Has any other poster received this one? It is a new one on me.
I ordered 3 pens from Amazon this morning, total £5.25. Not long after, a message on my landline, from a woman with an American accent, told me I had recently ordered an item from Amazon worth £399. If I had not ordered it, please to contact Amazon support services. No return phone number was given; I expect I was expected to use the Return Call facility on my phone.
I checked my order online. Only the correct item and cost were shown, with free delivery 27 Feb. to Mar. 3. But an hour later, the same message.
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You can get free pens from my local Building Society. I get one almost fortnightly when I’m doing stuff for my old Mum.
She loses them as frequently as her cheque book, B Society book and false teeth ( last found by yours truly on top of her bird table).
Obviously didn’t fit the sparrows.
God knows how she copes when I’m away...
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I get scam calls of one sort or another taking Amazon's name in vain on a near daily basis.
That you got one after making an order is almost certainly coincidence.
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Yep, I have the same experience as Bromps. almost definitely a coincidence.
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We get these about once a week. There are similar, but email based, scams masquerading as DPD or Royal Mail saying there is a missed delivery and a charge to pay.
The underlying scam is either a premium rate line and you are charged when you press the redial key or they are after your card details. I read last week that these scams are individually often just a few quid so the authorities won’t find them worth pursuing even though the overall scam might be pulling in tens of thousands.
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I have had the same thing happen and i don't think it's a coincidence.
I have an Amazon account and i occasionally use it, when i do i usually get a scam phonecall telling me"you free trial of Amazon Prime is about to end & you will be charged £x press 1 to cancel this payment" I don' have a Prime account, but i do have double security on any Amazon payments, this requires a pass code which Amazon send to my mobile phone.
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>> I have had the same thing happen and i don't think it's a coincidence.
I do too, as a result I use Amazon as little as possible.
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For it not to be a coincidence somebody would have to be monitoring your computer and/or your Amazon account and to be able to tie it to a landline number but for some reason not able to steal the credit card or bank details used.
Doesn't sound terribly likely.
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>> I have had the same thing happen and i don't think it's a coincidence.
Ok try to work out how the scammers got your telephone number, and were aware you had just made an amazon purchase, more or less tracking you in real time and given all that info they have about you the best they can do is try a common or garden phone scam?
Nope its co-incidence.
edit - didnt read Marks reply, we speak as one voice paleface
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 23 Feb 21 at 18:26
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You truly have learned well, Grasshopper.
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I get these calls too, usually within a few days of ordering something from Amazon.
In fact nearly everything that happens to me is within a few days of me ordering something from Amazon.
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Haha yes, I order too much from Amazon too!! :-)
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About once a week I get some moron phoning up with very poor English trying to explain that my broadband has been compromised and my computer is prone to viruses. If I'm bored then I string them along, about ten minutes is my record before they realise and put the phone down on me. The way I look at it is that I'm doing a social good, while I'm stringing them along they're not pestering someone vulnerable who might fall for it.
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My washing machine insurance policy has expired several times in the recent weeks.
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And yet you keep getting flooded with more offers.
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>> About once a week I get some moron phoning up with very poor English trying
>> to explain that my broadband has been compromised and my computer is prone to viruses.
>> If I'm bored then I string them along,
my record is 40 minutes, till they realised that the windows version of teamviewer does not install on a mac.
For the rest I have a Mr T in your pocket next to the phone. 10 lots of "Quit your Jibber Jabber" and "Shut up -fool" seems to do the trick.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiYJL42ejNo&ab_channel=JoshEllingson
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 23 Feb 21 at 20:49
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They might have poor English but if you wind them up far enough they are surprisingly eloquent in Anglo Saxon. The best was one who told me to do something to Mrs A. that is illegal in many states.
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On the rare occasions that I get one I simply lie the phone off to one side and wander off.
I have no idea how long they stay connected.
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I get solar panel calls about once a week. They're not really scams per se as I have panels, but they must have got hold of the official database as they have my name and installer details (maybe hardly secret).
Anyway they often masquerade as legitimate solar panel companies, as a couple of times I've emailed the stated companies who really look like small local outfits and this is borne out by their response. They've also claimed to be working for the dept of energy.
They often tell me my solar fitters have gone out of business and they are taking over my warranty (which expired some years back) and offer me a free service check. Or sometimes they are selling a product which will double my output (yeah right).
I normally have already double checked their company name on the internet by the time they've got through their opener, then I tell them I'm on the TPS and they usually go.
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"How are you today?" Is a racing certainty to be the start of someone trying to flog something.
I too have numerous outfits ringing who have an awareness of having solar panels.
Has to be the initial instillation company from 10 years ago. They have name and phone details.
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Installations were all recorded on the MCS database and it leaked. That's my guess.
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A novel one this morning, an American, recorded voice to my mobile, stating the HMRC had a complaint against me. I just let them prattle on as I put the 'phone down.
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Someone of my acquaintance was phoned by someone purporting to be a police detective, was told their bank account had been compromised by a crooked bank employee and they should draw £6,000 out from the account, make a note of the serial numbers and await further instructions.
Off they toddle to the bank, bank asks why they want the money, tells them and the bank call the police (the real police). The scam is revealed and stopped.
I can never get my head round these things. If someone phoned me with a similar story, I don't think they would get six words out before I told them to Foxtrot Oscar!
Last edited by: Duncan on Wed 24 Feb 21 at 09:53
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>> I can never get my head round these things. If someone phoned me with a
>> similar story, I don't think they would get six words out before I told them
>> to Foxtrot Oscar!
Sure. Up to the age of 88, my mum would have been the same. Today, at 93, she has no idea what her name is. There was a period in between those two stages, not quite ready for her current care home, where she might well have said "what's that dear? Oh right, yes, here are my details".
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>> A novel one this morning, an American, recorded voice to my mobile, stating the HMRC
>> had a complaint against me. I just let them prattle on as I put the
>> 'phone down.
Some of these use live 'agent' and go as far as telling you there's a warrant out for your arrest or that a bailiff is on his way and will remove your goods. These are often West African in origin - judged on the agent's accent.
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I have Sky telephone & BB - they have Sky Shield to filter calls.
You put in everybody you know and others have to answer with their name etc - your phone rings - you accept or cut them off.
I was having scam calls everyday, sometimes multiple calls.
Now roughly 4 years and they all give up - no scam calls. I was on the SKY account for another reason yesterday. 2 x scam calls but they gave up and my phone did not ring.
The only problem is on day 1 - trying to get everybody you know in - everybody seems to have work, work mobile(s), mobile, house etc etc. Any number you register gets straight through.
Ideal if you, or your relatives, are plagued - I am sure other phone companies have similar call blocking - no extra charge for this on Sky.
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For several years my office has been getting calls (directed to me as I am the named director) stating that our local telephone exchange is going digital and our phone system may be incompatible. This started in about 2002 since when we have moved office twice (kept the number) and are on our fourth phone system - the current one being a VOIP.
They must think that company directors are stupid. I may be - but not that much...
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Same for TalkTalk, but now with a new version, CallSafe.
I've always use an answerphone and Caller Display to screen calls if I'm in. If it's obviously a scam call (you can usually tell by the style of the phone number if it is displayed), I block it immediately. If there's no number displayed and the phone stops ringing immediately the answerphone kicks in, then again it's almost certainly a scam call.
These measures and TalkTalk's methods for helping to eliminate scam calls and e-mails have meant that either being received is now extremely rare.
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I'm doing the tiresome due diligence on trying to make sure I'm getting a reasonable deal on motorbike insurance. On Monday I responded to a web chat to get someone from a well-known insurer to call me back. Into the web chat went my mobile number and I got on with something else. Less than 10 mins later a call appeared on my mobile. It was the same number as my mobile bar the last 3 digits. A recorded message told my my NI number had been 'compromised' and that I should press 1 to be connected to a legal specialist who, I paraphrase, would sort everything out.
I hung up and blocked the number. Then I rang the number back; it was a spoofed CLI i.e. unobtainable. But such a similar number and such close timing? Coincidence, or something more sinister?
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>> Coincidence, or something more sinister?
I'd go with coincidence. Difficult to see both how or why if it was based on your providing the number on a webchat.
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I suspect coincidence too. I have had two of that NI call today, and SWMBO has had one. Both to similar numbers to our phone numbers (as you say, the same all bar last three digits). I suspect they are autodiallers, just incrementing the number by one each time.
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>> Coincidence, or something more sinister?
Think about just how sinister that would have to be!
You're in a webchat, with a well known company, somebody is somehow watching, you type your phone number, they copy it down, then spoof it for a spam.
1) How???
2) WTF for??
All that just to get a telephone number? It'd be quicker to dial randomly.
Unless you think there is something very, very special about your phone number.
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>> 1) How???
>> 2) WTF for??
>>
You're right. Probably Lockdown Paranoia getting the better of me. Now I'll have to invent something else to keep me awake :o
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SWMBO has had 2 scam texts this week - HSBC bank account has suspect transactions & LLoyds account with a new Direct Debit due to be paid in a few days time.
We do not have a LLoyds or HSBC account and anyway if they knew where us oldies live the chances are it would be RBS, Bank of Scotland etc rather than what are essentially English Banks.
LLoyds/HSBC makes a change from last week - the failure of the direct debit & the mobile being cut off in 48 hours.... then a day later in the next 24 hours
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I just had a text from Lloyds
''You have had a login from a new device, if not you please visit ....'' with a link.
I had already clicked before my daughter basically told me I was an idiot and she was right, 2 seconds looking again at the message and it was obviously fake.
I am usually at the excess caution end of these, but maybe a bottle of Gavi and a glass of Merlot have lowered my defences a little.
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Phone scam - legacylad
