Call from plod.

[Justin Passing]

On the landlline:
"This is the police, I'm calling from Hammersmith police station. My name is xxx yyy and my badge number is zzz".
"Do you know how to verify I'm who I say I am?
Me: No

"That's ok you call the police - I'll go through that is a second.
Am I speaking to Mr......?"
Me: "Yes"
He checked I'd written down his name and badge number.

"We have someone here who says he is your nephew, living with you at [my address].
Can you confirm that?"

Me: "It's rubbish."

"Oh OK,
This is an identity fraud then, he is trying to use a card in your name in the Apple store, for £1300".

I asked what the card was - he said it would be a blank one, they just clone the stripe.

Him "That's stopped then, but you'll need to get a crime reference number.
Call 999, ask for police and tell them it's not an emergency but you need to get the number.
So you can verify me there and get your CRN.
I'll hang up and you'll have the dialling tone."

 

[RrogerD]

SCAM every day of the week.
But you know that.
You should have stopped at "am I speaking to ...?" They clone your voice and the word 'yes'.

Also, NOBODY calls 999 unless it IS an emergency.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Sounds odd, try the Met Police chat?

 

[blup]

Yes voice cloning. But you still need to give your nephew a *******ing

 

[motorbiking]

On the landlline:
"This is the police, I'm calling from Hammersmith police station. My name is xxx yyy and my badge number is zzz".
"Do you know how to verify I'm who I say I am?
Me: No

"That's ok you call the police - I'll go through that is a second.
Am I speaking to Mr......?"
Me: "Yes"
He checked I'd written down his name and badge number.

"We have someone here who says he is your nephew, living with you at [my address].
Can you confirm that?"

Me: "It's rubbish."

"Oh OK,
This is an identity fraud then, he is trying to use a card in your name in the Apple store, for £1300".

I asked what the card was - he said it would be a blank one, they just clone the stripe.

Him "That's stopped then, but you'll need to get a crime reference number.
Call 999, ask for police and tell them it's not an emergency but you need to get the number.
So you can verify me there and get your CRN.
I'll hang up and you'll have the dialling tone."

They were hoping you’d be fooled by their fake dial tone and type 999 and go through to the fake call handler.

 

[Munroast]

we had an hilarious one a few weeks back - someone phoned with a heavy black accent was telling my wife about fraudulent activity on her bank account, so she kept asking if he could confirm her name etc, even her initials, clearly he couldn't, so she just kept saying, "Well who am I" there was a pause then in a slow loud intimidating voice he said "YOU ARE A PROSTITUTE"

 

[Justin Passing]

They were hoping you’d be fooled by their fake dial tone and type 999 and go through to the fake call handler.

Exactly.

I hung up, and dialled the real 999, and did what he'd said - told them it wasn't an emergency, no problem. They checked the name/badge number , and went on to arrange a visit from local plod to take a statement. (being a Blue Badge holder).
I'll have it printed to save wasting too much time.

I took the times of the calls*, so they could check who called this number.
The guy wasn't very bright, he could easily have got a real plod name and number. I don't know where that would have taken things.
The "badge number" he gave was silly too.


* he called back half an hour later to see if I'd "got through to them".

I was obviously off-guard, a bit tired. I believed him somewhat when he said about checking who he was, and said a few yesses and nos. I gave away a little too much, but no numbers etc. It was the voice, he sounded like a classic plod. Exaclty llike the real one I spoke to a few minutes later.

One thing scrote said was "your nephew says you're over 80 and live alone, is that true?" which I answered.
He wanted to know when I'd used the card in an ATM. I hadn't, was the truth.

Easy to get caught for a moment - happens all the time. Part of the getting-older territory.

Banks are plain bad. They call you about a transaction then want YOU to prove you're who you are first. I yell at those all the time. Some second rate banks like Santander are awful.

Next time the chemist rings to say my meds are ready to collect, I must remember not to call HIM a scrote and prove who he is...

 

[accelerator]

If someone calls you out of the blue and it's money related, it is always a scam. Just hang up and block them if you can.

 

[Justin Passing]

If someone calls you out of the blue and it's money related, it is always a scam. Just hang up and block them if you can.

No, I get quite a few which are from banks etc.

 

[pcaouolte]

If you believe that the call is from your bank still hang up and call the bank on a number that you already have for them. Preferably call them from a different phone as the scammer may have kept the line open and be playing you a recording of a dial tone.

 

[opps]

If someone calls you out of the blue and it's money related, it is always a scam. Just hang up and block them if you can.

A few years back, when I was distributing pet supplements, we got an order for about 90K from a guy that wanted to import them into Saudi Arabia. He said he would transfer the money via BACs in a few minutes. Minutes later we got a phone call from my business account saying that we had received £105K and that it looked fraudulent. He told us to expect an email asking us to refund the 15K overpayment and then send the goods. Sure enough, the guy did exactly that. We ignored the email and the 90K was removed from our account.

I don't understand how the money could hit our account but I guess he had wanted the overpayment to be sent to another account.

 

[opps]

If you believe that the call is from your bank still hang up and call the bank on a number that you already have for them. Preferably call them from a different phone as the scammer may have kept the line open and be playing you a recording of a dial tone.

Surely that cannot happen on a mobile line though?

I guess if you have a landline, you could ring PizzaHut (or whoever) and see if the call connects.

 

[securespark]

No, I get quite a few which are from banks etc.

Me too. Genuine calls from my bank. Which have got me into conversations with them about just how I can verify them as the real deal if they call me. This particular call they said "It's so and so from X bank, can you confirm your name and date of birth?"

How do you know it's the real deal? I started by asking them to tell me what day I was born on. They told me they couldn't tell me that because of data protection. I told them not to be silly, that giving me a day of the week was not divulging any of a customer's data and then had a big discussion about scammers and seeing the call from my perspective.

The guy couldn't understand it at all. I asked if the call was being recorded, he said it was, and I said that management should be using that call to train call handlers in how to approach customers when calling them.

 

[accelerator]

I don't understand how the money could hit our account but I guess he had wanted the overpayment to be sent to another account.

It's a classic scam. I'm not sure exactly how they do it but I think it might be the initial transaction is entirely fraudulent using a stolen card, and they are looking to get away with the overpayment amount and your goods.

 

[accelerator]

No, I get quite a few which are from banks etc.

About what? Marketing calls?

Anyway, my advice is a good rule of thumb for at risk people, but they'll probably forget it anyway ...