Scam Calls.

[hackey lad]

11 minutes ago, Rollypolly said:

I read a few weeks ago that there's a scam where someone says 'can you hear me?' when you answer. If you say yes they are using this as voice recognition to make purchases. I thought it sounded a bit far fetched until this morning when my phone rang. I answered it and a man said ' Hi, can you hear me ok?' I put the phone down!

May be a daft question but how can they use your voice to buy things ?

[RollingJ]

16 minutes ago, hackey lad said:

May be a daft question but how can they use your voice to buy things ?

Actually, they can't - Rollypolly has fallen for an urban myth.

[Rollypolly]

I answered because it was a local number and I thought it may have been something to do with my present situation. I don't know if they can make use of your voice which is why I said it seemed far fetched. I only know a man said 'can you hear me ok?' which I thought was odd 

[Baron99]

1 hour ago, Rollypolly said:

I answered because it was a local number and I thought it may have been something to do with my present situation. I don't know if they can make use of your voice which is why I said it seemed far fetched. I only know a man said 'can you hear me ok?' which I thought was odd 

It must be a day for it.  I was called by a local Sheffield number 0114 258 3629.  Answered it & was told by an obvious automated voice that my visa card, (didn't say which one), had been used for possible unauthorised purchases to Amazon, (I've never bought anything from them) & another company called International Gift Card, (never heard of them). 

 

I was told to press 1 to speak to one of their advisers.  No indication which company I would be talking too, they never said.  I never spoke & the call was ended after about 30 seconds. 

 

I've looked up 0114 258 3629 on the Internet.  It gives a site name of Flowers Love & a list of consequtive phone numbers all starting with the 0114 Sheffield code with just the final digit changed. 

 

An obvious scam. 

[RollingJ]

1 minute ago, Baron99 said:

It must be a day for it.  I was called by a local Sheffield number 0114 258 3629.  Answered it & was told by an obvious automated voice that my visa card, (didn't say which one), had been used for possible unauthorised purchases to Amazon, (I've never bought anything from them) & another company called International Gift Card, (never heard of them). 

 

I was told to press 1 to speak to one of their advisers.  No indication which company I would be talking too, they never said.  I never spoke & the call was ended after about 30 seconds. 

 

I've looked up 0114 258 3629 on the Internet.  It gives a site name of Flowers Love & a list of consequtive phone numbers all starting with the 0114 Sheffield code with just the final digit changed. 

 

An obvious scam. 

Yep, I had a spate of similar calls late last/early this week - the odd ones I picked up were obviously voice-activated recordings, which got as far as 'this is the Visa support...' before I killed them. As only two people call me on the landline, I knew they were a waste of time, but I was just interested in what scam they were trying to pull.

[Rollypolly]

18 minutes ago, Baron99 said:

It must be a day for it.  I was called by a local Sheffield number 0114 258 3629.  Answered it & was told by an obvious automated voice that my visa card, (didn't say which one), had been used for possible unauthorised purchases to Amazon, (I've never bought anything from them) & another company called International Gift Card, (never heard of them). 

 

I was told to press 1 to speak to one of their advisers.  No indication which company I would be talking too, they never said.  I never spoke & the call was ended after about 30 seconds. 

 

I've looked up 0114 258 3629 on the Internet.  It gives a site name of Flowers Love & a list of consequtive phone numbers all starting with the 0114 Sheffield code with just the final digit changed. 

 

An obvious scam. 

It's worrying that these calls seem to be escalating. My friend had a text last week saying 'mum it's me, WhatsApp me asap'. She hasn't got any children so knew it was a scam. There will be some vulnerable people who'll fall for it so I think dismissing them as 'urban myths' is a bit foolhardy. It's best to err on the side of caution imo.

[RollingJ]

3 minutes ago, Rollypolly said:

It's worrying that these calls seem to be escalating. My friend had a text last week saying 'mum it's me, WhatsApp me asap'. She hasn't got any children so knew it was a scam. There will be some vulnerable people who'll fall for it so I think dismissing them as 'urban myths' is a bit foolhardy. It's best to err on the side of caution imo.

The specific case you refer to is an 'urban myth' - there is absolutely no way just saying 'yes' will allow someone to use voice recognition to authorise a transaction - that is way too short a reply to enable such a practice, even if it were possible, which it isn't.

[Rollypolly]

Yes you may be right but what possible reason was there for the caller to ask if I could hear him when it was a perfectly clear line. I ended the call and he didn't call me back which seems suspicious. But my point is that whether it's an urban myth or not it's always best to assume the worse. 

[Findlay]

Scam calls are costing us millions. You can report text scams easily https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/fraud-losses-foreign-calls/#:~:text=By using the number 7726 (which consequently spells “spam”)%2C users can immediately forward and report a scam text to authorities.

[sorovodomni]

Sounds like a real hassle dealing with those calls every day. I've got one yesterday too. I don’t know if BT has a specific number to report them, but it might be worth looking up the numbers you’re getting using a who called me service. It can flag scam calls and give you some more info on them. I’ve used it a few times when I was getting bombarded with similar calls, and it’s helped me figure out which ones to ignore or block.

Edited Friday at 18:18 by sorovodomni