👮 Scam phone calls and texts

[tg12]

Just go Jim Browning on them, reverse any connections, trace the IP, crack into the office CCTV etc!

[LeMarchand]

I had a "Life Insurance Review" this morning. They hung up after a few minutes of me responding to every question, "But I'm still alive".

[mikeprice]

I had a "Life Insurance Review" this morning. They hung up after a few minutes of me responding to every question, "But I'm still alive".

 

Reminds me of going round to see my Dad a few years before he died

 

He had just had a salesperson on the phone trying to get him to buy a 10 year extended warranty on a new $somethingorother

 

he kept saying "But I'm 82 - what do I need a 10 year guarantee for - I'll be dead before then"

apparently the person on the other end was rather confused

[LeMarchand]

Answered an unknown number (01922 660720) as expecting calls from various banks.

"Good afternoon. is that Mr LeMarchand?"

 

"Yes it is."

 

"I am calling from about your life insurance. We have a special offer that will save our customers money."

 

"That sounds great! Can you remind me how much I'm paying at the moment?"

 

"Yes, our special offer will save you money."

 

"Great! How much am I paying at the moment?"

 

"I... I will put my supervisor on."

 

Beeeeeeep.

[mikeprice]

I had one from BT OpenReach this morning

 

I answered with a bit of a sigh and asked what he wanted

 

he hung up - maybe an exasperated sigh is a good reponse

 

shame I didn;t get to find out if there was a problem with my broadband or if he was going to help me with a problem detected on my computer

[6Foot2]

Unrolled thread:

 

Link 1: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1508047180132716550.html [Thread Reader: Original Tweet Author: emily m, 6 Tweets]

 

 

Link 2:

[Emily Maitlis Twitter Thread]

[Garacesh]

Yup, all the more reason the UK carriers need to get the VOIP number spoofing issues fixed.

And whilst we're at it, is the whole thing where you hang up your landline but they keep the call open their end and then no matter who you dial, you get the same line, still a thing? I seem to recall people talking about something like that a good few years ago.

[Davit2005]

2 in a short time space last week

 

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Davit2005

[Scan099]

Just had a call on a works mobile from a debt collection company telling me I owed £350,000 and police were going to be informed if I refused to pay - they went on to say do I need assistance in paying this money back?

 

but I pointed out to the caller I had won the euromillions lottery of 140million and would she like me to give her some money to get a real job and to stop scamming people - she said no sir I don't want your money sorry and hung up.........

 

I don't know what the £350,000 was for

[Oaktech]

Terrible Robocall today... "This. Is. Revenue... And. Customs. You owe... TwoHundred... And... FiftyThousand... Pounds. To avoid being arrested at... Six... Thirty... Tonight... At... YourHomeAddress. Please. Press. 1... Now."

 

Click... And... Block.

[LeMarchand]

Terrible Robocall today... "This. Is. Revenue... And. Customs. You owe... TwoHundred... And... FiftyThousand... Pounds. To avoid being arrested at... Six... Thirty... Tonight... At... YourHomeAddress. Please. Press. 1... Now."

 

Click... And... Block.

 

 

Surely they'd be better off with a lower figure? A lot of the members here wouldn't have paid that much tax over their working lifetime!

[Oaktech]

Surely they'd be better off with a lower figure? A lot of the members here wouldn't have paid that much tax over their working lifetime!

 

a few of my colleagues have also had similar calls, one other from the same number, one of them twice! They ask for a different amount each time. We've had a range from 5k to my 250k.

[mikeprice]

Making the amount so extreme does seem a bit strange

 

Unless, of course, it comes from a place where 300,000 of the local currency is worth a much lower amount - in which case some locals setting up the script could get it wrong

 

 

 

On a different note - I actually came on here to say that I realised yesterday that I haven;t had a single dodgy call - either scams, cold calling or people fishing for names to pass on to companies - for quite a while - and by that I mean months

 

Normally I get a few empty weeks followed by 2-4 a week for a few weeks

 

 

Anyone else seen this or is it just me??

[6Foot2]

Just go Jim Browning on them, reverse any connections, trace the IP, crack into the office CCTV etc!

 

[6Foot2]

5Foot2 has just told me that she has been "pinged due to close contact with an Omnicom positive case" This despite her phone's Bluetooth being off for some time now and so the NHS app on her phone can't have been pinged.

 

Sending number: 07563877046.

 

She has reported it as spam and blocked the number.

[LeMarchand]

Just had a call from someone who was going to save me £5000 on my life insurance. When I pointed out that I didn't see how, as I don't pay that much, she hung up. I suspect she either misread or was given a script with a typo. Unless I've somehow got onto a database of very rich peeps that do spend significantly over £5k (rather than £500) on life insurance.

[mikeprice]

Just had a call from someone who was going to save me £5000 on my life insurance. When I pointed out that I didn't see how, as I don't pay that much, she hung up. I suspect she either misread or was given a script with a typo. Unless I've somehow got onto a database of very rich peeps that do spend significantly over £5k (rather than £500) on life insurance.

 

I suppose it would be pretty easy to save someone £5,000 over the expected 'rest of life' if the person is currently in their 30s or 40s

 

of course they make it sound like it is per month or year but.....

 

they probably hung up because you know roughly how much you pay - their ideal target is someone who can be convinced that they will save this but don't actually how much they pay and hence can;t check

 

you probably sound too intelligent - although it is rather low bar so don't thank me

[elsiegee40]

I received a text this morning. Apparently I am qualified to work for Walmart. (I assume that means they think you’re gullible enough)

 

Well I’m not, so it’s been forwarded to 7726 and the phone number in the text used when they asked for the phone number

Edited June 19, 2022 by elsiegee40

[mikeprice]

After a long gap with almost no dodgy call I have had 4 over the last few days

 

all - apparently - from "The Energy Saving Trust"

1 to the landline and 2 on the mobile

 

I haven;t had time or inclination to keep them on the phone for any time but I did explain to one woman how annoying it is to get these dumb calls

she tried to explain that she isn;t selling anything and was trying to help

 

 

but it does seem strange that I suddenly get a flurry of them - must have got on a list I suppose

 

although we have just come back from touring the North of Scotland - including the Orkneys - and we do know there are some strange people on those Northerly islands

so I wonder if the hotel wifi did something weird

[RetiredBut]

I hope I'll be forgiven for halting after page 5 of this 13 page thread and using the thread search tool and entering these words; police, law enforcement, city hall, department.

 

The reason for that was by the end of page 5 I was realizing that there seemed to be no reference to any sort of law enforcement agency or civil authority and I am wondering if there are bulletins published on a weekly or monthly basis by any of the civil authorities in your communities about any of these scams?

 

I am also wondering what sort of law enforcement resources are any of you aware of that are devoted to any sort of phone scams such as are being posted here in this thread? Are there mechanisms in place at the law enforcement level to somewhat easily report these scams you are writing about?

 

Bottom line for these questions is that I don't seem to be finding any references by any of you about what civil authorities are doing to help the vulnerable citizens of a given civil authority's area of responsibility.

 

By "vulnerable" I think I am mostly thinking of elderly folks that are not too sharp about this sort of thing. I realize that is horrible stereotyping, but it might be close to correct. Yes, I am an elderly type, but then I have worked in security and am fully aware of these types of problems. But I think there might be a whole bunch of elderly folks, and non-elderly, that simply aren't up to snuff on such matters and so I ask about what civil authorities are doing about that.

 

Interestingly, I would suspect everyone posting in this thread has pretty much briefed themselves and their family and friends about not falling for these types of scams, but have you ever reached out beyond your own kin and friends to help others?

 

And I do ask a lot of questions, don't I? Please accept my apology for that.

[elsiegee40]

I hope I'll be forgiven for halting after page 5 of this 13 page thread and using the thread search tool and entering these words; police, law enforcement, city hall, department.

 

The reason for that was by the end of page 5 I was realizing that there seemed to be no reference to any sort of law enforcement agency or civil authority and I am wondering if there are bulletins published on a weekly or monthly basis by any of the civil authorities in your communities about any of these scams?

 

I am also wondering what sort of law enforcement resources are any of you aware of that are devoted to any sort of phone scams such as are being posted here in this thread? Are there mechanisms in place at the law enforcement level to somewhat easily report these scams you are writing about?

 

Bottom line for these questions is that I don't seem to be finding any references by any of you about what civil authorities are doing to help the vulnerable citizens of a given civil authority's area of responsibility.

 

By "vulnerable" I think I am mostly thinking of elderly folks that are not too sharp about this sort of thing. I realize that is horrible stereotyping, but it might be close to correct. Yes, I am an elderly type, but then I have worked in security and am fully aware of these types of problems. But I think there might be a whole bunch of elderly folks, and non-elderly, that simply aren't up to snuff on such matters and so I ask about what civil authorities are doing about that.

 

Interestingly, I would suspect everyone posting in this thread has pretty much briefed themselves and their family and friends about not falling for these types of scams, but have you ever reached out beyond your own kin and friends to help others?

 

And I do ask a lot of questions, don't I? Please accept my apology for that.

 

We literally spend every day of our lives doing this. Colleagues, family, friends… users!

 

It is our job to do so. If we don’t do it, our IT networks become even more vulnerable to attack and people are exposed. If you look at the spam emails thread you will see the huge amount of effort that goes into spreading the word as well as the technical effort. Spend some time going through the Data Protection and Security forums… the discussions in there about protecting people are too many to mention.

 

More than anything, this thread has evolved into a list of the latest fads that we can alert the less aware to.

 

I am sorry you seem to have so little faith in us. This is a technical forum which was set up originally to help professionals working in schools. IT Professionals working with the most vulnerable members of society. Some have now moved away from education IT to business, some of us have retired, but even so not a day goes by when we are not doing something to protect people from this kind of attack and our networks from attack.

 

Some of our responses may seem frivolous. Everyone is allowed to lighten the mood. It doesn’t mean we aren’t taking the work and the people deadly seriously. If, as you claim, you are ex military then I am assure you will appreciate that.

Edited June 20, 2022 by elsiegee40

[Garacesh]

The reason for that was by the end of page 5 I was realizing that there seemed to be no reference to any sort of law enforcement agency or civil authority

[...]

I am also wondering what sort of law enforcement resources are any of you aware of that are devoted to any sort of phone scams

[...]

Bottom line for these questions is that I don't seem to be finding any references by any of you about what civil authorities are doing to help the vulnerable

That's probably because they're not doing anything lol

 

It's incredibly few-and-far-between in the UK that I see anything by the police or any legal agency that's actually proactive for these scams.

Where the usual channels of communication with the vulnerable are concerned (e.g. facebook) it's usually charities that are putting this information out, and when it's published media (e.g. newspapers or e-news sites) it's something the organisation is reporting on because it's news, and not because the police have asked them to (often there's a canned quote from some agency or other, but it's very much a 'the journalist is hunting cases and following this up' rather than anything else)

 

The UK police are criminally under-staffed and under-funded, and given that most of these scams operate from outside the UK, there's not really a whole lot they could do even if they wanted to.

[LeMarchand]

The reason for that was by the end of page 5 I was realizing that there seemed to be no reference to any sort of law enforcement agency or civil authority and I am wondering if there are bulletins published on a weekly or monthly basis by any of the civil authorities in your communities about any of these scams?

 

I am also wondering what sort of law enforcement resources are any of you aware of that are devoted to any sort of phone scams such as are being posted here in this thread? Are there mechanisms in place at the law enforcement level to somewhat easily report these scams you are writing about?

 

Bottom line for these questions is that I don't seem to be finding any references by any of you about what civil authorities are doing to help the vulnerable citizens of a given civil authority's area of responsibility.

 

By "vulnerable" I think I am mostly thinking of elderly folks that are not too sharp about this sort of thing. I realize that is horrible stereotyping, but it might be close to correct. Yes, I am an elderly type, but then I have worked in security and am fully aware of these types of problems. But I think there might be a whole bunch of elderly folks, and non-elderly, that simply aren't up to snuff on such matters and so I ask about what civil authorities are doing about that.

 

Interestingly, I would suspect everyone posting in this thread has pretty much briefed themselves and their family and friends about not falling for these types of scams, but have you ever reached out beyond your own kin and friends to help others?

 

That's probably because they're not doing anything lol

 

It's incredibly few-and-far-between in the UK that I see anything by the police or any legal agency that's actually proactive for these scams.

Yep, unfortunately the attitude just seems to be, "Be careful out there". It's not often an easy task, or even possible, to report phishing to the company being used.

 

The last time I had a more "local" scam ("We're in your area and want to send high pressure salesmen in to force you to buy stuff that won't actually be as affordable as we make out show you a great opportunity"), I did ring the elderly neighbours whose numbers I have to let them know.

[elsiegee40]

[Garacesh]

I accidentally answered the phone. That was a mistake. Now I've had four calls already today.

Two 020 numbers, an 01334 and an 0161.