Suspicious bt phone call

beegood

Has anyone else had a phone call saying it was BT and telling you your BT account number? This happened to me today and he asked me to go to my computer because there was a security problem on my internet. I was suspicious because he was very pushy. I told him I was too busy to mess. He kept saying it was important but I insisted no. I contacted BT they said it was nothing to do with them and they don't know how he got the account number. I am just warning people because it can't just be a one off.

Rhubarb81

Wow that's a tad scary, if they can get your account number then it may be worth seeing what BT can do to help you?

Surely there's a breach somewhere? Whether it's BT or maybe a bill you've thrown in the bin?

beegood

It is very scary. I never throw anything with my name on not even envelopes I shred everything. BT gave me a password so anytime I ring they will only speak to me after I give it them

cookie365

Mailbag stolen from the postie?

Big_Graeme

More likely something like GMail has been hacked and they got the account number from there or it wasn't your account number at all.

We got one the other day, it took me 15 minutes of stringing them along before I told them we had Virginmedia.

macman

Regardless of knowing your account number, no ISP would ever make such a call, nor would your ISP have the faintest idea if there was 'a security problem on your internet', whatever that is supposed to mean.
It's just a slight variation on the usual 'Microsoft calling' scam.
Even if they didn't have your account number, they'd still clam to be BT, simply because there's a greater chance of you being on BT broadband than any other ISP.

eddddy

Or have you by any chance followed a link in an email that you thought was from BT - and entered your account number and details?

If so, it could have been a phishng email, like this one:

kwikbreaks

I'll agree that this was a scam but it isn't correct to say your ISP would always have no idea that you had malware on your machine - they can see the traffic and would be able to detect if your machine was being used to send mass spam for instance.

beegood

No I haven't opened a BT email I always go to the site myself. They have just rung again said they would ring today. I was going to answer and string them along then tell them I was with sky but I'm a bit busy.

macman

kwikbreaks wrote: »

I'll agree that this was a scam but it isn't correct to say your ISP would always have no idea that you had malware on your machine - they can see the traffic and would be able to detect if your machine was being used to send mass spam for instance.

Fair enough, but they still wouldn't ring you up about it-wouldn't you just get a warning message, and then get cut off?

Jivesinger

macman wrote: »

Fair enough, but they still wouldn't ring you up about it-wouldn't you just get a warning message, and then get cut off?

If your machine was sending spam because (unknown to you) it was infected and part of a 'bot-net', cutting you off would be unreasonable, especially as you'd likely need internet access in order to fix it.