Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Telephone Scam - happening now!
From Haringey Neighbourhood Watch:
A reminder of a telephone scam brought to your attention last year that is still happening.
Please note that telephone calls made to landline phones can only be terminated by the person that has made the call. Hence, if the caller does not hang up, you will not be able to get a dialling tone and will not be able to dial out.
How the scam works is that you receive a call from someone claiming to be from your bank, the police or other authority. They ask you to call back to authenticate the call (so that they can gain your trust in order to obtain personal details from you), however they do not disconnect, and whilst you think you are making a new call, you are in fact still connected to the original caller.
I have just received an email from Mike, one of our Stroud Green coordinators, who has just received such a call …..
“Last night I received a phone call from a supposed DCI called Martin Benton claiming that a man called John Bailey has been arrested, and was being held at Hammersmith Police Station having tried to use my debit/credit card in a Leicester Square club, which incidentally is still in my possession. He gave me a ‘police reference number’ of EK786’. I smelt a rat when this ‘DCI’ asked for my date of birth. I told him I was not prepared to give such information as I did not know if he was genuine or not.
He told me to phone 101, the non-emergency Metropolitan Police number, to confirm his identity. Having hung-up, I noticed that I did not have a dial tone on my phone. I disconnected my phone and put it back in then I had a dialling tone. I then phoned 101 to speak to the police. The very helpful police woman took my contact details and told me that the so-called ‘crime reference number’ rang a bell with her and was almost certainly a scam. At her advice, I checked the number of the last caller and it was ‘number withheld’.
I’m just glad that I ensured that the call was disconnected and I had a dialling tone before calling the police, so I could ensure that I really was speaking to the police.”
Tags for Forum Posts: scam, telephone scam
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Thanks HoL. With regard to 'security details' - i have had both npower and virgin call me and ask for security password details before discussing things (also DWP). when did service providers start doing this ? also i was called by virgin media on the call back system. i told them i wanted to open a direct debit to pay for services. The girl would not let me pay until I HAD GIVEN HER my security password etc details. Wha... ???
i know this diverges from the point being made above but what does anyone else think about this ?
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Financial institutions - banks, American Express have been doing this for years. What's the problem ?
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JohnD* your bank will NEVER EVER call YOU and then ask for security details. That's how Hol knew it was a scam geddit ? However, service providers are now as a matter of course calling ME (it's obviously different if i'm calling them, they need to know i am who i say i am) and asking for security details.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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I have been contacted on more than one occasion by HSBC's fraud team because they have said they deemed an online transaction that I had made to be potentially suspicious. They called, explained the purpose for the call and asked me for my address and date of birth. Of course, I refused to provide that information over the phone and said that I would call back via the official telephone number. I was surprised to find that the call had been legitimate... I wasn't asked for my pass-code though.
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Permalink Reply by Madeline on
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(it was me that mentioned this last year) I've had three more of these calls in the last couple of months.
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I felt obligated to post because I encountered a scam like that, too. What I received was a text message and it said my bank account has been locked due to suspicious activities. And for the block to be removed, I had to call a certain phone number. But I found it suspicious so I contacted my bank instead and reported the text message. The bank rep confirmed the text message was a scam.
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I also Googled the phone number and it didn't surprise me when http://www.callercenter.com came up. Before I posted a complaint, several people already did. Apparently, several people also received a similar text message.
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