And another phone scam/nuisnace

[Mallard60022]

1 hour ago, beast66606 said:

 

Should be similar if you logon to hotmail - been a while since I used Hotmail. Go via a browser rather than an app.

I just click an icon thingy in my footer bar...….has an envelope and there she be.

P

[Tony Davis]

Tried a different tack with "David from Microsoft" this morning. I have been learning to speak Welsh, and decided to practice it on him, so, when he had gone through his spiel, I said, in Welsh (I hope!) That I was sorry but I didn't understand him, and could he speak Welsh. There was a pause, and he asked me what language I was speaking, as I was pretending not to speak English, I just repeated what I had already said.

There was another pause.

He hung up.

 

I was happy because, for some reason, I find it difficult to actually speak Welsh to a real person and this helped me overcome my shyness and wasted his time.

 

Dw i'n hapus nawr!

 

 

[royaloak]

Received an email from-

Accurascale - Irish Railway Models <messaging-service(at)post.xero.com>

Change (at) for @

 

Asking me to pay £323.75 which was what I paid for some HUO wagons back in May, obviously my passwords have been changed.

[Colin_McLeod]

On 28/07/2019 at 09:55, Mallard60022 said:

Tape just applied!!!!!!!

P

 

Tape not necessary.

[Nick C]

23 hours ago, Tony Davis said:

Tried a different tack with "David from Microsoft" this morning. I have been learning to speak Welsh, and decided to practice it on him, so, when he had gone through his spiel, I said, in Welsh (I hope!) That I was sorry but I didn't understand him, and could he speak Welsh. There was a pause, and he asked me what language I was speaking, as I was pretending not to speak English, I just repeated what I had already said.

There was another pause.

He hung up.

 

I was happy because, for some reason, I find it difficult to actually speak Welsh to a real person and this helped me overcome my shyness and wasted his time.

 

Dw i'n hapus nawr!

 

 

That's brilliant, I'll try that next time I get one - I'm learning Polish at the moment.

 

My wife sometimes uses a similar tactic to avoid them - put on the thickest foreign accent she can: "I sorry, I no spik English"

[Reorte]

On 07/08/2019 at 11:17, Tony Davis said:

Tried a different tack with "David from Microsoft" this morning. I have been learning to speak Welsh, and decided to practice it on him, so, when he had gone through his spiel, I said, in Welsh (I hope!) That I was sorry but I didn't understand him, and could he speak Welsh. There was a pause, and he asked me what language I was speaking, as I was pretending not to speak English, I just repeated what I had already said.

There was another pause.

He hung up.

 

I was happy because, for some reason, I find it difficult to actually speak Welsh to a real person and this helped me overcome my shyness and wasted his time.

 

Dw i'n hapus nawr!

 

What would you have done if he'd replied in Welsh?

 

Reminds me of a little of a Norwegian chap I met once, who said him and a friend were talking rather lewdly about a nearby attractive woman in a bar in Scotland, in Norwegian, and were hugely shown up when she turned around and told them in no uncertain terms where to go, in Norwegian.

[Tony Davis]

34 minutes ago, Reorte said:

What would you have done if he'd replied in Welsh?

Plan B;  I would have told him to F*** Off, in English :-)

[Joseph_Pestell]

Busy day yesterday for the phone scammers. Four calls here.

 

They seem to have a gizmo that cuts off the call at their end if you don't say anything. You only get the recorded message if you speak first.

[jonny777]

On 03/08/2019 at 12:58, jonny777 said:

I just had a knock on the door; but when I opened it there was no one to be seen. I noticed an Amazon Prime Jiffy bag on the doorstep, which was strange because I haven't ordered anything from Amazon in years.  

 

Inside the bag was a paperback book about conspiracy theories concerning The Beatles, which retails at £20 on Amazon.co.uk. 

 

I have checked Paypal, Amazon and my credit card - but no dodgy transactions there. 

 

I gather there can be some form of elaborate scam whereby deranged people try to worry others, knowing they have their home address; but that is no secret. Others say some other deranged people need reviews for certain products and so use various tactics in order to be able to write what appear to be independent reviews. 

 

Apparently, if reported to Amazon they will check and suspend accounts which have multiple reviews from different home addresses but an ISP address which doesn't fit that area. I have tried to find a way of reporting this, or (better still) cancelling my Amazon account completely but their website only has options for people who wish to return or refund an ordered item with an order number. I don't have any of that. 

 

Can anyone guide me to the right page for customer complaints, please?

 

 

Sorted!

 

I needn't have worried.

 

A casual conversation about presents for a relative, on our family text group, resulted in my youngest so suddenly asking if I had received the book yet? At first I thought he had sent a book to his uncle as a gift and I replied it would be no use because his eyesight is too bad to read anything not in large print. However, it turned out he had sent the book to me and assumed it had a dispatch note in it. 

 

The penny suddenly dropped, that he had sent me The Beatles book and had not realised there was nothing to identify with him. 

 

No scam. No dodgy internet accounts. No hacking of Amazon. 

 

Hooray.....

[Colin_McLeod]

And no Amazon account cancelled unnecessarily.

 

 

Amazon does have an option to say that an item is a gift and to write a message to the recipient.  It would have been in the paperwork instead of the order form with price.

[Liam]

On 26/06/2019 at 16:03, Ron Ron Ron said:

I had one of these calls this morning.

I had turned Call Guardian off yesterday, as we are expecting a call from the hospital, so the nuisance call got through.

 

I picked up the phone to hear an automated recording.

Well spoken English female voice.

Sounded very official and genuine.

None of the Indian sub-continent heavy accent, purporting to be Jeremy calling from Tunbridge Wells, or whatever.

 

"This is an important call from OFCOM.  

Your telephone and internet service will be disconnected today (or something like that).

Multiple hacking activity has been identified on your IP and ....blah...blah...blah......."

 

I didn't wait to hear  the rest, put the phone call down and switched Call Guardian back on.

 

Our neighbour's elderly father had the same call, same recorded message, yesterday.

 

 

.

 

I know I’m bringing up an old thread but that explains why on some of the scam calls I’ve been getting over the last few months I’m greeted by the voice of an English lady who takes a while to respond to questions. Thankfully their automated system doesn’t detect that you’re having them on, but after haranguing a call handler from India on a recent call I was then transferred back to the Geordie lady (I think she was a real person as opposed to an automated transcript) who told me I had been involved in an accident that wasn’t my fault. After the man in India got to the question of did the injuries that I suffered include loss of memory (yes, quite right!) the lady took control of the dialogue, said ‘Ok, bye sir’ and promptly hung up. They must have a software which displays something if people don’t give them the answers they expect. 

[kevinlms]

On 27/06/2019 at 01:03, Ron Ron Ron said:

I had one of these calls this morning.

I had turned Call Guardian off yesterday, as we are expecting a call from the hospital, so the nuisance call got through.

 

 

 

Yes, a good idea to turn off Call Guardian if expecting an important call, as sometimes people are confused by the message and hang up. Just what you don't need on certain occasions.

[Ron Ron Ron]

9 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

 

Yes, a good idea to turn off Call Guardian if expecting an important call, as sometimes people are confused by the message and hang up. Just what you don't need on certain occasions.

 

That was last year.

We've got Call Guardian turned off again, at the moment (Mrs. Ron waiting to be called in at short notice for an op.) and the hotline from Mumbai has been in action a couple of times in the last week.

It's also allowed the so-called "government energy scheme" chancers to get through.

Normally we don't get any of these calls.......we are totally free of them.

As soon as Call Guardian was switched off.......

 

 

.

Edited January 13, 2020 by Ron Ron Ron

[luckymucklebackit]

Got one on my works mobile yesterday that made me laugh.  It sounded like the guy that did the "mine is the last voice you will ever here" on "Two Tribes" and abruptly told me that I had been accused of Tax Fraud and if I didn;t immediately press "1" on my phone the prosecution would proceed and I could expect arrest within 24 hours.  I laughed, hung up and have not heard anything from the taxman or police (surprisingly)

 

jim

[eastwestdivide]

I've had "BT", "Tax Office" and "Amazon" here today. Pressed 1 on all of them to get a human, played confused for a bit, ending up with me saying "sorry, you're from Amazon (or whoever), is that right?", and when they say yes, I reply "You lying scammer, go and get an honest job" and hang up. Very satisfying.

Not especially busy at the moment - can you tell?!

[Nick C]

There's a wonderful YouTube video of a US police captain answering one of these - so of course when they start threatening her with arrest, the sarcasm really starts flowing (especially as she'd given her address as that of the police station) - there's then another cop giving occasional commentary on what the scammers are asking for and why it's so dangerous to give out any personal information.

 

 

[luckymucklebackit]

4 hours ago, eastwestdivide said:

I've had "BT", "Tax Office" and "Amazon" here today. Pressed 1 on all of them to get a human, played confused for a bit, ending up with me saying "sorry, you're from Amazon (or whoever), is that right?", and when they say yes, I reply "You lying scammer, go and get an honest job" and hang up. Very satisfying.

Not especially busy at the moment - can you tell?!

 

I would be a bit careful about pressing the "1", certain scams use that method to connect you to a premium rate call which can end up costing you a few bob

 

Jim

[eastglosmog]

Being plagued by an outfit called Greenhome Media - they keep on ringing and then saying nobody is available to speak to me about something which is not urgent.  Seems like it is an actual company in Derby, though what their business plan is is a bit of a mystery.  Certainly made sure I will never use them.

Like others, I am not able to use Call Guardian at the moment (in my case due to an elderly mother with poor hearing).

[Colin_McLeod]

Post deleted.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Colin_McLeod

[Phaeton]

3 hours ago, luckymucklebackit said:

 

I would be a bit careful about pressing the "1", certain scams use that method to connect you to a premium rate call which can end up costing you a few bob

 

Jim

 

Can you please explain how that is technically possible?

[royaloak]

2 hours ago, Phaeton said:

 

Can you please explain how that is technically possible?

Because the system will be set up so you are effectively calling the premium rate line as soon as you press 1 or occasionally any other button.

[chris p bacon]

14 minutes ago, royaloak said:

Because the system will be set up so you are effectively calling the premium rate line as soon as you press 1 or occasionally any other button.

 

I don't understand how that is possible.  If a scammer has called you, how is it possible for you to dial out to a premium number when the line is occupied by an incoming call ?

[kevinlms]

25 minutes ago, chris p bacon said:

 

I don't understand how that is possible.  If a scammer has called you, how is it possible for you to dial out to a premium number when the line is occupied by an incoming call ?

Not exactly sure, but I believe it to be true.

 

IIRC there is a code you can enter on most phone lines, to activate a 2nd line. Not sure exactly for the UK, but the feature is generally called 'Three Way Calling' or similar, which gives you the ability to make 2 calls at once.

 

So pressing 1, could well activate the code & dial their rip off number.

 

Remember these scammers have done it before!

[ColinK]

I was talking to BT a couple of days ago,  there is a way of having three way calls.  In new phone contract BT have stopped this on our phone to avoid scams.

[Phaeton]

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Not exactly sure, but I believe it to be true.

 

IIRC there is a code you can enter on most phone lines, to activate a 2nd line. Not sure exactly for the UK, but the feature is generally called 'Three Way Calling' or similar, which gives you the ability to make 2 calls at once.

 

So pressing 1, could well activate the code & dial their rip off number.

 

Remember these scammers have done it before!

 

But if you press 1 then you are only sending the DTMF signal back to their system, how does that then enable 3 way calling on your line?

 

Just looking at BT's instructions IF you have 3 way calling enabled on your phone line you have to press the R button then dial the 2 number, they can't do that for you as they are the wrong side of BT's exchange. 

 

I'd like to know if this is just an urban myth as having worked in Telecoms for the last 40 years I cannot see that it is technically possible to do, but happy to be wrong, these scammers know more about the telecom industry then the industry itself.