BT Mobile scam headsup

[AVRC]

I received this text today but on speaking to BT - not via the number in the text message they say it is a scam.

[NigelB72]

I had one telling me I could get 900mbps fibre... 🙄

[MNroshandel1]

The 0800 number is genuine but the actual message has a few typos.

It's a phishing scam, this is new for BT Mobile, I've seen them for BT landline/broadband products such as the emails threatening to cut you off if you do not click on the link and validate your bank details.

Even if you don't enter bank details, just clicking on the link could download malware 

[AVRC]

The odd thing is I was eligible to upgrade from that day. I spoke to BT  later on via 150 again to see what date I could actually upgrade from. That person also said the message sounded like a scam. So either BT are sending out messages that look like a scam and that their staff aren’t aware of or it’s a very big coincidence. The first person I spoke to checked my account and said if I’d been sent a message from them that it would tell them on the system but there wasn’t anything sent to me of that nature.

[MNroshandel1]

It's probably some very minor data breach, don't be surprised it happens to every large organisation more than you think, it just doesn't end up on the news because its small, companies don't even know its happened. 

One thing I do know for sure is that EE allocated mobile number such as 07951,07432 and 07956 ect were plagued with the fake royal mail texts and other **bleep**, so makes me wonder where they get all this information from.  

Not sure if you heard but T-Mobile USA has been involved in a huge data breach to the point where they are now giving away their anti-ID theft protection product for free and telling everyone to change their passwords.

[-Richie-]

The typo's in the message indicate spam, also to stop messages you only need to reply STOP to that message, not send one to a specified number, numbers are easily spoofed to make them look genuine.

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@MNroshandel1wrote:

Not sure if you heard but T-Mobile USA has been involved in a huge data breach to the point where they are now giving away their anti-ID theft protection product for free and telling everyone to change their passwords.

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Kind of off-topic there, this T-Mobile breach was the result in them leaving an unsecured server aceessible to the public, nothing to do with the OP's question.

[MNroshandel1]

I know that but someone somewhere has gained information that the OP is a BT Mobile customer and knew exactly when the contract has come to an end.

I've never had text messages with spelling errors,bad grammar or typos from BT ever and even the BT employees the OP talked to over the phone confirmed that the messages were not genuine. So that means the obvious....a data leak

[-Richie-]

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@MNroshandel1wrote:

So that means the obvious....a data leak

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No it doesn't 🤔
Scammers are brilliant at data mining and with social media and other platforms the public share far, far too much.

Let's say I use Facebook (I don't) and on my timeline 20 months ago I posted a new status update 'Look world I got myself a new smartphone' - Just that one status update is enough to tell me the person is now approching the end of the minimum term, so that would let me send a message that appears genuine because the timing is right.

I can think of loads of other scenrios I could get that info, full time teams of scammers will know even more, people will give away info freely not knowing it's little pieces of the puzzles used for identity theft.

All them surveys like 'I got a new dog, my first pet ever, what was yours ?' and people will reply, your pets first name is a known security question, the list is endless.

[AVRC]

I’m not really a social media person, I have Facebook but only use it for news on various companies that I use. My timeline is empty. As far as I’m aware I’ve never posted anywhere until this thread  about a phone upgrade or contract length. I use complicated passwords and 2 step wherever it’s available. I’d like to think I’m very careful. If it was a scam then I don’t know how they could have possible have found out that I was able to upgrade unless BT as mentioned had a data breach that wasn’t announced or that they don’t know about yet.

[MNroshandel1]

Unless BT has a mole selling data to someone, TalkTalk's indian call centre was at the centre of a data breach where employees were giving information to fraudsters. The scam calls always happened soon after I had spoken to customer services about any kind of matter. As soon as I switched to BT even with the same number I had with TalkTalk, all the scam calls stopped.

I like to think of BT being one of the safest service providers to be with in terms of keeping personal data safe. I will be very disappointed if it turns out someone is leaking information. BT brought all the call centres back to the UK and this is the best thing they have done with Customer service and sales.