Nuisance calls

If you can watch scam interceptors on bbc1 or iplayer,they deal with exactly these sort of scams

Register with the Telephone Preference Service. It helps a bit.

I had a fone call today telling me there were two fraudulent transactions of £320 and £1120 on my Amazon account and to press a certain number if it was not me!
This took place on my land line !
I just flipped on my mobile banking ….saw no monies had disappeared and told the land line caller to feck off…..
I suggest you do likewise in future.

lixy

I loathe these calls, especially the ones to my mum who panics about them, even more so since her local bank branch closed recently.

My advice to her is to just hang up but she doesn't like to be rude....

If I suspect a scam I love to be rude! If I'm not busy I string them along for as long as I can to waste their time and reduce the chance of them scamming someone else. They often hang up on me!

It’s getting worse and worse, sorry it happened to you. Just to note though Freeandeasy, I did get a genuine call from M&S banking some years back asking if I had used my credit card to spend £1 abroad that day. I said no and they confirmed they would block my card and I needed to change my password, so changed all of them on everything I used. Everything can be done virtually, you never have go into a bank unless you are signing something legit. I’ve read of people going in to remove all their savings into another (scammer given) account to prevent fraud and lost the lot as they ‘gave it away’. Scum bags.

To those people who love to keep the scammers talking, please be aware that there are instances where the scammer will record your voice and make a copy of it using AI. They then use it to scam you further by signing you up to other products
As someone further up thread said, watch the programme 'Scam interceptors '.

Yes indeed they are the scum of the earth and have no scruples. These people must have/had mothers or grandmothers and I wonder how they would like if they were scammed. It makes my blood boil, particularly as my own mum (years ago before her dementia) kept receiving them and used to panic. I eventually had PoA and her bank card, so she used to answer them, telling them that “her daughter dealt with everything “ and eventually they stopped. Then she got a bit deaf just before she went into care, and never answered the ‘phone anyway, despite having an increased ring tone for the hard of hearing and a flashing light!

I spoke too soon when I said they seemed to be decreasing. I did get another one this morning, and this time instead of hanging up when they got the answer machine, they left a message, in the hope I was there and would pick up. Yes (sigh) my bank account had been compromised to the tune of £500 to Amazon and £1,300 to an overseas gift card!! Do these people think we are stupid? That said, I was “stupid” when I thought my PayPal account had been compromised and pressed one - direct to the scammer! And most people are not stupid or naive, just vulnerable.

Lots of good advice on here about devices that block nuisance calls, which I will certainly look into. I do have a nuisance call block on my home ‘phone so block them, but there are so many from different numbers. Do the scammers work together in some sort of call centre with computerised generated numbers on some sort of database of stolen numbers? Obviously they can’t get access to your money without you giving out personal details, but it is so annoying. I am in awe of those people who string them along. Maybe I’ll try that!! I know many of these scammers are from a poor country but instead of making an honest living they are choosing to steal from often vulnerable people. Absolute scumbags with no morals!

Freeandeasy

I know many of these scammers are from a poor country but instead of making an honest living they are choosing to steal from often vulnerable people. Absolute scumbags with no morals!

Some (not all, but I suspect many, many people!) of these "scumbags" especially in places like India and the Philippines are lured with the false promise of a decent, honest living to be able to send money home but are literally locked away in these buildings and made to make phone calls/scam people, from all over the world. There are literally whole city blocks in India which do this. Their entire business is built on call centre scamming and often funded by people in authority like mayors or senior police officers, who turn a blind eye. There was a programme on iPlayer which I watched a few months ago, all about it. Rightly or wrongly, things aren't always what they seem.

There is ALWAYS someone ready to exploit someone less fortunate than them.