Five calls (so far) today purporting to be from 'Visa International Security' about a suspicious transaction for £600. Each has come from a different number which might plausibly be in UK except it's got two leading zeros.
Pretty sure that if it was genuine (a) it would be from the bank issuing our Visa cards and (b) would ask for us by name.
A bit of googling suggests I'm not alone!!
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Can you say a bit more about the call please, so that I can warn my parents. I'll need to be pretty clear with them.
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Mark,
Phone rings. CLI shows a number like 001162336656 or 001425837762 (two examples from today). In other words they look like a UK landline except for additional leading zero.
When you pick there's an automated voice, female and English but possibly with a mid Atlantic drawl but plausible, not an Asian accent for example - sounds just like CG voices elsewhere. . Says she's form Visa International Security and call concerns a transaction for £600 exactly that is (I paraphrase) a cause for concern. Asks to press 1 ( I think it was 1) to discuss. I didn't go that far as I was sure it wasn't genuine.
I've had suspicious activity calls before and they come from the issuing bank, in my case Santander. I think Mrs B might have had one from Barclaycard at one time (we both have Barclaycards on an account in her name as back up in case Santander has a serious issue, like Nat West/RBS and TSB have had.
Point is I would never expect to hear directly from Visa (or Mastercard); my contract is with Santander.
Looks like it's pretty widespread:
who-called.co.uk/Number/001162336656
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 15 Jul 19 at 17:47
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Thanks for that, just spoke to him. He had just had such a call was was contemplating how to deal with it. So that's a bullet dodged.
I wonder if they are just assuming that everybody has a visa or if they've got hold of some data from somewhere.
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On the two occasions I had suspicious activity on my credit card Natwest contacted me by letter asking me to phone them urgently. I did not think they made initial contact by phone themselves?
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I had a (marketing) call from my bank, asking me to confirm my details. Told them in no uncertain terms that as they'd called me they could answer my security questions to them.
Of course they couldn't.
Turned out the call was genuine, but they haven't bothered me since.
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>>I did not think they made initial contact by phone themselves?
No idea with Nat West but Santander will definitely contact by phone.
Happened to me about 6 years ago when I was sorting out a laptop for my daughter. First one was faulty - too many dead pixels. Supplier was reputable but way x/actions went through made it look like my card was used for two laptops in quick succession which rang alarm bells with Santander.
The Lad had something similar with trainers in last few weeks.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 15 Jul 19 at 20:01
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There was a post on Face-ache yesterday warning of such a scam, the "post" was supposed to be by the Police! It warned that if you received such a call NOT to press 1 to find out the "urgent" information, if you did you would be billed £1500 per minute! apparently several folk have fallen foul of this scam recently and there is nothing the Phone companies can do because after all - you did make the call!! - beware! (just incase it was a "true" post)
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>> No idea with Nat West but Santander will definitely contact by phone.
>>
A few years ago I was contacted at home about 0900 by one of the CC companies.
" We are suspicious about 3 or 4 transactions in New York state in the last 12 hours..."
My last transaction had been 12 hours earlier in a well known supermarket near Heathrow and only I used the card.
No idea where the card details were obtained by the NY spender. I had an immediate refund on three transactions.
The last transaction was more than £500 and I received a letter asking for signed confirmation that I was the card owner and the £500 was refunded.
I chased them for a little more which they dealt with. ( the exchange rate had changed during the elapsed time )
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Not so long ago I was in a different country using my credit card at the till of a supermarket. They were having with the card though I wasn't paying much attention.
My cell phone rang and it was the credit card company checking that it was me using the card. It was then authorised. I was impressed.
As I recall it was a Morgan Stanley Mastercard.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 15 Jul 19 at 20:48
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One of the high street banks is in the process of changing from VISA to Mastercard for their debit cards and this may be why the calls are starting.
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>> Not so long ago I was in a different country using my credit card at the till of a supermarket...
>>
>> My cell phone rang and it was the credit card company checking that it was
>> me using the card. It was then authorised. I was impressed.
>>
That#'s happened at least twice to me, with Tesco Bank Mastercard credit card both times. Impressed me too!!
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 15 Jul 19 at 21:38
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A while back I bought some items in M & S with my CC. I then immediately remembered I needed another item. My CC was rejected. " It worked less than 5 minutes ago and my credit is good !!!!"
" Ah! that is the reason for rejection" A few quick checks and all was OK.
The automatic reject was to prevent A. N. Other from extracting a card that was left by the previous customer and then going on a spending spree.
It seems now that till receipts are not spat out prior to the customer extracting their CC.
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>Thanks for that, just spoke to him.
Mark,
if you want to protect your parents against automated scam calls check out Sky Talk Shield. Free if you have line rental and Broadband from Sky.
www.sky.com/help/diagnostics/sky-talk-shield/what-do-you-need-help-with
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Excellent Kevin, but my Mother simply couldn't cope. These days she struggles with the remote control for the TV and certainly can do nothing with her cellphone other than press answer,.
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>> I wonder if they are just assuming that everybody has a visa or if they've
>> got hold of some data from somewhere.
My guess would be that they're dialling numbers at random and hoping somebody swallows the bait. Probably thousands of calls made yesterday alone.
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I often get what I suspect are spam calls from "BT" . I use BT Answer to field incoming calls, routinely checking them in the evening. I usually find no messages have been recorded and assume they were scams. If I am expecting a call however I do pick up the phone and may get some palava about new BT services. If I first wait on the line for a few seconds chatter from what seems to be a call centre room can be heard, before someone speaks. On other occasions children can be heard in the background - a caller working from home, no doubt. In either case I cut off the call and, if I check immediately, I find that "The caller has left no number".
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If there is a pause when I pick up the phone and no one responds to my 'Hello' phone goes down.
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I had one recently, offering to consolidate my loans. Asked if I owed any money, I replied yes. I let them get on with their spiel until they got to how much I owed, one I replied. What one thousand? No, one I replied. One hundred they asked? No, one I replied. One pound they asked incredulously? Yes, I replied, I borrowed it off the wife for a supermarket trolley and pocketed it when I returned the trolley (It's a stupid thing we do, trying to win a quid - we've a joint account!). After a long pause, presumably while they tried to absorb that information I was called a mothereffer and the 'phone crashed down.
I get bored sometimes.
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We were having a lot of these calls, until six months ago we bought a four instrument Panasonic phone / voicemail set. This has number recognition - you may have to pay BT for this, but we didn't on this contract. We don't answer calls who hide their number, "international"nos, Or obviously spoofed numbers - starting 00. They go to voicemail, but there's seldom a message left.
We block these calls, but they come back with a new number. They seem to come in waves.
Works for us.
I'm sure that BT could stop the spoof numbers if they wanted, I guess they get an income from the traffic.
Last edited by: neiltoo on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 11:04
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>> We were having a lot of these calls, until six months ago we bought a
>> four instrument Panasonic phone / voicemail set. This has number recognition - you may >>have to pay BT for this
I have that facility, but recently had to disable it as the local NHS insist on hiding their CLI (Calling Line Identity) and I was missing important calls about appointments and stuff.
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>> I have that facility, but recently had to disable it as the local NHS insist
>> on hiding their CLI (Calling Line Identity) and I was missing important calls about appointments
Ongoing issue at work as to whether to show CLI or not. Advisers like to use it as it's much more likely to be picked up than if recipient's phone shows 'withheld'. Admin folks didn't like CLI because punters returning missed calls stop them administrating.....
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I have had the same problem with NHS and GP's surgery but they normally tend to leave a message on the home landline.
I had several calls last month in Crete showing number witheld on my mobile. I ignored them for days but eventually answered one to have a young lady asking why I had missed an appointment for an MRI scan. The appointment letter had arrived two days after we left UK for Crete for an appointment whilst we were still away. ...despite having advised them of our holiday dates.
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Off out on the bike next weekend, stopping off at Huntingdon en-route to Duxford. Booked a hotel in the area via a well known booking site. Within thirty seconds got a call from a Huntingdon area code number asking if I'd been in an accident....weird.
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As result of Martin Lewis's action against facebook for hosting 'get rich quick' ads which falsely claimed his endorsement CA have got some funding for scam awareness action:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/07/martin-lewis--citizens-advice-and-facebook-launch-major-initiati/
Googleads were hosting something similar for a while. I was more than a bit surprised to see it running on an ad banner for one of the Local Councils in Lincolnshire.....
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>> Off out on the bike next weekend, stopping off at Huntingdon en-route to Duxford. Booked
>> a hotel in the area via a well known booking site. Within thirty seconds got
>> a call from a Huntingdon area code number asking if I'd been in an accident....weird.
I'd cancel the booking, tell the hotel why, and tell them you are going to publicise the fact they sell customer data.
(I know its not them, I know its booking.com, but you complaining to booking.com will have no effect, the hotel complaining to them, might)
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 16 Jul 19 at 11:33
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>> Five calls (so far) today purporting to be from 'Visa International Security' about a suspicious
>> transaction for £600.
>> A bit of googling suggests I'm not alone!!
>>
You are not alone. I have now joined the targets.:-(
Dial 1 to be mugged.
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You would think that if someone had the appetite these fraudsters could be traced. Platitudes from the phone companies as they are making money.
Surely if someone is making mass telephone calls then ultimately that someone is paying a telephone bill to a provider.
If someone gets hooked it can cause them a great deal of pain both emotionally and financially.
Absolute scumbags.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Wed 17 Jul 19 at 13:21
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Unfortunately it's only going to get worse. What a ruddy pickle we're in.
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>> Unfortunately it's only going to get worse. What a ruddy pickle we're in.
>>
Pickle!
What pickle?
Just put the phone down.
I you don't understand that is the only sensible course of action, then you shouldn't have the authority to pick the phone up in the first place.
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Scams have been around much longer than the internet. It's just that with the internet it's easier to find very very stupid people without actually getting out of your seat.
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"Pickle" in General Duncan, not allied to this post only. We are as a race and as a nation in a 'Pickle', but that's a very long conversation.
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These aren't being run by some nerd sitting in his front room, they are professionally set-up call centres, often off-shore (India seems to be a favourite), and would be using voice-over-ip rather than standard telephony. Just like the other scams (e.g. Microsoft calling about your computer problem, or PPI).
Plenty of links to similar large scale frauds if you Google "India phone scammer arrested"
This is exactly why usually I just hang up. The suckers making the calls aren't really to blame. But I gather many people seem to cope much better with the "stress" of it if they've had a good old rant and swear down the phone at the caller. As my teachers used to rightly say, it's only you're own time you're wasting!!" :-)
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Foreign Office Yellow Canary makes one feel better someone told me.
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>> These aren't being run by some nerd sitting in his front room.
There's been a lot of reporting in last week or so about Universal Credit fraud:
www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/09/universal-credit-scam-leaves-claimants-pounds-hundreds-out-of-pocket
We had a brief on it yesterday. The scammers are organised criminals who've identified where the system is weak. Their victims tend to be people in precarious employment but who are working enough hours not to be put 'on the rack' by DWP. They're promised, either door to door or via social media, a 'tax refund'. The enabler will take a cut for his trouble. He collects their details including ID, NINO etc and his handlers claim UC on line using the punter's ID. As is permitted they ask for an advance, this is normal and is recovered in installments over a year.
Because the claim passes on line ID via the UK Verify service (this bit is a royal PITA for many genuine claimants) and involves people with only 'light touch' claimant committment as they are working enough hours it goes through with no Job Centre interview etc.
Victim is then pursued by DWP for repayment.
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I think some are being a bit harsh.
Victims are not so much stupid, but there may be an element in some cases, but vulnerable. And they are the ones who ultimately fall for it. Those of more senior years are perhaps more trusting and come from an age where they could leave their doors open at night.
A telephone is a conduit into their safe space where they feel some protection. Scammers are abusing that.
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I had an elderly customer a few years ago who got a call purporting to be from her bank and asking for her account details on some pretext or other. She was suspicious of the caller but instead of hanging up and with some trepidation she gave him the details of her current account in which she had a smaller sum of money, rather than her savings account. Needless to say she lost the lot, around six hundred quid.
I asked her why she had not just hung up as soon as she had any doubts, but she said the man was so polite and friendly and he might have been genuine so she did not want to be rude! And that can be the problem with the elderly, they were brought up in a different era where it was expected to show deference to one's "Betters", and these are the people most prone to letting themselves be talked into being scammed.
My own method of dealing with such calls is to speak in Welsh if it is a male caller (No, I don't speak the language but you've only got to repeat the names of Welsh villages in a conversational manner), or if it is a female string them along for a while then start talking dirty.
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>>Victims are not so much stupid, but there may be an element in some cases, but vulnerable
I take your point.
However, how much clearer can it be than "never tell anybody any financial details over the phone"?
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A difficult rule to enforce with an aged parent !
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Mother in law was starting to get all those calls you want to avoid and got very upset about it all. We bought her a gadget that screens them out.
She then wouldn't accept the option to completely hide the calls from her. So it gives her an automated voice saying that an anonymous call is in and would she like to reject it. She then presses the button to accept it anyway and talk to them "because she doesn't want to be rude and it might be important".
If she gets this scam I can almost guarantee she'll press 1, whatever we tell her now.
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With BT (and Plusnet) you can get 1571 call minder and 1572 malicious call minder. 1572 sends known numbers to a message that tells the caller to leave a message. Numbers can be programmed in. 1571 acts like an ordinary answering machine.
Crankcase. If your MIL is on one of these providers, you could probably invoke these and not tell her about 1572. 1571 gives an interrupted dial tone when a message is left, 1572 doesn't. I never had any messages left on 1572 except NHS CLI witheld.
Neither facility cost me any extra.
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You get scammers everywhere.
We had someone in one of our call centers download a list of customer account numbers.
Our system records all dbase queries and this was spotted.
Another was caught jotting down customer details (name, DOB, address, account numbers etc.).
Harder to protect against was after a flood in one of our offices, the repair company was called in and after they left devices were found attached to the computers to record and transmit keystrokes. They were only found because the IT team wanted to test that the machines weren't damaged and unplugged them all for testing in the IT office.
It turns out that one of the repair men's dad was involved in organised crime and used his son as a way to get in to offices. Apparently other companies visited had similar devices attached and didn't know.
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Thanks tom - I didn't know about those options, not being with BT or PlusNet. I'm not sure she is either, though. But I'll look at that.
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Latest Scam - No FM2R
