new (to me) telephone scam

I encountered a new telephone scam today.  I got a call from someone purporting to want to buy my Logica shares as part of a takeover.  It sounded a bit dubious, but had some degree of plausibility, since I did have some shares, back when I worked there, but they were all forcibly sold when the company was actually taken over several years ago, after I had left.  So I explained I didn't have any such shares any more.  Then it got a bit weird.  Apparently I had some "bonus" shares still remaining, that hadn't been sold at the same time, and it was these that they wanted to buy.  I was still dubious, but it sounded a little more plausible than many such calls.  So I thanked them, and said I would contact my financial advisor about it.  They said I didn't have to do that, but I insisted, and rang off.

A very little Googling led me to this helpful website, which explains it is (of course!) a scam, and how the scam works.  If I had gone along further, apparently I would have first been asked to sign an NDA, because the purported takeover was a Big Secret.  Presumably the NDA was to make me feel I shouldn't contact a financial advisor.  Then, once the transaction was about to happen, I would be asked to deposit a substantial sum in an "escrow account", just to guarantee I would go through with the transaction.  Aha!  Absolute classic sign of a scam: they claim they want to give me money, but first I have to give them some.  Of course, the escrow account is fake, and, of course, they then vanish as soon as they have the dosh.

I was trying to figure out afterward what was actually dubious about the call, given it was so much slicker than your typical scam.  I decided it was how clearly narrowly scripted it was.  Unlike a genuine call from my bank or electricity company or whatnot, where there is a script but it branches a lot, this one kept coming back and repeating the same information.  And she even kept talking through the script as I was trying to talk.

It is interesting to see the evolution of the scammers.  But I have a boiling hatred of these sort of people.

Covid-19 diary : pollution

So, the Covid-19 lockdown has reduced pollution noticeably, in more ways than one.

Less smog in China, less NOx in Europe (but unfortunately not dolphins in the clearer Venice canals).

And, something I’ve recently noticed – no spam phone calls!

sharing my internet

Latest scammer:  "Shaun Harris" (despite a strong Indian accent, but hey) calling from "BT" asking if I had "shared my Internet" with anyone recently, as that is why it is running slow.

Really.

0333 88 88 88 88

Okay, this looks useful.  I’ll give it a try.  First use: on a web query form to British Gas.

trueCall38

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gradually building a script

So, when I get a spam call, I’ve taken to saying “may I speak to your supervisor, please?” as a variant on “have you heard of the Telephone Preference Service?”, as that was getting boring.  This new question usually leads to them hanging up straight away, but today I got a different response, so I need to extend my script.

ring ring
me: answer phone
me: Hello
either a silent pause, or noisy background before anyone speaks, alerts me to probable spam
them: Hello, am I speaking to XXX? [there are many possible variants of XXX here]
me: may I speak to your supervisor, please?

branch point:
them: [hang up]
OR
them: no you cannot
me: [hang up]

So I need to start scripting from “no you cannot”.  I’m thinking of “why ever not?”, to see what happens next.  Or is there a better response?

It’s more fun playing this as an adventure game (for a while, at least), mapping out a route through to … wherever next?

speedy spam

I’ve had my new phone for less than a week.  I’ve given the number to no one except the Telephone Preference Service.

Today I had my first spam call, from 0333 155 2939.  I didn’t answer it, or even notice it, since I have  the phone ringtone on silent (see the bit above about having given no one my number?)  When I next looked at my phone, I saw the missed number, googled it, and found a host of complaints at Who Calls Me.  Looks like I didn’t miss much!

At least I got to play with the “add to auto reject list” menu option in the phone app.

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Feb 2021: updated the link to Who Calls Me, which emailed me asking for the change, because the old domain has been subject to spam attacks!

another scam call

07468 781778 called.  When I mentioned the Telephone Preference Service, they argued with me that I couldn’t be registered, as they had my details from the national database.

Why do these people (1) argue with me that they know better than I do whether I’m registered with the TPS? (2) think that after such an argument I might then want to continue speaking to them?

I reported them to the ICO (as I didn’t engage in a long enough conversation to get the information needed to report them to the TPS).  Interestingly, one of the pieces of information the ICO requested from me was my telephone number (in addition to my email address), so they could call me if they needed more information.  I filled in the box as: “I don’t want telephone calls!”  Sigh.

coincidence? you decide

8:45. Phone rings.  Foreign accent, claiming that they are calling from Italy.  (I think not.) Wanting to talk to me about something to do with my kitchen.  I say “Do you know what time it is!” and hang up.

Another day, another scammer, I think.

10:45. Phone rings.  Foreign accent: “Are you getting unsolicited marketing calls from overseas?”  Turns out, they are trying to sell me a device that stops overseas calls that my membership of the Telephone Preference Service doesn’t stop.

“So, you are making an unsolicited call to sell me something that will stop people making unsolicited calls to sell me something, because you know I don’t want unsolicited calls to sell me something?”

What a coincidence this happened so soon after an unsolicited call to sell me something, at an unusually early time, where that first caller very carefully emphasised they were calling from overseas.

Second scammer called from 08451297936.

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Update.

11:50. Phone rings.  Local accent (makes a change).  “Hello.  We’ve been informed someone at your address has been in a car accident.”

“Absolutely not.  You’re a scammer.”

Third scammer called from 02037695670.

It must be the (slightly) warmer weather bringing out all the creepy crawlies.

unbelievable!

Another day, another cold call from some scammer.  But with a new arrogance:

Phone rings, is answered.
Them: “mumble mumble mumble.”
Me: “Have you heard of the Telephone Preference Service?”
Them: “mumble mumble mumble.”
Me: “Have you heard of the Telephone Preference Service?”
Them: “Yes, but no-one can stop us.”
Me: click

I think I refuted their claim.  But, really!

a new lie

Another day, another cold call from some scammer.  But with a new (to me) wrinkle.

Phone rings, is answered.
Them: “We have money for you from PPI insurance.”
Us: “Have you heard of the Telephone Preference Service?”
Them: carried on with their script.
Us: “Who are you?”
Them: unintelligible mumble.
Us: “Please give me the name of your company, and their registered address.”
Them: “I can’t do that, it’s against the Data Protection Act.”

I bet you never knew the Data Protection Act said that!  (Hint: it doesn’t.)  Honestly, it just beggars belief.

what's the point of the TPS?

We're registered with the Telephone Preference Service, because we don't want scummy spam phone calls.

It doesn't help with everybody.

Today, at 11:16, the phone rings, and then plays a recorded message at me.

0151 909 1965 : go take a running jump.

more scammers

So not long after the scam phone call, the phone rings again. It's British Gas -- they get to call me because I'm actually a customer. But they're not trying to sell me gas, they're trying to sell me insurance. Or a maintenance contract, as they call it. When I said I wasn't interested, the guy said "not even if you had a £800 boiler breakdown?" Gah! That's just as much trying to invoke fear to make me buy something as was the virus scammer.

Then, a bit later, a third phone call. This time, something to do with market research. "Have you heard of the Telephone Preference Service?" I ask them, "because I'm a subscriber". "Oh, very sorry -- you've come up on a national database -- you should take it up with the TPS". Yet curiously, when I went to the TPS website and re-registered, just in case my previous registration had evaporated or something, I was informed that I was already registered.

So, not just cold-calling scum. Lying cold-calling scum.

Robert Heinlein has an apt quotation: "Waking a person unnecessarily should not be considered a capital crime. For the first offense, that is." I believe the same sentiment applies to cold callers.

Oh, and in case you're wondering why I kept answering the phone and at least engaging in an initial conversation -- I was waiting for a business call from a colleague. That was the fourth call. Fortunately, I didn't bite his head off...

"Windows support" -- not

Just had another scam phone call -- someone with a strong Indian accent claiming to be calling from "Windows Technical Support" (or something close to that -- I wasn't taking notes), and saying that they had received reports of problems with my computer, that it had a nasty virus I didn't know about, and had I noticed my machine running slowly lately?

I was a tad bored (writing a tedious document will do that to you), so I strung them along a bit, to see what they were really after. They said they could prove who they were because they had my computer registration number, and only the registered owner and Microsoft would know this (along a bit of gobbledygook about how this happened).

I said I thought they were a scam and that they were trying to sell me something. (I didn't ask how Microsoft knew my phone number to contact me about the problem.)

Aggrieved, they offered to prove they were legitimate by telling me my machine's registration number. I should turn on my machine and look at its registration number myself, and compare them.

I said: "But you've just told me my computer has a virus. So how do I know that virus hasn't downloaded the number to you? You having the registration number is therefore no proof that you are who you say you are."

Pause. Then they repeated of all the stuff about only Microsoft knowing the number.

So I repeated my reason for believing that their having the number would not constitute proof that they were who they claimed to be.

Pause. Then a slightly plaintive: "so what can we do, then?"

This was not providing me that much amusement value really, so I terminated the conversation, then Googled "windows phone call saying they know your computer id". Top hit was “Windows Support” Scam Worsens / Money Watch. From the comments it seems many people have much more stamina than I do for keeping scammers hanging on the phone.

Scammers are scum.

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Update 12 July 2012:  Aaaand I got a comment, from sanjay gupta-bot, on this post:

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Spamming a blog post about spammers.  Gah!