Fake Sky Digital Repair Plan Scam

trisontana

As a follow up to post #49, David Reynolds has been jailed for just under four years:-

Mirror Investigations

smjxm09

AS all ready stated whether you go with $ky or a third party provider they are all ripping you off. A $ky one off charge for a repair is £65 or free if you make a fuss.

Lifeisbutadream

I had one of these calls.

I told him that as I had never had warranty on my sky I didnt see how it could be up for renewal. I also asked him why on earth I would need cover for my sky box, as if it went wrong and sky wouldnt fix it then I would simply stop paying for sky.

He didnt have an answer, so I still dont understand why anyone would need warranty for a sky box. Can anyone enlighten me?

wantmemoney

'David Reynolds of Satcover guilty of tax fraud'

so you can annoy and rip off the public as long as you pay the tax man

trisontana

wantmemoney wrote: »

'David Reynolds of Satcover guilty of tax fraud'

so you can annoy and rip off the public as long as you pay the tax man

Sometimes it's easier to prosecute someone over tax-fraud than other crimes. Just think of Al Capone. With tax fraud there is usually a very good paper-trail to follow.

lilfarmdog

My fiance had one of these call ages ago and stupidly agreed to give bank details - much to my absoloute horror. Anyway, got a bank statement a few weeks ago - for an account he never uses saying that £17.25 had been withdrawn from srs. move on a few weeks and he gets another letter, so I phone the number as we don't know what it was for; and lo and behold, it doesn't exist. Googled it and there are loads of people in the same boat. to top it off, as he doesn't check his bank account and doesn't use it he's been charged £300 in overdraft charges :mad:
NEVER EVER EVER EVER TRUST COLD CALLERS - JUST WISH I ANSWERED THE PHONE

jimbms

Same as another said, once you are out of your contract and thus on a 30 day only contract, if anything goes wrong ring sky and tell them you want to cancel as it's not worth paying £65 and you may as well go freesat with a different box. 90% chance a free refurbished box will be offered for delivery within 48hrs

electricity_2

lilfarmdog wrote: »

My fiance had one of these call ages ago and stupidly agreed to give bank details - much to my absoloute horror. Anyway, got a bank statement a few weeks ago - for an account he never uses saying that £17.25 had been withdrawn from srs. move on a few weeks and he gets another letter, so I phone the number as we don't know what it was for; and lo and behold, it doesn't exist. Googled it and there are loads of people in the same boat. to top it off, as he doesn't check his bank account and doesn't use it he's been charged £300 in overdraft charges :mad:
NEVER EVER EVER EVER TRUST COLD CALLERS - JUST WISH I ANSWERED THE PHONE

I almost fell for this phishing exercise too - the guy said he was from Sky Digital Services and he already had all my details (the last two numbers from my sort code and the last two numbers from my bank account). He knew our contract was ending, he gave the amount that we were currently paying on our package to Sky and offered a deal .... which I accepted.

Then he phoned back to say that the card details I had given him were wrong and he needed my mother's maiden name to get it through my bank. Well, I didn't give that to him as that was clearly suspicious but he had already got out of me my date of birth, address and so on --- enough I think to do an identity fraud. But it was definitely some sort of inside job as he already had a LOT of details, especially concerning what we were currently paying Sky which wasn't the usual basic package or anything like that!

They called themselves Sky Digital Services, they gave a number of 08442 414 564, which then went dead when I tried to phone it back later!

They also tried to ask for my driving licence details but I don't have a UK driving licence so there was no chance of that, I think that is when they decided to try to go for my mother's maiden name....

Watch out for these guys!

I have emailed Sky to let them know and they are passing it on to their legal team.

I have also phoned the police who are going to look into it and give me a crime reference number and so on.

It is very unnerving to think although I have cancelled my account with Sky and changed my bank card, there are criminals who already KNEW my bank account number and sort code - and now also know my address and date of birth!

Who knows what they will do with it and when??? I think it is extremely irresponsible of Sky if they are somehow letting these details get into the hands of criminals. I also wrote an email to the CEO Mr Darroch so hopefully he also will look into it!

I do agree one shouldn't give any details to cold callers but my case was frustrating because I didn't initially, I tried to call Sky back to verify it but they wouldn't give me any details about the account because it was under my ex-flatmates name and I didn't have the password..... (just unfortunate I guess, so I went ahead and gave my card number).

It is my fault but nonetheless they ALREADY had the details of my flatmate's name, our number, my sky direct debit amount, sort code and bank account numbers before I had even opened my mouth! How did they get all that???? It's frightening.

I gave them my credit card details (for the installation fee of £30.00) which they then said wouldn't go through - phishing for the mother's maiden name part.

Whatever they were phishing for, they haven't taken any money from my account at this point. I think they wanted my identity details more than anything else.

[Deleted User]

Oh wow......
I got a phone call on the 29.09.08 from Sky Protect saying that they offer the same service (in terms of breakdown cover etc) as Sky but cheaper, being an idiot I took them up on this offer and all was well.
Until I moved house at the beginning of November last year that is....
I found the letter I had received from them, it had two telephone numbers and an email address on it. One number for reporting faults and a contact number. My plan was simply to let them know I'd changed my address. I tried both numbers.....they were both dead. So I tried the email address....only to have it returned as an error in sending thingy.
So I came to the conclusion that the company was a scam and went to my bank to cancel the direct debit.....
November: I go into my bank and cancel the direct debt.
December: They take the money out of my account again, I go into the bank and the cashier tells me it's probably just taken a while to be processed and that it should not happen again next month.
January: They take the money again, this time the cashier informs me that it wasn't a direct debit but a standing order and suggests that I order a new bank card (because it's got a different card number) and (i quote) 'hopefully' this will prevent them taking the money again. So I cancel my card and order a new one - which is an inconvenience.
February: Guess what....They take the money from my account again!?! So I go in to the bank and get put on the phone to the banks transaction people who tell me that they are going to get in touch with the bankers of 'Sky Protect' and make a request that they stop taking money from my account. This takes 30 days.
March: The money goes from my account and I do nothing - thinking it's the 30 day thing.
April: Yes, you guessed correctly.....they take the money from my account again. I go back into my bank and go through Februarys’ step again.
May: 30 day thing again - they take money from my account again.
June: By this point I am really not very happy. I go into my bank and the cashier assures me that she has cancelled the direct debit (??? I had told her the full story first)....they definitely will not be taking money from my account again.
July: I was on holiday and didn't get round to doing anything about it this month....but they still took the money!
August: I have phoned my bank and asked to speak to someone about making a complaint otherwise, I said, I will be going to my local police station. This got their attention. My bank have now filled an indemnity claim against the company and I 'should' be getting a refund for my payments made since November last year (when I moved house and therefore since when the cover would be classed as invalid from) and they have assured me (once again) that they have cancelled the direct debit (? I don't even know any more).
And so, as it stands; if another payment to this blooming company goes out of my bank account next month I am actually going to change my bank. No doubt that will cause A LOT of !!!! ups to be made (I work for the NHS, so it will probably be November next year before they put my wages in the correct account!) and will cause me a lot more stress. But I haven't got a clue what else I can do????
So please, if any body gets a call from these muppets; tell them where to go!
If any one else has had a similar problem (although I'm probably the only one stupid enough to fall for it) I would love to here how you resolved the problem?
Thank you X

SohoAnthem

A similar scam to this was covered on The Real Hustle last night, you can probably find it on BBC iPlayer if you wanted to swat up on this kind of scam.