telephone scam on my virgin phone?

[manofdevon]

I am getting continuous telephone calls saying they are a well known bank.
The message says " this is ........ bank services, please push any keypad on your telephone"
I assume this is a scam of some sort?

Any information ?

I telephoned virgin and they refuse to intercept the calls, do they intercept calls?

what if it was a paeodophile calling my children so do they not intercept calls from a source such as this?

BT intercept calls because a relative of mine was getting the heavy breathers etc. and calls were monitored , do BT still do this? If so I am going back to BT when my contract expires with virgin.

[Delta Whiskey]

I believe it's a premium rate number scam. If you press the button you're routed through some overseas set-up which cost £££££ per second.

[JohnM]

I believe it's a premium rate number scam. If you press the button you're routed through some overseas set-up which cost £££££ per second.

This is technically impossible to achieve.

[manofdevon]

So what is happening?

[piggy]

"what if it was a paeodophile calling my children so do they not intercept calls from a source such as this?"


then you would call the police!! a money scam is hardly the same thing imo anyway

[manofdevon]

But would Virgin then intercept calls if such a case?

[Graham M]

I doubt it, I would imagine the Police would

[Stuart]

I doubt it, I would imagine the Police would

AFAIK, Virgin can (and do) intercept calls if required to do so for the police.

[lostandconfused]

AFAIK, Virgin can (and do) intercept calls if required to do so for the police.

correct, its done by the nuisance calls beuro on instruction from the police.

or you can call them on 0800 953 3333

[manofdevon]

So if your telephone is getting these telephone calls and if successful would lead to fraud, shouldn't the police automatically insist on an intercept service if requested. It appears according to the bank the calls start asking your account number etc.

The police have it too easy these days, you cant even get them to investigate a fraud on your credit card, the credit card company can only instigate this service now.

[esdxc37]

The only time the nuisance call bureu would get involved would be if the number was not known . If the number is known it then becomes a matter for the police or whatever regulatory body it involves to take charge

[BenMcr]

As has been said Virgin will monitor if requested by the police. they then pass this information back to the police.

At no point will Virgin monitor your line and release the information to you.

I believe it's a premium rate number scam. If you press the button you're routed through some overseas set-up which cost £££££ per second.
This is technically impossible to achieve.

Actually I thought this was possible, I thought it worked on the same priciple as a reverse charge call, by pressing a specific button the phone you agreed to be charged for the call.

ntl at one point did this for phone plan upgrades. Caused no end of calls back into the Customer Care centre

[Mick The Gwailo]

This is technically impossible to achieve.


I believe that's totally WRONG :(



If you get a Cold Call from anyone telling you to press a
certain key ... DO NOT ... Your call can, and may, be redirected
to a 'Premium Rate" SCAM which you'll only find out about
when the BILL arrives .... :(

[JohnM]

The only company capable of doing this (as far as I am aware) is 0800 REVERSE, and even then only to BT numbers. Try it with a VM line and the call will fail -- they don't have a billing relationship. Of course you could use operator connected reverse charge as well.

There is no normal "mechanism" for the above suggested scam to work though. For it to work the scammers would have to have a reciprocal billing arrangement with Virgin Media, BT, and any other providers they wish to "scam". This in itself makes what you are suggesting pretty much impossible..

There is no way for you to be connected to, and subsequently billed for calling, a premium rate number, without having dialed the full number on your phone. And by this I mean doing it from dialtone, not in the middle of an already connected call.

I'm afraid this is a hoax..

---------- Post added at 19:58 ---------- Previous post was at 19:51 ----------

ntl at one point did this for phone plan upgrades. Caused no end of calls back into the Customer Care centre

That's an entirely different kettle 'o fish. That's ntl allowing you to use your ntl line to make changes to your account, much in the same way that many Mobile operators allow you to switch packages though a voice menu etc. Plus, in this instance the charge wouldn't be added as a telephone call, but rather your ntl account would be changed to reflect the new package.

[manofdevon]

Then why does the unidentified caller ask that you press any keypad on your telephone?

What will that do?

[JohnM]

Not sure. Investigating further!

Could simply be to confirm there is a person at the end of the line, at which point you'll be connected to "someone" who will attempt to take your account number & security details. Now this bit WOULD be a scam, but rather than just a charge being added to your bill, they'd raid your bank account instead :)

That's only if you're silly enough to give such details to an unsolicited caller of course!

[manofdevon]

BTW
when I was in the bank branch and brought it up, they said they had been getting numerous complaints from customers of the same call. They assume its a fishing call of sorts.

[JohnM]

Have done a little more digging, and can confirm that the reason they're asking you to press a number is as I described; simply to confirm there is a person at the end of the line before passing the call to a real person. This is not some kind of premium rate number scam.

[Maggy]

How about signing up to the Telephone Preference Service?

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

:)

[Mick The Gwailo]

Then why does the unidentified caller ask that you press any keypad on your telephone?

What will that do?

I believe I answered that on Page One :(

But if it's an UNIDENTIFIED Caller why not just HANG UP
to be totally safe ?!? :)



Have done a little more digging, and can confirm that the reason they're asking you to press a number is as I described; simply to confirm there is a person at the end of the line before passing the call to a real person. This is not some kind of premium rate number scam.

Well, if it's a REAL Person not machine talking to you I assume
they KNOW there's a person on the end of the line, (YOU),
you just answered their call :)

... but I HAVE never actually encountered this "Press a number"
routine myself ? ? ?

[manofdevon]

I believe I answered that on Page One :(

But if it's an UNIDENTIFIED Caller why not just HANG UP
to be totally safe ?!? :)





Well, if it's a REAL Person not machine talking to you I assume
they KNOW there's a person on the end of the line, (YOU),
you just answered their call :)

... but I HAVE never actually encountered this "Press a number"
routine myself ? ? ?


If it was an answering machine then nobody could push the keypad:rolleyes:

Got another call today , The same banking crowd telephone me and say this is.......... would you please confirm your date of birth.

I tell them to get stuf..ed. and tell them
I will ring my credit card company and see if they are really ringing me.
So I ring the credit card telephone number, and they say yes we did telephone you because you have not restarted the new credit card activation we sent you.
I tell them off.
How can I ever trust any telephone call again that says its my bank if they ring me like mentioned above.
I asked for their head office address and I am writing a letter of complaint.

Still wondering if I am into a scam because the telephone number on my old credit card statement was no longer available and they transferred the call automatically to a new number.

Anyway no trouble expected because card was ripped up weeks ago.

[lostandconfused]

if someone called me asking for bank details, i would always find out who they are, find their number from tinternet and call them back, at least that way you kjnow who yoo are taking to,

[manofdevon]

Ifyou found the number that rang you, you would get the spammer back!

The answer is to ask them your details instead of the other way round, that should get them thinking.