warning a new telephone scam !!

[George Brims]

They may have been waiting to hack your wireless connection if you have one.
Seen it done on TV. where they hacked a guys connection, then chapped his door and told him where he had just booked his holiday, how much he paid or it and his card details, and every website he had just been on. Needless to say I won't use wireless.

Wireless is fine as long as you have the maximum encryption set up, change passwords regularly, and NEVER do any financial transactions involving CC numbers, bank account numbers etc on it.

[orkneycadian]

How anyone could fall for this is beyond me.

Anyone calling saying they represent BT, AND being even vaguely familiar with telecommunication terminology is obviously a blatant fake. We all know that BT's knowledge of such matters is absolutely zero.

My suggestion on dealing with such phone calls is to ask them a simple question on customer service. If they answer it correctly, then they obviously aren't BT, and you can hang up on them.

[Loafer]

A new telephone scam has arrived.

“I received a call from a representative of BT, informing me that he was disconnecting me because of an unpaid bill. He demanded payment of £31 immediately or it would be £118 to re-connect at a later date. The guy was not bothered when I told him I was with Virgin Media because he alleged that Virgin have to pay BT a percentage for line rental. I asked for his name: a very English John Peacock with a very African accent and telephone number, 0800 0800 152 0800 0800 152.

Obviously he realised that I did not believe his story so he offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how. He told me to hang up and to try telephoning someone and that he would disconnect my telephone to prevent this. AND HE DID!
My telephone was dead, no engaged tone, nothing until he phoned me again. Very pleased with himself, he asked if that was enough proof that he was with BT. I asked how the payment was to be made. He said credit card, there and then. I said that I did not know how he had done it, I had absolutely no intention of paying him and I did not believe his name or that he worked for BT. He hung up.

I checked 1471 and called his fictitious 0800 number, which was not recognised. I called the police to let them know. I was not the first! Apparently the scam has only just started but it is escalating. Their advice is to tell as many people as possible about this scam. The fact that the telephone does go off would probably convince some people that it is real so do warn your friends and family about this. The scam was not that clever. He gave the wrong number: it should have been 0800 800152 0800 800152, which takes you through to BT Business. Cutting off the line is very simple. He stays on the line with the mute button on and you cannot dial out although he can hear you trying. This is because the person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it. When you stop trying, he cuts off and immediately calls you back. It is convincing. Once they have your credit or debit card details, there is nothing to stop them from cleaning out your account.”

You have to admit, it is one clever scam;-)

The Loafer

[luluspoon]

they just tried doing this to me on my pay as you go mobile number!!! WTF?!?
I told them fine cut me off and I'll go into my local O2 store tomorrow before work. They were not happy but I hung up on them. I do not appreciate people trying to get money off of me over the phone. ever.

[teddybear1873]

Just get rid of BT altogether which will prevent anymore problems. Why people don't use VoIP instead? I use Vonage and it's very cheap rather than BT and I never get those scammers.

[pat]

Just renewed line and broadband the other day - today got a call from someone claiming to be BT but saying they could do a cheaper deal?
Kept this person going for quite sometime, they insisted they were in partnership with Openreach to supply services at a much cheaper rate than BT prices and the procudt and services were through BT - I just kept letting her dig huge holes, then told her she should check facts before calling people and trying to con them with the pressure sales pitch and lying.