Have you had one of those scam BT callers?

I have , quite a few times and I have grown wise to it. It's always an Indian who give a typical English name which is so obviously false and they say that have detected a fault on your computer or someone is using my account or they say they will disconnect the internet. They more often or not target elderly and vulnerable people. They also say they're calling from London when they are actually calling from call centers in India. Please be aware of this, they are trying to gain access to your bank details. I have seen many youtube video's where this goes on and they are eventually caught out, some get aggressive, they think we are stupid !.

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

I have received quite a number, but rumble them very quickly and soon get rid of them.

"I'm from the Windows Corporation and your computer has reported a fault.!

"No you are not, Windows is a Microsoft trademark. It has not. You are a crook. Goodbye!", and I hang up before he has the pleasure of doing so first.

Sometimes I add, "Oh, and I have worked in IT security." That sends the blighters packing straight away.

If you see off a number of them in a relatively short time you tend not to be bothered again for some while. They may have lists of numbers they know will not co-operate.

Recently they have taken to using recordings, usually with a female speaker. These are easy to spot because if you try to interrupt, it carries on regardless. A live caller would react.

'

The latest was more frightening. Someone left a message from a British-style number, something like 0121... His message was short, spoken in the exaggerated American growl typical of advertising violent films, and just as silly. The first few words were unintelligible, but I picked out "Asia" and "legal" action or problems, then "... press 1 to speak to one of our officers" - of what, I did not hear stated. Needless to say, I simply deleted it.

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That was probably from overseas. It's time BT and other telecomms companies made it impossible for foreign callers to hide behind national numbers.

It's also time the Government did something positive about ActionFraud, too. It has been exposed as a failure, owned by some American firm but presumably paid for handsomely by UK tax-payers. It passes very few reports to the Police (though they are not always very efficient at investigating frauds and malpractice, either). Its web-site is difficult and clumsy, uses menus built on poorly-chosen assumptions, and has no method for accepting scam e-mails for analysis and tracing.