How do you deal with scammers?
Scammers who…
- Telephone you
- Message you and pretend to be a friend
Telephone Scams
Some scammers will call you on the phone and try to talk you into doing something on your computer which will give them access to it.
Let me tell you how I dealt with one of them.
Prepare to be entertained.
The Story Of My “Faulty” Broadband
It’s mid-morning in June 2019.
The telephone rings.
“Whoever calls on the landline nowadays?” I wonder, as my attention diverts away from the much more important work of posting something on Twitter.
“Oh, it’s an international call,” I mutter, as I turn to pick up the phone.
What did we used to do before we had Caller ID?
“Hello. This is BT Openreach,” says the lady with a strong Indian accent.
“We can see that your broadband speed is going up and down.”
“Oh yes?” I reply, trying to sound interested.
She’s already put her cards on the table and I know she’s a scammer.
The poor lady doesn’t know that I spent 40 years in the telecoms industry.
“We’re calling you with urgent information about the action you need to take.”
“Oh? What do I need to do?”
“Tell me… What colour is the flashing light on your router, sir?”
I pause long enough to look at the router.
“It’s a bit like sky-blue pink,” I reply.
Now I reckon she’ll have sussed me out that I’m winding her up.
But no!
“I’ll transfer you over to our senior technical team,” she says.
Whilst on hold, I pick up my smartphone, find the recorder app, and hit record.
I knew the app would come in handy one day.
I hold the smartphone near to the telephone’s receiver and wait for the on-hold music to end.
What? Even scammers keep you on hold and play that annoying music?
Listen To The Scammer Trying To Trick Me
What follows is the actual recording of the conversation between the scammer and me.
I’ve used Audacity to raise the voice level of the scammer and remove some of the annoyingly long pauses.
Turn up your speakers and enjoy…
If You Receive a Scam Phone Call
So if you ever receive a similar scam phone call, now you know what to do.
More importantly, you know what not to do. Don’t let them take control of your computer.
Things You Can Do With a Telephone Scammer
- Wind them up
- Put them on hold and leave them there
- Waste their time in meaningless conversation
- Hang up (usually the best policy)
- Report them to the authorities
Facebook Messenger Scam
In another blog post, I shared a Facebook Messenger conversation I had with a scammer.
And how I managed to wind him up too.
Plus the surprising – and worrying – tactics he tried to use after he knew he’d been sussed.
You can read that here: Facebook Messenger Scams
Your Scam Phonecall Experience?
Do you receive scam phone calls?
How do you deal with them?
Let us know in the comments box below – and let’s keep the conversation going.
Enjoy The Video?
Finally…
A cheeky little plug for a new service I’ve created.
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What? Did you skip over the video? Better go back and watch it – it’s really good!
…Anyway, here’s where you can read about the new service and watch some sample videos: David’s Promotional Video Service
Thanks for highlighting this, David. You were quick thinking, but other people might be taken in by these fraudsters.
Funnily enough, I took a similar call the other day from ‘BT Openreach’, and I told them to get lost.
It’s a known scam as mentioned here: https://www.metacompliance.com/blog/scam-of-the-week-bt-customers-targeted-with-phone-phishing-scam/
Thanks, Claire. There’s another scam where they also claim to be BT Openreach, and tell you that your internet will be cut off in 24 hours because of illegal behaviour. For some reason, on that occasion, they hung up on me much earlier into the call.
That is absolutely brilliant David – wish I’d had the sense to do that the other day when I got scammed over the phone by someone pretending to be from fraud dept at my bank. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking of my husband listening in, he called my bank from his mobile and when I told the guy on the phone they were on other line he hung up (but not before I’d stupidly given him all my details to log into my online account – the bank were great and reset everything straight away so no damage done [except to my pride]) – I will definitely take your advice next time and have some fun winding them up 🙂
Thank you, Paula. Really glad it was useful.
What an ordeal. So glad your husband was on the phone with the bank and they were able to act quickly.
If I’m busy, sometimes I’ll ask the scammer to hold the line because I have to attend to an imaginary visitor at the door. The phone goes to one side and I carry on working until they hang up – at which point I add their number to the blocked-list. 🙂