[Closed] Nasty Scam Phone Calls

Getting them all.

If I've got time, I'll try and get a real person on the phone so I can make them hate what they have become.

Had a few. Tell tale sometimes is pause after picking up before any speech. Other than a couple of Mrs IRC's friends we rarely get genuine valls on the landline. I don't give the landline number to anyone any more.

Had a couple of car crash scam calls on the mobile. Just hang up and block the number.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a scam call in my life. I had one allegedly from HMRC yesterday. I thought it was a scam so cut it off.

I had a look online and apparently it’s common at the moment. They get you to press one of a selection of numbers, once you do it connects you to a premium rate phone line then you’ll be billed god knows how much a minute while you listen to whatever recorded bullshit they play you

very rarely... don't have a landline plugged in, don't answer unknown numbers on mobile (scammers don't seem to leave voicemails!)

Not had for a long time but got the HMRC yesterday on my mobile. Our house phone has not been plugged in for almost a year which helps a lot.

I like to play games with them if I have the patience. got a few really riled

One trick is to say - "that sounds really interesting - hang on a moment while I turn the stove off" and put the phone down somewhere but not hang up. I once had someone phone me back saying " I think we were cut off" She was a bit annoyed when i told her wahat I had done. and accused me of wasting her time. 🙂

the "this is microsoft you have a virus" can be quite fun as well. sound like you are following their script but struggling to do so " where is the any key" etc. My record is half an hour I had one stringing along.

These were on the land line, not that common for us. Get a fair few on the mobile but block the numbers. Most seem to stem from one data breach back 2009, son was in hospital (18 months old), they had my mobile as a contact. Soon after started getting the car accident calls asking for my son, someone at the hospital must have passed my number on as it was the only time his name was linked to my mobile number.

offer to sort out their PPI claim if they do your car crash compensation. 👍

My land line stopped working three or four years ago. I never got around to reporting it as a fault. The only time it ever rang other than my mum was PPI claims, ambulance chasers and scammers.

1) don't have telephone plugged in to your land line, that's so last century.
2) Android phones offer blocking numbers or blocking numbers based on 'wild cards'
3) Never answer a call unless its from a known number, if it's important, they will leave a voicemail
4) (optional) google the number after they hang up, it's likely it's reported scam/spoof number

Accident claims - my stock response at the moment is 'well it wasn't really an accident, I meant to hit him and I'm now out of jail enjoying my freedom. And, if I can claim some compo all the better...'

They soon hang up.

We used to get lots on the landline, now it’s down to a couple a day. Unless the wife answers where she immediately says “hello”, I just stay silent, which triggers the voice recognition software at the call centre end. If I’m at home then it might be a couple where it just cuts off, if the wife answered the 9:30 call, it’s always at the same time of day, then we’ll have a couple of dozen spread over the next few days.

One tactic is to have your mother answer it. She can confuse anyone, especially the Windows virus ones.

Had one a couple of months ago saying there was a warrant out for my arrest due to an unpaid tax bill!

Had one a couple of months ago saying there was a warrant out for my arrest due to an unpaid tax bill!

Had that one just this morning 😂

Anyone else getting more than usual at the moment or have we just managed to get on scam dialling list recently?

I used to get one or two a year then back in November/December last year I had a couple of weeks of one or two a day, I stopped answering after a few (last one was a "we're going to disconnect your BT broadband tomorrow etc.", as if I'd be caught dead using BT broadband! :p ). About a week after I stopped picking up they stopped calling and haven't had one yet this year (it does help the only person that legitimately calls me on my landline is my dad and that's always on an evening).

We get loads at work along the lines of
"Good morning/afternoon sir/madam, I'm calling from your energy supplier"....
Oh yeah which one?
"Oh urm, EDF?"
Nope, try again.....
Hangup, blocks number.

I've a 200 numbers blocker on the phone it's permanently full - I have to delete around 10 or so every couple of days to free up space for the new ones. Oh and yes we are signed up to buisness TPS.

My favourite is "I'm calling from the national grid, we've been made aware your being over charged for your energy consumption"....

I had several very personal attempted scam calls supposedly from my bank, regional UK numbers, British accents, very friendly but very clearly a scam as my bank are pretty consistent with the message they will never call customers. (I guess most are the same).

I told one caller I knew it was a scam, they just ignored me and carried on their spiel so I hung up.

The same person called me back the next day, I said I was busy at that time and could they call me back the later. They duly did - again from a different number, where I asked them to stop calling me as it was getting a bit silly. She actually apologised for bothering me before hanging up!

I stated a conversation with one of the, 'we're calling about an accident you had...' with

'gosh that's quick!' woman was most upset to find out I couldn't get out of the car because my leg was trapped, and, 'uh, I think I can see flames now!'

I once strung a PPI call out while they went through their list of all the banks then at the end i told them the loan was from the bank of mum and dad. He said, very good and hung up.

Yeah get most of the above also used to get the windows support scam (real person), it's quite satisfying getting them so wound up that they ring off.

This guy appears to know his stuff and hacks call centres, very funny,

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC9EjyMN_hx5NdctLBx5X7w

this is a better linky

I’ve not had any for ages but, like others, loved stringing them along or getting them really angry. Good times

Had the HMRC call, didn't answer but listened to the automated answerphone message and then deleted it.

I had one saying I was on a HMRC fraud list and I should press 1 to speak to the HMRC case officer.

Pretty sure we don't work like that

The accident ones always start along the lines of " I'm calling about the accident you've had..." I ask them what my name is, if they have details about the accident they have my name surely?

I have in the past said I had a bump to the head, then string them along forgetting what's just been said.

AS i work from home i seem to get at least 1 a day on the landline. I use 1572 to block them but the pesky timewasters find another way to call me.

Used to get the Microsoft virus ones a lot, when my parents were alive, they’d always hand me the phone because I was the only person in the house with a computer.
I always tell the person on the other end that they’re lying, and when they get all outraged I ask them how I know they’re lying, and when they ask, I tell them I would have as much to do with Microsoft as I would a diseased rat, and that my computer is a Machintosh. Shuts them up.
I did have a bloke call supposedly from BT about a virus issue, but I told him I was too busy to deal with him and hung up. Later on I noticed there’d been an answerphone message left, which was totally garbled, but I recognised the voice. Then he phoned again the next day, when I was home, so I strung him along as he got me to open a web page. It was funny to hear his train of thought derailed when I said I couldn’t find the Windows key on my keyboard, and after several minutes said I was using a Mac.
After opening a browser window, I typed in the web address he gave me, and then said, all surprised like, oh, there’s this funny little yellow triangle showed up with an exclamation mark, and it’s saying something about this website may carry harmful information... at that point the line went dead! 🤪
Oh yeah, I get the Amazon Prime ones regularly, had one the other day, I just cut them off. I only use Prime for free postage and then cancel it.

We started having various calls in the last few weeks, mostly claiming to be Virgin, some for BT . They're a mix of UK numbers with an actual person, UK pre-recorded messages and int'l numbers with non-English first language callers.

The last one we had I kept talking for nearly 20 minutes before he cottoned on (I kept asking him questions and taking time to 'check my screen') & he went absolutely bonkers effing & jeffing & had the cheek to ask me 'why would you waste my time'! Related or not but we've had a lot less since. I half expected to have incurred the wrath of the scam phone list master..

I keep getting calls from Sky telling me my internet isn’t working. It is, and I have been with Virgin for the last 5 years.

We had phone calls every single day from the bank of Scotland, looking for a guy called Jason Scotland (a professional footballer)
No he’s not here, he’s never lived here, we are the only people who’ve ever lived here.
After 5 years, i answered and said ‘yes that’s me’
I then got put through to someone who could actually listen to what i said, it took a minute to explain that their records were out of date and that, in fact, he’d never lived here.
I assume the calls stopped after that, but I can’t be certain because i pulled the plug and binned the phone.
We still have a line, as we need broadband, but there’s been nowt plugged into the line for a decade now.
My mum is absolutely plagued with them, international calls, every bloody day.

What's staggering is that it must work, or why otherwise do it.
Even my 80 year old mum can spot them.
She lets me know she's had a call and warns ME about it! Seems to be regional, with people in one dialling code area getting hit over a few weeks.

Seems that telling them you are legally obliged to inform them that you are recording the call makes the line go dead very quickly.

^^^ yep, and they hit you with different numbers too - of all the calls I got purportedly from Sky, not one was from the same number, but all started with 723 (oddly no zero).

If I get a real live person I ask them for characters 1,3 and 5 from their password and take them through all the really ****ing annoying security questions that I have to go through when I want to talk to someone.
It makes me feel better.

The weird thing about the effect this all has on me is that I don’t trust anyone who phones me. Which is good, but sometimes I get phone calls which I know are genuine but I’m only 99% sure.
For example I might get one from EE (who I have my mobile with) and they introduce themselves and then ask for my home address and postcode. So I say no, I don’t know who you are so I’m not giving you that info. They will reply with “but I can’t go any further unless you give me that info”. A lot of them clearly don’t understand that THEY have rung ME so why should I pass their supposed security test - I’m only being careful!!

Some of them get quite shirty but a couple have been more understanding.

The only saving grace is that the dodgy one ALWAYS sound mega dodgy - If they were more professional about it they’d get more people to bite!!

Precisely. You rang me, I know who I am, who are you?

I used to get this a lot with my bank, as soon as I challenged them they'd go "sure, ring us back on the number on your bank card" (inherently still dangerous on a landline) but it's piss poor practice to be normalising that sort of behaviour.

their records were out of date and that, in fact, he’d never lived here.

If he's never lived there then their records aren't out of date, they're wrong.

i refuse to answer security questions when they phone me and have made a point of telling them why. some get shirty. some give up

A genuine caller in the example of EE above knows that the number is yours
But they don’t know who has picked it up.
It’s likely to be you but not 100% so they verify it to ensure they are talking to the right person.

Fair enough and if in doubt offer to ring back from a number you have for them

They will reply with “but I can’t go any further unless you give me that info”. A lot of them clearly don’t understand that THEY have rung ME so why should I pass their supposed security test

Because a genuine caller would hold a large amount of your personal information and are legally required to keep that confidential.

They need to make sure you are the right person before they discuss any of your personal information. GDPR fines for failing to do this, and discussing your STD test results with your co-worker who picked up your phone, would be substantial.

I’m pretty sure they randomly generate numbers as it took half an hour for my first spam/scam call after I changed my number.....

I love telling the accident ones about my accident. They seem to get pissed off when I get to the bit where I mention how it was resolved...

The scam calls i get on my landline I've about diminished, simply by not answering any number i dont recognize, and as it goes to answering machine anyway, if it is important I can listen and pick up.
Caught me out the other morning, phone goes and woke me up, and I reached for it when the voice coming through the answering machine talked about my white goods service plan.

The voice was of a nice speaking woman, asking about the plan i have, but me being suspicious as ever queried for which goods, and got the answer that sounded too generic - washing machine, oven and hob.

Something clicked so I asked specifics and she came back with the white goods for Mr * . Straight away I realized it was a scam, as Mr * was the previous occupant and is dead these last 6 years.

I just laughed and called them a dumb scammer, he's dead you $%^&^%r and hung up.

If you answer , its a sign someone is there and you'll be inundated with calls, but let the answer machine take it and 99% of the time the machine wont even finish the message before they hang up.

I was reading the other day that the government is now looking at ways to prevent scams and scam calls as its reportedly costing business £190,000,000 a year.
It's a serious issue, but I fear it's not something we can ever stamp out, given people and the money number involved. Even higher sentencing I doubt will make a difference.

I cant be arsed stringing them along etc. I just give them a good long blast with a rape alarm down the phone. Hopefully they will be wearing a headset for maximum effect.

3) Never answer a call unless its from a known number, if it’s important, they will leave a voicemail

Round here, when they are calling people to invite them in for their Covid vaccine it may come from a withheld number. Your service may be different.

If its a 'cash for crash' scam I string them along with my crashing into a bus full of Nuns story.
If its 'virus on my router' scam I string them along with installing the remote access software (very slowly) which cumulates in much hilarity when trying to give them the password, you can get people to write down all sorts of vile things if you spell it out with numbers and letters.

Not had any scammers for a while, but as other have said, it used to be fun to wind them up or get the kids to talk to them, they still laugh about the woman that called trying to sell us pomegranate juice, she was hilarious .
If it sounded like a genuine call centre person, I would always give a polite reply and hang up. My SIL worked at a call centre for a while when she was at Uni, it’s a tough gig, no need to heap more misery on them.
Funny thing about some scam calls that the answer machine picks up, scrolling through the list ,you get a sound like they are auto dialling a number. I always delete them as soon as I hear the ring tone (then block) ,but what’s going on there?

There's an infamous one if you are a small business owner, where you are contacted to thank you for your order of Drugs Awareness books you have "agreed" to sponsor for local primary schools. Obviously, you haven't, but they try to say they paid for the printing costs and start trying to get details to invoice you, and threaten you with debt collection agencies. I've always just hung up on them, and reported them to Action Fraud. Some people have become very stressed dealing with these particularly nasty characters.

I let any unrecognised number go to the answerphone, which has a recording of me saying “Hello? Hello? Hello? You are very faint, please speak up, Hello? Hello? Mum, are you holding the phone upside down? Hello? Hello? Oh, sorry I forgot, I cannot hear you because this is a recording. Please leave a message after the tone”.

It used to be better on my last phone as I could hear the callers, now I just get a recording of them hanging up. One cold caller did laugh and say “Well done”.

I usually string along the car crash calls. I confirm I did have a recent incident (absolutely true) and I ask them to explain what they can do for me, when they get to the part about claiming off the other parties insurance I just reply "I didn't realise deer had insurance"
Overseas callers struggle with that.............

There’s an infamous one if you are a small business owner, where you are contacted to thank you for your order of Drugs Awareness books you have “agreed” to sponsor for local primary schools. Obviously, you haven’t, but they try to say they paid for the printing costs and start trying to get details to invoice you, and threaten you with debt collection agencies. I’ve always just hung up on them, and reported them to Action Fraud.

Gawd yes I remember those - we used to get them from the 'local fire brigade' saying we'd agreed to sponsor a calendar.

Because a genuine caller would hold a large amount of your personal information and are legally required to keep that confidential.

They need to make sure you are the right person before they discuss any of your personal information. GDPR fines for failing to do this, and discussing your STD test results with your co-worker who picked up your phone, would be substantial.

Yes I know all that, but why do they expect me to hand all that info over when they are providing NO PROOF at all as to who they are? And why do they not understand that I may not want to give it out? One of their departments might sent me a “beware of phishing attacks, don’t give info away, don’t sign up to anything which is masquerading as is” but then another department is phoning me up and getting shirty as I’m following their - very wise - security advice!!! Doesn’t make any sense!!!

If I’m expecting a call - say about an appointment for an engineer visit (Sky a good example) and they can state what has been arranged so far I’ll gladly go through their verbal checks.

I don't use a landline phone, not for a long while now, and the barring/blacklisting feature on android seems pretty good - my pixel even says 'suspectes spam call' when it get called by one.

Normally, I'll google a number I don't recognise if they don't leave a voicemail, and then block it.

One new thing though i've noticed, is spoof mobile numbers calling me, had 4 in the last few days, all the same 0791******* aside from the last 3 digits.

Highly annoying.

Another odd/alarming one I had the other day, was on 020 number, looked like a london landline.
I called it back, withholding my number, and it went through to a sky talk-shield thing, so I can only assume it was a spoofed number that went through to some random persons house when i called it back.

I'm feeling left out as I've not received a single scam call in months. I do get a text probably once every couple of months telling me something is wrong with my bank account and to click a link. However it's yet to be from a bank I have an account with.

Yes I know all that, but why do they expect me to hand all that info over when they are providing NO PROOF at all as to who they are?

Because of all the stuff you said “yes, I know all that” about.

They HAVE to identify you first, by law. To protect your personal data.
It’s not their choice.

I like to string them along too, Last 'Have you had an accident in the last five years?'
'yes, coming out of Tesco's car park last week, I thought it was a fart but it was more. How much can I claim?'
Silence then line goes dead.

Neal glover - but to ask you for personal data when they have phoned you goes against basic security. I never do it and never will.

I love stringing them along if they've had the audacity to call up and disturb me. its now a buzz when they get the supervisor/ manager as they think they've got a big money claim case but when my car crash tale with lots of people and lots of damage turns out I hurt my head and can't remember anything else they generally get shirty! at least I've saved a few other s a few calls...

The only people who call us on the landline these days are the in laws.

We get a couple of international / unrecognised numbers a day. Don't answer after getting a few of those Windows virus calls. If it's important people will leave a message right?

FiL got the Amazon Prime call a few times. Luckily he was wise to it.

Just had some bloke trying to sign me up for some Lotto type scheme at an address I've not lived at since 2007.

He asked if I do the lottery and I said "not currently". He asked if I had done it in the past and I said "yes but I stopped when I went to jail after I got caught stealing to fund my serious gambling addiction".

He hung up... not sure why.

😉

Also had the flip side of this, school were ringing all parents to see to check on the kids home schooling. They were a bit surprised at the lack of phone pick ups, not really surprising when it comes upas withheld number of caller display.

I get a text telling me there have been problems processing my mobile phone bill every couple of months, usually about 2 weeks after it's gone out of my bank account. Always a dodgy link to click

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/nuisance-calls-and-messages/spam-texts-and-nuisance-calls/report-spam-texts-and-nuisance-sales-calls/

I've started to get the National Insurance number one once or twice a week. Different number each time. I've got bored of hanging up so thought I'd waste their time instead.

They hang up very quick as soon as it's obvious you're having them on so there's a good game to be had here !

Getting bombarded with calls in the past few weeks. Never answer but googling the number always throws them up as scammers

I kept getting "I'm calling about the car accident that wasn't your fault" type calls, my record for keeping someone on the phone taking down notes is a paltry 12 mins 17sec. They put the phone down on me when I eventually explained that my vehicle's closing speed was 88mph and that I wanted to claim for repairs to my flux capacitor.

Worth it though.

Just switch to BT and use Call Protect.
Get very few and those that are not blocked I play with them, then log on and block the number.

I had a particularly distressing call the other morning, picked up the phone after failing to recognise my Mother-in-laws number.

I always know I've done well when the supervisor comes on to call me a "****ing prick".

Most satisfying.

I'm getting a lot of scam Uber "please text to cancel your ride" texts. Presume if you text then you get charged for a premium text.

It should be really easy to report and block a scam number. A real one click kind of thing Phone co. has no interest or incentive to put in effort into doing it, and fails to do so, leaving someone more trusting than me to pay the price.

Call guardian on our landline stops them. If it's not a number we have programmed in, they have to leave a message to say who they are and the phone then rings. Genuine calls get added to the permitted numbers. Not had any calls on the landline. Current ones are royal mail and Hermes texts - you owe £2.99 postage ones.

I had the RM £1.99 parcel text the other day, and the Hermes one a day or so before that. The RM one was very, very convincing, the whole design was very accurate and looked exactly like a Royal Mail text should look, it’s easy to see how people fall for them.
If my bank calls, which is a very, very rare occurrence, it’s normally my account manager who calls, and as she calls on a withheld number it goes directly to my voicemail, she leaves a message for me to call her personal mobile. Avoids any misunderstanding, I recognise her voice even before she gets to say who it is. About the best security going, I reckon.

We were getting quite a lot of scam calls, maybe 2 or 3 a day. I said to my wife if you don’t recognise the number (most likely it’s only her mum calling) then answer the phone but say nothing. If it’s someone genuine they will speak immediately, if it’s an automated bot calling it will go dead after a while as it will assume it wasn’t connected rather than playing the scam message or connecting us to the scam call centre in India or wherever.

I wasn’t expecting this to have a massive effect as it never has before when we’ve had an issue but it’s been amazing, after a few calls where we were silent they have virtually stopped completely!

Signing up to TPS doesn’t really have a great effect nowadays.

It should be really easy to report and block a scam number. A real one click kind of thing Phone co. has no interest or incentive to put in effort into doing it, and fails to do so, leaving someone more trusting than me to pay the price.

There is, forward it to 7726.

^ reminded me, the PPI guy asking if i had a bank account with........he kept suggesting bank names and i kept saying "erm, dont think it was them..." - he had a really really long list of banks, i'd guess 3 sides of A4

recently i got my mobile number spoofed - i had a couple of different numbers missed calls, so called the latest one back... i got through to a very cross scots guy trying to tell me that he didnt even have an overdraft! got to the bottom of it and then changed my voicemail message to "this is SOOBalias, my mobile number has been spoofed by scammers, it wasnt me that called you, I didnt leave you a message, If you know me you know how to contact me"

They HAVE to identify you first, by law. To protect your personal data.
It’s not their choice.

What, by encouraging everyone to give out personal details over the phone to random people who have called them?

Mmmm, great.

Signing up to TPS doesn’t really have a great effect nowadays.

The thing about criminals is, they're criminals.

What, by encouraging everyone to give out personal details over the phone to random people who have called them?

Mmmm, great.

That was my point. I know they have to identify me correctly to comply with the rules but to do that they are expecting me to hand over personal information which they themselves have told me not to share!! And they get really shirty when I won’t tell them. They also don’t seem to understand why I won’t tell them either. There is literally no way of knowing who they are, but they seems to think that saying “I’m calling from xxxxx” is some sort of cast iron guarantee that they are legitimate.
It’s weird!

I had a look online and apparently it’s common at the moment. They get you to press one of a selection of numbers, once you do it connects you to a premium rate phone line then you’ll be billed god knows how much a minute while you listen to whatever recorded bullshit they play you

I know it was a few months ago but for fairly obvious technical reasons (it's an incoming call the first party initiated) you can't then get charged. I see this posted all the time but literally nobody has ever had it happen to them. Because it can't.

You can ask them for letters from your password. Works with all my banks. Obviously a last line of defence after ringing them back on different line, with known number etc.