UKC

My Mum is a Virgin customer. She is 89 and keeps getting nuisance calls from someone who almost got her to divulge her bank details. Is there an easy way to stop this?? Thanks.

 

In reply to Phil1919:

Is this on a mobile or landline? And always from same number or different ones?

In reply to Phil Scott:

Its to a landline, and maybe from the same number. I'll ask her to see if she can check. They have been repeating the same attempted scam these last few weeks.

In reply to Phil1919:

Virgin have a habit of recycling land line numbers without much of a gap between users. I get loads of calls from debt collectors and financial institutions chasing a woman who obviously had a very bad financial situation. I tell them over and over again that they have the wrong number but once one company is unsuccessful the details of the debt will just be packaged up and sold to another company.

Now that your mum has responded to one call there's no doubt that she will be on a list for more scammers.

In reply to Phil1919:

Set up utilities & insurance etc to pay by direct debit so she's confident it's a phone call she can ignore. Without taking away payment cards it's difficult.

At that age you should be considering power of attorney for health/welfare and power of attorney for finances if they're not set up already.

Be wary if she falls for a minor scam. That makes her a preferred target for these scum.

In reply to Phil1919:

Does she HAVE to be with Virgin ? Might be worth considering changing to BT an using the Call Protect service:

https://www.productsandservices.bt.com/landline/calling-features?s_cid=con_...

In reply to Phil1919:

Virgin may have a filtering system similar to 'Sky Talk Shield', look it up. 

 

If you want to take more control, are reasonably technically competent and want to catch the bast#rds out, you can do this :

Port the number to a VOIP provider (like aaisp.net)

You can then get all calls to the original number directed to anywhere you like :

- Straight back to a landline

- To a mobile

- To a VOIP handset in her house

You can change this whenever you want very easily by logging in. Helpful if she may have to spend a bit of time in hospital, moves in to a home or even comes to stay with you for a bit. 

You can also get it to record all the calls straight into mp3s, which can be emailed to you or just a gmail account as a store. 

The log of calls is also very precise and complete. You can access it at any time and see the call duration and CLI's etc. 

 

In reply to Phil1919:

Last number call barring. Demand a new phone number (I did this with talk talk after they were hacked). 

In reply to Phil1919:

I found getting rid of my landline solved that.  I was getting nothing other than "spam" calls on it.

In reply to Phil1919:

Thanks all. 

Yes, I've thought about changing provider, but she has a Virgin cable into the house. It was all cheap when they put it in, but they have cranked up the prices of course, but she'd have to have a new landline fitted and change the way she gets the tele. I'll certainly contact Virgin to see if they can help. I have power of attourney set up and may activate it soon. Porting the number etc sounds good but probably a bit beyond me as I'm also getting on and was born in the landline era. 

In reply to Phil1919:

Sign up for the telephone preference service. This makes it illegal for anyone to make unsolicited sales calls to you. 

In reply to Phil1919:

That's the simple solution. We are on TPS and we don't get more than a couple of unsolicited calls a year.

In reply to Rigid Raider:

If they are prepared to commit full on financial fraud over the phone I very much doubt that a toothless quango like the TPS is going to offer any sort of deterrent.

In reply to Phil1919: Have you looked at the Truecall call blocker ? Costs about £100 but seems to work pretty well for my mother (the alternative was to hide her hearing aid so she couldnt hear the phone)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TrueCall-The-Nuisance-Call-Blocker-White-Silver/dp...

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/nuisance-calls/article/nuisance-calls-call-...

 

In reply to Rigid Raider:

Yes, I'll check she is signed up but I think she is.

Gadget looks good but my Mum, although she can hear ok, has got even more careful with her money as she has got older!

Yes, the people who almost got into her account seem a step up from the insurance PPI type callers.

 

In reply to Phil1919:

Register with TPS, I found the volume of nuisance calls dropped substantially after registering.

In reply to Phil1919:

TPS only works for calls from within the UK. I get about half a dozen calls from outside the UK a day fortunately I'm usually at work.   

In reply to Phil1919:

The easiest / most effective way will be a network level blocker like the BT service. It works by looking at calling patterns and customer reports and blocks numbers at a network level.  The vast majority come in from outside the country to get around the TPS. If she's not ex-directory then you can do that, but most scammers use an autodialler and simply hit a number range.

In reply to Phil1919:

Sign her up for the TPS (telephone preference agency) government led scheme, launched years ago, lots of ISP's should be telling her/you about this, they are also obliged to give you help and support around nuisance calls. I work for a ISP and we deal with calls alldya everyday on this.

There should be paid for features to add to the phone line that may stop some calls (appreciated you may not want to pay) but also there may be something similar to the call guardian or talk shield by bt/sky respectively.

Hope this is ok

ta