WARNING - Talktalk Call Scam

LadyDee

This is going the rounds again (if it ever went away) and worth mentioning again I thought.

Elderly friend received a phone call purporting to be from TT. She's so "untech" she refers everything to her son/me before she does anything on her laptop other than emails, but this chap was very, very insistent that she had a problem with her PC, when she told him she couldn't speak then as she was going out she thought she'd got rid of him.

He phoned back in the evening! She said he was really insistent and really tried to bully her, trying to get her to log on and type in something. She just told him she couldn't understand what he was saying and told him in no uncertain terms to get lost, at which point he swore at her and she then hung up.

Please, please remind non-aware people not to fall for this!

gunsandbanjos

It never went away, and it's not just talk talk, they'll claim to be from BT or your bank or whoever they want.

It's bog standard vishing.

LadyDee

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

It never went away, and it's not just talk talk, they'll claim to be from BT or your bank or whoever they want.

It's bog standard vishing.

Yes, of course it is, but it's the fact that this chap actually called back again, in the evening, doubtless getting the impression that my friend sounds elderly on the phone, is a little hard of hearing too so might well have sounded confused. He thought he'd have another go at bullying her. It was the return phone call that made this stand out.

No harm in a reminder now and again.

bod1467

Is (or was) she with Talktalk? Did he address her by name and seem to have account details? If yes then she might have been one of the people affected by one of the TT hacks.

LadyDee

bod1467 wrote: »

Is (or was) she with Talktalk? Did he address her by name and seem to have account details? If yes then she might have been one of the people affected by one of the TT hacks.

Thanks, I'm not sure about the name etc. (I'll ask her later) but she is with TT. She doesn't do any banking or buying online. She really does only use her laptop for emails. I know her son checked that all was well when the hacks were publicised last year.

imho

My town where I live lots of people had the same phone call saying they are from Microsoft and you need to sort your computer out. It was in the local paper.
I had that call 2 weeks ago and just told her I had a Mac computer and put phone down.

TalkTalk

Hi all

Please be vigilant with the calls, always report any to us so they can be investigated. You can also chat to us on our Twitter feed @TalkTalkCare.

Thanks
Abbie

david39

There is an annoying development in this type of nuisance call that I have detected recently.

Firstly, you receive an automated message call from a non-existent number with the same STD code as you, so it looks like someone calling you locally.
Sometimes, the CLI is PRIVATE CALLER, You will answer that call as it could be a local shop or service. The message is usually about boiler replacement or ppi.
Even if you put the phone down as soon as the message starts, it has recorded that your line is active and you are at home.

A short while afterwards, you receive a call from what appears to be a mobile number. You don't keep all your friends' mobile numbers in your home phone directory so you answer it because it is probably one of them. It isn't - it's someone selling you something or trying to scam you.

Clearly, the first call is just an automated try-out to eliminate useless numbers so that the real sales phone line only calls phones where there is going to be a reply.

I was away on holiday recently, and when I came home the missed calls log on my home phone showed the repeated pattern, twice a day, of the above types of double call. They are still continuing but less frequently now, but one of the callers claimed to be a TT tech engineer and he had all my details.

david39

Further to the above, the fictitious numbers for both calls change regularly so it is difficult to block them without blocking all unknown numbers.

bod1467

I have a BT8500 system with Truecall integrated. This fields all spam calls ... even if it is a "sensible" number, if it's not in my Allowed list then they get a prompt to announce their call - spammers never do.

TalkTalk

Hi David39

If you're concerned about these calls claiming to be from TalkTalk please contact us either on twitter (@TalkTalkCare) or via our community pages on our website we can certainly look into this for you.

Thanks

Vicky