Scam Calls

[enfield250]

Hello!

Yesterday, I had a call from a witheld number, the caller claimed to be a Det Sgt Henry from the Met police in Hounslow.

The caller knew my wife's full name and my full name and address, he quoted them to me he didn't ask me for them.  It's quite concerning as last week I had my BT Mail account hacked, could that be how they got the information. The caller said he had my nephew in custody, he had been found with 20 cloned debit cards on him. Now, I only have one nephew and he lives in Australia. He then said to check with the police, to prove he was genuine. However the number he gave was "191", well the police number is "101". Does anyone know what "191" does, in the old days "174" was ringback and I think "175" was S.A.L.T? 

What was really strange, the caller kept saying "don't give me any account details", not that I was going to. Now why would a scammer say that, I would have thought those were the details they were after?

If he already had the details why bother ringing.

After I ended the call, it recalled three times each time I just cleared the call, then I called the police to report the scam, they said it's been happening a lot recently, with exactly the same story. I was told to report it to my bank and the Action for Fraud.

Cheers,

[iniltous]

You clearly suspect this was connected to your email address being ‘hacked’ , I’m not so sure , you and your spouse names are available from locations such as the electoral role , it’s difficult to see how your email would supply this kind of information.
As far as how does the scam work , who knows , perhaps if you played along that may have become clear …however they seem pretty amateurish if they don’t even supply a valid number to call for confirmation, something that clearly confirmed your suspicions.

FYI , if they suggest you call them to ‘prove’ they are genuine, often they hold the line , you clear down from them  (but the call hasn’t cleared down ) and  you think you are making a outgoing call but you are not , the scammer has transferred you to a colleague, who ‘answers’ your apparent outgoing call , that’s why should this ever occur you make the confirmation call on a mobile or make sure you get a dialtone first .

[Chris__S]

Hi @enfield250 

Thanks for getting in touch with us and telling us about the call that you've received.

You can report a spam call via our spam call form to help us prevent future calls like this.

If you're a BT Broadband customer, you can get our BT Virus Protect app free, which lets you block nuisance calls from your Android mobile phone or tablet.

Chris S

[Kimberlin]

@enfield250 

Different folks have different ways of dealing with calls, but here’s a couple of tips you might try.

Firstly, whilst it’s an entirely natural reaction when answering a call to say “Hello?” don’t speak, stay silent and wait for the caller to say hello. They’ll either say “Hello” or they’ll end the call. Obviously if it’s a call bot, it’ll cut off because there’s been no response or interaction. If it’s genuine or a scammer determined to speak with you, they’ll make an effort to engage with you.

As far as anyone calling and claiming to be a police officer, unless you’ve had prior contact over an existing enquiry and you are confident that the officer you’re engaging with is already known to you, just end the call. Police will not call you out of the blue and if they did, they must provide their full name, their collar number and the exact police station they are stationed at. At that point, you politely end the call, dial 101 after making sure you have a dial tone, give the details to the operator and let them connect you. If the police need to get hold of you that urgently, they will send an officer to your home. Even if the officer is from a completely different Force area, a local officer can be sent to see you.

Sadly, home landlines can be an open invitation to abuse and one of the many reasons why I no longer have one.

[enfield250]

I have tried to report it on the scam calls page, but the number was witheld and the page wants a phone number.