Yet another scam variation

Blued link www.welivesecurity.com/2011/07/19/support-desk-scams-clsid-not-unique/

I think it's the same scam with another BT scams which have been around for years. They just use new trick now. I think I have also read some reports about similar scams at whycall.me and ftc.gov few days ago. We need to keep spreading the word and inform our family about these scam tricks.

I don't even respond to genuine calls.
I got an automated call, recently, from Cooperative Bank.
It told me it would ask for 2 pieces of security info - started with giving me a few options for my year of birth, for me to select the correct one.
I didn't do it, so don't know what the 2nd one would have been.
(I was fairly sure it was genuine, as I'd spoken to them earlier.)

I phoned the bank and had to argue with the guy about why I wouldn't cooperate with the call, before he put me through to the right dept.

My point is - if people are used to giving security info to callers, who are genuine, they are more likely to fall for scams asking for info.

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I had a call recently from my bank. The caller gave me two letters from my mother’s maiden name and asked me for two more. Then he did the same for two more of my security questions always volunteering part of the answer first. Its the first time I’ve accepted or answered a call like this always assuming they’re scams but he obviously knew all my security details. It was genuine.

A friend was shocked recently to get a phishing email which quoted his email password as 'evidence' of being genuine.
Luckily, he realised it was an old password.
Who knows how they had got hold of it!

Someone who contacts you may well know some of your info and use that to lure you into giving them more.

You were lucky, NfkDumpling, that the call was real.

Yesterday I had six calls from that computer generated woman supposedly from "BT Technical department" telling me that my internet connection was about to be terminated. She had a new English accent, as opposed to the mid Atlantic one. Each number was different. All the calls were between 8 and 10am. I pressed my big red button to block each one.
Can BT not do something to stop this happening?

I`ve had 3 different "BT" calls many times over, there`s the American sounding woman, then a British one, now there`s a British man as well. They`re all from different numbers and area codes, and come at the most inopportune times.

My mum had a phone call yesterday (app from BT) she was asked to press 1.

She did!! very unusual for my mum she is normally bright and alert, but was diagnosed with none treatable cancer few months ago and went downhill,

The person asked her to log onto her lapt or her phone line would be cut off!!

Mum has nurses ringing/doctors etc etc so she switched laptop on! anyway by shear luck it was so slow and she kept going back to phone (not a cordless one thanfully)

The person must have got fed up of back n forth, even asked did she have any other IT stuff ipad etc etc.

This is a person who is always vigilant but as she has been so ill caught her on the hop! Just wish I could see this person in the flesh!!!!

I now have call selector on my land line but it used to amuse me when I got the "you need to turn on your computer now" calls. I don't have either a desktop or a laptop. I only have my phone. They were flummoxed when I told them I couldn't

At least yu know where the calls are coming from. We are signed up with TPS and hadn't had cold calls for a long time then about two months ago we began to get calls. They are silent and some say they are international, others just have a number underneath, almost 100% likely to be fake.

They do ot bother us, it is just that, as we do not want them going through to the answaphone, we usually pick the receive up and press the receive button, immediately followed by the end call button. We some times have 5 or 6 a day and it is getting tedious.

I used to get the BT ones but now it is usually Amazon telling me they are taking money from my account for Prime or Barclays telling me that someone has paid for something costing £3000. I phoned the telephone preference number and they told me they had loads of complaints but were unable to trace them. They can do something about double glazing firms etc but not much else.

We are getting the BT broadband scam call almost every day, it is tedious but they clone numbers so that they appear to come from legitimate callers.
DH's language is not polite when talking to them. Yesterday an Indian voice told us she was Rose and calling from BT, he told her no she was a criminal and she shouted at him.

I just love telling them that I don't have a computer or internet (of course, I do) as it throws them and they just hang up!

I now keep my phone on answer phone all the time now, just cant be bothered listening to them they usually hang up. if its family and something really important they can leave a message.

Unless I recognize the number that's calling, we leave the answerphone to deal with any calls. Anyone from friends or family who wants to speak can text me.

I had a call the other day from BTOpenreach (which I think is a mistake to start with as I understand Openreach is a separate organisation)
A woman asked me to switch on my computer as she wanted to check my connection.
Didn't sound right so I rang off, and put on the answer machine. The number called again but didn't leave a message.!!

Thanks Elegran. Another one to watch out for.

Blinko, an answering machine is the best thing. They get fed up when you do not answer. Genuine folk who leave a message get called back. If we don't know them, we don't answer. Same goes for my mobile, if I don't recognise the number, they can leave a message. There are so many scams now you do have to be so careful.

I have had lots of calls from BT Openreach usually with someone with a very strong Indian accent. I usually play along and pretend I’m very concerned that my broadband speed is slow. Then when they ask me to turn on my computer I say oh it will take me a few minutes to get to it, and then I stuff phone under a cushion and leave it. Anything to hopefully cost them money whilst they wait for me. But the last one was hilarious, an Indian man phoned up with the usual chat and I kept up my ‘oh it’s good you told me I have a problem, I’m so worried etc’ then when I said I hadn’t turned on my computer he snapped ‘you fu*** woman you are wasting my time you stupid cow’ . Well he phoned me!! Did make me laugh though.

Thanks for the warning.

I had quite an argument with one genuine company that rang me, though I can't for the life of me remember which right now, though it might have been our energy company.

The thing is, I was dealing with an issue with them at the time, and was expecting a call from them.
However, when they did ring, they wanted me to 'confirm' some security details such as my full name, address and account number, but their idea of 'confirm' was for me to tell them those things.
Even though I was 99.9% certain that it was a genuine call, I refused to do that. I pointed out that they had called me on my home phone, so I needed to be sure who they were. I offered to give them a part of each detail they required, but only if they would give me the other part. They refused point blank, so we got nowhere.

It was a genuine call, but I let them know in no uncertain terms that they needed to rethink their approach!