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Original poster

is it just me or do scam calls seem to be getting more frightening?

45 replies

firthy85 · 30/03/2021 07:49

hello. got a call yesterday which was an automated message to tell me that my national insureance number was being used for illegal activity. if i don't press 1 to speak to an officer i will face arrest. how do you deal with them? i remember an old poster on this topic said she hands the phone to her little dd to just babble away at them until they get bored and hang up the phone. i ended the call, i am not taken in by such scams as sadly i get so many of these but god i shudder to think if my old granmother had answered the phone or a person with mh issues or serious anxiety how scared they would be? i don't understand why more is not being done to tackle this problem. if i hadn't been clued up on these things i may have pressed 1 for the fear as the voice sounded more and more urgent.

OP posts:

Wendyhause · 30/03/2021 18:34

Two identical calls to my phone, one yesterday and another this morning. It may sound familiar!
Automated American male claiming to be Officer Charlton (or something similar) informing me there is a warrant out for my arrest and I am being taken to court by HMRC but I can halt this if I call them back on 02034671339

Oki doki then.

I am never fooled by these scams but googled the number which came up with nothing interesting.
A younger family member has received the NI number one and they were very worried as it sounded genuine! A quick bit of advice to them gave reassurance these calls and messages are ALL fake!

GoWalkabout · 30/03/2021 18:42

Sadly the scammers are making them more unbelievable because then if someone responds they know they are vulnerable although I know its easy to fall for a scam, it can happen to anyone.

DobbyTheHouseElk · 30/03/2021 18:51

@cherrytree63

I've had a few calls that are from numbers almost identical to my partners, just a different digit on each call. That's just a bit creepy and feels almost personal. I answered the first time thinking it was him, just some weird glitch with the contacts in my phone, and it was the NI number recorded message. As soon as I block the number I just get another call from a very similar number. Why cant it be like the old days when folk just used to try selling you double glazing

This happened to me. The number was almost my mobile number. Wrong by a few digits. Ignored it. Immediately it rang again with a similar number which I blocked, this went on for half an hour and it was really frustrating. In the end I hid my phone and missed a real call.

I’ve blocked all the numbers they rang on, but it was incredibly frustrating. The phone rang steadily for half and hour.

Original poster

firthy85 · 31/03/2021 08:18

hi all thanks for all the replies. problem is i am scared if i don't answer the phone as stated above i am going to miss a genuine phone call. i do almost everything from my mobile. council have my mobile number, if i sign up for a service my mobile is the number i tend to use.

OP posts:

farfallarocks · 31/03/2021 08:23

I can tell you the lowest of the low are the scammers that call you post bereavement. Special place in hell

ILiveInSalemsLot · 31/03/2021 08:54

As soon as I hear that stupid robotic voice saying ‘hello’ I just hang up.
I did once get a panicky guy yelling that there was a virus on my computer and I need to take action straight away. I sat down and made myself comfortable and said ‘oh no. Tell me more about this’. (I was a bit bored). He paused and then hung up! I obviously didn’t sound convincingly worried.

ILiveInSalemsLot · 31/03/2021 08:56

I also get text messages from different banks about unauthorised payments that look quite convincing. I’m sure some people are taken in by those.

Arbadacarba · 31/03/2021 09:03

@firthy85

If it's a genuine call they will leave a voicemail. You can then phone them back on a number you have checked independently. Any genuine caller will understand and respect your caution.

SadFlower98 · 31/03/2021 15:57

We had a very convincing person call us pretending to be from Virgin Media, claiming there were issue with our internet security

We are very savvy but this was very convincing

Called Virgin Media who confirmed it was a scam

iknowimcoming · 31/03/2021 16:47

Ive recently had the fraudulent activity detected on my internet and it would be disconnected if I didn't do xyz so I said that sounds terrible - I think you should disconnect it immediately, how quickly can it be done? They haven't called back. Also the Amazon you've ordered the latest iPhone for £1400 one - I say yes when will it be here I've been waiting ages! I like to keep them talking as long as possible on the basis it's keeping them from talking to someone else!

One of dd's (student) mates got badly done last week, had a call from her bank told her they'd stopped her card as picked up suspicious use, went through the payments and she confirmed they weren't hers, said no problem they'd cancel her card and send out a new one. Phoned her again a few hours later and said they'd looked into it further and could see the fraudsters had her account details too, so they'd had to close her accounts and set up new ones, gave her her 'new' account numbers and told her to transfer the money from old to new accounts (current and savings) which she did aaaaaaaand yep, whole thing was a scam and she transferred all her money into the scammers accounts, her bank are now 'seeing what they can do' poor girl!

shinynewapple21 · 31/03/2021 20:34

Recently I've had a few of these on my mobile , Royal Mail, HMRC abs something else . Several similar by email too.

What concerns me is that I am so suspicious that things are a scam I am one day going to get a real call / message alerting me to a problem with one of my accounts that I will just ignore assuming it's a scam .

Hoppythehippo · 31/03/2021 21:06

Had one yesterday - “I’m David from the telephone preference service hotline, we’re chasing up scam calls and wanted to know if you had any nuisance calls lately? Because for £20 we can block them.”

“Yes, you. Goodbye.”

PussyCatEatingEasterEggs · 31/03/2021 21:24

I had one from BT about a problem with my account with them.
I don't have a BT account so I said "hang on a tick while I turn the TV down" and walked away... He'd ended the call when I came back to the phone 10 mins later.
I googled the no and it was a scam.

Eruss · 31/03/2021 21:40

I know you're talking about the phone calls but there if you ever get a scam email you can forward it to [email protected]
They email you back confirmation, I forward loads to them

PainterInPeril · 31/03/2021 21:56

Phone Action Fraud to report it. The police directed me to them when I reported a scam call.

CuthbertDibbleandGrubb · 31/03/2021 22:01

I went ex directory years ago. Seemed to reduce the number of fake/scam calls.

PanamaPattie · 31/03/2021 22:02

I had a call this morning. "Hello Ma'am, I'm calling from the technical department at Sky broadband. "I haven't got Sky". "BT"?, nope "Talk Talk" nope. I said poor effort and hung up. At least attempt to be convincing.

Rainbowandscarlett · 31/03/2021 22:08

I had one about 3 weeks ago
phone rang
Me-hello?
Bloke-I’m from hmrc,I’m ringing to tell you that you owe £1,500 and it must be paid within the next 15 minutes or you will be arrested-press 1 to pay
Me-pull other one mate,it’s got balls on it
I hung up
Exactly 15 minutes later the door went-it sounded like they where trying to put my door through
I really freaked out-it’s amazing what runs through your head-‘omg,I’m going to be arrested,will it be in the papers?will I look good in prison clothes?what will my partner say?will he visit me?will he leave me?who’s going to buy his mums birthday and Christmas presents?’(I only buy them as I’m better at thinking about what she’d like and I adore her)
I opened the door and peered round it

It was our new postman with about 6 parcels for me-he knocks like a bloody bailiff!

MolotovMocktail · 31/03/2021 22:26

Why on Earth would someone put their young child on the phone to talk to a criminal scammer? That’s really weird. As soon as I realise it’s a scam I just wordlessly hang up and block the number.

Original poster

firthy85 · 02/04/2021 16:10

@rainbowandscarlett wow that must have been scary. have noticed that quite often. had a friend who was disabled come to stay with me overnight. she booked a cab and asked if the driver could come to the door. the guy banged on it so much at first i thought it was a police raid. what's weird about putting a child on the phone to talk to a scammer? it was a toddler girl who couldn't talk but apparently loved babbling to all and sundry. it was a method to confuse the scammers not to put anyone in danger. no different to some of the other tricks people play on them like pretending to be interested or seing how long they can keep them on the phone whilst talking nonsense at them. i have had the bt calls despite being a virgin customer. what is so weird is the way the default defense when you face them seems to be to tell you to fuck off or get fucked etc.

OP posts:

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