New scam, please read this!

[Knipples]

I had to post due to the seriousness of this, and the fact its happened to a friend of mine.

They rang him last night and said "We're from BT you havent paid your bill for three months and unless you pay us now we are going to disconnect you"
He said that he had paid his bill so they must be mistaken, and that it had to be a scam.

They said, we get lots of people saying this, so in five minutes we will disconnect your line, and then five minutes after that we will reconnect you and then you will know we are genuine.

They did this, and he was unable to use his phone, nor could he ring the phone from his mobile, the line was dead. So when they rang back, he assumed it had to be real and gave them his bank details to pay the bill.

Theyve taken all his money.

I appreciate some will see through this straight away (im not with BT so would know it was fake, but apparently when he spoke to the bank they have mentioned other providers as well) but I just wanted to make people aware of it, so they can spread the word.

[divine]

I'm sorry but you'd have to be dense to fall for that still.

One golden rule: If someone phones you, don't give them any sensitive details, make sure you phone them from a known number, or they've organised to phone you in a legitimate way.

BT don't 'prove themselves' to people by playing silly buggers with their phone numbers.

[Knipples]

I'd agree, but if they are going to the lengths of disconnecting your phone line you might think they were genuine for a bit at least.

[iCraig]

Were they really disconnecting it or just staying on the line their end?

[Knipples]

Were they really disconnecting it or just staying on the line their end?

He said he tried to ring his home phone with his mobile, and when he did it made the noise you get when a number has been disconnected, i.e. not a busy tone, that continuous tone that just goes on and on until you hang up the phone.

[Burble]

I had the same call last night on my home office number. I knew it was a scam so told the guy to get stuffed.

[Mark]

My home office number is a VoIP line. If they ring that one they'll be in for a surprise (though I just noticed the batteries in the phone were dead so they wouldn't have got anything :o)

[LeperousDust]

I had the same call last night on my home office number. I knew it was a scam so told the guy to get stuffed.

;D

It's a bit hard to fall for this, surely you'd have recieved a tree's worth of letters before they resort to paying someone to phone you and tell you to pay up?

[Fayshun]

That reminds me, I must pay my phone bill...

[Briggykins]

I'd probably fall for that. How do they do it?

[Mark]

Don't know, but there's been police warnings about it recently so it seems they're on a bit of a victim hunt at the mo. :(

The simple rule is - if you're in any doubt whatsoever, ask them for a detail about your account that they should know (and don't get fobbed off with 'we can't give out those details, sir' - they're your details), or tell them you'll ring them back, then get the customer services number from your bill (don't use any phone number they give you).

[Feek]

People will fall for it, they don't have to be dense to do so. I've just warned my elderly mum and Mrs. Feek is doing the same to her wrinklies.

[Knipples]

People will fall for it, they don't have to be dense to do so. I've just warned my elderly mum and Mrs. Feek is doing the same to her wrinklies.

Yeah, thats what I was hoping people would do, pass the story onto those who people know might be taken in.

[Stan_Lite]

People will fall for it, they don't have to be dense to do so. I've just warned my elderly mum and Mrs. Feek is doing the same to her wrinklies.

I agree. It doesn't require one to be dense. There are a great many vulnerable people out there including the elderly who could easily be confused and fall for this.

Like Feek, I have informed my grey haired old Mam and the rest of my family and asked them to pass the information on to as many people as they can.

Thanks for the heads up Knip :)

[lostkat]

I've informed my parents & grandparents along with the advice that if anyone ever calls trying to get money out of them, then they should ask the caller to confirm account/address/name details.

I also said if in doubt, hang up, find the company's number on your bill and then ring them back to see if the call was genuine.

[Desmo]

We have to remember that we're from a different generation. We're used to seeing things like this happen and we read about it a lot on the net, as proven by this thread.

I'll be telling all the oldens I know.

[Pheebs]

Thanks for the heads up Knips :)

[Pebs]

I guess it's only obvious if you know it's a scam. I went to see a very astute clues up middle aged man who had fallen fir the Nigerian/western union thing regarding the sale of a car. Obvious to us as we see it all the timebut he took it all I'm good faith and is now £3.5k down.