👮 Scam phone calls and texts

[6Foot2]

Could it be genuine?...

 

I did wonder. I made an application sometime around then (can't remember exactly, I'll check later) I was turned down.

 

[6Foot2]

I just received a call from 0331 630 4314, a number associated with a housing repair scam.

 

The caller used an AI-generated voice and asked questions about dampness in my home, mentioning work related to 'social housing.' However, I own my house.

 

My phone identified the call as "suspected spam"

 

Reported and blocked.

[Oaktech]

Had a bit of an odd one to my work phone this week. Phone number that actually called me is a nongeographic 0330 number, called me twice that I picked up with silence on the end. I was expecting a call from our telephony provider who uses an 03 number otherwise I'd have ignored it. It then called a third time that I ignored and left an computer generated sounding voicemail saying Hi, This is the office of Dr Allen Chung, This is a very important message, we sent you an email last week but we haven't had any response. Please return this call or call 01983890483 urgently.

 

There are no google hits for either number, if you call the 01983 number it doesn't exist and at the time the 03 number returned 'this number does not accept incoming calls' but now says the number doesn't exist. A Google search for Dr Allen Chung says they are either an optometrist in SanDiego or an oncologist in Rhode Island.

 

[6Foot2]

... Please return this call or call 01983890483 urgently.

 

There are no google hits for either number, if you call the 01983 number it doesn't exist...

 

Link: 01983890483 Who Called Me? | who-called.co.uk

 

This number is a landline owned by Magrathea Telecommunications Limited, and is located in Isle of Wight, England.

 

The overall user rating for this number is currently Undetermined as there are no user comments yet...

 

A little more information, though not much admittedly.

[mthomas08]

Am I the only one starting to notice how scam calls and sales calls are getting worse?

[6Foot2]

Am I the only one starting to notice how scam calls and sales calls are getting worse?

 

No, the last few I've had were "low quality", poor effort. Most recently was an AI voice that couldn't handle unexpected replies.

[Ketlane]

Haven't had an even mildly convincing one for ages....and the AI ones always fall over if you give unexpected answers.

[AlistairB1983]

Am I the only one starting to notice how scam calls and sales calls are getting worse?

It's probably more accurate to say they're getting lazier (which, I admit, also happens to make them worse).

 

They're realising that it's much more efficient to use a scam that requires 1% effort to get 10% success rate than it is to try a scam that requires 40% effort and gets a 15% success rate (or whatever numbers one chooses to apply).

 

So they're just putting in the minimum amount of effort possible in the hopes of still getting some, however minor, success. Makes their time more valuable that way - but does make life easier for the majority of the rest of us to spot them.

[mikeprice]

Am I the only one starting to notice how scam calls and sales calls are getting worse?

 

My experience is that they go in cycles

 

you get more and more and they vary in quality - and when they reject you they pass the number on to 3-4 others

 

then the system start to realise they have already rung you and you were no in their target zone so the calls slow down and stop

 

then you get on a list again and they start up again

 

The quality does the same - it increases until the good ones (well - good in that they are good at it) realise you won;t repond

then your number gets passed onto others

and so on

 

 

probably

 

but the bad ones are sometimes the clever ones - making obvious mistakes and anyone not spotting the easy things are likely to be more vulnerable

 

which is morally terrible

but possibly financially beneficial

[6Foot2]

I just got a call from 07436 934135. An AI-generated voice told me that I had been selected for participation in a Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament. The voice continued:

 

"Message (forgotten WhatApp number here) if you are interested."

 

The call then ended.

 

Reported and blocked.

[6Foot2]

On 27/01/2025 at 12:59, 6Foot2 said:

I just got a call (supposedly a wrong number) They were "returning a call" about an enquiry made on their site about whisky as an investment. They promised 12.5% per year and tried to get details about me. The (private) number was withheld.

 

I don't smell whisky, but a scam.

 

Link: Hundreds lose life savings in whisky barrel scam - BBC News

 

Quote

Victims have been conned out of millions of pounds in a whisky barrel investment scam, a BBC investigation has found.

 

Hundreds of people were duped into ploughing their life savings and pensions into casks that were overpriced or did not exist, while some individual casks were sold multiple times to different investors.

 

The victims include one woman with terminal cancer who invested £76,000 and another woman who spent more than £100,000 on casks which experts say were only ever worth a fraction of the price they paid.

 

The BBC can reveal that police are investigating three Scotch whisky companies over fraud allegations, with investments running into the millions.

 

The market's popularity has grown rapidly in recent years because of the reports of huge returns being made from rare whiskies.

 

Investors buy a cask of whisky when it is first produced and then hope that it rises in value as the spirit ages in the barrel.

 

It takes three years for spirit to become Scotch whisky in a cask, and investors are encouraged to keep barrels for up to 10 years or more to maximise returns.

 

There are many legitimate traders – but a lack of regulation has enabled fraudsters to exploit the market. They use misleading claims and even outright fabrications to lure in unsuspecting investors.

 

There is no central authority regulating or tracking the ownership of casks, making it difficult to verify claims.

 

As a result, many investors find themselves entangled in complex legal disputes or left with assets worth far less than they were led to believe.

 

Alison Cocks, from Montrose, invested £103,000 in a company called Cask Whisky Ltd, run by a man calling himself Craig Arch.

 

She initially bought a single whisky cask for £3,000, and at first everything appeared legitimate.

 

Mrs Cocks was given certificates, and the company provided an online portal where she could track her investment. Her portfolio appeared to grow, on paper at least.

 

Comforted by the projected returns she was being promised, which started at 12% and were forecast to increase to as much as 50% over time, she was convinced to invest more.

 

She bought another three casks for a total of £100,000.

 

However, she said that the problems started when she told the company she wanted to sell.

 

"Suddenly they didn't want to talk to me anymore. They were avoiding my calls. I was really panicking," she said.

 

"I decided I would start investigating my own casks.

 

"On my certificates, it showed where my casks were, allegedly. When I actually contacted those warehouses, they weren't there."

 

Mrs Cocks was told by independent whisky valuers that she paid five times what her barrels were actually worth.

 

She has since been able to track down three of the four casks in warehouses, but none is in her name. One has also been bought by someone else.

 

The most expensive cask she bought – which cost her £49,500 – does not exist.

Alison Cocks is one of 200 people who invested with Cask Whisky Ltd and are trying to work out if they actually own their casks.

 

The BBC has discovered that Craig Arch – the company's CEO – is actually Craig Brooks, a disqualified director and convicted fraudster.

 

In 2019, Brooks and his brother were jailed for a £6.2m fraud, where 350 victims were cold called and convinced to invest in carbon credits and "rare earth metals".

 

The City of London Police Serious and Organised Crime team is now investigating Brooks' whisky company.

 

But the BBC can also reveal that Brooks is running another cask whisky company, Cask Spirits Global Ltd, under another false name, Craig Hutchins.

 

As a disqualified director, it is illegal to run or control a company.

 

Yet, using the name Hutchins, Brooks told an undercover BBC reporter that he was in charge of "decision making" and that he dealt with finances.

 

When confronted, Brooks admitted his name was not Hutchins, but maintained all of the whisky casks he sold existed. He said he never told the reporter he made the company decisions.

Another company, called Whisky Scotland, has also left a trail of dissatisfied investors.

 

They include NHS worker Jay Evans, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2021. She put her home in Brighton on the market so she could make investments to provide long-term security for her loved ones.

 

She invested almost £76,000 in Whisky Scotland after being promised lucrative returns from a company director.

 

Mrs Evans, 54, sold her home and moved to Peacehaven in East Sussex, then used the money from the sale to invest in seven casks.

 

The company's director sent her voicemails from across the world, telling her she was his "favourite ever client" and that he would "always look after her".

 

But two of the casks did not exist, and the other five had been sold at a much higher cost than their true worth.

 

Mrs Evans has been told it would take 25 years to recoup what she has paid.

 

The company and directors have now vanished. Its Glasgow office is just a rented space and a BBC reporter was told they were never there.

 

"They've made somebody who's facing end of life at an early age, they've made it infinitely more difficult. None of it will matter to people like this," Mrs Evans said.

 

Her wife Susie Walker said it was "heart-breaking" that the money Jay had worked for had gone overnight, and that she would now need to carry on working.

 

Self-employed locksmith Geoff Owens, from Wrexham, invested his life savings - more than £100,000 - with Whisky Scotland.

 

He and other investors are now trying to track down their casks and their investments.

 

Mr Owens says he will not stop until he finds out what has happened to his money.

 

"No-one is going to rip me off and walk away from this, without me facing you," he said.

 

"I will get an army together who you've ripped off, and we will try and do something about it."

 

The BBC asked the directors of Whisky Scotland for a comment. They did not respond.

 

Martin Armstrong runs Whisky Broker, a bonded warehouse in Creetown, near Dumfries, which stores 48,000 casks.

 

He says he is being contacted "almost every day" by investors looking for casks sold by unscrupulous companies.

 

Asked if he thought that fraud could ever be so rife in the sector, he said: "No. But I knew it was possible.

 

"When there's money involved, then everything follows."

 

Kenny Macdonald - a legitimate whisky cask broker who runs his own company, Dram Mor – said there were other "good guys" operating in the industry.

 

He said there were "a huge amount of people" who were "profiteering" - but that in those cases, investors were at least getting a product.

 

"And then you get the ones who are downright nasty. And they're selling somebody a piece of paper, for a cask that just never existed.

 

"The sharks are circling. They know there's blood. They can smell it.

 

"And unfortunately, in this particular case, the blood is whisky."

 

[enjay]

Two from me.

 

I've received text messages to my personal and work phones (and also a friend got it recently too) claiming to be from DWP about an upcoming deadline (the next day, as you would expect) to apply for my 2024-25 subsidy. My friend's one started "hi dear" so was obviously fake (!) but they'd corrected that by the time I got mine.

 

A pre-recorded message called my work mobile yesterday telling me they're from Indeed and to add them on WhatsApp so they could discuss an opportunity with me.

[LeMarchand]

"Maya from Durlston Partners" wants to know if it's OK to send me details of a job. Odd that she didn't just tell me in the text.

[Rob_D]

I've had a couple of "robot Voice" phone calls asking me to add people on linked.

[6Foot2]

I have just been called by "O2" on 02037455030.

 

Who called me? | United Kingdom's Free Reverse Phone Lookup identify this number as having an overall "negative" rating.

 

The first person on the line set things up for another "agent" to jump in. They claimed to be from O2, saying my SIM was about to become obsolete and wouldn’t support the signals needed for calls. I strung them along for a solid 13 minutes until they realized it was a dead end.

 

Flagged and blocked.
 

[mikes]

Loads of "job offers" now - Tik Tok opportunities - make £900 a day, honest!   I've heard some of these are even posting propaganda for the CCP! (not for £900 a day or I'd consider turning traitor!)  are they trying to target young people?   And as laughable as some of these attempts are  lots of pensioners fall for them every day - like they want them to be legit! I think giving them access to their whole pensions was probably a mistake

[Oaktech]

2 more HMRC scams robo calls this week. 

[Oaktech]

On 15/05/2025 at 09:30, Oaktech said:

2 more HMRC scams robo calls this week. 

And another one today - all from 07798 296630 

 

Blocked the number now. 

[enjay]

My parents got one recently, a phone call from someone claiming to be a Police officer. They had caught someone who was trying to use my mum's credit card in a shop and claimed they were her granddaughter and had permission to use the card, so the officer wanted to verify this. They gave a name, station and badge number as proof of identity but then hung up when my parents said they'd call the station to verify this. I assume the objective was to get mum to give out her card details so the "officer" could "confirm" it was definitely that card.

[6Foot2]

On 10/05/2025 at 17:13, 6Foot2 said:

I have just been called by "O2" on 02037455030.

 

Who called me? | United Kingdom's Free Reverse Phone Lookup identify this number as having an overall "negative" rating.

 

The first person on the line set things up for another "agent" to jump in. They claimed to be from O2, saying my SIM was about to become obsolete and wouldn’t support the signals needed for calls. I strung them along for a solid 13 minutes until they realized it was a dead end.

 

Flagged and blocked.

 

Last night, I got a call on 0203745045. More scammers! I didn't have time to string them along, so I confronted them immediately.

 

While protesting their innocence, they addressed me with the fake credentials I gave the last lot. I guess they think that I gave some valid data in the previous call.

 

Reported and blocked.

[6Foot2]

 

[Dos_Box]

The past couple of weeks have seen my phone get many spam calls (pretty much all 0330 numbers), and all after 4pm for some bizarre reason.

[enjay]

On 21/10/2025 at 14:13, Dos_Box said:

The past couple of weeks have seen my phone get many spam calls (pretty much all 0330 numbers), and all after 4pm for some bizarre reason.

 

I'm getting several calls per day from mobile numbers, all of which are flagged as "suspected spam" by my Pixel.

[Davit2005]

Not had a scam PCN notice before but this is my second in 2 days. Forwarded to 7726

 

Edited December 11, 2025 by Davit2005

[Andrew_C]

Had one from OFWAT claiming to be a customer survey.  Run by a company that was wound up in October...

 

Smelt as bad as one of Southern Water's outfalls.