BT phone scam BEWARE..

[Rowleys]

Taken from an other forum ..


The new telephone 'scam' has arrived.

I received a call from a 'representative' of BT,

informing me that he was dis-connecting 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 - the very 'English'

John Peacock with a very 'African' accent - & phone number - 0800 0800 152 0800 0800 152.


Obviously the guy realized I wasn't believing 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 dis-connect 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 said that 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.


Did 1471 & phoned his fictitious 0800 number - not recognised.


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 know by

word of mouth of this scam. The fact that the phone does go off would

probably convince some people it's real, so please let as many friends &

family aware of this.



This is good but not that clever. He gave the wrong number - it should have

been 0800 800152 0800 800152 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 to 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 the elderly and

vulnerable.


Please pass this on to friends and family and be on your guard




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8263637.stm

[wensleydale]

It's not really proving your phone is dead- he just stays on then line and keeps quiet meaning the line stays open.
He then hangs up and calls you back.

[BeerFunk]

:confused:

You can still terminate the call at your end though :confused:

[wensleydale]

:confused:

You can still terminate the call at your end though :confused:

I think you'll find you cant
You can put the phone down but if they keep the line open it stays open.

[spin mobile disco]

Correct unless you are on a mobile the person ringing in blocks yuo from ringing out. However if you ring BT on a mobiel while this is happening they can trace his call and disconnect him at source. (had a problem with nuisance callers once and they were pretty helpful)

[DJMaxG]

Here's a tip to hang up without the need for the caller to end it.

1. Press Recall on your handset (may be labelled as 'R') [NOT REDIAL]
2. Hang Up
3. The Phone Should ring
4. Ignore it
5. After a few rings it should stop

************************************************** ************************************************** ****

If you do not have a 'Recall' button, and are using a wired telephone handset with large button which the receiver holds down whilst the telephone in not in use, then use this alternative following method:

1. Press Lightly on the large button (underneath where receiver rests)
2. You should hear a dial tone
3. Hang Up
4. The Telephone should ring
5. Ignore it
6. The Ringing should soon stop



This is why we have caller display on our house line, and at least one of the telephones has a screen which displays the number.

All above info is my own words, and I know this from experience, I have not copied it from anywhere - for those of you Googlers :o

I would like to add :
My Dad has a Business Line at work and they can terminate the call just by hanging up normally.

The only time you can't end the call is when dialing emergency services on 112 or 999.

[DJ James Lake]

I would like to add :
My Dad has a Business Line at work and they can terminate the call just by hanging up normally.

The only time you can't end the call is when dialing emergency services on 112 or 999.

It depends what kind of business line you have and whether you have an internal exchange with multiple lines.

[Starlight]

Thanks very much for informing me of this scam, I have spread the word and hopefully this will reduce the risk of people getting scammed.

Neil M ;)

[DJMaxG]

It depends what kind of business line you have and whether you have an internal exchange with multiple lines.
In this case it is just a single phone line.

[DazzyD]

This is another of those scams that was around a while ago but seems to be resurfacing.

The trick with keeping the line open was well known to me in my youth (I was a "phreaker" and I knew all the telephone tricks). However, I can see a lot of people, not just the elderly or vulnerable, falling for this scam.

Most scams work by targeting human greed (ie making an offer that sounds too good to be true) and, in my opinion, people fall for these because they want something for nothing (or very little). However, scams like the BT one work on fear and hope to scare people in to paying up and/or giving their bank/credit card details away. These are the scams that worry me the most and I'd advise anyone who thinks they may have targeted by such a scam to report it to both BT and the police (BT can be very good at dealing with such situations).

[secretDISCO]

Just do what i did and told them my wife is a manager for BT (And she is) and to hold on the line whilst i call her to the phone...................they hung up very quickly.

[rob1963]

It's not really proving your phone is dead- he just stays on then line and keeps quiet meaning the line stays open.
He then hangs up and calls you back.

No, but it's making you THINK your phone is dead.


:confused:

You can still terminate the call at your end though :confused:


I think you'll find you cant
You can put the phone down but if they keep the line open it stays open.

Correct.

Using a bit of common sense regarding the whole unpaid bill premise of the call, how many of us wouldn't know if we had an unpaid bill?

I'm sure than like me many people pay by direct debit, which means that the company take the amount due each time, which makes it impossible to have an unpaid bill.

Even for those of us who pay our bill at the bank, again wouldn't we know if we'd not paid one of our bills?

:shrug:

[BeerFunk]

I think you'll find you cant
You can put the phone down but if they keep the line open it stays open.You learn something new every day!


Just do what i did and told them my wife is a manager for BT (And she is) and to hold on the line whilst i call her to the phone...................they hung up very quickly.That's all very well, but the fact is that you already knew it's a scam, so they weren't going to con you anyway! :)