You know the sort. Usually pretty obvious. I normally dump them using 1572 or some other diversion.
However, the ones purporting to come from Amazon Prime have upped the ante.
They use a pre-recorded message and try to persuade you to “press 1” to connect to our technical team etc.
They use a variety of call numbers and none of them seem to be able to dump into 1572.
They used to try to persuade you to join Amazon Prime.
Then they changed to stating that you have joined and payment will be taken from your credit card unless you dial “one”.
Today, the message changed to say my order for an I-pad at $399 was ready for despatch and the money would leave my bank soon. If I hadn’t placed this order, “dial 1 now ,”
I do occasionally. It’s a myth that you’ll invoke a premium rate call pressing 1 or any other key so forget that as an issue.
I’ve asked why they do it, sworn at them, pointed out that I know it’s a scam so why not save your time and delete my number as it’s always going to be a waste of your time, but it never happens. Usually I pick the phone up and terminate the call without listening; the only people who used our landline were my mother (now gone) and m-i-l, who doesn’t now.
The scam btw is this: you get through, you’re invited to go along with their requests that allow them remote access to your PC along the lines of screen sharing in Teams / Zoom, you’re offered a refund of the 79.99 or whatever and the girl doing it ‘accidentally’ refunds you 7999. She then goes into a panic crying about losing her job etc and asks you to refund the balance. You fall for it as they create a screen that shows an invalid amount and before you know what’s happened you’ve given away a chunk of money. That’s how I’ve heard these sort of scams described, ymmv.
I know people are usually keen on these sort of threads to tell us how clever they are in stringing the callers along; they know all the routines, aren’t bothered and are doing it as it’s a job and better than no job. In a way you have to feel pity for them in the end, but they are a frustration phoning at inopportune moments.
I had frequent Amazon Prime calls some months back, I haven’t had one for a few months, maybe they gave up, maybe my BT call blocker used up all their numbers.
As for pressing “1”, you fink i’z stoopid or sunink?
The frustration is that it’s a recorded message & it’s pointless me venting my spleen
Just had one telling me my phone bill is about to be reduced. It’s all wrapped up in the broadband costs so clearly another scam. As per usual, just press the button to terminate the call.
There’s no harm doing that, and you might get to speak to a person if you do. As often as not it ends the call though, or restarts the recorded message.
I’ve been pressing 1 since lord knows when, the phone bill never changes by more than a few pence.
Yes I’m aware of what ‘1‘ does with phones, but thanks anyway.
As with all the scam phone, www & e-mails I get, I just zap them PDQ, I’m aggrieved they wasted my time if nothing else.
such a pain, my mum did and caused a lot of stress. they are just after your details so no problem if you hang up after pressing 1 and don’t divulge anything.
Oh no you guys. You are missing an opportunity. An opportunity to have fun on their money.
Them “You were recently involved in an accident”
Me “Oh no, did I survive?”.
Them “What?”.
You get the idea. And it’s free. \o/
However, they wouldn’t do it if people didn’t fall for it, but they unfortunately do, and I have a series of punishments devised specially for their (scammer) kind. Grr!
I used to love the ones from the brother-in law of Mr Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F’tang-F’tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel who needed to deposit £100,000,000 in your bank account for which you would get 10% of that amount if you supply your bank details - always seemed to be a bit of a no-brainer to me why wouldn’t you…
These calls are a real pain. I’m ex-directory and registered with the telephone preference service, neither of which makes a difference. The giveaway that it’s a nuisance call is the few seconds silence when you answer before you either get a pre-recorded message or a real person. If someone is on the line, I usually kill it straightaway by asking them who they want to speak to! Works every time. Then I block the number by using 1572. I know they have the ability to make a supposedly genuine number appear in number display but if they use it regularly and BT take note of the numbers blocked by various users it might help someone to trace them and take them down eventually. We can but hope.
In the past 3 months I’ve had emails purporting to be from Inland Revenue, Radio Times Subscriptions, Yahoo, Natwest. Also phone calls from similar sources. We have call blocker from BT on our landline.
I’ve picked up on them as scam almost immediately, but just worry that SWMBO might be taken in by them at some time when I’m out and she can’t check with me first.
Well, Mrs D simply refuses to answer the landline any more. She waits until the recorded message starts, and only picks up the phone if she recognises the voice of the caller. I delete the recorded messages very so often.
If the call doesn’t get as far as the recorded message, she might dial 1471 to retrieve the caller’s number, but will only call back if she positively knows whose number it is.
My (mid 80s) Father had a call a few years back from ‘Microsoft’ who told him he had a virus infection that was very dangerous. They were happy to fix it for £79.
He paid using a card, they had a remote desktop session. Two days later they called back saying they’d charged too much and needed his permission to refund £59 (or so); they charged this additional amount. They also had another remote desktop session to ‘check everything was alright’.
I saw him at the weekend a few days later and he mentioned this; check of bank balances confirmed he’d been charged almost £150 in total. Hard disk reformatted, OS reinstalled. All online account passwords changed.
It was a horrible experience for him costing much more than money; he lost his self-respect. He went from feeling proud that as an (ex) Farmer in his 80s he’d managed to teach himself how to use a computer and be part of the ‘digital society’ to feeling foolish and lost in the world. He never got over it and is a ‘reduced’ person because of it.
The damage these people do goes beyond the money they scam and I wish it was taken more seriously.
I worry about the effect on old people. One elderly gentleman I know was very concerned that the amount they said was owed was actually a debt ran up by his late wife.
I pointed out that his late wife would have told him and certainly there would have been correspondence. Yes, he nearly fell for the scam because of the timing of it.
If there is a positive lining/some solace from this, it’s that it was only £150. There are plenty of stories about in the media about people being defrauded out of thousands.
A longstanding family friend who now defines as a ‘vulnerable’ elderly lady was nearly taken for several £’00 (as a starter), only prevented as she asked a neighbour to give her a lift to the bank, the latter being alert as to what was in the offing.
…and it seems once a person is identified, more calls come. Plus, fake window cleaners started knocking on the door.
Most of the elderly people I know, now have call-validating kit/screening kit in place. A bit of a fag to set up as all contact numbers for family & friends have to be installed but worth every penny - and often used in conjunction with Careline arrangements.
Me, I’d like to reach down the other end of the 'phone with a mallet a la Tom & Jerry…best no more said.
Amazing isn’t it, we have all this wonderful Super duper expensive technology to bring joy and good to the world, and what is it Used for? Well my wife seems to use it for; talking complete twaddle On her mobile for hours each evening to her family members, my comments that she might be frying her brain have done little to deter her, endlessly googling her latest medical complaint, oh and fraudsters have found a great way to make buckets of money and they don’t even have to get off their Sorry arses to knock on your door.
There are some aspects of the old phone system which I rather liked, especially the bit where my mother in law was so scared of running up a phone bill that she hardly ever rang us!
Oh I nearly forgot, here I am typing cobblers into the internet wasting all that server time and power, it’s a disgrace I tell you! :0)
For several years now, I never answer the phone unless I recognize the number and/or it’s in my contacts. This MO is applied equally to both the home (IP) line, and the mobile. The former is permanently muted, so I don’t even know that a call is coming in, unless I happen to be sitting at my desk and notice that the deskphone screen has come to life. If it’s important to reach me, leave a message. (Else piss off).
It’s pretty much the same way that I watch television. Record first, playback later (if there’s a reason to do so).
Stir/shaken is supposedly on the way in the states, but I doubt that I’ll revert to answering calls anymore, as I no longer have patience even for legit (non-scam) calls for services, upgrades, donations, etc. (I’m not a Grinch, but would prefer to make up my own mind w/o an onslaught of sales pitches).