Automated scam message?

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Ellar11

Numbers are called at random.

See http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/48253/kw/scam%20calls/c/761,6077

Nothing to do with BT.

If you respond, then they know there is a real person on the end, and will add you to a "suckers" list, and you will get even more calls, so just hang up and do not speak, or press any buttons.

They will also try to extract personal information from you.

[Lulili]

As far as I am aware, these callers use automated dialling programmes which dial sequences of numbers. The volume of calls being received daily suggests this is a computer operated scam. I would imagine they have no idea who they are calling. 

[Ellar11]

Thank you for the response. I would still like to know how my number was obtained by this caller, again calling from the Ayrshire area, when it has never been given out and only BT have it.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@Lulili wrote:

As far as I am aware, these callers use automated dialling programmes which dial sequences of numbers. The volume of calls being received daily suggests this is a computer operated scam. I would imagine they have no idea who they are calling. 

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Correct, all they are after is a list of "live" numbers, so that they can sell them on to other scammers. All that needs is a computer to do that, and to record which numbers get a response.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@Ellar11 wrote:
Thank you for the response. I would still like to know how my number was obtained by this caller, again calling from the Ayrshire area, when it has never been given out and only BT have it.

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They do not know your number, it just random calling, probably following a pattern. The callers number is spoofed,

[Andy_N]

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@Ellar11wrote:
Thank you for the response. I would still like to know how my number was obtained by this caller, again calling from the Ayrshire area, when it has never been given out and only BT have it.

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Hi.

Numbers aren't secret.

Anyone can phone it, either by mistake or by systems that either randomly call numbers or done in sequences. The fact that people are called that haven't been called before is almost certainly due to the scammers "moving on" to ranges they've not picked before - to try to get new victims.

01290 256 range is actually protected according to the OFCOM database, and therefore invalid. As mentioned, the called from number has been spoofed and not come from the number,

[Flossy744]

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@Keith_Beddoewrote:

@Ellar11

Numbers are called at random.

See http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/48253/kw/scam%20calls/c/761,6077

Nothing to do with BT.

If you respond, then they know there is a real person on the end, and will add you to a "suckers" list, and you will get even more calls, so just hang up and do not speak, or press any buttons.

They will also try to extract personal information from you.

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The do not speak is a no no, yesterday I answered the phone and said nothing, thinking it was the scammers again, the person at the other end took my silence to mean he must have taken the wrong number down, he hung up, to cut a long story short, we very nearly missed a call that could have put us to the back of his list again.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@Flossy744

You can speak, as its only a computer, nobody is listening, just do not press any buttons.

Many  automated calls will end up on answering machines anyway, so they won`t be recorded as active numbers with real people on the end, but could be called again later.

If you still have issues, get a BT call blocker phone which means that people who you do not know, have to announce thenselves first.

[Flossy744]

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@Keith_Beddoewrote:

@Flossy744

You can speak, as its only a computer, nobody is listening, just do not press any buttons.

Many  automated calls will end up on answering machines anyway, so they won`t be recorded as active numbers with real people on the end, but could be called again later.

If you still have issues, get a BT call blocker phone which means that people who you do not know, have to announce thenselves first.

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Thank you Keith,

but not always is it automated one foreign chap, shouted at me asking Why I keep hanging up on him, I still hung up and he gave up after 3 times.