Phone scam warning

[JohnV6]

I just dodged a phone scam.
A private phone number call to my mobile pretending to be Tesco Bank about my mastercard.
The guy knew I lived in Suffolk & had my email. He said they had blocked two strange transactions to TUI for each over £1k so my card was now cancelled.

He didn't take me through any security which did make me wonder. He then asked if we had a text from Tesco & I did . I could for one of the transaction type Y for yes thus agreeing it was valid or N for no. He urged me to send Y as otherwise my Barclays account & the new card would be blocked for 28 days. Luckily he would then file a report for us so that no money was taken.

He got most insistent but I hung up and called Tesco on another phone who told me it was a scam.

 

[Rolfe]

Wow, they're getting really cunning. I'll bet a lot of people would have fallen for that.

I saw something about another forum where the person made the call themselves, and was answered by a scammer. They had misdialled by one digit, and the scammer had taken possession of the slightly-wrong number and waited for the misdialling events.

 

[salty]

Scammers are the scum of the earth and should be shot. I know some will say, you must be very gullible to fall for a scam, and some are, but that's not the point, as they are very convincing. To take someone's savings or pension pot, is beyond contempt. And if caught just get rid, as they are no use to man nor beast.

 

[Ian Key]

I hope you reported it as a scam call. Either marking it as such on your phone or by forwarding the suspicious number via text to 7726.

 

[JohnV6]

The phone call was a private number so you can't report it. The text number I gave to Tesco who reported it & disabled it somehow.

The issue I have pars of the NHS in Suffolk call you on a private number & I was expecting a call next week.

 

[Bam Bam]

Very sad that this is what people are spending their efforts on, rather than providing some useful service.

 

[Archev]

Scammers are the scum of the earth and should be shot. I know some will say, you must be very gullible to fall for a scam, and some are, but that's not the point, as they are very convincing. To take someone's savings or pension pot, is beyond contempt. And if caught just get rid, as they are no use to man nor beast.

Or at least severely malagaroused !!

 

[salty]

If that means, Shoot and get rid. Then yes,
that too.

 

[Archev]

If that means, Shoot and get rid. Then yes,
that too.

Is that a scam ?

 

[Gadget Geek]

I use the Mr Number app on my phone which is good at spotting scam calls. When we had a landline phone, I used to play along with the scammers who tried to get me to install malware on my computer. They would get to a point where they would ask if I could see the icon on my desktop, and I would tell them no, all I could see was my Linux Mint desktop. Some of them twigged straight away, while others persisted in trying to get the malware installed.

 

[JohnV6]

I used to get them to the point where they asked if I had a card and what was the number "ace of spades" didnt go down well.
Or on those mobile scams when they asked about my contract I said Matron had it as i was in a home.
Happy days

 

[Gadget Geek]

What is worrying though is that AI can now generate audio and video of friends and family, taking clips from social media, and make convincing fake calls, asking for money to help them out.

One chap I heard about set up a premium rate number and had scam calls redirected to it somehow. He made quite a bit of money from it.

Edit: Friends and family knew not to call him on that number.

 

[Ian Key]

I have Android call screening activated on my phone which allows Google Assistant to answer unknown calls, ask who is calling, and then provide a real-time transcript. It doesn't screen known numbers so friends, family and businesses don't get screened but scammers with spoofed numbers or suspect numbers that have been reported as spam do. They hang up as soon as they realise they are being answered by AI.

Unfortunately at the moment it is only available on Google Pixel phones and newer Samsung Galaxy devices via the native phone app's settings.

 

[Rolfe]

I thought the story from the guy who made the call himself, but misdialled and got the scammer, was really scary. To go to these lengths! When these days people don't often actually dial number by number.

 

[T1 Terry]

Had one a few days back, from Telstra telling me there had been suspicious activity on my interweb account ..... sounded like fun, so I went along with it for around 5 mins, but each time he told me to type something into the computer to redirect it, I would come up with a crazy named website ..... then tell them I must have mistyped, could he go through the steps again .... by the third time I changed it to "This site has been blocked as malicious" then asked again where he was calling from, he replied that it was the Telstra data centre, ah, I thought you said Tesla, we don't have a Telstra account ..... the phone line went dead immediately, I tried to ring back but it came up as a disconnected number ......

The things we do to pass the time when it's too hot to go outside and play .....

T1 Terry

 

[Shrink Proof]

Another alternative when phoned by one of the scam filth is to adopt the absolute sleaziest voice you can and then...

"You're fun. What are you wearing? I'm not wearing anything right now..."