Company called Universal acting like they are part of BT

Malory

Got a call at work from someone from a company called Universal asking if we had received notice of a price increase from BT (for the company phone.) I told her that we hadn't. She asked me if I was the account holder and I said I was, and she started talking to me like she worked for BT.

I asked her if I could have a phone number to call at BT to confirm the price increase, but she said she worked in a call centre and couldn't give me a number.

I told her that I needed to contact someone else for confirmation, so she told me to look on the BT website and then hung up on me.

It's one thing for someone to call and ask me to switch to their service, but this woman really made it sound like she worked for BT and there was an issue with our account.

The business gets calls that say "Can I speak to the BT account holder" a lot, but this one really made it seem like she worked witih BT and was authorized to deal with a problem with our account.

I even got sucked in at first - and I know better - and when she asked me if I'd got a notice of the price change told her that I'd recently received a bill from BT, which was none of her business.

dealer_wins

Even if the call was legit (which I really doubt), never buy anything, discuss anything, or even give your name, to incoming unknown callers.

If it was a real call from BT about a problem, they will email you or post a letter about it.

Malory

I know. That's why I asked for a number to call back.

We get calls all the time from people who want to talk about our BT account and try to make it sound like they are calling on behalf of BT.

This woman was particularly convincing (well trained).

My post was more of a warning for other people. I just got fed up with getting these calls so posted/ranted on MSE.

Is there any regulation saying that cold callers have to make it clear which company they are and aren't working for? There should be.

Edit: I thought that when she said "Have you received a letter about a price increase? You should have received a letter," that might have been very frightening to someone who happened to be having trouble paying their bills. Not nice.