My (very) elderly neighbour nearly got caught out on one of these online thugs' calls, and it wasn't just the few quid to change all his codes etc., he was genuinely shaken.
Scamming bastards need locking up, and I'd be in charge of the key too.
My son and I once had a similar caller who claimed to be able to fix my slow computer. For a very reasonable fee, of course. He said he was calling from Microsoft. We kept him on line for about 20 minutes, and he got more and more excited as we got to the "Barclaycard number". Sixteen mumbled digits ("three twothreeohsixtwothree - no, hang on, that's twothreesixthreeohtwo - no, sorry, that bit comes later, it's threethreetwoohsixthreetwo, er...sorry, I'll start again..."
We didn't do the high minded accusation at the end though. I'm pleased to say it descended into the worst type of racist abuse and a recommendation to shove his keyboard where it wasn't designed to go.
Scrobs - yes, they are probably hoping to snare elderly folk who aren't aware of how the scams work and how common they are. I agree, locking them up is the way forward.
Sam - ha ha, that sounds like fun. We just click off and block the caller, although many are texts these days, with a handy link to pay the "excess postage" or whatever it is.
Anyone receiving a call claiming to be from HMRC, should ask the caller to confirm your National Insurance number. Similarly, callers claiming to be from a bank, should be asked to confirm which bank. The telephone numbers used can then be reported to a scam line. During my time as a Police officer, I used to visit day care centres or care homes and chat to the residents about phone or internet scams, as the elderly tend to be more trusting. A sad reflection that advances in technology also lead to advances in methods of crime. Penseivat
Penseivat - yes, a request for National Insurance number should get rid of a fake HMRC scammer. We've never had a scammer claiming to be calling from the bank, although that may be because we don't give them time. If they don't address you by name in the first sentence, that's a giveaway too.
An ex Police colleague has told me about a new telephone scam where the caller will ask, "Can you hear me?" . The usual reply would be, "Yes", which is what the caller wants. The recipient then finds themselves tied in to some expensive deal, which they did not want. When they complain, they are told that them saying "yes" is held on an audible file, and a court case threatened if they refuse to pay. If an unknown caller asks, "Can you hear me?" , to avoid being scammed, simply say, "I can hear you", or say nothing, and hang up. Penseivat
Penseivat - interesting, say nothing at all seems to be the best approach. We generally assume that if the caller is genuine they will leave a message so we usually ignore unknown callers until they give up or leave a message.
7 comments:
Great post!
My (very) elderly neighbour nearly got caught out on one of these online thugs' calls, and it wasn't just the few quid to change all his codes etc., he was genuinely shaken.
Scamming bastards need locking up, and I'd be in charge of the key too.
Yes, excellent.
My son and I once had a similar caller who claimed to be able to fix my slow computer. For a very reasonable fee, of course. He said he was calling from Microsoft. We kept him on line for about 20 minutes, and he got more and more excited as we got to the "Barclaycard number". Sixteen mumbled digits ("three twothreeohsixtwothree - no, hang on, that's twothreesixthreeohtwo - no, sorry, that bit comes later, it's threethreetwoohsixthreetwo, er...sorry, I'll start again..."
We didn't do the high minded accusation at the end though. I'm pleased to say it descended into the worst type of racist abuse and a recommendation to shove his keyboard where it wasn't designed to go.
Scrobs - yes, they are probably hoping to snare elderly folk who aren't aware of how the scams work and how common they are. I agree, locking them up is the way forward.
Sam - ha ha, that sounds like fun. We just click off and block the caller, although many are texts these days, with a handy link to pay the "excess postage" or whatever it is.
Anyone receiving a call claiming to be from HMRC, should ask the caller to confirm your National Insurance number. Similarly, callers claiming to be from a bank, should be asked to confirm which bank. The telephone numbers used can then be reported to a scam line.
During my time as a Police officer, I used to visit day care centres or care homes and chat to the residents about phone or internet scams, as the elderly tend to be more trusting.
A sad reflection that advances in technology also lead to advances in methods of crime.
Penseivat
Penseivat - yes, a request for National Insurance number should get rid of a fake HMRC scammer. We've never had a scammer claiming to be calling from the bank, although that may be because we don't give them time. If they don't address you by name in the first sentence, that's a giveaway too.
An ex Police colleague has told me about a new telephone scam where the caller will ask, "Can you hear me?" .
The usual reply would be, "Yes", which is what the caller wants. The recipient then finds themselves tied in to some expensive deal, which they did not want. When they complain, they are told that them saying "yes" is held on an audible file, and a court case threatened if they refuse to pay.
If an unknown caller asks, "Can you hear me?" , to avoid being scammed, simply say, "I can hear you", or say nothing, and hang up.
Penseivat
Penseivat - interesting, say nothing at all seems to be the best approach. We generally assume that if the caller is genuine they will leave a message so we usually ignore unknown callers until they give up or leave a message.
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