New scam, please read this!

Soldato
Joined
28 Jun 2006
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Somewhere in Bristol
I had to post due to the seriousness of this, and the fact its happened to a friend of mine.

They rang him last night and said "We're from BT you havent paid your bill for three months and unless you pay us now we are going to disconnect you"
He said that he had paid his bill so they must be mistaken, and that it had to be a scam.

They said, we get lots of people saying this, so in five minutes we will disconnect your line, and then five minutes after that we will reconnect you and then you will know we are genuine.

They did this, and he was unable to use his phone, nor could he ring the phone from his mobile, the line was dead. So when they rang back, he assumed it had to be real and gave them his bank details to pay the bill.

Theyve taken all his money. :(

I appreciate some will see through this straight away (im not with BT so would know it was fake, but apparently when he spoke to the bank they have mentioned other providers as well) but I just wanted to make people aware of it, so they can spread the word.
 
Man of Honour
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17 Oct 2002
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I'm back baby!
Response in this situation:

Tell the caller to put the details in writing to the address they should already have. Hang up. Call BT customer services and ask to be put through to the billing department.

I would imagine they just don't hang up?
Whilst that is possible, I would hope anyone can recognise the difference between an engaged tone and a dead line.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
28 Jun 2006
Posts
11,102
Location
Somewhere in Bristol
Thanks for the heads up but real companies write letters.

That's what i always tell them if they ring, put it in writing.

Response in this situation:

Tell the caller to put the details in writing to the address they should already have. Hang up. Call BT customer services and ask to be put through to the billing department.

Gawd knows how they did it, but they did, and he does know the difference between a line being busy and being dead, as I said he rang his phone from his mobile, and it just did the long continuous noise you get when a numbers been disconnected.

Im sure that a lot of people would see this as a scam, im just posting it for those who might not because of them actually disconnecting his phone somehow. :)
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2008
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2,820
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London
With account details, not every website needs your your password in example of barclays so I don't see why they can't use a similar method to just remove the money.
 
Man of Honour
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29 Mar 2003
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56,791
Location
Stoke on Trent
Might as well post this, can't be arsed looking on Snopes -

Dear All

If you receive a phone call on your mobile from any person, saying that he or she is a company engineer, or telling that they're checking your mobile line, and you have to press #90 or #09 or any other number, end this call immediately without pressing any numbers.

There is a fraud company using a device that once you press #90 or #09 they can access your 'SIM' card and make calls at your expense.

Forward this message to as many colleagues, relatives and friends as you can, to stop it.

Many thanks for your time regarding this matter, take care and regards.

Phil Corris
Police Constable/Crime Prevention Officer
Ext 496696 (Internal)
01524 596696 (External)
Email < B> [email protected]<mailto:p[email protected]> ... police.uk<http://police.uk/>

Actually reading that I'm sure its old.
 
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