To think this was a scam and to have hung up?

[looseddaughter]

I'm sure it was but feel a bit unnerved now. Had a phone call claiming t be from HMRC accusing me of committing tax fraud and saying there is a warrant out for my arrest and my assets will be frozen (bank account seems fine - just checked it). The man sounded foreign and it wasn't convincing at all. I ended it when he kept saying 'why did you do such a thing, m'am?'

I didn't give any details except confirming my house number and postcode, which I obviously regret now. Did I do right to end it and can I report it to someone?

Oh yes... microsoft or Windows too. They're scammers

One of my friends WHO WORKS FOR HMRC got one of those calls a couple of years ago, on her mobile.

She asked the caller what his name was so that she could email him via the internal mail system.

The phone went down immediately!

Op, it's a scam that's been around for a few years now, been mentioned on a few threads on Mumsnet.

Like loads of others I regularly get emails about my paypal account about to be suspended and calls about my amazon account being charged. They are absolute scum and the only good thing about the national lockdown was that suddenly all my nuisance callers stopped. Of course once lockdown ended they started up again and are even worse now, I get 2 or 3 a day on the landline because this house and telno belong to an elderly lady before me and she seems to be on several hundred different lists probably headed up "Old UK Woman Prime Target $$$$$". Miserable fuckers the lot of them, I'd like 'em all burned at the stake.

I’ve had these scam calls a few times now.. I’m still waiting for the police to turn up and arrest me

DD age 13 has had 4 voice mails now with the same thing as the op. Luckily she’s not very dramatic and realises that she is not about to be arrested or it could be scary for a child to hear !

Lots of good advice to help avoid scams and fraud here: takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/

I had this about 5 years ago. Very professional and answered any questions eg name and number etc. I got drawn into it because it was like no other and thought maybe it was true whilst also thinking it might be a scam so I followed through with it. They wanted me to go to a co op in the city( I live out of town) and buy iTunes to the value of x can’t remember. I had to stop myself from laughing. Someone would meet me. I arranged it all then rang the fraud squad. I don’t know if they caught them but my phone rang and rang for days and I didn’t answer it. I felt a fool to be taken in at the beginning but glad I realised. Then I thought about all the vulnerable people ( I was a bit like that at the time) and older people they might have scammed. When I looked into it there had been a lot but not in this area. The guy that rang me was English. Someone from the fraud rang me ( he was genuine) and I gave him all my story he was glad of the detail as I written down some of it.

Everything else I have been suspicious and just put the phone down but because HMRC are an official body I was more taken in at the beginning. I couldn’t believe it when he asked me for iTunes. I think it was £230 they wanted.I was cracking up🤣because of where they wanted me to go too. It must be the smallest coop I have ever been in. Think corner shop!😂 so don’t beat yourself up OP it just shakes you up a bit and be glad you saw through it. It would be worth reporting though.

I've had this - I hung up way before he'd finished his opening spiel.
As much as I knew for certain it was a scam, the nature of it niggled at the back of my head for a while; as an accountant if real it would have been a threat to my livelihood.
Try to forget about it and move on. (or learn from it and don't engage in conversation if you get any further calls in a similar vein)

I believe that scammers work on the premise that for every say, five hundred calls they make, they only need ONE victim to make the other four hundred and ninety-nine fruitless calls worthwhile.

Also, a golden rule is also never to open any attachment to a scam email.

www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing/report-hmrc-phishing-emails-texts-and-phone-call-scams

The above link has details of how to report scams to HMRC.

HMRC will sometimes phone you unexpectedly but you can ask them if there is a way for them to verify that they are genuinely calling from HMRC. There are various ways they can do this.

Oh, and they can and do turn up on your doorstep and arrest you if they have a reasonable suspicion that you have committed serious tax fraud or evasion. I think you’d know if you were in this category though!

I love working from home at the mo, and it seems Fridays are scam phone call day on my landline. I do love chatting to them & brushing up my am dram skills; the sobbing & begging not to arrest me to the Indian HMRC man, giving the Amazon £79.99 ladies increasingly made up credit card numbers (all with only 14 digits, not 16 so no fear of being a real PAN) and acting confused & befuddled it’s not working, and the ‘your ISP will cut you off’ are a personal favourite as the (invariably) Indian crew get more & more verbally abusive & sweary thus practicing my skills of indignation.

In a similar ilk, I did manage to convince a ‘You’ve been in a car accident’ insurance lot that I am actually just a torso sucking Ribena through a straw.

It’s their phone bill, have fun with it!

HMRC has published this document which has examples of common scams and what to do if you receive a call/text/email. I had one of these calls last year which I just ignored, and noone’s been around to arrest me yet.
I’ve also had calls saying my internet’s about to be cut off. (I think they were pretending to be BT).
I’ve also had calls where you just hear a “bloop” noise when you pick up, but nobody’s there - that’s supposed to be the sign of a scam call as well (when they do multiple automated dialling).
www.gov.uk/government/publications/phishing-and-bogus-emails-hm-revenue-and-customs-examples/phishing-emails-and-bogus-contact-hm-revenue-and-customs-examples

Be aware of 'number spoofing', where it can look as if it really is your bank/HMRC/credit card company/ whatever/ calling you.

And be careful when ringing them back to check. If you can't call back on a different line, allow five minutes to elapse, however panicky you're feeling. Sophisticated fraudsters play a fake dialling tone so it's still them on the line when you think you've got through to your bank/whatever.

www.theguardian.com/money/2014/oct/29/number-spoofing-scam-bank-calling

I had one yesterday, the "I'm calling from BT, there's a problem with your line" person from India, but introduces themselves as Louise, Stanley etc.

I said "But I'm not with BT, so I don't believe you" and she said "You bloody idiot!" and hung up.

One I had "You like to suck me lady, yes!" from a male one. I'm not even rude to them!

It annoys me that this shit cannot apparently be stopped.

Oh yeah I had that one.

Basically any ‘phone call from the government’ is definitely a scam. The government is understaffed and lazy and they do not proactively phone people up.

I've had this twice lately, claiming to be from the ATO ( Australian Tax Office). It's always a recorded message, never live. I decided to follow through and press 1. Cue mangled sub-70s crap nightclub muzak and eventually a live person turned up at which point I called them scamming arseholes, etc.etc. they put the phone down pronto.:o

It's OK for me as 40+ years of teaching has my bullshit detectors at Def Con 3 as default, but it must provoke anxiety in those less of a git than I am.

Contemptible scum.

My parents had this, it really worried my mum as they are business owners. They told her bailiffs were on their way to her home. They said they would call back for payment in 10 minutes. She realised it was dodgy and went to the police station next door and a detective sergeant came and answered the next call. Needless to say they hung straight up and didn't call again.

@ShadyBansheeThing

I had one yesterday, the "I'm calling from BT, there's a problem with your line" person from India, but introduces themselves as Louise, Stanley etc.

I said "But I'm not with BT, so I don't believe you" and she said "You bloody idiot!" and hung up.

One I had "You like to suck me lady, yes!" from a male one. I'm not even rude to them!

I can always work out if I am really calling the bank etc - because it's almost impossible to get through to most of the genuine organisations.

If you can talk to someone without a million options and the insult of being told your call is important they are probably scammers.

My DH had one of these while I was at work, he is frail and vulnerable. He was very upset and I had to drive home, reassure him by ringing fraud action in front of him before he was convinced. He doesn't know his bank details thank god or we would have been cleaned out! Bastards! The guy who rang him was English sounding and very convincing.

I had someone dead keen to sell an upgrade on our call screening system. I might have gone for it but for the fact that they were desperate for my bank account details when, if they were genuine, they would already have had them.

@tearinyourhand

Who on earth voted YABU?

I was thinking that. Mainly because then I'd know who to call up and explain how I am a Nigerian Prince who has $5m locked in a bank account that I cannot access unless they send me £1000. I will happily share my fortune if they would just help with the upfront payment

My junk email is inundated with all sorts of scam emails. Fraudsters have really ramped up their activities lately. Be cautious and cynical about every weird and out of the blue contact now.

www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing/report-hmrc-phishing-emails-texts-and-phone-call-scams

You can report it here, I’ve had several recently.

It must be the season - I had one this morning. Hung up before he got to the end of the first sentence. Then blocked the number and reported it.