By Bernie Bell
In the last few days, I’ve picked up three calls – I’ll tell the tale….
We mostly have our phone on answerphone, because of nuisance calls. So, I picked up a message, which was obviously a recorded message, telling me that my credit card had been used in the last 15 minutes, to transfer money to another country, and, if I wanted to cancel the transaction, I had to press a number.
Well, I don’t have a credit card, for starters.
The first two times, I just put the phone down, the third time, I thought I should do something about it. I never understand how people fall for these scams, but they do – so, I rang 101 which is the non emergency Police number.
The man I spoke with, was very helpful, but said it is very difficult indeed for them to take action, which I can completely understand.
I very much felt that I should do something to warn people that this is happening, right now, on Orkney, so, I thought I’d send this to TON, our local, community ‘paper’.
Simple message is – don’t do any kind of transaction like this, over the phone. A recorded message is always a bad sign. If it is your bank, and it’s genuine, you can check with them, before taking any action.
I’m trying to think of sound advice, but I suppose what it comes down to is – beware of anything like this, on the phone. Put the phone down, and report it to the police. Though it’s hard for them to catch these fraudsters, it does help them to know what’s happening on their ‘patch’
So, I’ll just say it again…..
Beware of Scammers!!!
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Bernie, can I as a retired BT Engineer just add a few points. If you receive a call telling you that your money is at risk and you want to check – good but NEVER, NEVER use your land-line phone that you have just been called on as the scammers have a way of staying on the line so they then pretend to be your Bank, etc. A useful piece of kit is the BT, ‘Call Guardian’ phone (I got a three handset plus base station for just over £60.0, watch out for product offers). If you are a BT customer they also have a relatively new ‘call-blocking’ service and people should contact BT to arrange set-up and IT’S FREE.
It never occurred to me, that they could stay on the line. I thought, once I pressed the button, or put the phone down, that was that, for that call. A useful piece of information.
Fact is, we’re in the process of changing from BT, as we’ve got sick of BT‘s attitude. Monopolies are never a good thing – they know they’ve got us all over a barrel, when it comes to the ‘gubbins’ for making calls. We’re going to detach from them as much as we can.
And – there’s always a story – when we lived in Suffolk, I had a friend, known as Old Ron ( since passed from this life) – because, he was very old! Ron absolutely hated scammers and nuisance callers, trying to sell him things. He was originally from Yorkshire, and didn’t mince his words. He’d rather have a go at them, than put the phone down.
I was round to see him one day, and he’d just had one of these calls, and he, gleefully, recounted the exchange to me ….
“I said “Are you trying to sell me sumat?” “She said “No, no, this is a survey about water quality.”
“So, I said ok – then she started, and it led into different kinds of filter I could buy – she was trying to sell me somat! A water filter. So I told her to f*** off, even though she was a girl.”
For Ron, that was quite a big deal, as he was from a generation and kind of person who didn’t swear in front of women, never mind at them. In this case, though, I could tell he was pleased with himself.
I can’t be bothered to talk to them, usually, but, if I’m the wrong way out when they ring, I give them a lecture about getting a proper job.
From what you say, maybe Ron and I shouldn’t have stayed on the line, as that might mean they could get a ‘fix’ on it? What a business it all is!
Better to be safe, than sorry.
Bernie, I had a call from a Glasgow number and as I have many relatives within the 0141 exchange area I called it back, having checked that it was a ‘REAL’ number which it was but not with BT but EE. I asked who she was and asked why she had called me at, I gave her time of the call. She was surprised as she was at her daughters’ at the time but she did say that over recent weeks the same thing had happened. As she was not a BT customer there was little I could do for her except advise her to contact EE. She phoned me back to tell me that EE could not help, so think again about changing.
In fact, I believe that this multitude of providers is part if not all the problem!!
That’s a worry, we have had lots of scammers in Edinburgh calling lately, many look like local numbers, we know they are scams though as it does not usually go to answer phone, so they aren’t charged for the call/message.
My motto is, if they really want to talk, they will leave a message, if it’s medical they will write anyway.
We know someone who has dementia who has likely had thr savings stolen…by phone scammers, but he doesn’t allow ppl to see his bank details so who knows how much they have stolen…very sad, they go for vulnerable people, older people, ths scammers are pure scum.