A scam phone calls and emails discussion.

[jon0844]

I think that this is probably genuine, but it's exactly the sort of thing that arouses my suspicions ...

I've just had an email from Three (of which I am a customer), telling me that they have updated their system and that I need to re-register my email and password to be able to access my account. But the thing is, neither the email, nor the link that it suggests I click on, come from three.co.uk - instead they refer to three-email.co.uk. A Google search on that doesn't come up with concerns, but it is the sort of address that a spoofer might use.

When I do re-register, rather than use the link, I will go in via three.co.uk and see whether that re-directs me.

Three is migrating all users to a new billing system and it will require re-logging in, so they have been informing customers before the change takes place (it's possible for there to be some downtime). However you won't need to do anything. I guess scammers have seen an opportunity to get in on something that a search might - on the surface - confirm there's a change and make their request more plausible.

 

[DelW]

Three is migrating all users to a new billing system and it will require re-logging in, so they have been informing customers before the change takes place (it's possible for there to be some downtime). However you won't need to do anything. I guess scammers have seen an opportunity to get in on something that a search might - on the surface - confirm there's a change and make their request more plausible.

I did have to register new account passwords on both my Three accounts, which I've now done. It was their use of the non-standard three-email.co.uk that I thought was unwise, since it looked like a possible scam address, although it was actually genuine.

 

[John Webb]

Two e-mails in the past 24 hours purporting to come from my broad-band supplier saying that my September bill is ready, but both from different 'gmail' addresses, not the usual one. Hovering over the 'Click here to view bill' reveals addresses that have nothing to do with the supplier..... Forwarded to their phishing department and deleted.

 

[CS2447]

I was rung up this morning by someone with an Indian accent who claimed to be calling from "the technical department of the [sic]Microsoft". The number he rang from was 07909 400367. Something didn't sound right to me and I told the caller I didn't believe him, and hung up. Just thought it might be useful to warn others on the forum.

Fortunately I don't bank or shop on-line and use my on-line computer only for email and sources of on-line information, never for transactions. All my serious translation work, including 17 academic books, has been done for years on an off-line computer, effectively now a dedicated word processor which had a radical Windowsectomy and runs on MSDos and WordPerfect 5.1, since that was what I learned on. All the really important work files are on this, and essentials like the email address book are backed up in hard copy. I've had a new hard drive and keyboard (no euro symbol, alas) in that time, but still got the old Yanjen cathode-ray monitor from 1991! I found it easier to work in WP than Word. Old work can be kept safely on floppy, and anything that needs to be printed or go out as an email attachment can easily be converted to Word on the on-line computer, since I make sure I always have an external floppy drive whenever I replace the on-line computer. WP to Word conversion loses only one format code, in my experience, that is, a full para. indent changes to a hanging indent. Everything else converts easily. (The opposite is not the case.)

There is an American on Youtube who is called Scammer Payback who pretends to be an old lady who draws the scammer in then deletes all the Scammers files .The Indian authority's know where these call centres are located

 

[Stan63]

I had a text this morning saying the DVLA wanted me to confirm my driving licence details. Hold on till I dig it out...... Sent to the scam text number and number blocked.

Stan

 

[Bevan Price]

Two e-mails in the past 24 hours purporting to come from my broad-band supplier saying that my September bill is ready, but both from different 'gmail' addresses, not the usual one. Hovering over the 'Click here to view bill' reveals addresses that have nothing to do with the supplier..... Forwarded to their phishing department and deleted.

I get batches of such messages quite often - sometimes from overseas email addresses...

 

[Busaholic]

I get batches of such messages quite often - sometimes from overseas email addresses...

I get a letter through the post from mine, not a tactic likely to be followed by scammers!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Just had a call supposedly from BT (with the usual scam call centre background chatter at the start) from a young Indian female voice, so when she had finished her script preamble, I asked why BT felt the need to use a non-existent domestic telephone number in the Belper area of Derbyshire when they already had their own established 0800 network numbers. The caller then hung up.

 

[david1212]

I had a call a short time ago claiming to be carrying out a survey on behalf of the police. It was a withheld number. I initially politely said something like ' I'm sorry but calls relating to the police are sometimes a scam '. The caller did not hang up but said this will take about 10 minutes. I truthfully responded that my meal is almost cooked so can not do this now, Thank you and terminated the call.

The local police are doing a survey. I completed it on line last weekend but did not add any contact details. Back in time if genuine I would have expected the call from a local number. However now the organisation carrying out the survey could be anywhere in the world plus the local area code can be be setup for a call originating anywhere in the world.

Has anyone else had a similar call?

 

[RJH]

I had a call, apparently from a mobile number. On answering, there was a brief pause before an American-accented AI voice told me that my parcel was waiting for me at the airport, and would be destroyed if I didn't collect it. Not any particular airport, just "the airport." The message was then repeated in Chinese (at least I presume it was the same message), and then both were repeated once before the call terminated. I was expecting some kind of "press 1 to speak to..." lure, but it didn't come. I'm left baffled as to what the point of the call was.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I'm left baffled as to what the point of the call was.

Possibly an attempted scam to try to obtain your card details to "pay" for import taxes, or clearance fees, or some such, on the supposed parcel.

 

[dangie]

Apologies if this has already been said.
Are there others on here like me, who on receiving a scam phone call engage the caller in conversation, playing along with them, until either I get fed up and end the call or they do?

 

[najaB]

Are there others on here like me, who on receiving a scam phone call engage the caller in conversation, playing along with them, until either I get fed up and end the call or they do?

Depends on if I have time to spare or not. My best one was pretending that I was running Windows 95 and playing along as they told me to go into things that didn't exist.

 

[contrex]

Apologies if this has already been said.
Are there others on here like me, who on receiving a scam phone call engage the caller in conversation, playing along with them, until either I get fed up and end the call or they do?

These days the only calls we seem to get on the landline are scam ones. If the voice is definitely a UK sounding one, I tend to ask if they TPS check the numbers they call before dialling; that usually shuts them up, although one cheeky loft-insulation caller said 'What's the TPS?'. If the caller seems to be from outside the UK I sometimes feel like wasting some of their time. I may start by saying 'Is your name really Kevin?'. That's for starters. The other day I had a robocall saying 'This is a call from 'bank security department' [sic] saying it had 'detected' two payments of £499 and £1300 on a type of card I don't have. I pressed 2 to cancel and got through to a Kevin. I played along pretending to be all flustered and worried, told him I was 'a pensioner' etc. He asked for my name, and I said Charles James Brown, my date of birth 1st August 1960, both invented. I gave a postcode five miles from my home. He said 'Just a minute...' then 'I have your details up on my screen, Mr Brown!'. He asked if I had made any more purchases recently. I said I had bought an airline ticket the day before. He said he was going to pass me to a 'senior investigator' to get the incorrect payments cancelled. I said 'before you go, I'd like to tell you about the airline ticket'. He said 'OK'. I said 'I'm flying to Kolkata, to Section Five, and there I shall chat up your mother'. Only I didn't say 'chat up'. He responded by saying he was going to chat up my entire family. I said 'and the dog?'. He hung up at that point. I read about Section Five (or 'Section V') in the Guardian. It's a district of Kolkata where a lot of call centres fell vacant when the UK trend for outsourcing call handling reversed some years ago. Criminal gangs moved in.

 

[Jon_jpwh]

Apologies if this has already been said.
Are there others on here like me, who on receiving a scam phone call engage the caller in conversation, playing along with them, until either I get fed up and end the call or they do?

Most of the recent calls I have received and there aren't many, have been silent calls. The only one where I had a conversation was where they were offering loft insulation in my area. This would have been difficult as I live in a ground floor flat. When I asked the lady where she thought I lived she couldn't answer and apologised for troubling me.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Most of the recent calls I have received and there aren't many, have been silent calls.

These could be when the firm's auto-dialler makes too many outgoing calls to (random?) numbers which all connect, and they don't then have enough salesmen immediately available to speak to you. So might not be a scam, but fair chance it's an unsolicited sales call.

 

[Lucan]

These days the only calls we seem to get on the landline are scam ones.

Maybe for you, but the scammers seem to have moved on to calling mobiles mostly these days. I have not had a landline scam for months now, but Mrs L gets several a week on her mobile. (I don't have my mobile switched on at home.) It really depends on how many databases your number is on, land line or mobile makes no difference.

I read about Section Five (or 'Section V') in the Guardian. It's a district of Kolkata where a lot of call centres fell vacant when the UK trend for outsourcing call handling reversed some years ago. Criminal gangs moved in.

The scammers are largely the same people who operated the previously legitimate call centres. After all, they have already been trained (courtesy of BT etc) for the job of "customer support" and how to talk to western customers, and then they find themselves out of a well paid job (by Indian standards), probably leaving them resentful towards the "west". So what's not to like about an offer from a new boss to keep going under a different company name? I have no doubt that the senior bosses are gangsters who moved in to replace the previous management, but many of the telephone jockeys have stayed where they were.

Accounts from reformed scammers and others who bailed out (possibly risking their lives) describe being groomed, and of not even realising at first that they are in a scam centre because they are give some genuine support tasks initially (it is mostly simple). Then they are told to exagerate the difficulty of the problems, and then to claim there are problems where there are none. They are threatened they must make x rupees per day or get sacked, or worse.

 

[contrex]

Most of the recent calls I have received and there aren't many, have been silent calls. The only one where I had a conversation was where they were offering loft insulation in my area. This would have been difficult as I live in a ground floor flat. When I asked the lady where she thought I lived she couldn't answer and apologised for troubling me.

I think I have noticed that if I just pick up and wait, they often disconnect after about a couple of seconds, whereas if I say something (e.g. 'hello'), I think the call centre computer detects a voice and carries on trying to scam me. I had a loft insulation call the other day and when I asked if they did a TPS check before calling, he just said 'never mind' and disconnected.

 

[davews]

I nearly got taken in by one of the email scammers today. Email from friend, from his normal email address, titled 'are you on line' and asked if I could do him a favour. Immediately suspicious, emailed him direct on his normal email, go a reply 'not a hack, I emailed you'. But that was from a different address. When I asked him what he wanted he replied:

Good to hear from you. I need to get an Amazon E-Gift Card for a friend of mine who is diagnosed
with stage 4 mesothelioma cancer, She lost her only daughter to the disease (COVID-19).it's her
birthday, but I can't do this now I have with Arthritis in the knee and ankle I tried purchasing it
online, but unfortunately I got no luck on that. Wondering if you could help me take care of this
through Amazon online or any shop or supermarket around you? And I'll reimburse you once I get back
home.

Please let me know, so I can provide you with her email.

Blatantly obvious one of the scammers but initially so convincing. I assume he has hacked his email, changed the password, and effectively taken it over.

 

[Trainguy34]

but I can't do this now I have with Arthritis in the knee and ankle I tried purchasing it
online, but unfortunately I got no luck on that.

Unsure how arthritis in the knee and ankle affects ordering online.

 

[skyhigh]

I think I have noticed that if I just pick up and wait, they often disconnect after about a couple of seconds, whereas if I say something (e.g. 'hello'), I think the call centre computer detects a voice and carries on trying to scam me. I had a loft insulation call the other day and when I asked if they did a TPS check before calling, he just said 'never mind' and disconnected.

I do this. If it's a number I don't recognise I answer and stay silent for a second or two. If it's a human on the other end they'll often speak first in that gap. If it's a robocall it'll hang up as it thinks there's no answer.

 

[contrex]

I need to get an Amazon E-Gift Card for a friend of mine who is diagnosed with stage 4 mesothelioma cancer, She lost her only daughter to the disease (COVID-19).it's her birthday, but I can't do this now I have with Arthritis in the knee and ankle

This is an absolute classic. Non-reversible payment method (gift card), ill-health sob story (self, friend, extra points for Big C), pile it on with death-of-child sob story (friend's daughter), time pressure (birthday!) Too much detail (if he really is your pal, why does he need to convince you with the sob stuff?)

 

[londonbridge]

Hello?

This is (name) from (company), I understand you’ve had an accident that wasn’t your fault, is that right?

How did you get this number?

Sorry, when was the accident?

How did you get this number?

Sorry, can you confirm when the accident happened?

How did you get this number?

(line goes dead)……

 

[Spamcan81]

Apologies if this has already been said.
Are there others on here like me, who on receiving a scam phone call engage the caller in conversation, playing along with them, until either I get fed up and end the call or they do?

If I'm in the mood I will string them along. Replying to them in French or German has them floundering.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

If I'm in the mood I will string them along. Replying to them in French or German has them floundering.

Being a Classics scholar in my secondary education, I can still recite sections of "The Persian Expedition" by Xenophon off by heart and I actually had a scam call three years ago about "The Microsoft" and in reply to the first two questions asked of me, I recited parts of that book. The line then went dead and I suppose the caller was somewhat "discomknockerated" to be answered in Ancient Greek to use a word by a Liverpool comedy icon.

 

[Spamcan81]

Being a Classics scholar in my secondary education, I can still recite sections of "The Persian Expedition" by Xenophon off by heart and I actually had a scam call three years ago about "The Microsoft" and in reply to the first two questions asked of me, I recited parts of that book. The line then went dead and I suppose the caller was somewhat "discomknockerated" to be answered in Ancient Greek to use a word by a Liverpool comedy icon.

I suppose I could try Virgil's Aeneid - if I could remember any of it.

 

[John Webb]

Quite a rise in unwanted calls to my landline - now had 10 calls this month and 10 last month, twice as many per month as in previous months. My 'Call Guardian' system filters these out, so I've not been disturbed by them. Mostly, it seems from the 'Who Called Me' website, from scammers running insulation scams.

Spam e-mails sometimes come through, although my Internet Service Provider (ISP) is quite good at spotting spam. But recently I got my first "I've got control of your webcam and have recorded you doing something you wouldn't want others to see." message. Forwarded to my ISP's phishing department and deleted, of course.

 

[najaB]

Forwarded to my ISP's phishing department and deleted, of course.

At risk of sounding like a skipping record (and as a reminder to the general community), I hope you forwarded the original message as an attachment. That's what we really need to be able to do anything about it.

 

[dgl]

I liked the ones that said they had turned on my laptops webcam as the laptop that I was using (awaiting me to get round to getting a new display module) has a physical on/off switch for the webcam, this physically disconnects the camera from the laptop (it's not just a soft switch that tells the laptop not to use the camera) and no software hack can override it.
Somehow I don't think you remotely turned on my webcam!

 

[Bald Rick]

I’ve had two phishing texts this week, and my mum has has had a scam call - purporting to be the police.

One of mine was supposedly from my mum, who had broken her phone and was texting from a freind’s phone (at 0630 this morning!) i was very tempted to text back with “Oh no, let me send you the money for a new one, just send me your bank details….”