phone scam

Anthillmob

i have this from a reliable source who im mates with on facebook and other forum.

I received this from a reliable source.
"The new telephone 'scam' has arrived.
I received a call from a 'representative' of BT, informing me that he
Was dis-connecting me because of an unpaid bill. He demanded payment
Immediately of £31..00 , or it would be £ 118.00 to re-connect at a
Later date.
The guy wasn't even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media,
Allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental!
I asked the guy's name - the very 'English' John Peacock with a very
'African' accent - & phone number - 0800 0800 152..
Obviously the fella realized I wasn't believing his story, so offered
To demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang
Up & try phoning someone - he would dis-connect my phone to prevent
This.
AND HE DID !! My phone was dead - no engaged tone, nothing - until he
Phoned me again..
Very pleased with himself, he asked if that was enough proof that he
Was with BT. I asked how the payment was to be made & he said credit
Card, there & then.
I said that I didn't know how he'd done it, but I had absolutely no
Intention of paying him , I didn't believe his name or that he worked
For BT.
He hung up.
Did 1471 & phoned his fictitious 0800 number - not recognised.
I phoned the police to let them know , I wasn't the first! It's only
Just started apparently but it is escalating.
Their advice was to let as many people know by word of mouth of this
Scam. The fact that the phone does go off would probably convince some
People it's real, so please let as many friends & family aware of
This."

Be careful

dacouch

This isn't that new.

What they actually do when they say they will make your phone dead is actually put their phone on mute so you are still connected to them. So when you try and ring out you cannot because your still connected to them.

They then ask for immediate payment and will have your credit card details and any other details you give them.

They normally target elderly people who are more liable to fall for the scam, they troll through the phone book looking for people with names like Alfred, Anthea, Ethel etc etc

juliescot

If someone is mates with someone on Facebook then it must be true.

dacouch

Telephone Scam Warning

North Yorkshire Police is warning householders to be careful when giving financial and other personal information over the phone.



This advice follows a incident on Tuesday (2 June 2009) in Pickering when a telephone caller claiming to be from BT allegedly stated that payment was overdue. To prove they were from BT, the caller said they would disconnect the homeowner's telephone line so that they were unable to make outgoing calls before then apparently reconnecting the line. In reality the person does not hang up the phone but simply presses the mute button. The homeowner then gave their credit card details from which several hundred pounds was removed.
PC Terry Triffitt of Pickering police said: "BT informed us that they would not cut anyone off using this type of procedure. This case highlights the lengths that criminals will go to invent a highly believable ploy to get you to part with your banking details. It is always better to be safe than sorry and a quick call to BT Customer Services will clear up whether or not this type of call is genuine or bogus."
A spokesman for BT said: "We never ask for bank details over the phone. If anyone does receive a call requesting bank details, they should treat it with suspicion and report it to the police."
As well as reporting these incident to the police, anyone who may have been contacted by someone trying to commit this type of fraud is asked to contact the BT Nuisance Calls Bureau on 0800 411422 so that the scale of the problem can be identified.
If anyone is aware of people carrying out this type of fraud they should report it to North Yorkshire Police on 0845 6060247 or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
4 June 2009


http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2044

BFG_2

www.snopes.com - this will tell you if the story 'that a friend of a bloke who lives near the gardener of the wife of a driver for the landlord of the chief of justice's dogwalkers cousin' told me, is true or a load of manure.

nexuss

Yet another hoax that has been copied and pasted all over the net.

trisontana

nexuss wrote: »

Yet another hoax that has been copied and pasted all over the net.

Yes,
it will soon be time for the annual "PDC Phone Scam" email that has appeared just before Christmas for the last three years.

Freddie_Snowbits

juliescot wrote: »

If someone is mates with someone on Facebook then it must be true.

I trust everything I see on Facebook!

B011OCK5

Chezzie_2

nexuss wrote: »

Yet another hoax that has been copied and pasted all over the net.

According to snopes it's not a hoax and the OP's link takes you to the police page.

SpammyTheSpammer

She went out shopping to the big arcade with her grandma, picking up a hitchhiker on the way. Her grandma died on the way there so they wrapped her body in a carpet and tied it to the roof of the car. The hitchhiker disappeared after this. When they got to the arcade, she had to pop into a public toilet where someone was dyeing a childs hair so she hung her handbag on a hook on the toilet door. Her bag was taken and when she got home she had a telephone call that said they had her bag at the arcade but that she was going to be cut off unless she paid the reconnection bill. She took no notice of this as she was worried that her dead grandmother's body was no longer on the roof of her car but there was still a hand attached to the back door. She was also very distracted as her doberman "SEMTEX" seemed to be choking. When she got back to the arcade, there was a notice about a missing child and the shopkeeper said that they did not have her bag and when she got home the second time, she found that someone had opened the door, using her OWN keys, and left a book about urban myths on the floor.

Isn't that a freaky coincidence!

PS
I forgot to add that she pricked her finger on an AIDS-infected hypodemic syringe that was ejected when she used a machine to buy a cookie recipe at the arcade. Luckilly, she did not get bit by the Australian spider that was hiding under the dispenser flap as the Glade Plug-In Dispenser had caused a small fire that both killed the spider and cauterised her wound.

Which was lucky really, as she has just been cured as having cancer from drinking from the same disposable plastic water bottle that she filled up from the tap each day and drank from. Or was it from wearing Red Earth Lipstick? I forget now....


BUT IT IS ALL TRUE, AS TOLD TO ME BY THE FRIEND

fluffnutter

dacouch wrote: »

What they actually do when they say they will make your phone dead is actually put their phone on mute

I always thought that only the caller, not the callee, could totally end the conversation. It's happened to me a few times, with friends and family calling me: if they call me, and I hang up first, providing they don't then hang up themselves the connection is not lost. Every time I pick up the phone from then onwards I'll be straight back connected to them (which can be a bit of a problem!). I think that's always been the case with landlines - not sure about mobiles.

The safest thing, surely, is never to trust anyone who phones you out of the blue. That goes for scams, 'You've won this or that', 'Would you like to buy this fantastic thing?', threats etc. etc.