Old news about the data leak I know, but apparently not for my folks (who I think dodged a bullet today by not ‘refunding’ via MoneyGram) with near exactly this experience:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/sep/01/talktalk-refuses-compensate-me-telephone-scam

Indian call centre scammers pose as TalkTalk, using customer details they gained confidence to access PC remotely via the phone – there followed a lengthy (we’re talking hours) attempt to ‘locate the problem’.

Please warn your parents of this if they are TalkTalk customers. It’d be enough for me to switch providers just on account of the data leak. From what I read TalkTalk are not accepting any responsibility neither offering compensation for those who lost money or have had their PC security breached/hacked owing to fraud off the back of leaked customer details.

Not looking forward to cleaning the folks PC, gaaaaaah.

As the article states, it’s unlikely that the data loss was much more than name and TalkTalk account number, so why should they refund? They’re not liable for their users being tricked – how do we know that the scammers haven’t called 100 people saying they’re from TalkTalk but only one of those 100 actually had an account with them?

^I agree, although I’m not convinced TalkTalk took sufficient steps to inform. I’d suggest letter in the post to all customers detailing the known fraud and what/what not to do when receiving calls from persons claiming to be TalkTalk employees. Or maybe a log-in gate/interrupter requiring all customers to read the statement before continuing. More elderly customers often have a different, how shall we say, ‘skill set’ when it comes to computers and fraud :-/

I have had the call.
“TalkTalk” customer service asking about my account, informed them I had left three months ago.
Next call similar, them asking to refund me money, I said just put it in my account, asked for me to start my computer, told them I don’t have one.
Next call from “Windows support”, I needed to start my computer for them to help me with a virus.
Left them on 10 minutes hold whilst I fetched my imaginary PC down to the phone.
Unfortunately my PC wouldn’t work, lol and I havent heard back since.
Got the idea they were murdering child snatchers after the first call.

Little chance of me falling for it – I get occasional calls from talktalk’s subcontinent call centre suggesting I might like to upgrade my account with them but the noise in the background is so high and their diction so poor that I put the phone down on the genuine ones too! If they really need to get hold of me they can do it by email.

AlasdairMc – Member

As the article states, it’s unlikely that the data loss was much more than name and TalkTalk account number, so why should they refund? They’re not liable for their users being tricked – how do we know that the scammers haven’t called 100 people saying they’re from TalkTalk but only one of those 100 actually had an account with them?

I had this call at the weekend.
They had my Wife’s name, address & the account number at least, because I asked for confirmation that they were ‘from Talk Talk’.
Talk Talk always contact us from an Indian call centre and sound very similar to the scammer bloke that rang up. I could see how people would be duped by it.

In the end it was pretty obvious they were scamming within about 5 seconds because they failed to ask for my Wife by name. Talk Talk always do this as she is the only person on the account & they won’t deal with me – I have tried in the past.
Secondly, they went straight into a spiel about my internet being hacked and they will have to shut down my internet line immediately etc.

I managed to keep them on the phone for about 6 mins before he got annoyed with me & hung up.

I have a few strategies in mind next time it happens to keep them going for longer.

Oh, and reading the article it sounds like we should have received an e-mail or letter telling us about the leaked data.

We’ve received neither. This is the first I have heard of it! Another excuse to switch suppliers.

Confused my dad a bit when he got the call the other week as they had his account number etc.. He asked if he could find some info on the TT website and at that point they scammer hung up.

They’ll catch a few older folk out no doubt.

dooosuk – Member

Confused my dad a bit when he got the call the other week as they had his account number etc.. He asked if he could find some info on the TT website and at that point they scammer hung up.

Yeah, in my case blokie started getting narky when I asked for a phone number I could call them back on. He gave me an 0203 number & when I queried why it didn’t match the customer service number on the bill that I had in my hand, he got shirty but recovered to tell me this was a special line set-up to deal with the ‘internet hackers’.

I was quite shocked when he read out our address & account number to ‘prove that he was from Talk Talk’.

hm, had a call (unanswered) from an 0203 number the other day, lots background noise but no message left. Could be same scam.. TBH any international numbers, withheld or ‘odd’ numbers we just leave for the answer m/c to kick in, 9/10 there’s no message or a recorded “windows, doors, energy rebate ” style message.