Scam phone call and and then email

[ukbakkes]

Not sure if this is best board - first time poster.

Today received what was obviously a scam call to my BT landline. Rather than swear at them or simply put the phone down, I decided to string them along.

The assertion was that  they were from BT and that  "mutliple users" were using my broadband. The first question was how many blue lights have I on my router. I said 3, but they did not question that or deviate from script.

The next request was for me to log on - I was already logged in anyway. 

THE WORRYING THING - they said they would send me an email, and even quoted the first couple of characters of my email address and my provider - which is not BT. Sure enough an email arrived asking me to quote a 4 digit number to them. At this point I, politely, told them to go away. 

I did report the number to BT as a scam call. But I was surprised not to find a specific number or option to speak to someone in BT.  I did ring the normal help line but hung up after 5 minutes of waiting..

However it is somewhat concerning that they have linked my phone number and email....

Anyone else had this ??

[gg30340]

How many sites have you given your email address and phone number to when ordering something or subscribing to something?

[southweststokie]

Same thing happened to me yesterday. Took a call, sounded offshore, saying someone was using my broadband. Email sent in support of call, with a PIN. Never got as far as understanding what to do with it, as caller got frustrated with my persistence that something wasn't quite right - he hung up on me. BT mail ID and HTML layout etc looked very convincing, but would BT do this sort of thing ?

[ukbakkes]

No they would not, so it is fairly obvious it is a scam call...

And as the previous responder said - you have to give your email address and telephone number in many online transactions. I understand that, however as most of mine also involve purchase / financial information it is somewhat concerning.

I guess some of the sites may pass on / sell information - but I'm always careful to not tick / or untick that authority box....perhaps some ignore that box anyway. 

Depending on the mood, it is fun to string them along - at least in the time you are taking no one else is getting a stupid call. One asked me how I connected to the internet; I said through my microwave. They did not bat an eyelid and simply ploughed on, I guess they simply follow a script....

But it is not clear how much BT actually do, or can do, to help stamp it out...

[pottyperson]

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@ukbakkes wrote:

But it is not clear how much BT actually do, or can do, to help stamp it out...

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Not much on either count. I always let calls from unrecognised numbers run to answerphone, where they get asked to leave a message and told they will not be called back if they don't; most cut off as soon as answerphone cuts in. If a number is not clearly a spoof, I might call back (prefaced by 141) just to see; nearly all are unobtainable or are met with a recorded message from some kind of market research outfit. Being flavour of the month with hospitals and other public services, it's probably best to answer withheld numbers, being prepared to respond with a version of "go away" if necessary.

[Anonymous]

Google maintain a database of nuisance callers and encourage Android users to report such numbers which may then be added to that database.

For this reason I always use my mobile number online instead of my landline number, it doesn't stop 100% of nuisance calls of course (nothings perfect) but there is a significant reduction

[ukbakkes]

Thank you..