UKC

I've had what seams to be my very first banking scam call today.
The caller claimed to be from my local branch.

I never answer numbers I don't recognise and so I didn't answer, however they left a message asking me to call them back. No information was given on what it was about at all, and they got my name wrong. Plus the number they wanted me to call wasn't the number that they called me on.

I checked out the number given and it doesn't appear to be from my local branch.

Scum bags. Burn in hell.

:-/

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

Are you sure it wasn't the Microsoft engineer?

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

Quite fullish to leave evidence on an answerphone.

You could forward that call onto your bank and the police for further investigation?

In reply to FesteringSore:

I have no idea why they would cold call me either.
My account is up to date and I'm not late on any payments.
I've checked my bank and everything looks OK.

Anyone else had something like this ?

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

I'm getting periodic calls which I think are genuine. My bank trying to upsell me stuff I don't need. It falls down when they try to verify my identity, and I tell them if it's a scam they are onto a loser and if it's real, they're being grossly irresponsible. Either way, I'm not giving them any info. The conversation sort of stalls at that point.

In reply to toad:

On checking the number out that they called from it lists it a being mainly negative rating .

Some people claim its genuine , and the rest of the time they claim to be from either Sainsburry's, Loyds, Bank of Scotland, Halifax, NPower etc etc...

Some people have checked with their bank and have been told that it certainly wasn't from their bank and its a scam .

TWS

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

I love scam calls.

I used to get one thar would always call at the exact same time once a week. I spent many a bored moment contemplating which comedy character I would assume for this weeks call, Basil Fawlty being a perennial favourite.

In reply to toad:


I had those for a while. Think I got stuck on the blacklist after amusing myself for several minutes.

In reply to KevinD:


not by banking i hope

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

www.whocallsme.com is useful.

In reply to toad:


Same here - they phone me and ask me to identify myself. I explain that when I call them, they ask me to identify myself, so surely the reverse is true and they should tell me the answers to my security questions. They then explain they can't give out personal information over the phone and we hit stalemate.

In reply to Toerag:


Yep I use these lookup websites whenever I get unsolicited calls.

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

I had the one about my BT internet (I'm on Virgin)

and a while ago apparently my computer was affected by a virus. They knew because Windows had alerted their helpline. "Gosh!" I said "that's damn clever"
"What version of Windows are you using sir?"
Me, "Snow leopard"
(well it was a while ago)

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

Someone having fun with the scammers:
http://blog.drsolly.com/2016/04/the-tech-support-scam-saga.html

:

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

As I work sat in front of a computer, if I ever get a call from a number I don't recognise then I quickly google it. If it's a scam, it'll quickly come up on the websites like the one toerag lists. If it's a scam I'll let it ring out then block the number. If it's not, then I'll either pick up or wait to see if they leave a message.

Not much use if you don't work sat in front of a computer though.

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

Always worthwhile just checking on any call that does come through.
A colleague of mine blocked ALL calls except the few in his phone (girlfriend, etc).
He was checking some bank transactions on line and saw some that weren't appropriate. He immediately called the bank and demanded to know what was happening. They advised him that they had tried to contact him by phone AND had sent out a letter - he tends to dump most official looking letters from the bank as they are "just trying to sell him stuff!
Sometimes the calls are genuine (I had one but replied through the official number rather than call back on the missed call).

In reply to Chive Talkin\':
I think I've mentioned this before but its one of my prouder moments so I'll repeat myself, I dont usually do this sort of thing but...

I took a few hours at home to sort out builders to fit some lintels over our UPVC windows.
I dont normally answer the landline in working hours as it cannot be anyone who knows me.
I heard an article on the radio a few days previously about exactly this scam.
I picked up the phone thinking it might be one of the builders..

It went something like..

"Hello sir this is 'Steve' calling from Windows technical support"

Oooh the poetry of it .. shall I.. yes I've got mischief in me today, normally I'm the mild mannered janitor, but tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be Hong Kong Phooy....

"Windows technical support? Oh thank god you phoned back, yes we have a big problem with our windows...they do need technical support"

And waffled on for as long as possible about installing catnics and would we need Acroprop while we were installing it? could he pop out and look at the job? Would the pointing match?

Small victories can be the best ones.

In reply to Rodders:


One answer to the problem identified by LBS is to call your bank back on your usual number; if they're trying to get in touch with you, there ought to be a flag on your account, so when you call, they know why you're calling. A bank should never be asking your for your security details, because it would be so simple for scammers to extract security details from the unwary by cold calling.

The problem with calling your bank back immediately is that scammers can keep the line open after you put the phone down (and the line will reconnect, if the disconnect is short), even to the extent of generating a false dial tone. When they hear you dialling with touch tones, they play a ring tone for a bit, and then answer, pretending to be your bank. Then they go through the scam, with you thinking you're talking to your bank.

So, if a bank calls you to ask you to contact them for some problem, they should be telling you to either call back on a different phone, or wait a period long enough for the phone system to drop the open line (not sure what that is of the top of my head), or use another accesss medium (online banking, etc).

In reply to captain paranoia:


In the UK at least with landlines, this phenomenon of the 'open line' being maintained by the caller is meant to be ended or ending soon so this should help with some of these scans.

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

I've had the Microsoft engineer call several times, usually 'Dave', 'Steve' or 'Mark', all with a very thick Indian accent and an appalling line quality. I've found that you can waste their time by speaking a mixture of English, German and french in each sentence; some of them are quite tenacious at following their scripts

In reply to Wingnut:



I always aim to have fun, but can never quite stop myself from feeling annoyed and asking if their parents brought them up to be dishonest. It feels like an opportunity lost when they hang up.

Edit: None of them ever say 'Yes they did'

In reply to Wingnut:

That's amazingly funny!