British Gas Smart Meter convincing scam

Thebantamboy

Hi,

I like to think I can spot a scam as I am overly suspicious about everything but I (almost) fell for this one purporting to be from British Gas. It's probably not a new scam but worth repeating.

I was contacted by British Gas on the same text thread that they send me every few months asking me for my meter readings with a link to their meter reading page on their website. This new message said: "Hello, a British Gas engineer is available to fix your Smart Meter at [my full postcode]. We will send you another message shortly from our dedicated SMS Team. It'll come from our other mobile number - but rest assured it's us. Thanks, your British Gas Energy Team."

I then received a message from 60184 confirming a fault had been detected and an engineer wished to arrange a visit to fix the problem. They asked me to confirm my postcode and then offered an appointment in a few weeks time. Before confirming the appointment, I decided to contact British Gas through their website to find out what was wrong with my smart meter. After sending copies of all the texts received, the operative confirmed that there was no fault with my meter, the texts had not come from them, and even the original 'British Gas' meter reading requests were not from them - they were set up to make the 'Smart Meter fault' texts look genuine.

From what I can tell looking online, the purpose of the scam is to tell you your meter needs replacing, and a discount is offered if you sign up to the new meter and a discounted gas price going forward.

Please beware.

The Bantam Boy  

Skyburns

Exactly same happened to me, I feel I am not easy to trick with Phishing emails/messages, but when it was sent via the text chain from British Gas that is the legitimate thread, I was fooled.

It was a £4.99 charge for my "yes" reply, but my main concern is how do I ever trust a message from British Gas again now.