Scam calls

[lizada]

I have had the phone calls from 'BT' India trying to get access to my computer which I told them what to do with themselves but today I had one from the 'Office of Fair Trading' again from India (or at least she had an Indian accent) asking me about any debts I had, loans credit cards etc and if I had any late payments. Told her to mind her own business and put the phone down.  I am a retired pensioner and worry about these calls, how do they get my number when I am supposed to be ex-directory. No one seems to be able to stop them.  I am getting paranoid, when I logged on this morning I had a notice that my BT Hub had an update to install and I let it update now I am worried I have downloaded something I shouldn't.

[Keith_Beddoe]

They just dial numbers at random, being ex directory does not make any difference.

Do you have a caller display, so you can see what number is calling?

[lizada]

Its always a witheld number, the ones supposedly from BT where international witheld.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@lizada wrote:

Its always a withheld number, the ones supposedly from BT where international withheld.

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BT do offer Anonymous Call Rejection for a small monthly fee, which blocks people who withhold their number. I find it very effective.

International calls, we simply let the answer machine deal with them

[whitefalcon]

There are all types of scammers out there. From the consumer complaint site called Callercenter.com, these scammers most reported there are those who got lottery stories, grandson in trouble, hired for a job trick and a lot more. But the most common is this Tech Repair Scam. Scammers call phone numbers and put up a convincing defective computer story. If you're not that knowledgeable about computers, you might just fall. Then there's also that Loan scam. They either say you're quailified ro get a loan or you already got it and you have to pay. Well, whatever they say, as long as you find it suspicious or wrong, don't jump in on the bait.

[brazenscroll]

A retired lady friend of mine has the best approach, when they call asking for her to switch on the PC/divulge details etc, she tells them "hold on a minute, my son said I have to connect this box thingy to the phone and the police can then trace this call"

Needless to say she has yet to have a caller stay on the line.....

[plainview]

'A retired lady friend of mine has the best approach, when they call asking for her to switch on the PC/divulge details etc, she tells them "hold on a minute, my son said I have to connect this box thingy to the phone and the police can then trace this call'

I like that one, I will tell that to my old mother. 😉

[SomersetMike]

I just say I don't have a computer and they hang up straight away.

[Marcio35]

I have just had a call from India (a female) claiming that she was from BT and that she has received information over the broadband network that my PC was about to crash. Needless to say, I declined.I then received a text from BT Business Repair asking me to rate the service I received from Darren, is Darren a lady? My main concern is how have they obtained my BT Land Line and mobile number?

[john46]

as has been posted before they use auto diallers and random number generators