Virgin & BT Customers Beware

....picked up on this on a friend's wall on Facebook;

" BT AND VIRGIN MEDIA CUSTOMERS PLEASE READ
Received a phone call from BT, informing me that he was disconnecting me because of an unpaid bill.. He demanded payment immediately of £31.00 or it would be £ 118.00 to re-connect at a later date. The guy wasn't even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media, allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental! I asked the guy's name - he gave me
the very 'English' John Peacock with a very 'African' accent - & phone number -0800 0800 152. Obviously the fellow realized I didn't believe his story, so offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang up & try phoning someone - he would disconnect my phone to prevent this. AND HE DID !! My phone 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 & then. I saidthat I didn't know how he'd done it, but I had absolutely no intention of paying him, I didn't believe his name or that he worked for BT. He hung up. I dialled 1471 -number withheld I phoned his fictitious 0800 number - not recognized. So I phoned the police to let them know. I wasn't the first! It's only just started apparently, but it is escalating. Their advice was to let as many people as possible know of this scam. The fact that the phone does go off would probably convince some people its real, so please make as many friends & family aware of this. How is it done? This is good but not that clever. He gave the wrong number - it should have been 0800 800 152 which takes you through to BT Business. The cutting off of the line is very simple, he stays on the line with the mute button on and you can't dial out - but 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 back. You could almost be convinced! The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool many. By the way this is not about getting the cash as this would not get past merchant services - it is all about getting the credit card details which include the security number, to be used for larger purchases. "

 

Hi Bilbo

I had a call last night from Churchill asking for all my details !! as if I would give them out she told me to verify who I was I told her your ringing me not the other way around !! anyway to cut a long story we had quite a argument on the phone before she decided to put the phone down I rang Churchill and told them the time she phoned as they log all the calls , no it was not them !! .

My worry is imagine someone vunerable would get caught out

Spruce

 

The top one is a very old Scam thing. There was a long long set of posts on here about it.

 

Good job I unplugged my landline months ago.

 

Unlike mobile phones, at least you can register for Telephone Preference Service and (pay for) Anonymous Call Rejection on a landline.

Being able to see every incoming number displayed and being able to block nuisance/withheld numbers on both landlines and mobiles without charge seems way overdue to me.

 

they don't get anything from me i am afraid...

 

I have an answerphone to screen my calls.

 

Now you come to mention it, we haven't had any PPI nuisance calls for a couple of weeks I think? Anyone else enjoying the peace and quiet?

 

We had 7 International calls on one day last week, nothing since then. They work alphabetically so perhaps they have gone past us.

 

I have a option on Skytalk that rejects witheld numbers which filters most cold calls and spam.

 

we have PPI calls almost every day.... we only keep the landline for calls abroad otherwise we would have stopped long ago, we only pick up the phone if it rings twice after another, thats our "secret sign".
Strange that the phone companies do nothing against it, don't they loose lots of business, if people stop having landlines...? or are they making more money with all the PPI calls made?

 

loveweeds - I get PPI texts on my mobile these days, so its not just limited to landlines. Companies make a living from selling phone numbers/personal information on to other companies to use them.

A good number of years back, I got an insurance offer through the mail; it had my name, my address and was offering me a great insurance ... for the over 70's (I still haven't reached that landmark, yet!). I called the company and they apologised explaining they must have used the wrong database (So how come all but my age was correct? )