Author Topic: BT Hoax callers  (Read 3602 times)

Offline DMWG40

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BT Hoax callers
« on: September 22, 2009, 11:32:28 am »
Dear All

Our Nigerian friends are at it again! This scam has been confirmed by BT who have issued warning notices. You may wish to pass it on to your friends.

Kind regards,




I received a call from a ' representative ' of BT. informing me that
he was dis-connecting me because of an unpaid bill & demanded
immediate payment of £31.00 , or it would be £ 118.00 to re-connect
at a later date..
The guy wasn't 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 his name and he gave the very ' English 'John Peacock with a
very ' African ' accent - & phone number - 0800 0800 152.
Obviously the fella realized I wasn't believing his story, so
offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. & 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 & I Dialled 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 but it is escalating.
The Police 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..
This is good but not that clever. He gave the wrong number - it
should have been 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
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
the elderly and vulnerable.

This is a real scam visit this site for proof.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/bt-unpaid-bi ... scam.shtml

The information in the warning email is factual. Such scams have indeed been occurring in the UK and a number of UK residents have already lost money to these fraudsters. BT has published the following notice on its website warning customers about the scam:
Please be aware of the following:

Fraudsters, pretending to be from various phone companies, have been calling people on the pretence that there is an outstanding bill and threatening to disconnect their line immediately if they do not pay the bill straight away.

The fraudsters have been pretending to "cut off" the customer. Worried about having their line cut off, some people have been persuaded into giving the fraudsters their bank account details.

The police are investigating and BT Security is looking into incidents where the fraudsters have claimed to be from BT.

Whilst BT does have debt handling procedures which may involve calling customers, BT never carries out disconnections during the call by way of proof.

We advise customers never to give out any banking details over the phone unless they are absolutely certain who they are dealing with.

If there is any doubt at all, a BT employee will be able to give the customer their employee ID number and an 0800 number to call, where the customer can check that they are who they say they are. The customer can also check their identity by calling 0800 800 150.

Beware of similar phone numbers. Fraudsters may for example offer a number which has an extra zero - 0800 0800 xxx has been used by fraudsters - it is not the same as 0800 800 xxx.
UK communications regulator OfCom has also posted a warning to consumers about the scam:
Fraudsters are currently phoning consumers claiming to be from BT or Ofcom. They claim that the consumer’s telephone line needs digital upgrade work. This, they say, will cost £6 and if it isn’t paid within 10 days the consumer’s phone line will be cut off.

In some cases, the fraudster will claim that the line needs testing and they will temporarily disconnect it. When the consumer tries to make an outgoing call they are unable to do so. This is simply because the fraudster is still on the line meaning no outbound calls can be made.

This is a scam. Ofcom and BT have alerted the relevant authorities for investigation.
Phone scammers often pose as staff of companies, government departments or financial institutions as a means of fooling people into handing over their personal details. While this particular instance of the scam targets UK residents, criminals may use similar tactics to steal information from phone consumers in other parts of the world. While telecommunications companies may well call their customers to query an unpaid account, they are unlikely to attempt to prove the legitimacy of the call by disconnecting the line. If you do receive a suspect call, do not provide the caller with any personal or financial details. If you are unsure about a call, the safest course of action is to:
1. Ask for the caller's name and department details and then terminate the call.
2. Find a legitimate contact number for the company either in a bill or other official documentation or a telephone directory. (Don't use a contact number provided by the caller).
3. Call the company and ask to speak to the original caller by name.
This strategy should effectively derail any scam attempts and also allow you to deal with the issue in the event that the call was actually legitimate.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2009, 12:01:17 am by DMWG40 »

Offline vwmk3jon

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Re: BT Hoax
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2009, 02:21:17 pm »
Good call. I'll post this up in various places.

Offline hayesey

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Re: BT Hoax
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2009, 10:16:19 pm »
Quote
allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental!

I'd have known it was rubbish at this point, a virgin media line into your house has nothing to do with BT, VM own their own network including copper/fibre in the ground (and yes contary to what the TV ads say, the bit that goes into your house is still old fashioned copper not fibre).

Offline PeteG40

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Re: BT Hoax callers
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2009, 09:13:58 am »
ah but some virgin broadband isn't cable, my area isn't cabled but i can get virgin on a bt line

Offline cheddarcheese

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Re: BT Hoax callers
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2009, 12:21:00 pm »
ah but some virgin broadband isn't cable, my area isn't cabled but i can get virgin on a bt line

you can get VM call package like talk talk that uses the BT line!

Quote
allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental!

I'd have known it was rubbish at this point, a virgin media line into your house has nothing to do with BT, VM own their own network including copper/fibre in the ground (and yes contary to what the TV ads say, the bit that goes into your house is still old fashioned copper not fibre).
Its not fibre up to the modem on vm because to much signal can cause the same as having to little the modem cant handle the data speed so you would have to use big attenuators to bring the signal level down to the optimum level of performance! the new 50mb service has new uprated expensive modem to be able to handle more data stream so using high coaxial cable attenuates the signal allowing the correct signal level to received and allowing less use of attenuators.

fibre does run threw all the pavments up to the edge of the property and allows the signal to be boosted up to this point allowing you to get a good connection. shitty bt who don't boost there network as frequent so like me being 9miles from the exchange i get 1.5 mb of a 8mb connection.


Offline hayesey

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Re: BT Hoax callers
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2009, 08:01:52 pm »
the fibre in virgin's network runs to the street cabinet boxes and then from there to your houses it's plain old copper.  It';s nothing to do with signal strength, I;m just talking about the actual physical media the signal is carried on, you still need line attenuators on some virgin lines if the signal level is too high.

and yes pete some virgin cable connections dont carry a phone signal on the cable itself, it's depends on the area of th country since the virgin network varies with locations because it's an amalgamation of loads of different cable companies ntl & telewest bought up over the years.

Offline Tommo

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Re: BT Hoax callers
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2009, 08:58:35 pm »
Surely if you hang up it dosent matter if they stay on the line or not? Otherwise you would surely get people ringing people and leaving their phone off the hook just to piss them off.