Scam 'phone call alerts

[Bouleversee]

The latest scam phone call is a recorded message saying £600 has been withdrawn from my online account and if I didn't authorise this I should click on 1. Needless to say I didn't. My sister in Alnwick says she has had several of these. The phone just said "incoming call" and when I dialled l471 a number starting with 0292 came up which of course I didn't ring.

[Bouleversee]

You and Yours (BBC Radio 4) included an item re the Amazon Prime scam last week. I missed the beginning but it was clear that at least one person (interviewed) had been caught out and lost money.

On Thursday I had another fishy call following a pre-arranged power cut by SSE, ending with a request to press 1 to confirm I had heard the message (as if!). I range SSE to alert them and am still waiting for someone to get back and confirm whether it was genuine (incompetent, if so) or not.

[PinkDalek]

You and Yours (BBC Radio 4) included an item re the Amazon Prime scam last week. ...

Merely, in effect, bumping this Topic, having finally received the phone call you warned about some time back.

Incidentally, 1572 doesn't report anything. It blocks that particular number but no more than that one, as you already know.

[Bouleversee]

Indeed, and as the crooks just change the number and carry on (I'm still receiving the calls) it's a bit of a waste of time. I'm still getting ones about my BT line as well despite the fact that I don't have one.

[Bouleversee]

Another probable scam: I rec'd. a phone call this morning from someone claiming to be offering a "police supported" emergency alarm system alerting police, fire and ambulance services, including via a pendant, which I thought might have been a consequence of a horrendous burglary two doors away on New Year's Eve. He rattled on at a pace rather too quick for me to take It all in and I was just about to say I didn't want to hear any more and he should send literature when he said a representative would be visiting the area and bringing literature and wanted to make an appt. for him to see me. I said I was too busy at the moment, that they could deliver the literature and I would contact if interested but that I had tried wearing a pendant provided by the council before and found it a nuisance.

After I had put the phone down, I realised I didn't have the name of the company and started to get suspicious so got the phone no. via 1471. I only got music when I dialled the number, however, so feel sure it must have been a scam. Has anyone else had a similar call?

I wasted a lot of time which I should have been spending on finishing my tax return phoning the police, Action Fraud, Age UK, Citizens Advice, having been passed from one to another, and didn't find out whether the police were supporting any such private company service or knew of any scam of this nature. The more I think about it, the more I think it is one, however.

[bungeejumper]

After I had put the phone down, I realised I didn't have the name of the company and started to get suspicious so got the phone no. via 1471. I only got music when I dialled the number, however, so feel sure it must have been a scam. Has anyone else had a similar call?

I wasted a lot of time which I should have been spending on finishing my tax return phoning the police, Action Fraud, Age UK, Citizens Advice, having been passed from one to another, and didn't find out whether the police were supporting any such private company service or knew of any scam of this nature. The more I think about it, the more I think it is one, however.

Sounds exactly like the high-pressure operation that came through our area about five years ago. The plan is to descend on single people, elderly people and disabled people, and then to make appointments that will more or less force their way through their front doors.

After which they'll try to get you into a state of paranoia, and then sell you security systems that probably work well enough, but which cost waaaaaay too much,and which are way in excess of what a reasonable person might consider necessary measures. This is tricky stuff for the police, because they're not actually selling you duff equipment - just far too much of it. And under pressure as well. It's not quite a scam in the true sense of the word.

IIRC, there are ways in which these perishers can circumvent the statutory cooling-off period - for instance, by starting the installation work the very next day. (At least partially.) This sort of thing is borderline legal, worse luck. By good luck, our county police force (Wiltshire) was already onto the bunch that came through our area, and I was able to post up a warning on our village website, and to spread the word through the Neighbourhood Watch.

If you do happen to get hold of any of their literature, try googling a few sentences from it to see what other localities have done about them. (Google the phone number too.) But if I were you I wouldn't even open the door to them. Just tell everyone you know..

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

I'm open to correction here, but I believe the police are not keen on this kind of thing as a general market and for the general public. Like shop or vehicle alarms, it leads to vast numbers of false alarms and wasted time.

Now if you're identified as high risk - perhaps medically frail, or under witness protection, or somesuch, it might be a different story. But why would you learn of that through a cold call, as opposed to from the relevant medical/police/social service authorities?

[bungeejumper]

Now if you're identified as high risk - perhaps medically frail, or under witness protection, or somesuch, it might be a different story. But why would you learn of that through a cold call, as opposed to from the relevant medical/police/social service authorities?

I think this kind of thing works the other way round. The scammers have bought (or stolen) your address or your phone number from some list or other, and they take it from there, focusing only on specific demographics. There'd be no point in wasting their time with fit young bruisers who go to the gym every week.

I imagine that these lists are available legally as well as illegally. Every time you state your date of birth, you're denoting your age group and the probability that you're alone/lonely/a bit doolally. What I'd really like to know is how my local undertaker knew enough about me to be able to send me a funeral plan leaflet on my 60th birthday?

BJ

[mrbrightside]

Easy solution. Get a call blocker. Then you can whitelist your friends and family. Everyone else has to identify themselves. Scammers typically don't.

As I work from home, best £100 I ever spent. Seriously.

[Bouleversee]

Thanks, both. I thought afterwards I should have asked how they got my number. I'll get the number blocked if it's possible to do that
when other calls have been received since, and if they still get through using a different no. it will prove they are scammers. I would not do business
With anyone or let them into my house without checking them out. Chances are I will hear no more from them. They don't seem to have been in touch with anyone else in the lane. I had sent a message via the loop.

Why do we have to give d.o.b. for so many security checks?

Yeah, that just about sums me up, BJ, but no need to rub it in.

[bungeejumper]

Why do we have to give d.o.b. for so many security checks?

I've got into the habit of recording my date of birth as 1st January 1900, just so that I can remember the lie. I'm still waiting for the inevitable call from the Guinness Book of Records.

BJ

[Bouleversee]

Maybe I'll change mine in the other direction and stsrt to receive some rather more interesting calls.

[dionaeamuscipula]

Another probable scam: I rec'd. a phone call this morning from someone claiming to be offering a "police supported" emergency alarm system alerting police, fire and ambulance services, including via a pendant, which I thought might have been a consequence of a horrendous burglary two doors away on New Year's Eve.

https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/business/tra ... mer-alerts

DM

[Bouleversee]

Another probable scam: I rec'd. a phone call this morning from someone claiming to be offering a "police supported" emergency alarm system alerting police, fire and ambulance services, including via a pendant, which I thought might have been a consequence of a horrendous burglary two doors away on New Year's Eve.

https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/business/tra ... mer-alerts

DM

Many thanks. Very helpful, though my call to Citizens Advice achieved nothing.