Strange Starling Bank scam...that I fell for

M25

I'll be fine telling the scammer/spammer to **** OFF because my mobile is back using the call block facility (it ends the call like a dead number). If the Indian guy's mates want to phone it 1000 times good on them they'll get cut off 1000 times. Knock yourself out.

If it was Vodafone -using an incredibly infantile pseudo-English selling script- then they were breaking the law as they were spamming.

I did interupt my 3 point turn (ended up being a 5 point turn as I stopped at the edge of the road safely because of the call) however I have handed myself into the police just in case. They are allowing me to text from the book-in desk.

I'm AMAZED people seem to want to speak to complete strangers just becasue it might be important in their minds. If it's important and your bank or someone else they will manage to contact you in another manner. You're not THAT important of a person.

Of course, like blocking all calls -outside people you trust- I would also recommend people have 2 bank accounts so if one bank does have a problem then you have some fall back facility.

Mentioning that just in case common sense decreases further in 2026.

confederated

M25 said:

Mentioning that just in case common sense decreases further in 2026.

Common sense? You mean doing it your way? I think using a call screening service is the best option - you’ll never miss a call, but will never have to deal with scammers or other spam calls.

Section62

M25 said:

I'll be fine telling the scammer/spammer to **** OFF because my mobile is back using the call block facility (it ends the call like a dead number). If the Indian guy's mates want to phone it 1000 times good on them they'll get cut off 1000 times. Knock yourself out.

It is fine for you as you are in a somewhat niche position of having two numbers and being able to block one of them for all but a very limited set of incoming calls.  Most people don't do that, and for them getting all aggressive and sweary when speaking to some stranger on the phone could turn out to be a poor choice of strategy.

Don't forget too that the call could be a genuine one, and many legitimate businesses employ people who might be described as "Indian".  Being offensive to staff is legitimate grounds for banks and other organisations to terminate their relationship with you.

M25 said:

I'm AMAZED people seem to want to speak to complete strangers just becasue it might be important in their minds. If it's important and your bank or someone else they will manage to contact you in another manner. You're not THAT important of a person.

I feel your amazement might be due to you not properly understanding what others are saying here.  Nobody is suggesting that speaking to complete strangers and giving them personal information is a good idea.  Just as it isn't a good idea to get aggressive and sweary.

The advice is to simply terminate the call and then contact your bank using a trusted number (and taking appopriate precautions) to verify whether or not the call was genuine.  It has nothing to do with how important anyone might feel, it is just what banks advise customers to do.

Your strategy of just ignoring the call is risky because 1) it might be a genuine call or 2) it might be someone trying to get into your accounts, in which case doing what the banks advise customers to do is likely to put you in the best possible position if there is any kind of dispute later.

GeoffTF

I just answer the the phone with "Hello." If the caller does not respond by saying who they are or addressing me by name, I terminate the call. If I do not do that immediately, they decide that I am a sucker and keep phoning me.

If the caller said that they were one of my financial service providers, I would say that I will ring them back, and terminate the call. That has not happened yet.

ColdIron

I usually don't say anything at all and wait for them to initiate the conversation. Legitimate callers will often hesitantly offer a hello or similar but a huge amount will simply terminate the call. I suspect that there is an auto dialer and software to screen the call before passing it on to a human

I have a variety of responses if I get an obvious scammer but sometimes I just tell them I'm (?) dead and only here to clear out the house

born_again

GeoffTF said:

I just answer the the phone with "Hello." If the caller does not respond by saying who they are or addressing me by name, I terminate the call. If I do not do that immediately, they decide that I am a sucker and keep phoning me.

If the caller said that they were one of my financial service providers, I would say that I will ring them back, and terminate the call. That has not happened yet.

If they are a scammer, just answering the call confirms that it is a genuine number... It will then get passed onto other scammers.

GeoffTF

born_again said:

GeoffTF said:

I just answer the the phone with "Hello." If the caller does not respond by saying who they are or addressing me by name, I terminate the call. If I do not do that immediately, they decide that I am a sucker and keep phoning me.

If the caller said that they were one of my financial service providers, I would say that I will ring them back, and terminate the call. That has not happened yet.

If they are a scammer, just answering the call confirms that it is a genuine number... It will then get passed onto other scammers.

That has never happened to me. They have never tried a second time either.

kipsterno1

With regards to blocking every unknown number I had a strange one. Well over two years ago I received a text that claimed to be from a well known high street bank telling me there was an issue with my account. Not having an account I marked it as spam and blocked it and never gave it a second thought. This year I opened an account with that bank and struggled to set up online backing as every time I requested a code to my phone it never arrived and after so many attempts blocked me. Luckily the second IT rep I spoke to was switched on and after some searching I unblocked the scam text allowing the access codes to be sent.