Have I given too much info to scammer?

sparkiemalarkie

Hi, I now realise that I had a scam phone call from a 'company' wanting to buy BT shares from private investors on behalf of a client.
The person I spoke to knew my home phone number and my maiden name - the surname that I used to originally buy the BT shares.
I gave an email address which then gave away my married name.....

A few hours later I had a follow up phone call asking if I had received their email
 The email had arrived from the 'company' and apparently included a non disclosure form for me to sign and return immediately.
I googled the company and there was only 1 mention of them on a small google page and the web site looked really bad - poorly constructed, distorted photos etc.

I deleted the email without opening it and deleted it from the trash bin....

I'm now concerned because someone knows...
My home phone number
My maiden name
My married name
Email address 
and that I own some BT shares

Can the information I've given away make me vulnerable to being hacked/scammed /exploited?
If so what can I do?
What other information might I have given away without realising?

many thanks

sx

Type_45

sparkiemalarkie said:

Hi, I now realise that I had a scam phone call from a 'company' wanting to buy BT shares from private investors on behalf of a client.
The person I spoke to knew my home phone number and my maiden name - the surname that I used to originally buy the BT shares.
I gave an email address which then gave away my married name.....

A few hours later I had a follow up phone call asking if I had received their email
 The email had arrived from the 'company' and apparently included a non disclosure form for me to sign and return immediately.
I googled the company and there was only 1 mention of them on a small google page and the web site looked really bad - poorly constructed, distorted photos etc.

I deleted the email without opening it and deleted it from the trash bin....

I'm now concerned because someone knows...
My home phone number
My maiden name
My married name
Email address 
and that I own some BT shares

Can the information I've given away make me vulnerable to being hacked/scammed /exploited?
If so what can I do?
What other information might I have given away without realising?

many thanks

sx

That wouldn't bother me.  I think you're fine as long as you are wiser in future.

Do you use a password manager?  Or are all your passwords your cat's name?

sparkiemalarkie

Thanks...
I don't use a password manager ...I need to make some changes...
Thankfully I don't have a cat.... 

She was so knowledgeable and used all the right jargon in the right places....
She kept pressing me for the date I bought the shares ...I had no idea so couldn't answer that question.

It was 'imperative' that I didn't tell anyone about the share purchase offer as apparently the client was planning to gain 51% of the BT shares to become the majority share holder and didn't want institutions to know

hopefully I haven't done too much damage

sx

dunstonh

I'm now concerned because someone knows...
My home phone number
My maiden name
My married name
Email address 
and that I own some BT shares

The share register is in the public domain.    So, your name and the fact you have shares is available to anyone that wants to look.   

Can the information I've given away make me vulnerable to being hacked/scammed /exploited?

No.   However, the fact you engaged with them may mean they may try again with other scams.     So, you need to be on guard.

What other information might I have given away without realising?

We cant answer that without a recording of the phone call.  What can you remember giving away?

Cus

You would know if you had given some key info. 
The information is nothing, I would not be concerned about in the slightest.

Type_45

sparkiemalarkie said:

Thankfully I don't have a cat.... 

That's not really the point I was trying to make...

Daliah

Sounds like you stopped entertaining this just in time.

There's not much you can do about deleting the data they have about you - - - in all likelihood they had at least some of the data before, and your details may well be on a suckers list which fraudsters buy and sell.

But don't panic, probably nothing bad has happened. Just give yourself a thorough health check and stay alert.

Run a virus scan as well as Malwarebytes before you do anything else, just to be sure you haven't got any nasties.

You could change your email address, and definitely change your passwords.

If you don't already, check you credit files for any hard searches you don't recognise. You should do this on a regular basis, anyway.

You could also consider a protective CIFAS registration, which would stop fraudsters from opening bank, credit card and mobile phone accounts in your name 

Come back here if you find anything you are alarmed about. or go straight to your bank and to the Police if you are certain that you are a victim of fraud (i.e. financial loss has happened or is about to happen)

Whatever you do, never ever entertain an unsolicited call about anything again. You are entirely within your rights to put the phone down, without apologising or explaining anything. You can also get call blockers, or perhaps your provider offers a call minder service / number display. Just don't answer calls from numbers you don't recognise. Assuming you have voicemail, you can just let the call go to voicemail, and call back only known callers. Don't be tempted to find out who unknown callers are, as they are very likely fraudsters.

sparkiemalarkie

Type_45 said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

Thankfully I don't have a cat.... 

That's not really the point I was trying to make...

Sorry, I know that....
and I really appreciate your reply.... my comment was a childish attempt to try to alleviate the enormous stress I'm feeling at the moment....

sx

Cus

Daliah said:

Sounds like you stopped entertaining this just in time.

There's not much you can do about deleting the data they have about you - - - in all likelihood they had at least some of the data before, and your details may well be on a suckers list which fraudsters buy and sell.

But don't panic, probably nothing bad has happened. Just give yourself a thorough health check and stay alert.

Run a virus scan as well as Malwarebytes before you do anything else, just to be sure you haven't got any nasties.

You could change your email address, and definitely change your passwords.

If you don't already, check you credit files for any hard searches you don't recognise. You should do this on a regular basis, anyway.

You could also consider a protective CIFAS registration, which would stop fraudsters from opening bank, credit card and mobile phone accounts in your name 

Come back here if you find anything you are alarmed about. or go straight to your bank and to the Police if you are certain that you are a victim of fraud (i.e. financial loss has happened or is about to happen)

Whatever you do, never ever entertain an unsolicited call about anything again. You are entirely within your rights to put the phone down, without apologising or explaining anything. You can also get call blockers, or perhaps your provider offers a call minder service / number display. Just don't answer calls from numbers you don't recognise. Assuming you have voicemail, you can just let the call go to voicemail, and call back only known callers. Don't be tempted to find out who unknown callers are, as they are very likely fraudsters.

Based on this:

"I'm now concerned because someone knows...
My home phone number
My maiden name
My married name
Email address 
and that I own some BT shares"

Imo you have nothing to worry about and the above advice looks like massive overkill.

sausage_time

You might want to look at your passwords.  Never re-use in case one web site gets compromised.  Use a password manager (or Chrome) to generate random ones (which I always "salt" by adding a few more characters).  Turn on two factor authentication where you can.  Other than that I don't think you have much to worry about. 

Daliah

sparkiemalarkie said:

She was so knowledgeable and used all the right jargon in the right places....
She kept pressing me for the date I bought the shares ...I had no idea so couldn't answer that question.

It was 'imperative' that I didn't tell anyone about the share purchase offer as apparently the client was planning to gain 51% of the BT shares to become the majority share holder and didn't want institutions to know

100% a fraudster.