Aibu to tell fake police scammer to fuck off?

[MadMadMadamMim]

Had a phone call today from a bloke with a faint London accent telling me he was phoning from Brixton police station. On a Bank Holiday Monday. Not suspicious in the slightest...

Him: Am I speaking to (my full correct name)?

Me: Who is this?
Him: I'm calling from Brixton police station.
(I live in the North East)
Me: Right
Him: We've arrested a young man with your Visa credit card on him

Me (interrupting). Oh no officer! What should I do? I'm a vulnerable old lady!
Had I better give you all my bank details and security codes or should you just FUCK OFF YOU SCUM!! I don't know how you sleep at night!

I'm not sure which of us put the phone down first, but Brixton police have sloppily not called again, so I assume they know nothing of this.

Bastards! I'm getting sick of answering calls from twats like this. I am considering getting a whistle to blow down the phone.

Try not to answer numbers you think are suspicious. If it's important they will either leave a message, ring back or you can search for the number.

If you answer, they now know it's a "live" number and will ring more.

I did manage to keep "windows technical support" on the line for 25 minutes until they rage quit mind you. Windows? You mean like double glazing? No, computers. Oh you're from Microsoft. No Windows. Oh like double glazing? And repeat. Normally, I ignore, check and block.

It’s just so annoying if you have kids at school or an elderly relative!

May there be a special place in Hell for these people.

I recently had one who called just as I was about to have a stroke from a load of stress. They got the benefit of full Glaswegian banshee I’m afraid. I felt a lot better afterwards though (and didn’t seem to get put on a special target list).

If anyone calls the landline, I know it's a scam. Only 3 people have the number, all 3 of us in this household. We all use our mobiles instead. I keep the number for emergency use, with an old style phone plugged in that doesn't need additional power to work. Means I have a way to contact people in the event of a power cut, should our mobiles run out of power.

I enjoy going along with it if I have the time. I spent about 15mins on the phone with a scammer once who told me to download a particular app on my phone - if you do they can get remote access to your phone. She asked me what the code was and I told her it was f.u.c.k 0.ff she had the gall to yell at me for wasting her time

I have no problem with being incredibly rude to these people. They are trying to rob me after all.

Why should we be nice?

I second BT call guardian. All callers have to say their name, and you hear that response before you can answer. None of the scammers bother to try and get through. You can save number so they automatically come though as well.

I had one of the ambulance chasing car crash calls once - this was from a firm of solicitors but obviously they don't use lawyers to make the calls. I played along for a bit and then asked the guy if he was a lawyer. He said he was. I asked him a few more questions and then asked why he didn't know the answers if he was a laywer. Then said he wasn't just the firm. I pointed out that it was a criminal offence to say you are a lawyer if you weren't. He put the phone down. I sent a stinker of a letter to the firm's senior partner telling him that if I had another call from them I'd report the firm to the Law Society for employing unqualified staff who impersonate lawyers. Got a grovelling letter back and have not had any car crash calls since.

"Oh, no! Is that the card ending in 3749? Yes? Well, that's OK, it's not mine!"

I wouldn't tell them to f off, I just put the phone down.

They're getting better because they use local numbers which will make me pick up. But if they don't say anything, or it's obvious it's a scammer I just tell them to go away and put the phone down.

@LadyPoison

I have no problem with being incredibly rude to these people. They are trying to rob me after all.

Why should we be nice?

Agree. Same goes for cold callers at the door. If they invade my privacy and/or break telephone marketing laws, they can expect me to be rude to them as well. I don't swear, but I don't put up with their rudeness and entitlement either.

My mother had a couple of calls like this, one said they could meet her at the bank to check her card. I asked her how they got her telephone number, she replied saying they had her card, it took me quite a long time to convince her that even if they did have her card, they couldn't get her telephone number from it.

I saw on TV a chap fell for this and lost something like 5K, it was found out when he went into the bank to withdraw more funds, and the teller asked him what it was for .

I did once have a long argument with some idiot about the intricacies of GDPR - I’m the one who had to do all the training around this so have a fair idea how it works. I offered to give him a tutorial as he didn’t seem to understand the basics...

@Umizumi2

I haven't had that one but I am getting alot more scam calls and phishing texts than usual.

Last week I had an Indian man call to tell me he's from HMRC and they've opened up a case for tax fraud. This morning I received a text from 'royal mail' demanding I pay postal fees or my non existent package will be returned to sender.

There's a DPD one too.

I'm off to prison for tax evasion and they are coming round soon.. this was this morning. not here yet , so I guess they have other fish to fry. I hope I can still use my mobile in jail! 😀 Nice to get a bit of warning though ⚠️

@Summerfun54321

The amount of scam calls I now receive to my mobile is really disruptive to my working day. I have a call screening app but it’s still not 100% effective. The government need to do more about this kind of fraud and crime. It’s especially distressing for vulnerable people.

But these are not coming from this country, they are from indian call centres spoofing numbers to look local. Look on youtube, there are a few scam catchers like scammer payback

So far to accident companies im 12 years old and blind as a bat so of course the accident was my fault

I'm on automated call only now

I tried this one recently:
Scam caller, "I'm telephoning because I believe that you have been in an accident?"
Me: "No, it wasn't an accident."
SC: "Yes, the accident you had."
Me: "Well, obviously I made it look like an accident. I've got rid of the body but do you know how to get bloodstains out of cream carpet?"
SC: hangs up

I ask them if their parents are proud of them and do they know their son / daughter steals money for a living

WeatherwaxOn - l will borrow that one of I may... (I usually just as if I was killed in said accident).

There seem to be so many around at the moment. I've had 2 phone calls from 'Sky' today and a royal mail text. Fuckers

I know - it’s enough to drive you mad! And don’t forget the TV license renewals... and the texts to say that you have a parcel coming or have set up a new DD on your bank account...

[quote MadMadMadamMim]@WorraLiberty

We are currently getting roughly 5 to 10 calls a day from:

BT Internet, your Wi-Fi is about to be disconnected.
Amazon prime account has been charged £79.99 (no it hasn't)
Phone is being cut off
Electric will be disconnected

DH is disabled and every time he struggles to get up and answer phone for this it's painful. I keep blocking numbers, but it's so intrusive.[/quote]
My dad gets these calls too constantly throughout the day and he registered with the TPS too. I've told him not to bother answering the phone, let the answering machine get it, then he can phone back anyone who leaves a message. I really wish I could stop them for him as it really is such a nuisance! Luckily he's smart enough not to fall for scams.

@toffeebutterpopcorn

I know - it’s enough to drive you mad! And don’t forget the TV license renewals... and the texts to say that you have a parcel coming or have set up a new DD on your bank account...

Yes the "parcel is on the way" text seems to be the new one! I've had about 5 in the past week!!

I almost missed a payment on my PayPal (who knew you could pay over a few months?) as I hadn’t checked my bank statement and didn’t realise that I’d clicked ‘pay over 4 months’. I ignored the emails saying that I had to authorise my payments and they called me in the end!

The nice woman I spoke to was laughing her head off when I told her that I didn’t even open the emails as I assumed they were a scam!

My parents get loads of Nuisance calls like this. They just let all calls go to voicemail now, 9/10 it doesn’t leave a message, but we have to say “hi it’s me” so they pick up...
I’ve been getting 5-7 calls a day on my mobile from very similar numbers (apparently based in Toronto) however they never call with the same number so blocking them is futile. I must admit
I did pick up the other day and just screamed fuck off down the phone as it was driving me nuts. Didn’t help

Just get BT Call Guardian phones. They stop all scammers.