchants appeared on my app and they were declined, even though there were enough funds to pay them. The caller then said he had better cancel my card, and made me provide my DOB and address. He also read out more of my recent transactions to check they were genuine. The old card disappeared and a new card appeared instantly in the bank app.

 

[Buzby]

No, the issue was (is) on Booking.com's side. I know a hostel owner who was affected by this in the past (and do ad-hoc IT for them) and the emails definitely didn't originate on their side.

Having been affected as a consumer, I have the email chain and (with hindsight) can spot how the scam was achieved. Yes, the hotel owner will protest innocence ‘they’ didn’t send the scam email which came via Booking.com, but what made the scam perfect was the email arrived from BC, for the correct venue and date, as well as my name and email address used. Too many coincidences to make a random punt hit home. The property owner was originally scammed to reveal their BC system login, and once achieved the scammers target those who have pending bookings with malicious emails - complete with a stand alone URL malformed sent to link to the payment portal.

The inattention of the hotel staff using BC’s portal was the genesis of this scam, along with mine for not noticing the contrived URL. BC blocked their account for 2 weeks and (I understand) imposed 2FA on their account.

 

[Benters]

I mostly let numbers I don’t recognise go to voicemail nowadays, if they’re genuine they will leave a message. If there is no message or the call is flagged by the network as “suspected spam” I search the number and check “who calls me” and similar websites, then block the number if necessary.

Same here.

 

[najaB]

Yes, the hotel owner will protest innocence ‘they’ didn’t send the scam email which came via Booking.com, but what made the scam perfect was the email arrived from BC, for the correct venue and date, as well as my name and email address used. Too many coincidences to make a random punt hit home. The property owner was originally scammed to reveal their BC system login, and once achieved the scammers target those who have pending bookings with malicious emails - complete with a stand alone URL malformed sent to link to the payment portal.

While I can't speak to your experience, I can speak to mine. They did not reveal their login to any third party.

 

[swt_passenger]

I recently received calls from two banks which could have been scams, but weren't.

Two of my cards' details seem to have been stolen (probably from the same source) and were then used at different merchants. The respective bank apps notified me of the fraudulent transactions in real time. With the first transaction, I instantly froze the card in the app, but was not available to contact the bank straight away. I received a phone call about 3 hours later.

The caller asked if she was speaking to [my name], said she was from [bank]'s call centre in [northern English city] and then said "I know this sounds like a scam call but..." the bank was suspicious about a recent transaction. Her accent sounded like someone from near to that city.

[…]

The scammers must make it difficult for real bank and business fraud response teams etc. I had a call that I answered a while ago, and the chap started out by saying he was ringing from HMRC about my income tax. He was clearly used to people putting the phone down on him, so quickly added that he was responding to a letter I’d recently sent in, and after a short discussion he was able to state the date I sent it in, and also their earlier reference with its date that I was responding to. So he was pretty obviously legit, but he did say they often had major problems making outward phone calls.

 

[najaB]

So he was pretty obviously legit, but he did say they often had major problems making outward phone calls.

Which is, on balance, a good thing overall I guess.

 

[Buzby]

When I reported the BC scam at the local branch they verified me by swiping my bank card and entering a PIN. Once done, I was given a telephone number to call, whereupon I was an unknown quantity again, and we spent 3 minutes ‘going through security’ this was AFTER I had passed voice print identification. All went swimmingly until I was told they’d have to call me back in a few minutes on my ‘nominated number’ that was easy, as I was using it to call THEM, once my card had been cancelled.

Sure enough, I got the callback - the staffer knew my voice by that time (and I hers) but we had to go through security, again. It all felt a bit surreal….

 

[najaB]

Sure enough, I got the callback - the staffer knew my voice by that time (and I hers) but we had to go through security, again. It all felt a bit surreal….

In my call centre days we had similar. It was particularly funny when you were diagnosing a broadband issue and got them to check the wiring. At least two or three calls per day the line would go dead and you had to call them back - and go through security checks again.

 

[DM352]

I got a cell phone with a year prepaid long plan which is rare in Canada as most plans are monthly and it was a good deal. I selected a rare original area code from the offered number list which I prefer to the new overspill ones, and was up and running. Then the fun started.

I learned the number unusually came from a phone number graveyard and started getting texts from the estranged family of the original owner. Then the electric company started leaving messages they will cut things off on the previous persons account. My voicemail got updated to say this is not person xyz and has since been quiet on that front. Lessons learned is to get a non recycled phone number.

I now get the more weird spam stuff with the latest being your Poparide rideshare has been booked for Friday and press Yes to confirm! Or a parking ticket text in Ontario that I will lose my licence if I don't pay by the link.

I should get a new phone number but the phone company charges for any changes and I just use the phone as a backup.

 

[swt_passenger]

Just had a rambling text with a short deadline inviting me to apply to some obscure website for a £200-£300 government cost of living award. Looked completely amateurish and bogus, but I guess they’ll trap a few people and that’s all they need.

 

[DelW]

I got a cell phone with a year prepaid long plan which is rare in Canada as most plans are monthly and it was a good deal. I selected a rare original area code from the offered number list which I prefer to the new overspill ones, and was up and running. Then the fun started.

I learned the number unusually came from a phone number graveyard and started getting texts from the estranged family of the original owner. Then the electric company started leaving messages they will cut things off on the previous persons account. My voicemail got updated to say this is not person xyz and has since been quiet on that front. Lessons learned is to get a non recycled phone number.

A few years ago when I was on holiday in South Africa for around three weeks, I bought a PAYG SIM card for local calls. Evidently the number had previously belonged to someone in financial difficulties as I received a number of texts regarding debts and the like. Mostly I replied with a boiler-plate answer to say that the number had been reissued. It will have expired again after I returned home, and I wonder if someone else acquired it later on.

 

[PeterC]

Just had another attempt on my credit card. Call from the "fraud department" about a dodgy transaction. Tell me a text is on its way and hey presto a legit text from the card issuer turns up with the one time code to verify the transaction. They then ask me to read back the code. That is a total no no.

Seen this before. Would have worked up to transferring my life savings to a "safe account". Reported to card issuer Action Fraud.

Now without a credit card for a week.

It's a fairly recent card so somebody has nbeen hacked inthe not to distant past. I try not to save details but found that some fulfillment platforms save the card details by default.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Sep 2025 ==

Just had a rambling text with a short deadline inviting me to apply to some obscure website for a £200-£300 government cost of living award. Looked completely amateurish and bogus, but I guess they’ll trap a few people and that’s all they need.

I have has a couple of texts inviting me to a group chat about that. Ignored of course

 

[John Webb]

Landline had a couple of dozen scam calls in August, about the same as in July. 'Call Guardian' stopped any of them getting through so they didn't disturb me.
But the mobile had 6 calls, all about 'Your diesel emissions claim'. When challenged one caller admitted they were working from 'SE Asia' before they put the phone down.

 

[aftv]

I've just had a text message complete with a dodgy hyperlink from a mobile number purporting to be O2 claiming to stop my sim card because I haven't agreed to some Ts and Cs. In the unlikely event that I need a new sim card I'm sure O2 wouldn't send me a text message from a mobile number. The only thing thats right with that text is that they seemingly know Im on O2 . Ive still onlygot one sim card with O2 though.
Alt text: a screenshot of a text message that is blatantly trying to scam me.

 

[najaB]

The only thing thats right with that text is that they seemingly know Im on O2

They either only send it to numbers originally allocated to O2, or are just playing the odds with O2 being one of the big four networks.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@aftv. The weblink provided in your screenshot is supposedly to <https://neto2sim.com/o2>. Is that a genuine address or does it get changed to something else when you try to click through?

 

[aftv]

@aftv. The weblink provided in your screenshot is supposedly to <https://neto2sim.com/o2>. Is that a genuine address or does it get changed to something else when you try to click through?

Not too sure but at the same time I'm wary to click on links in text messages on the off chance that my details do get stolen

 

[bubieyehyeh]

That domain was only created yesterday lunchtime