Call from "UK Claims" - possible scam

Nosniboro

I have just been cold called by a gentlman with a strong indian accent, claiming to represent UK Claim and Finance dept, Eastbourne. He read out that I had been overcharged a "substantial amount" for bank overdafts and credit card payments over the last six years.
When I challenged him, pointing out that I have been charged nothing by my bank in the period and not been charged any interest on my credit card, he continued with his story. He re-emphasised the substantial size of the money and read out my correct address to try to prove his credentials.
Further questioning by me as to the actual sum of money, the banks that owe me and his company details, etc resulted in him thanking me for my time and hanging up.
I am absolutely sure that I am not entitled to this repayment. If UK claims call you, assume that you are not entitled too.

Sharperson

This evening I received a call from a man with strong Indian accent claiming to represent 'UK Claims Dept' of Eastbourne . He said I had a refund of Bank charges due from Year 2000 and amounting to over £5,000. Overpayment of bank & credit card charges. He knew my address and name. He quoted the first four numbers of my Debit Card and wanted me to quote the rest so he could verify my claim. He claimed they were working on behalf of the High Court. I refused to give him what he asked for suspecting a scam as I knew that such sums were fiction. I kept him talking for nearly half an hour before he finally rang off without warning, during which time I had Googled their name and it came up with possible scam from this Forum. A 1471 came up with the phone no. 00441241254786

pol098

MrRA wrote: »

... Is there a record for how long anyone has kept them on the phone for without giving them any information? I would like to start the bidding at 23 minutes and 22 seconds ... it is proabably better if you hang up on them sooner than I did (unless you want to go for my World Record of course )

If you're not restricting your record to Claims Direct but cold telemarketers in general, I claim it. It was quite a few years ago, but I managed 53 minutes. Someone from Ireland (by the accent) who kept asking me for my reasons; I basically chose to tell the truth (but hadn't been asked for any of my personal or card details).

If I have the time and inclination (not doing anything needing concentration) I will always engage them, giving out NO information, while, say, reading the newspaper. My reasoning: their time is their stock-in-trade; I waste as much of it as I can, while doing something else myself: if everybody did the same as I did this rotten industry (cold telemarketing in general, fraudulent or not) would dry up. With the old calls they would go through a whole script over and over again without asking your details; now they are very insistent on repeating their first unanswered question, to which I respond by making sure I've understood their company name, whether company or government agency, address & postcode, phone number, etc. "because I need to know who you are" - the call goes round & round & never gets further, otherwise I'd find more to say. It is worrying that so many people are prepared to give confidential details to a voice on a phone that will not give verifiable information.

A couple of techniques: if called by a number you don't recognise (if your phone displays it) say Hello, once, quickly, and remain silent; a predictive dialler will often ignore brief sound immediately after connecting as connection noise and wait for a voice signal, so the hang up. If asked for by name, do not confirm your name but ask them to wait and put the phone down without hanging up. You can maximise the time wasted by occasionally calling "Philip! There's a call waiting for you! Are you ready yet?"

A couple of rules in addition to the obvious "don't give people your card/bank details":
1. Nobody phones you up to give you money.
2. Anybody who does phone you up to give you money will happily identify themself and give you a contact number.

One warning: don't even trust them if you have, and call a genuine contact number. A technique new to me is to tell you to ring a number (which can be your bank number, from your own records, not them). They do not hang up, but play a recording of dial tone, so you think they're off the line (only the caller can terminate a landline connection, they're still there if you hang up). You dial your bank's number, they then stop the dialling tone and speak as if they are the bank. To work around this, make confirmation calls (to a number you have looked up, not given you by the caller) with a different phone if possible, or dial someone else on the same phone - if the person who "answers" confirms that they are your bank, you've got serious criminals after you.

Flooby

Well the gentleman 'kelvin' with whom I have just spoke is indeed rude enough to work for a government department but I am fairly sure he didn't! Claiming to be working under guidance of the high court for the department of finance he was unable to give me any address or contact details without me confirming all of my information and seemed quite annoyed that I would not tell him my bank name, or anything else! He too claimed thqt i had oveerpaid in interest of bank charges and he simply wanted to know how i would like my payment to be made. Once challenged that if he worked for the goveerment contact would be made by post and they would have my details as i work for a government agency he seemed annoyed that i was wasting his time, how inconvenient of me! I am of course registered with the TPS, however I have not come across anyone who is able to block these calls from abroad. If anyone knows of any then please do share! :beer:

Fagey

Hi all,
This evening I received a call from a "Withheld" number. When i answered the phone my phone rang a US ring tone and I had someone called Michael CLark , an Indian Michael CLark at that calling from UK Claims.
I challenged instantly and advised that i do not take calls from sales people, he said he wasnt sales......
I advised that i was registered with the TPS, he then said nothing will stop him calling me unless i was ex-directory....and very cocky with his response.
I then demanded a contact number, he then got aggressive on the phone and said that he will be asking the questions....
I went along with it in order to try and get more info from him, when he asked me if i had any accidents in the last year I said "No, he then said "you are lying to me and i will keep calling until you tell me the truth"
This bloke was anightmare, i put the phone down, If i wasnt cautious that the call might be costing me money i would leave him hanging for hours if i could
ANyone else experience this aggresiveness?

TheMaddog_2

Hi there Fagey,

I think I got the same person as you about 5:30pm (funny how they use the names of white cricketers, but speak with very strong Indian accents). Got a total of 8 call in less than 10 minutes. Like your call, mine involved some nastiness and veiled threats. A friend suggested some time ago that in situations like this, to make a Police Report and then if it continues, BT must take action to stop these calls coming through to you. Anyway, the Police were happy to take a brief report and issued me with a Report Reference No.

An hour or so later, we received three calls from someone with a similar accent, wanting to speak to my wife (who was already quite upset from the earlier calls). The person said he was a friend of my wife's but couldn't name her. He then said he was a friend of a friend, but when pressed, could not proved a name of single friend (there's a surprise!) and then started making quite explicit threats. I don't wish to sound like a psychopath, but anyone directly threatening my family IS living on the edge!!

It seems more than just a coincidence these calls were so close to each other - in fact, being an engineer, my training teaches me to not accept coincidences. Does anyone with more computer skills and more spare time track down who these people are. I think it is time to put a stop to these people.

dc1350

Fagey wrote: »

Hi all,
This evening I received a call from a "Withheld" number. When i answered the phone my phone rang a US ring tone and I had someone called Michael CLark , an Indian Michael CLark at that calling from UK Claims.
I challenged instantly and advised that i do not take calls from sales people, he said he wasnt sales......
I advised that i was registered with the TPS, he then said nothing will stop him calling me unless i was ex-directory....and very cocky with his response.
I then demanded a contact number, he then got aggressive on the phone and said that he will be asking the questions....
I went along with it in order to try and get more info from him, when he asked me if i had any accidents in the last year I said "No, he then said "you are lying to me and i will keep calling until you tell me the truth"
This bloke was anightmare, i put the phone down, If i wasnt cautious that the call might be costing me money i would leave him hanging for hours if i could
ANyone else experience this aggresiveness?

---

Yes, just now. He phoned on one landline then a second time without realising it was me. Said he was from The Road Traffic Claims Bureau. He got stroppy when I said I hadn't had any accidents and when I asked for a contact number he said I had to give them some information first. I told him I didn't have to do anything and I'd never heard of his crummy organisation. He was exceptionally rude so I thought it would be fun to retaliate in kind. I basically told him what I thought of his organisation with a few expletives and said if he rang again I would track him down and contact the police. It won't make any difference but it made me feel better!

devon988

I had a call about 18.00 tonight from a man with a heavy Indian accent who claimed he was from UK accident Helpine, he gave the same speech about someone being involved in a car accident in the last 2 years. However he mentioned that he knew their was a person under the age of 18 in the car at the time and that I had not claimed for them at the time as they were under the age of 3 but now they were 4 I was entitled to compensation for them.

In 2011 both myself and my daughter who was 3 at the time were involved in a car accident, I have recieved compensation for my injuries but was told my daughter was too young to recieve compensation so when I recieved the above call I actually believed them.

The caller knew my full name and asked for my daughter's full name and date of birth he also asked for my insurance details, the old car registration and the policy number which I foolishly gave, then he asked for my full address. When I asked to contact my solicitor who has been handling my claim he said my address was only needed in order for me to obtain the paperwork. He then said his legal party would contact me and explain the details of the new claim.

Whilst I was waiting for a call back from the legal department I went onto the UK Accident Helpine's website where it advised they do not make cold call and should I recieve a call from a forgein caller claiming to be from them, this call was not from them and that I should report them.

When the legal team called back my partner simply told them not to call again etc.

Please advise if any fraud can still be made as I am worried as I gave them my insurance details? Should I contact my insurance company and advise of above?

Thank you

Not_Had_In_The_Net_Yet

TechSupp wrote: »

Just recieved a call from someone from lets just say a countyry far away who thinks cows are sacred. told me that they had a huge sum of money that had illegally been taken from me and how would i like it, cheque or card. I said cheque to save giving out my card details to a cold caller but they then said i still needed to give this out for identification purposes. They said they had the long card number from my debit card but i just needed to read this to them so they knew it was me. He then asked for my date of birth which is no secret but when he asked for my expiry date on the card i told them no. The gentleman (i use the term loosely) on the phone then started off in a rant about how they are following UK law and could not help without this information. I continually said no and asked for their details but all he would give was the name First Call Claims under the name UK Claims Ltd from Eastbourne, East Sussex. No telephone number. The call was then strangely passed to another person who again asked for the expiry date. Every time i spoke he butted in and just kept saying can i take the expiry date. By this time, a little irate, i sternly said no and he responded with, what? you don't want this large amount of money then? Its not a few pounds but a significant sum. At this point i politely said goodbye and hung up. I did a 1471 on the phone but strangely, the number was withheld.
I would definately not hand over my details to a cold caller and recommend no-one else does either.

Very sound advice, my neighbour was scammed for 90 quid on the 21st July by someone of Indian origin who said his name was Brad Wilson claiming to be from 1st call claims in eastbourne east sussex, the police fraud office and bank fraud investigation branch are now involved, No one should answer questions about their bank accounts, pin numbers or codes either on the door step, the net or by phone, if these people are who they say they are "some even claim to be your bank" then they should have your details already on their screen, They even ask questions that your bank are not allowed or would not ask you, Sometimes the allure of getting some money is to great, don't be fooled nobody gives you money for nothing,

lynx10

lynx10 wrote: »

... I've since signed this petition:

Make the Telephone Preference Service Effective
Closing: 25/05/2013 09:54
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/34069

Unsolicited calls to my TPS-registered phone have increased approximately one-hundred fold since 2001-06 (when they were typically 2 a year).

The unsolicited calls are so frequent that it is too time-consuming to report them.

The TPS should be replaced PDQ by a watchdog with proper teeth.