Scam phone calls pretending to be from BT

[MrP]

Like this other recent thread, I seem to get quite a few scam calls from fraudsters purporting to be from BT. I had 4 calls yesterday alone from a spoofed local number - very annoying!

I have found the following BT webpage detailing this specific type of scam: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/48253/~/security-warning---fraud-activities-or-scams

However, I would like clarification on a couple of points raised in that article. Under the heading, "If you're unsure about the caller - Here's what you can do", several points are listed:

> "If we’re getting in touch about your bill, it’ll usually be from either 0800 328 9393 or 0800 028 5085"

However, as is stated earlier in the article (and is my experience), the phone number is often "spoofed", so what is stopping the fraudster spoofing either of these two numbers? Or are 0800 numbers somehow hard to spoof?

> "Ask security questions about your account before continuing the call. If the caller can't answer, they are not legitimate"

What "security questions" am I meant to ask that only a genuine BT employee would know about my account? (But the BT employee would need to first check that I am really the account holder before divulging personal account information - but isn't that a bit of a catch-22 as I'm not prepared to respond to a potential scammer!?)

[safecontractor]

Received phone call from "BT" on 01275 235766 just 5 minutes ago apologising for cutting off my internet connection immediately / my banking details were compromised etc etc ....  unless I phoned an 0800 number or pressed 9 .. immediately recognised as Spoof / Spam call before the well modulated male English voice was into his 2nd sentence.

Many postings on this issue over recent years and still BT refuse to do anything about it.... blocking number doesn't work (1572)...they come back on another number .. or BT can't do anything about it ... why ???

Surely it is not beyond BT to issue each user with a personal code / password / I.D. number which, if not used by "caller", would take away the worry and problems experienced by thousands of people, as they could be re-assured that their account is safe.

It's not good enough for the genuine BT to only say what they won't ask for when calling, such as detals of accounts etc etc but ... isn't it time for them to say what they will do ????

I've tried this a number of times with false Asian / American and British (sounding) callers purporting to be from scam callers BT / Microsoft etc and when asked for their I.D., they are completely lost and terminate call.

[StewM]

Hi, whatever BT do or don’t do, they can’t prevent people calling you.

Stew

[safecontractor]

That's quite true ... my point is that the user would be able to identify them as scammers.

[VeteranISPUser]

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@safecontractorwrote:

That's quite true ... my point is that the user would be able to identify them as scammers.

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Hi @safecontractor. No doubt that these are professional scammers and would have no difficulty extracting any identifying IDs from somebody distracted or not concentrating. Let’s face it all we can do is join millions of other by reporting it. Trying to blame BT for something they cannot control will get us nowhere. http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computing/security/frauds-and-scams-why-you-should-always-report-sus...

[MrP]

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@safecontractorwrote:

.... and when asked for their I.D., they are completely lost and terminate call.

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What response are you expecting when you ask for their "I.D."? How would/should a genuine BT employee respond to such a request?

Generally, I find that if you "challenge" the potential fraudster they often get aggressive (before hanging up). A genuine caller (from BT or any legitimate company) should not get aggressive.

In my experience, these "fraudsters" (at least the ones pretending to be from BT, Microsoft, etc) all have non-British accents. Unfortunately, this means that I'm very likely to cut-off any (unsolicited) calls where the caller has a non-British accent - before I've even identified who they might be. Sad, but that's just the way it is.

[MrP]

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@VeteranISPUserwrote:
... Let’s face it all we can do is join millions of other by reporting it. Trying to blame BT for something they cannot control will get us nowhere. http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computing/security/frauds-and-scams-why-you-should-always-report-sus...

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Although the reporting of "suspicious phone calls" suggested by that article seems to involve completing a short "survey" on the "Action Fraud" website (which I have just done - thanks). This is independent of BT and consequently, they don't have the technical details of the call (doesn't help when the number is probably "spoofed").

Why does BT itself not have an "easy way" to report such calls? Since they already have all the technical details about the call. (Maybe it does - as a paid extra?!) I have "BT Call Protect" (free service) and this is great for identifying recent calls and allows you to easily block nuisance calls (and include a short note). It even allows you to block otherwise "withheld" numbers (since BT know the number that actually made the call). But as far as I know, this only applies to your own account. Why not make "report this call as fraudulent" a feature of this tool?

I do find the independent websites where you can easily look up and report numbers as "Dangerous", "Harassing", etc. a great resource. Since the results are "instant". My favourite is https://who-called.co.uk - I notice that the number that called me yesterday (although no doubt is obviously "spoofed") is now listed as "Dangerous" on the who-called.co.uk website and has received 14 comments (and 332 searches) in the last 48 hours. Whilst the number might be spoofed, it does seem that they often use the same "spoofed" number for a period of time - long enough that reporting it really does help others.

[safecontractor]

Thanks for those comments ...

...... asking for an I.D....... they won't have the one issued by BT to the user .... a genuine BT caller will have I.D.

...... a bit difficult when you intend to cut off callers with non British accents before identifying ... I've had return calls from BT help / chat line where the caller is non British.

....... my post is /was a genuine attempt to stamp out false, connected calls for the users benefit .... and some people are not as "savvy" as others at recognising scammers.......without the need to reach either an aggresive response ( which I agree is often reached) or a worrying situation that their internet has been compromised, or, is being terminated. Hopefully, this would also cut out the need of continually checking with BT that all is well.

Something must start somewhere, to take the upper hand from scammers.

[MrP]

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@safecontractorwrote:

 ...... a bit difficult when you intend to cut off callers with non British accents before identifying ... I've had return calls from BT help / chat line where the caller is non British.   

If I'm expecting a call back then that's another matter - I'll naturally be more lenient. 🙂

However, there are usually other factors as well, such as a longer than usual delay before the caller first responds. (To be honest, that alone can be enough for me to terminate the call - bearing in mind I'm also using Caller ID to help identify the call.)

[vexdup_424]

My partner gets them frequently - but on Dec. 21 I was in...and was eager to take part in talking. after she answered, she passed it to me - and I heard what appeared to be 'South of the Thames' accent; probably Brixton or Streatham, with the gentleman called 'Dewayne Bryan' (may have got that wrong - as I've lived in Northern Ireland for 12 years)...with his number '8998630'. The number - after she dialed 1471 - was 0800 953 9090.

Now - we may be accused of paing as paranoid as damn...but the amount of 'BT' calls we get are at least thrice a week - and as both of us are 'of an age' where we'll probably get such calls from people out to skank, we tend to be more wary than we should.