Phone scam

[MyDeftDuck]

I’m not sure of this is the right thread tbh but here goes. Yesterday morning I was waiting for a call from a colleague so when my mobile rang with a mobile number on the display I answered it. There was nothing on my phone display to indicate that it was from a suspicious caller, just a mobile number.

It wasn’t the call I expected though, it was a female claiming to be from the Amazon Fraud department stating that there’d been an attempt overnight to spend £799 on an iPhone on my account and could I confirm with ‘yes or no’ before Amazon took any further action. The caller had a strong accent and seemed to miss words from her dialogue - rather than asking ‘did you spend?” she said “you spend?”……..I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, I confess, at that point I did giggle and say “nice try love”! At which point she called me a ‘fucking bitch’ and ended the call.

At that point I decided to call the number back; after ringing for some time a gentleman answered. I explained that I had just received a call from a scammer claiming to be from Amazon and calling from his mobile number.

How is that possible? How could someone piggy-back on his mobile number? Between us we decided his best action was to check his mobile security and I have reported the call to Amazon who assure me that they NEVER make calls to customers regarding accounts, they only use email to communicate.

Have any of you heard of this happening before?

Spoofing it’s called

Yes. Its a thing. Also ....never ever say anything when answering a call from a number you don't know. Some scams/spoofs record your words

I never answer calls from numbers that don't show up in my contact list. If they genuinely want to contact me they will leave a message.

I get so many unidentified callers these days. I’ve only answered one…apparently the warranty on my washing machine had run out. Absolute garbage.
I’ve stopped answering them now as I CBA to entertain this nonsense.

Exactly this.

I wouldn’t have answered normally but I was waiting on a call from a colleague, didn’t know their number either.

But the alarming thing is that the caller had somehow hacked into another person’s mobile……when I called back it was a random bloke who knew nothing about the originally call.

They didn't hack someone's mobile - it's number spoofing. There are gadgets they use which make it look like they are calling from any number they (usually randomly) choose.

Nobody's phone was hacked.

It's called spoofing. They make it look like a mobile number (or local number) is calling as they know people are more likely to pick up that way.

Be careful calling numbers you don’t know - sometimes that’s the scam and they will be premium rate and you get stung that way.

This is the problem when people don't understand the possibilities out there. I'm not saying I DO, but I think I might know a bit more than the OP

OP - don't answer the phone to a number you don't know, even if you're expecting a call. Let it go to VM

If you insist on answering calls from numbers you do not know, do not speak at all ever

Do not ring back numbers you don't know or if you insist on doing that, wait a while and ring from a different phone, preferably a landline

And (for avoidance of doubt) don't click on links if you're not absolutely sure where they've come from

I’ve had people call me telling me they just had a call from my number, calling me a scammer, etc. I show them my call logs and tell them to block my number as I’ve clearly been spoofed. I tried reporting it but no one was bothered.