UKC

Just had this one on my answer machine:

"This is to inform you that HMRC are filing a lawsuit against you, press 1 to speak to your case officer"

I could imagine some people being paniced into pressing 1...

Anyone else come across this one?

In reply to Mark Kemball:

Thankfully this one is easy to spot. the HMRC can't even answer phones let alone use them to call out.

Some serious thought needs to go into how we deal with this sort of thing. We need to see some proper investigation, and some humungous punishments (including extraditions/diplomatic action if these crimes are being perpetrated from abroad)

In reply to balmybaldwin:

We have just "signed up" for BT Call Protect which enables nuisance numbers to be black listed. We've only had it a week so I can't yet say how effective it is.

In reply to Mark Kemball:

I presume it was a robotic message otherwise it would be fun to tell the caller that you work for HMRC

In reply to Mark Kemball:

I think the giveaway is "lawsuit". I've not heard of this term being used in British legal jargon. But I may be wrong.

In reply to mypyrex:

That would be neat!

In reply to mypyrex:


I work with BT as a telecoms engineer and I was working in an elderly customers house one day when a scam phone call came in pretending to be BT and wanting to fix the customers computer for a fee.
old lady said oh that's handy I will just pass you over to one of your colleagues and gave me the phone to take the call.
they hung up pretty fast . scumbags.

In reply to mypyrex:

Apart from the idea you're first contact with HMRC would be a recorded message!

In reply to buzby:

The "BT Broadband" muppets call me 5 times a day. I've asked them to be taken off their list of mugs, as they're wasting both our times.

In reply to SiGregory:

I had the " computer licensing department " on last week. I played along for a bit before letting rip. Great fun!

In reply to coinneach:

I get loads of calls from 'Microsoft support' saying they have detected a problem with my computer. If I'm not too busy, I like to play them along and had one guy so frustrated, when he realised I was just wasting his time, that he spent and extra couple of minutes calling me a surprisingly fluent and inventive range of rude names. Quite impressive, considering English wasn't his first language - I'm sure with such language skills he could have found a better job.

In reply to NathanP:
I wish I had the detachment to play them along, I end up getting cross and asking where their consciences are & if their parents brought them up to be dishonest. Quite satisfying to hear some sounding perturbed when I ask about their parents, though, I have a hope that some would stop eventually if everybody asked.

A brother managed to get one to apologise for ringing him up over the weekend. I don't know how.

In reply to Mark Kemball:
I took to experimenting with pretending they've got the time difference wrong and why are they calling at 3 in the morning? Was surprisingly effective

In reply to NathanP:

Its not just me then !

I have had the MS Licensing guy and the PPI guy all getting increasingly irate and eventually telling me to F**k off in the end, i saw it as a victory !

In reply to Timmd:

,,,, but that charming, well spoken, chatty & flirtatious lady calling from Nigeria Absolutely Promised I had $48MIL heading my way ,,, Drums fingers on desk and checks watch ,,,

In reply to Mark Kemball:

I now have call blocking so no longer suffer from it.

However I did find that a particularly nice way of dealing with a cold caller was to have a whistle available - not a cheap plastic one, but a proper metal Acme "Thunderer" Refs whistle.
One really good long blast into the phone does something terrible to the hearing of the little s*d that's wasting yours (and everybody else's) time.

In reply to NathanP:

My favourite play along was from a window salesman who was flogging double glazing. He told me all about them and then I explained I was in a new build... he didn't give up and said they did some great conservatories. Well I said a conservatory would be marvelous and I could really do with the extra space. He seemed really pleased until when he asked for my address which happened to be a top floor apartment
He was quite cross.

In reply to NathanP:

My favorite on these lines was me playing along, acting stupid (as a mac user, his windows instructions weren't working well) etc.
Finally "are you playing with me?"
"why on earth would I do that? I want to solve this problem"
we then chatted amicably about this and that...
Finally: "I'd better go - my supervisor is looking at me..." and he hung up

So they are human!