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Phone Scams

mercalia

pfm Member
Has any one had a phone call threatening to terminate their internet connection. I had one of these today , but I didnt wait for the ransom amount & hung up
 
Over the last 2 years - probably 2 dozen. These days you only have to wait for the computer to start speaking and you can hang up. Unless you enjoy hurling some free verbal abuse back at them. Or you can really confuse the operators for ages, timewasting by talking total BS about wine gums or ranting that there is no butter in the supermarket.
 
I never get cold calls, but I also don't buy a lot of things online or have a smartphone so my number isn't all over the place. Some cold calling is banned here anyway.
 
I routinely get the Talk Talk internet, BT internet, roof insulation, accident claim, Amazon Prime hack scams.

Over the last 3 days there have been 10 calls to my mobile from a number unknown to me (so I don't pick up). I would have thought that whoever it is would have got the message that their number is blocked given that the phone rings for about 2 seconds then cuts off.
 
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Call blocker here, so no. Used to get lots of calls from 'Microsoft support', despite the fact that we're an Apple-only household.
 
Has any one had a phone call threatening to terminate their internet connection. I had one of these today , but I didnt wait for the ransom amount & hung up

Yep. And I've got a slow connection that they can fix and someone's hacked my Amazon Prime account and...

If it's not an automated call, I enjoy stringing them along for as long as I can. It's costing them the international rate, not me.
 
before lockdown we were getting between 10-15 scam calls a day , started on the dot at 9am . often silent , washing machine warrenties , HMRC scams , amazon scams . its calmed down now to less than 3 thankfully
 
I got a call today from a Canada–US border agent, claiming I had committed a flatulent act.

I've been working from home since March 2020 because of the pandemic. Jeez, if you can't commit a flatulent act in your own home where can you?

Joe
 
Not had one in a while, but the most memorable was. ..

I don't answer calls at home from numbers I don't know, but at work today, I answered a colleagues phone, as he was out of the office, and it went something like this:

Me: Hello, Ian's phone.
Him: Hello sir, I am calling from BT, and I have to tell you that your internet connection has been compromised.
Me: Oh dear, that is a shame.
Him: I need you to urgently do something on your computer.
Me: ok.
Him: Are you at your computer?
Me: Yes.
Him: Can you see the control key on your keyboard?
Me: Which one is the control key?
Him: It has CTRL written on it.
Me: Yes, I see it.
Him: What key is next to it?
Me: Fn.
Him: Next to FN is a key with 4 little squares on it, that is the Windows key. Do you see it?
Me: Yes.
Him I need you to press... (where he gave me a key combination that I can't remember).
Me: Sorry, I can't do that.
Him: Why?
Me: I only have one finger.
Him: (he then repeated the original keystroke request).
Me: (shouting a bit) I told you I only have one finger. I can only press one key at a time.
Him: No problem sir. Please go to Google screen and type 'what is my IP'.
Me : OK.
Him: What can you see?
Me: A message.
Him: What is the message?
Me: It says 'you are being scammed by an Indian call centre. It is very bad to scam people with only one finger'.
Him: You say you only have one finger, sir?
Me: Yes.
Him: Can you do one thing for me? Take your finger and stick it up your a**e.
Me: Thankyou and goodbye.

These people can be so rude!
 
I got a call today from a Canada–US border agent, claiming I had committed a flatulent act.

I've been working from home since March 2020 because of the pandemic. Jeez, if you can't commit a flatulent act in your own home where can you?

Joe
Your mistake was being near the border. You thereby contravened the Farting Localised Adjacent To the United States (FLATUS) Act.
 
I get about five a week on the home number and generally don't pick up if it's an unknown number.
However, a couple of weeks ago the number displayed was local and so I picked it up to hear a young man telling me he was from Microsoft support. I hung up but did think it might be useful that Microsoft have set up a support centre in my small village.....:D
 
I had a weird one on my mobile yesterday. It rang and on the other end was an irate woman demanding to know who I was, as she'd had a call from my number from someone pretending to be calling from a Government department (or something), and so she was threatening to call the police. So I told her that it was a private number and I most definitely had not called her, and to go ahead and contact the police if she wants as I didn't want my number to be linked with a dodgy phone scam. So I guess scammers can use some sort of software to manipulate the display of the number on the receiving line, in order to disguise their actual number. I did notice that the number of the angry woman was only 2 digits different from my own number.

Anyway, I hope it doesn't happen again.
 
Just had a new twist on this... caller claimed to be from my nuisance call blocking service (which I don’t have) wanting to confirm my bank details :rolleyes:
 


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