Nice try (but failed).

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but regarding any concerns about various kinds of "scams" (by phone, online, or otherwise) it's worth looking at the Action Fraud website (run by the police as a nationwide support).

This seemed the best thread to put this on. Phone call this morning which, while distracted, I answered. Allegedly, I had made a complaint about problems with my property to the Housing Department. I hadn't. Hung up quickly but beware - it's an 0203 number scam.

Petra This is why I do not speak at all and just put the phone down. if I do speak to any of the scammers I am always polite and dismissive. I am only too aware that many of the scammers are coerced.

I would never, ever indulge in some of the behaviours listed above like blowing whistles because I am too aware that many of these scammers are not choosing to do what they do.

CariadAgain
The vast majority of people working in these call centres arnt thieves. Many of them are prisoners sold to the 🤬 who are keeping them prisoners in the compounds.
www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/5/30/each-person-had-10-phones-trapped-in-a-cyber-scam-centre-in-laos

A picture of just one of the complexes. Some are so huge they are like a small town.

I get very few spam/scam emails. One or two a month max. The same with phone calls

For many years. I just picked up all calls and said nothing for about 5 seconds and when I heard the tape recorder click off, I put the receiver down. If there was a real person with a reason for ringing me, they would speak first and I would explain what I was doing. They always understand.

I read somewhere that now making these calls is an industry the managers have software that sorts through the numbers dialled and drops any number where there is consistently no response when the number is dialled. They do not want to waste time ringing numbers that seem either dead or defunct.

LOL - a woman after my own heart Dr Watson.....

These scammers do do damage - even if we catch onto them being thieves, rather than people, before they have the chance to catch us out.

Every attempted theft is another little "nail in the coffin" in our faith in human nature and our mental scales dividing the human race between "thieves" and "normal people" sinks down further and further on the "thief" side of that equation and we wonder more and more what proportion of people are "thieves" that we're having to share our planet with....

Two phonecalls or emails from thieves and another article about what the Israeli Government are up to now and that's quite a cloud of despair descending for the day....

I get a dozen or more attempted scam emails a week, easily seen, reported (to [email protected] ), and deleted.

We hardly ever get dodgy phone calls (we've a landline) and they can easily be detected as recorded voices which click into action when someone answers (they must call zillions every day?).

We're on the Virgin Media system, I've never yet got them to answer the question:- "Most of the phishing emails we get are from scammers pretending to be Virgin Media, wanting an excess payment, etc --- as it's YOU that processes and delivers those emails, YOU can see they are not really FROM YOU, so why don't YOU zap them before they reach ME?!".

Oh, PS, if you receive a dodgy TEXT, forward it to 7726. You can also report scam calls by texting 7726 with the word "Call" followed by the scam caller's number.

PS2, In MY world, I'd have a couple of scammers a week executed. They could try and save themselves, by having friends and family phone a number to make a charity donation, then after they'd paid, a further message would kick in to tell them that they needed to pay £X more to reach the 'save' target. And £X would keep increasing . . .

I have only once had a mildly obscene call. The voice sounded familiar although I could not place it. I mentioned this to DH.

Some years later, by then DH had moved jobs. Something suddenly triggered recollection and I realised who had rung me. It was DH's manager at the time. The previous evening had been the annual company dinner dance and he had danced with me several times.

I keep a whistle by the phone too! Would love to see their faces when I blow it!😱

I worked in overseas telegrams many years ago and am pretty au fait with computorised telecommunications. Over the years, I have perfected my replies etc. (I really do record things ) I inform who ever contacts me, that all my phone calls are recorded, that my son - the policeman , has already explained the type of things they do, and checks my phone recordings every day. If they persist in speaking their spiel and refuse to go I finish off with a police whistle which I keep by the phone and once hopefully half deafened some scumbag who decided to phone me with unpleasant sexual comments. Rhey have picked the wrong one if they think I am going to fall for any of their rubbish!!

dragonfly46

I would not have rung the number or engaged with the scammer. With AI and voice recognition anything is possible.

Exactly me neither

ninamoore

No bank or building society in the uk would contact you like this. It’s all scammers never even phone them or reply. Stay safe on line.

I often press 1 when receiving these calls to waste their time, then eventually tell them I know they are scammers when they can't answer my questions about the so called compromised account, but I hadn't heard about the cloning your voice thing. I'll have to try to disguise my voice in future!

My DH just tells them he hasn't got anything so no house no bank account no computer no laptop and no phone even though he is talking to them on it.

He says the phone is his friend's phone and then they hang up.

I had one the other day purporting to be from Virgin Media.

He said "How are you maam, hope you are having a fine day?"

I said that I was, thank you. And he hung up instantly. I wonder why he didn't pursue the conversation? He wouldn't have got anywhere with me but it seemed odd to start the call and then hang up.

I am beginning to get a complex as I have never, ever, had a scam phone call or email!!!!

AI is% clever stuff. The "voice" of a well-known supermarket mobile phone provider was, for several years, a long-standing friend of mine, providing her with a fair bit of income.
Suddenly they stopped paying her without notice and told her it was no longer using her voice. Well it sounded exactly like her and she was advised by a solicitor to take them to court for non-payment. Her claim was thrown out as they could prove they were using AI .

Sorry, but in the past, tricksters, quacks and scamsters often talked their way into peoples lives, their homes - just as they still do today.

M0nica

Cariadagain There have always been scammers, cheats and petty criminals among us and they have always adjusted their trade to their age and their culture and technology.
Two hundred years ago Donizetti wrote an opera, The Elixir of Love, all about a quack doctor selling fake potions that he claims will make people love the purchaser.

Nowadays the doctor would be making scam hone calls or sending scam emails and texts.

True dat.....there have always been both normal people and con merchants throughout history.

Our ancestors did have the advantage over us though of they were unlikely to "attack" in our own homes. No phones or Internet for them to abuse against us. So they were basically only able to get at us in our own homes by knocking on the door or if we were a normal person born into a family of scammers.

No bank or building society in the uk would contact you like this. It’s all scammers never even phone them or reply. Stay safe on line.

I was chatting to someone about talking to these scammers and I would now avoid it completely as they can use AI to clone your voice which can be a major issue if you use your voice to access your banking, as many people do now. So don't engage at all.

Indigo8

I quite often get calls from "Bank Security" telling that some unusual transactions have taken place often a payment of several hundred pounds to Amazon and some payment abroad or for a rail ticket to Scotland. Because of fishing for voice recognition I now hang up immediately.

A while back I pressed 2 to talk to an adviser and he didn't seem to know which bank account the money had come from so he asked for my name so he could check. I told him my name was Delilah McBumm (it isn't) and he said "Yes here we are Mrs McBumm now remind me which bank you are with".

Best laugh of the day!

Cariadagain There have always been scammers, cheats and petty criminals among us and they have always adjusted their trade to their age and their culture and technology.
Two hundred years ago Donizetti wrote an opera, The Elixir of Love, all about a quack doctor selling fake potions that he claims will make people love the purchaser.

Nowadays the doctor would be making scam hone calls or sending scam emails and texts.

And of course always call back on the bank's main fraud number rather than deal with the caller.

I had a call where they had my card details, presumably from a company that had been hacked.

They did a test transaction online which generated a text to me with an authentication code. At the same time I was phoned by the "security department" telling me that there had been a fraudulent transaction and gave me the amount and payee. They were convincing I was falling for it until they got to the "transfer your money to a safe account" part of the script.

Lessons:
Never save your card details on a retailer's website for faster payment.

If they know the first half of your card number then they can decode the bank name.

The number on a 2 factor authentication text is a PIN as sensitive as the one on your card. Only a scanner will as you to read it back to them

Thanks Petra. A salutary reminder indeed. I do personally know about the "yes" thing - hence the only word they ever get out of me is the initial "hello".

It is so disillusioning to have so many of these scammers around - as opposed to normal people. Almost feels like the only way to be totally sure of protection is to stay indoors, never accept FB friend requests, always be wary if a man is chatting a lot to you (once one gets to the "My looks have gone - darn it!" age and so it's probably not because they fancy you these days...).

Yesterday saw what I think was an "in person" thing - ie a man in around my agegroup and the conversation included the fact he is a lodger in someone's house (in my agegroup? ie 60 plus!) and he's asking about my social life/friends/etc (ie to see whether I came over as "isolated"). I think I put him off a bit when I started saying about the number of times I've "known" something I've not been told (ie my intuition told me). I do actually have quite a long list of what my "intuition" has told me over recent decades - and yet no-one else has ever got more than one or two (if that) tales of that happening to them.......unless they're all keeping very quiet about it...

I think he started to get the picture what I'd just clicked to about him.....and I remembered this is an area of the country where a lot of men don't have a house....but, funnily enough, do develop a "relationship" with a woman who does own a house.......hmmmm....

No wonder I get so fed-up of people trying to use me to steal or bum off....