Kitz Forum
Internet => General Internet => Topic started by: broadstairs on September 10, 2015, 09:32:36 AM
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Not sure if this is the right board but here goes....
A while ago TalkTalk had a whole bunch of data stolen about their customers which included names, account numbers and phone numbers. This is now in the hands of scammers who all sound they are from the Indian subcontinent. Some days I get 2 or 3 calls other times it can go days with nothing. They all start by saying there is a problem with my internet connection. Needless to say I dont give anything away but when I am in the mood I string them along for a while which confuses the hell out of them and their scripts. Usually begin either with not finding the Windows key on the keyboard or not having a 'Start' button ;) and then after a while they cut the connection, when they asked what OS I was using the other day I said OS/2 ;)
I asked TT about this to see if there was any way they could filter these out but all they offered was a new phone number which of course causes me a huge headache in letting all my contacts know. It is not possible to ban the calling numbers as they spoof the caller-id.
Anyway I was wondering how many other TT customers on here are getting these calls?
Stuart
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I've never been a TT customer, but been getting these scam calls for years. Sometimes several a week, more than one a day is not unheard of.
There is a lot to be said for stringing them along, if you have the time. Their profit margins must be pretty border line at best of times and time wasted on fruitless calls will eat into it.
I usually find that the initial caller is really just assessing me, to see if I sound like a sucker. if I pass that test I'm transferred to a more convincing-sounding (still Indian, but with better English) techie, I presume he is the scammer's 'precious resource' that will be hardest hit by time wasters.
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I have never had them in the past but these are particularly annoying as they have so much detail about my TT account. I guess since our landline has been ex-directory for some 20 years we were a bit less likely to get them until more recently with them generating random phone numbers. The calls we do sometimes get are PPI etc.
Stuart
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For me these days, it has got to the point that any unrecognised caller arouses my hackles, in anticipation of a scam or marketeer. And it has proved embarrassing a couple of times, when a genuine caller picked up on the fact my hackles were raised. 'sorry, is this a bad time to talk?', they ask :-[
Even calls with number withheld can be genuine. I know some doctors surgeries have a policy of doing so, when calling to discuss medical matters or to alter appointments. The thinking is that if you get home and find you missed a call from the doctor, and it's too late to call back, you might worry all night about why he/she was calling...
But if your callers seem privy to personal TT account details that does make them sound very interesting... :-\
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get a premium rate number and then keep them talking. They might as well pay you for the privilege of attempting to scam you :P
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We get these calls quite regular , I have managed to have them on the line for over an hour trying to sort my pc , I tell them that my pc is not in the same room as my telephone and that I will have to write everything down that they want doing in steps ,I tell them I will do a bit of what they want and then come back and write more instructions down , obviously I just put the phone down and continue getting on with what ever I am doing, 10/15 min check they are still there and repetes the posses till finished then tell them I have no Internet , that really gets them cranky.
If I don't feel like playing I tell them I am glad they phoned as I do have a problem with my pc and it's making a whistling sound and I will put the hand set near the pc to see if they can hear it and sort it out , I have an emergency mountain rescue whistle that they get a sharp blast from , they soon put the phone down
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I'll get up to a max of 8 calls showing up as international wanting to take a survey, we ask to be taken off the data base but still those calls continue it's become an epidemic and i can see anything that can stop it and have used all known ways.
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I bought my old mum one of these and it works really well mshe was inundated with calls and this has stopped 95% of them and any that do get through she just presses the button to blacklist them
http://www.cprcallblocker.com website and the product I bought her http://www.cprcallblocker.com/cpr-call-blocker-v108-world-1-call-blocker-1200-number-capacity/
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I bought my old mum one of these and it works really well mshe was inundated with calls and this has stopped 95% of them and any that do get through she just presses the button to blacklist them
http://www.cprcallblocker.com website and the product I bought her http://www.cprcallblocker.com/cpr-call-blocker-v108-world-1-call-blocker-1200-number-capacity/
That device does not work when the caller blocks the number id :(
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How do you mean blocks number I'd
It blocks
Private Blocking Function
This will reject all calls shown as WITHHELD
Unknown Blocking Function
This will reject all calls shown as UNAVAILABLE
International Blocking Function
This will reject all calls shown as INTERNATIONAL
"0" Type Calls Blocking Function
This will reject all calls shown as multiple 000s or variations of fake numbers.
VOIP Blocking Function
This will reject all VOIP style internet Nuisance Callers
Last Calling Number Blocker
This will block the last visible number from your call log
Area Code Blocker
This will block the Area Code of a calling number or the first 2,3 4 or 5 digits etc of any number
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The problem with these scammers is they are spoofing the caller-id and some times it is a valid UK phone number and sometimes not. The other issue is that I have rarely seen the same number being used so eventually you fill up these blocking devices as they usually have a finite capacity. Now if I could get TT to provide me with a new ex-directory number which has NEVER been issued (they do re-use numbers after a few months) and would be willing to pay any costs incurred with changing then I might just do it.
Stuart
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part of this suggests that blockers are sometimes sold with nefarious intention. >:( (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/11822394/On-a-suckers-list-The-simple-mistake-that-guarantees-your-place-on-cold-calling-marketing-databases.html DT article [/url)
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I got one of these calls two days ago.
Obviously I wasn't taken by this and when I called the gentleman out he got very annoyed and hung up the phone.
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part of this suggests that blockers are sometimes sold with nefarious intention. >:(
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/11822394/On-a-suckers-list-The-simple-mistake-that-guarantees-your-place-on-cold-calling-marketing-databases.html DT article [/url)
Here is the corrected link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/11822394/On-a-suckers-list-The-simple-mistake-that-guarantees-your-place-on-cold-calling-marketing-databases.html). :)
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I got one of these calls two days ago.
Obviously I wasn't taken by this and when I called the gentleman out he got very annoyed and hung up the phone.
Yes if I am busy when they say 'I am from TalkTalk' I just say no you are not and they usually hang up, but if I'm bored I try to play them for fools.
Stuart
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My favourite one of all was a few weeks ago.
The Indian gentleman reallised I was leading him on and started swearing at me. I won't recite his actual swear words, but it was the the sort of abuse you hear in American gangster movies, only with the accent of an offshore ISP help desk. I found that incredibly funny and so I started to laugh.
He threatened that if I laughed again, he'd swear at me again which, of course, made me laugh all the more.
The more I laughed, the more he swore, until eventually he reached breaking point and hung up. :D
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I have reached the point where I don't try to play games with them any more or explain I am not stupid enough to believe their story.
The popular one is the 'I am from Microsoft and your PC is sending viruses onto the Internet ...... yada....yada'
When you ask them to tell you what the IP address of the PC is they are stumped and get very shirty.
I now just put the phone down on them, saves time and wasted anger.
They don't care if you know it is a scam as there are plenty of victims waiting to be caught out.
They don't like their time being wasted but it is not so easy to string them along like a good old 411 scam.
I think someone who I have given my email to has had their data harvested.
(I rarely give out my real address but sometimes have to and think I have been added to a scam list and worse)
I am getting some dodgy e-mails + scams, they arrive in bursts then you get calm for a few days or a week or so. :( >:(
That is the problem today, you can be as careful as you like but someone else can have no idea about security and you suffer the consequences.
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The more I laughed, the more he swore, until eventually he reached breaking point and hung up. :D
Love it :D :D
I have been swore at a few times which shows they are so sure you cannot trace them and they don't care if you know it is a scam.
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We just pick up the phone and say feck off feck off it won't stop the cold callers ringing back as it's a computer that does this but i feel better afterwards until the next day comes.
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Here is the corrected link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/11822394/On-a-suckers-list-The-simple-mistake-that-guarantees-your-place-on-cold-calling-marketing-databases.html). :)
Tx, but I wasn't on anything when I posted. Really! :-[
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Tx, but I wasn't on anything when I posted. Really! :-[
Finger (or paw) slippage can occur, no matter how hard we try! :D
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The problem with these scammers is they are spoofing the caller-id and some times it is a valid UK phone number and sometimes not. The other issue is that I have rarely seen the same number being used so eventually you fill up these blocking devices as they usually have a finite capacity. Now if I could get TT to provide me with a new ex-directory number which has NEVER been issued (they do re-use numbers after a few months) and would be willing to pay any costs incurred with changing then I might just do it.
Stuart
Yeah you're right. Almost all of them use spoofed number to call our number. They sometimes use a real person's number to call us, so when you try to call back the number, the one who pick it up is a real owner of the phone number. I find people report about them almost everyday. For TalkTalk related scams, I got their call several years ago, and they still call you until now?
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For TalkTalk related scams, I got their call several years ago, and they still call you until now?
I have had the odd call in previous years but this summer has been different in that they have so much information about the customer if you interrogate them that they could sound plausible.
Stuart
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I just say 'Police Station' :o they do not want to talk to me then ;) what a pity ;D.
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I just say 'Police Station' :o they do not want to talk to me then ;) what a pity ;D.
Good joke ...... but actually a good idea!! :D :D
I might try this and see what happens.
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Tread carefully with that, I believe impersonating a police officer is an offence. :(
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Tread carefully with that, I believe impersonating a police officer is an offence. :(
If I answer a phone as "Police Station" it does not imply I am a Policeman, as civilian staff work in Police Stations as well. :D :D ;) ::)
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I just set the callblocker to pickup & play a ring tone to "zapped callers". Costs them a few pennies more & its not like anyone here actually uses the landline for phoning people.
You'd be surprised how long some autodialler s/w stays connected for - the record is 37 minutes, I guess you get what you pay for in spamming too :D
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I just set the callblocker to pickup & play a ring tone to "zapped callers". Costs them a few pennies more & its not like anyone here actually uses the landline for phoning people.
You'd be surprised how long some autodialler s/w stays connected for - the record is 37 minutes, I guess you get what you pay for in spamming too :D
As I have said a lot of these are good ideas but when they caller ID changes on every call it is not possible to block them all.
Had a call the other morning and strung him along a bit and then just started laughing at which point he hung up :lol:
Stuart
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You can block a fair few million as the number ranges they often use haven't been issued ;)
Then you use the "we don't recognise your number, please press <numberkey> to connect" which kills maybe 90% of the autodialers.
With a custom "zaplist" then there's not a lot of spam left.
"False positives" run at about 3% which is typically local govt, they always try again and it works - its because they start talking before they press the right key & then get confused :) To be fair I think the local PABX (or whatever its called now) at their end is to blame.
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Why are most of the Telephone spammers Asia Indians surely there government could clamp down on these crimminal nuisance call centers.
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I would suspect the Call Centers are not exactly legal in India or wherever they are based.
They will be staffed by people who must know it is a scam and therefore will be trying to keep a low profile.
I am sure they could be regulated better but India does have a problem with bureaucracy everywhere so most people avoid getting involved in anything that raises their profile.
It is entirely possible for the people 'reporting' a crime to get more grief than the 'alleged criminals'.
India does have problems with 'Blind spots' concerning many 'issues' that are too much 'bother' to police.
(This is not peculiar to India, I must say ;D)
It is a crime that does not impact India directly itself.
All the victims are foreign, so from the Indian perspective they have more important things to do.
It would be a different matter if it was impacting Indians or more correctly voters. ;D
Strange that ..... but somewhat familiar to most countries/voters, when push comes to shove !! ;)
It really needs to be driven from the victims end / countries by controlling the ease with which anyone can set up international calling centres that are not regulated at either end.
BT and ALL Telcos make a lot of money out people setting up/running call centres.
Ignoring the downside of the current way of operating is mandated by the profits they make with the current rules/controls (or lack of).
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Why are most of the Telephone spammers Asia Indians surely there government could clamp down on these crimminal nuisance call centers.
Our own government, in one of the most heavily 'surveilled' communities on the planet, has been largely impotent against the PPI, 'energy advisor', and etc cold callers. IMHO, then, we are in no position to criticise the governments of other countries in respect of phone scams. :(
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Why are most of the Telephone spammers Asia Indians surely there government could clamp down on these crimminal nuisance call centers.
Our own government, in one of the most heavily 'surveilled' communities on the planet, has been largely impotent against the PPI, loft 'energy advisor', and etc cold callers. IMHO, then, we are in no position to criticise the governments of other countries in respect of phone scams. :(
This is true ONLY because we sell off vital social infrastructure (BT) to private companies.
We cannot control what is or is not allowed by a private company ....... as has been mentioned by Black Sheep.
We could have better controls IF we had the right to impose them. :(
There WAS a downside to selling everything you could. Who would have known!! ;D ;D ;)
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Our own government, in one of the most heavily 'surveilled' communities on the planet, has been largely impotent ...
You have missed one thing.
Money & Business is more powerful than any Government.
The laws of the UK & US support this.
Unless you are prepared to work outside of the law and risk getting caught, Government can only demand so much.
This is why huge Multinational companies have so much influence and power.
They are more powerful than you or I, governments know this so they win in getting their attention.
I leave it to the reader to find an example from the many Companies we all know so well.
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Why are most of the Telephone spammers Asia Indians surely there government could clamp down on these crimminal nuisance call centers.
Our own government, in one of the most heavily 'surveilled' communities on the planet, has been largely impotent against the PPI, loft 'energy advisor', and etc cold callers. IMHO, then, we are in no position to criticise the governments of other countries in respect of phone scams. :(
This is true ONLY because we sell off vital social infrastructure (BT) to private companies.
We cannot control what is or is not allowed by a private company ....... as has been mentioned by Black Sheep.
We could have better controls IF we had the right to impose them. :(
There WAS a downside to selling everything you could. Who would have known!! ;D ;D ;)
Nobody (at least not me) was suggesting that BT was to blame, or that any of the related M&As was to blame.
The point I was making was that many calls from 'PPI reclaims', and calls from your 'government grants advisor', etc, that many of us get all the time, are from border-line legal, if not criminal, enterprises. Yet there are real difficulties in bringing them to justice, even in a country that takes a very dim view.
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Why are most of the Telephone spammers Asia Indians surely there government could clamp down on these crimminal nuisance call centers.
Our own government, in one of the most heavily 'surveilled' communities on the planet, has been largely impotent against the PPI, loft 'energy advisor', and etc cold callers. IMHO, then, we are in no position to criticise the governments of other countries in respect of phone scams. :(
This is true ONLY because we sell off vital social infrastructure (BT) to private companies.
We cannot control what is or is not allowed by a private company ....... as has been mentioned by Black Sheep.
We could have better controls IF we had the right to impose them. :(
There WAS a downside to selling everything you could. Who would have known!! ;D ;D ;)
Nobody (at least not me) was suggesting that BT was to blame, or that any of the related M&As was to blame.
The point I was making was that many calls from 'PPI reclaims', and calls from your 'government grants advisor', etc, that many of us get all the time, are from border-line legal, if not criminal, enterprises. Yet there are real difficulties in bringing them to justice, even in a country that takes a very dim view.
I am not 'Blaming' BT or any of the Telcos but highlighting that you cannot control a private company who are obliged to maximise profits for their shareholders.
What is needed is something we (the UK) cannot do as the point of control is no longer something that the government can impose controls on.
It would not be difficult for the Telcos to work together to control this problem.
The 'Criminal' groups behind all these scams are not breaking into Telephone exchanges and running lines to their call centres.
They are buying access to the Telephone networks like any other customer and then abusing the service to scam people out of money etc.
If the joint will was there it could be controlled.
I do not understand why the Telcos seem to have no say in how their services are used.
Using a legal service in an illegal way surely breaks contract T&C's never mind countries laws.
The questions need to be directed at the Telcos themselves to reveal what the 'real problem' is.
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There really should be no problem at all, in any telecoms network, in identifying malicious callers. The processes by which it is done are standardised.
In order to connect any telecoms equipment to a national network it would have to be conformance-tested, and conformance with 'malicious call identification' procedures would normally be included. Trust me, much of the software I wrote in my own career was for telecoms signalling and monitoring, and was been subjected to such testing in the UK and abroad.
And yet even though the UK has, for better or worse, more intensive evidence-gathering facilities than almost any other country, we are largely unable to bring the PPI scammers, or 'govt energy advisor' scammers to justice. Thus, we shouldn't be too critical of Indians for failing to keep a cap on 'virus scams'.
:)
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I quite agree with Aardvark in this matter.
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@sevenlayermuddle
I am not being unfair to India or anywhere that is the country of 'operation' of these Scammers.
Note: I say operation because it is quite likely that the bodies on the phones are NOT gaining even 0.1% of the money made.
It is outside agencies related to criminal gangs often, but not always, from eastern European countries where the gangs have power and influence BUT a limited 'pocket' to dip into.
They are simply making their monies wherever they can take advantage of desperate people and social inequality.
Modern technology makes it easy to globalise your operations and make it more difficult to track/trace the real profiteers.
I understand what you are saying in terms of the difficulty but as you will know from your very real experience the information should be there to find.
Only, if the equipment is not something that has been 'hacked' to work around the built-in capabilities of the kit/system.
The fact that someone can easily connect 'hacked' kit that cannot be tracked/traced is down to the lack of control of the Telcos.
There is not an alternative that can be used at equal low cost and effort, so the Telcos hold all the cards and could impose better control.
Yet, they allow the scammers to get their own way and apparently so easily evade monitoring.
This is simply down to a lack of will ...... no more no less. (The question is why ?)
The imposition of onerous controls would be seen as a risk to business and profits.
This is because, as the Telcos are NOT working together to solve this problem, any lost customers will simply go to another Telco who is less choosy and asks less questions.
(That Telco could be in ANY country because of the reciprocal agreements for interconnectivity etc)
The problems are of their own making and the cut-throat selling attitudes are not aiding the resolution in any way.
Hence my opinion that the Telcos including BT are prepared to accept the situation because profit is more important than anything else.
They are fulfilling their obligations to their shareholders at the cost of everyone else.
Nothing is illegal, so the government can only ask nicely for some action but BT are not obliged to do anything.
In terms of foreign Telcos doing anything there is even less leverage, unless BT applies pressure via the reciprocal agreements they have for interconnectivity etc
Once again such action would be seen as a risk to profits due to the possibility of 'Tit for Tat' responses, so no action there.
The only way to impact this problem is by ALL the Telcos working together, with a joint will to eradicate the problem.
Herding Cats comes to mind, but that is probably much easier. ;D ;D ;)
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The Scammers and or PPI and even the new type of calls "Surveys" they seem to have been able to gathered UK phone numbers and but this into there automated call center database.
It's not rocket science the info from ISP call centers has and still is getting into the wrong hands and it's from India were most UK call centers are based the fraudulence begins :(
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Its fairly simple as to why nothing really gets done re cold calling/fake CLID etc.
As always "cui bono" as the Romans said - "Who benefits?"
1) All of the telecos due to increased revenue;
2) The govt as they can get more people off "benefits" - scam/spam callcentres in the UK employ a lot of people although paying them is something else... ;
3) The chuggers - its nearly enough to make you never give to charity again;
4) The parasites - solicitors & their ambulance chasing ilk.
Who does it hurt?
People who don't have any recourse to a sensible way of stopping the onslaught.
So bugger all gets done until enough people complain - and do it every time.
You could legislate against this effectively without even taking a vote in parliament - the relevant laws are subject to statutory instruments (IIRC the "westminster-speak"). Successive govts have failed to do so, draw your own conclusions.
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I'm not actually convinced that the Telcos even benefit to any extent (from increased traffic).
Consider... I suspect (right or wrong?) a lot of these calls will be to 'truly random' numbers, ie numbers that may or may not be currently assigned.
If so then a fair percentage of calls would fail to connect, returning 'number unobtainable' to the caller. But in doing so, the scammer has consumed resource and bandwidth in the Telco's switching equipment, and yet the Telco will receive no payment for that usage. It's not such a clear 'win' as meets the eye.
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Its unlikely to be truly random and its trivial to see which number ranges are issued in the UK & the charging bands for each.
If they dial "blind" within those ranges (they don't in my experience unless they are running a premium-rate callback scam) then there may be something in what you say, however I'm sure the telecos KNOW when they're selling to spammers/scammers & price their offerings accordingly.
For example why does a guy in a single unit on a (mainly dead) Welsh industrial park make over 100,000 calls/month? (I'm not linking the unit in question but its well-known) Likewise how does a (closed) shop in Loughborough make 50,000 calls per month when it doesn't even have an active phoneline? The answer of course in both cases is VoIP and lots of Indians making the calls.
The telecos just look the other way & pocket the cash - much as email providers used to do prior to Spamhaus & other blocking lists. Interestingly the callblocker I use (Truecall) now has something called "community blocking" where you can choose to have your "Zap" list updated automatically based on what other users have reported/blocked. Once large chunks of number space become essentially useless due to spammers (happened with email & IP address ranges) then that may concentrate minds as end-users refuse "contaminated" numbers.
As has been said already - the telecos have the means to stop the abuse now. They choose not to.
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Well lets see over the course of my 14 year journey with Internet Service Providers this what I recall, first year with BT no cold calls then moved to wanadoo/orange no cold calls over two years then moved to talktalk this is when we first encounter cold calls and the fake MS calls "your computer is infected".
Moved back to BT for just over two years those cold calls became less to almost non-existent then moved to EE and those unsolicited cold calls has become an epidemic to say the least.
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@NewtronStar
Not very scientific really. ;D
The means to acquire the call data has evolved over all that time and the spread of the data has increased as well.
You are getting calls because your data is being consolidated and harvested from anywhere & everywhere your data goes.
You may protect your privacy and information personally, but who controls the data once it is in someone else's computers.
It is easy to blame the foreign call centres as a source & recipient of the data but it could just as well be data that is sitting on a websites computers that has been harvested.
For every hack/crack and phishing event that is reported I am sure there are many more that are kept quiet or even worse have not been found yet!!
I receive scam emails and dodgy invitations that I suspect are simply my information has been 'hoovered up' from other people.
I do not frequent dodgy sites and therefore have not been hacked or had my local data accessed by them, they have simply built or acquired the lists from other sources.
It is the same as receiving mail for old addresses years after you have lived there.
This also happens every so often as the mail address lists are passed around.
(I have old neighbours who forward on mail at random times)
All this is a smoke screen to the real problem which is the Telcos do not want to engage in a war to solve this problem.
As they see it's an obstruction to business which costs them money to wage the war and to weather the impact on business.
If it was impacting their 'Bottom line' the fix would appear tomorrow, by pure happen-stance, I am sure.
Go figure !! :o ;D :D
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Well in this household we have come to a conclusion here we either purchase the product call blocker that freelander suggested or i remove the the telephone plug from the SSFP and upper faceplate, it's obvious the ISP can't do much to stop it but the end-user can ;)
We will just use are mobile phones for in and out calls if the ISP can't fix this they will lose money from there landline deals :cool:
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Well in this household we have come to a conclusion here we either purchase the product call blocker that freelander suggested or i remove the the telephone plug from the SSFP and upper faceplate, it's obvious the ISP can't do much to stop it but the end-user can ;)
We will just use are mobile phones for in and out calls if the ISP can't fix this they will lose money from there landline deals :cool:
Sounds like a good solution to me ;D
Especially as I don't use the land line for many calls, so no loss to me, just the ISP :D ;)
I wait for the day when some ISP simply provides 'Broadband' without a line rental forced on top for calls you don't use.
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I wait for the day when some ISP simply provides 'Broadband' without a line rental forced on top for calls you don't use.
The problem with that is the cost of broadband will include provision of the line hardware to support it so it WILL be more expensive, you have to have the cable and infrasturcture after all. Even if you go fibre to the premises it still will not be cheap and providing a phone over that is easy as well and FTTP is not cheap and will probably never be anywhere other than large urban conurbations.
Stuart
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We will just use are mobile phones for in and out calls if the ISP can't fix this they will lose money from there landline deals :cool:
No they won't as there are two types of supplier :
1) The bundled calls package with line rental (more or less the norm now). They make shedloads out of that as most people don't use their landline much;
2) The "bare bones, keep line rental low" deal. These people don't expect you to be making many calls anyway.
Neither one cares if you use your mobile instead :)
Line rental is looking more & more like a cartel as all the major providers increase prices by the same amount above inflation - a fact not un-noticed by Ofcom as its the reason UK broadband has gone from being one of the cheapest to one of the most expensive in Europe. Yes the BB service might be cheap but (compulsory) line rental has gone up by 60% in retail terms over the last decade while wholesale costs for that line rental have dropped by something like 40% or so. This sort of divergence indicates a non-functional market in terms of competition.
You won't get a proper "barebones" DSL line (or fibre) until Openreach is no longer part of BT Group & can innovate products.
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Although not exactly relevant to scam phone calls (the OP mentioned stolen customer data), you can check if your email address has been involved in such a theft. I checked mine and discovered that one had been involved in the data breach at Adobe some time ago. https://haveibeenpwned.com (https://haveibeenpwned.com)
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Although not exactly relevant to scam phone calls (the OP mentioned stolen customer data), you can check if your email address has been involved in such a theft. I checked mine and discovered that one had been involved in the data breach at Adobe some time ago. https://haveibeenpwned.com (https://haveibeenpwned.com)
In using this you are giving email addresses to an unknown website, which if it is 100% safe & Kosher could be hacked to harvest a nice list of valid emails addresses.
Am I being too cynical ?? ;D :D
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Am I being too cynical ?? ;D :D
I hope so! A valid point, but where does it end? Taken to the extreme we'll all be switching off our internet enabled devices for fear of being hacked. :(
Perhaps this is the answer? :-\
https://www.avforums.com/threads/cujo-internet-security-for-all-of-your-connected-devices.1979999/?utm_campaign=September_2015_Newsletter&utm_source=Suite26&utm_medium=Email+Campaign (https://www.avforums.com/threads/cujo-internet-security-for-all-of-your-connected-devices.1979999/?utm_campaign=September_2015_Newsletter&utm_source=Suite26&utm_medium=Email+Campaign)
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Am I being too cynical ?? ;D :D
I hope so! A valid point, but where does it end? Taken to the extreme we'll all be switching off our internet enabled devices for fear of being hacked. :(
Perhaps this is the answer? :-\
https://www.avforums.com/threads/cujo-internet-security-for-all-of-your-connected-devices.1979999/?utm_campaign=September_2015_Newsletter&utm_source=Suite26&utm_medium=Email+Campaign (https://www.avforums.com/threads/cujo-internet-security-for-all-of-your-connected-devices.1979999/?utm_campaign=September_2015_Newsletter&utm_source=Suite26&utm_medium=Email+Campaign)
Unfortunately, this comes across as digital snake oil. ;D [Previously read about this]
The nice plastic 'night-light' thing with the eyes will attract the ithing generation but at the end of the day you are trusting a 'magic' computer to somehow do more than the average AV/Anti-Malware package.
The is the same problem with some 'Trusted' company to filter all your information/connections (in & out) as the site you quoted in the OP.
It really just looks like an attempt to turn an AV/Anti-malware product into a subscription product.
I do NOT like subscription products as a matter of principle, I see it as being held hostage to whatever the company wants to do further down the line when you have committed yourself.
Yes, I am quite cynical ...... history has proven that this attitude is too often the right one.
Too many crooks, scammers and people who think they are justified in skimming money from all the little sheeple. ;D ;D
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I wonder if a member could find out info on this number 01250460626 they have been ringing every day for over 12 months
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I wonder if a member could find out info on this number 01250460626 . . .
Is it a real number or is it a fake number, that is the question! ;)
It is in the format of a standard UK telephone number, 5 digit area code and 6 digit subscriber number.
We can see to where the 01250 area code maps (http://www.area-codes.org.uk/01250.php) . . . Do the callers have a Scottish accent? :-\
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We can see to where the 01250 area code maps (http://www.area-codes.org.uk/01250.php) . . . Do the callers have a Scottish accent? :-\
No B*CAT it's Indian and i vented off steam and the conversation got heated and never herd such insulting language coming from this so called call center it's gone beyoned a scam or nuisance it's now entering into criminalization.
[Moderator edited to fix the broken link/formatting.]
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:hmm: Hmm . . . I really don't know what to advise. Quite clearly that number is a fake. :(
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A ray of hope..
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34394406
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:hmm: Hmm . . . I really don't know what to advise. Quite clearly that number is a fake. :(
I hope that call blocker works at £59 it was ordered this evening or i will blow a fuse could have bought a billion 8800nl for that price and what worrys me my sister calls from work and her number is withheld is that also going to be blocked ?
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This is the problem with scammers who often spoof a number which may or may not be a real phone number, however if the number calling is always the same one then this *may* not be the case.
Yesterday I happen to have on the Victoria Debyshire show on TV and there was an item on this problem. The interesting thing was that there was someone from one of the official agencies who said that even with a spoofed caller-id it *is* possible to trace back to the original number calling, however the process is difficult and I think he said that it may need court orders. somehow I doubt that this will be done very often.
Stuart
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The interesting thing was that there was someone from one of the official agencies who said that even with a spoofed caller-id it *is* possible to trace back to the original number calling, however the process is difficult and I think he said that it may need court orders. somehow I doubt that this will be done very often.
I would agree, that it would usually be possible, and that it would rarely be done.
Same applies to 'number withheld'. Even if you withhold your number, it still travels with the call all the way to the destination exchange, but a bit is simply set in one of the parameters to say the number should not be presented to the called subscriber.
Problems arise however with equipment that does not play by the rules. BT have processes that are meant to ensure all equipment connected to their copper does play fair, but they cannot control what happens on the far side of international gateways.
At international gateways, I believe the caller's ID may be very effectively stripped from the call parameters, in cases where the originating country has stricter privacy laws than that of the destination.
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A timely article on the Beeb website, seemingly the Microsoft support scams will net $1.5 bn for the gangs in 2015, in the U.S. Alone. :o
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34411723
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I've noticed a new tactic recently for phone scams, the spoofed number is chosen to match my own local dialling code. One even matched my actual home phone number to within two digits, I guess they think it is more likely such calls will get picked up?
I have had two such calls in recent weeks, one from a claims management firm that sounded UK-based, the other was a 'consumer survey' from what sounded like an Indian call centre. :'(
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Eight days ago, the telephone made its noise. I picked up the receiver of the bright red 300 series telephone that was beside me. The line was totally silent, so I waited two seconds and then clearly said "Hello". There was an audible click and then a lot of call-centre background noise.
Nuisance Caller: (With Asian accent) "Hello."
Grumpy b*cat: "Yes?"
NC: "Hello."
GBC: "Yes?" (With a more exasperated tone.)
NC: "Can I speak to the householder?"
GBC: "No." (Perfectly clearly, precise and to the point.)
NC: "Hello."
GBC: Parks the receiver in the "off the hook" position and gets on with what he was doing prior to the disturbance.
NC: "Hello." (five seconds) "Hello." (ten seconds) "Hello." (ten seconds) "Hello." Click.
GBC: Smiles to himself and decides to see how long the System X exchange will give me in a PG state before it connects my line to the "howler". After five minutes had passed, I decided it wasn't going to happen and replaced the receiver on the rest.
A little later on, I decided to see if there was a CLI recorded. Interrogating the system via a MF telephone, I was told that I was called by "01102079468675".
And the band played "Believe it if you like". :D :angel:
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My observation of the NC they bombard my phone number at 10am then 11am then a lull then 1pm and a lull again until 3pm then 4pm another at 5pm and then another at 6pm.
There is more observation theses cold calls last for two months and then it all goes quiet for few months and it starts all over again it's definitely not random a clear case these calls are generated from a computer database call centre.
The computer calls more telephone numbers than the operator can deal with and the reason why the call is silent.
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The computer calls more telephone numbers than the operator can deal with and the reason why the call is silent.
Agreed.
A simple solution would be to say nothing when one picks up the receiver, just wait for the caller to speak first. ;)
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Good news have had the CPR call blocker connected for a month and nuisance calls have almost gone, though the unit when first installed needed a we bit more of user programming to stop the rest getting though 10 out of 10 :yay:
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Good news, indeed. :thumbs:
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Good news, indeed. :thumbs:
Yep it is and can still see the blocked incoming calls on phone or on DSLstats/MDWS with spikes of upstream errored seconds but the phone does not ring and that is just bliss
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Good news have had the CPR call blocker connected for a month and nuisance calls have almost gone, though the unit when first installed needed a we bit more of user programming to stop the rest getting though 10 out of 10 :yay:
From a 'glass half empty' perspective...
The Nuisance Call Industry have now profited from you, to the tune of whatever you paid for the call blocker. :D
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From a 'glass half empty' perspective...
The Nuisance Call Industry have now profited from you, to the tune of whatever you paid for the call blocker. :D
What else could I do I'm registered with TPS which is a load carp and asking the ISP to block calls would cost over £40 per annum with only an 80% block rate.
The CPR unit is only £36 a one off payment and programmable or just hit the block button it's been well over 2 months since I have had to listen to an Indian call centre/international/unavailable the list go's on.
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What else could I do I'm registered with TPS which is a load carp and asking the ISP to block calls would cost over £40 per annum with only an 80% block rate.
The CPR unit is only £36 a one off payment and programmable or just hit the block button it's been well over 2 months since I have had to listen to an Indian call centre/international/unavailable the list go's on.
There is, I agree, very little point in registering with TPS. That is an organisation set up by, and to represent the interests of, the direct marketing association. Their members are the very people who think is it socially acceptable to make nuisance calls. >:(
Personally, paying money to prevent the calls, regardless of whether that is effective, is simply feeding the whole sordid gravy train. I simply will not do so, it is akin to paying a ransom.
What can you do? Waste as much time as possible, of the callers. Their business model is delicate, and depends upon 'dead ends' just hanging up. Don't do that, keep them talking, annoy them, make them swear at you. That becomes an unprofitable business model, and the industry will evaporate.
But success does depend upon destroying the myth that TPS is in consumers' interests, and upon derailing the related industries, like manufacturers of call blocking apparatus.
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What can you do? Waste as much time as possible, of the callers. Their business model is delicate, and depends upon 'dead ends' just hanging up. Don't do that, keep them talking, annoy them, make them swear at you. That becomes an unprofitable business model, and the industry will evaporate.
SLM have done all thoses tricks over 4 years and nothing seems to delete my number from the database call centres, you seem to think this is a human based call centre and it has emotions during the telephone conversation which may change the outcome to further contact.
I can tell you outright talking to them just makes things worse they now know there is a human behind this number and the database operator will give this number as a live contact which then is put into a priority database list which means more calls from the nuisance callers.
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To be clear, I wasn't suggesting that you, or I alone, can stop the calls.
If society can pull together, such that we all adopt the tactics I suggested rather than waste our time with TPS or waste our money with call-blockers... That is my vision. :)
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I think call blocking is the best way. The BT 8500 is a good start.
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I think call blocking is the best way. The BT 8500 is a good start.
It is and anyone like me who gets 4 -12 bogus calls a day from 7am to 7pm will definitely benefit from a call blocker as no one else seems to be doing anything about this then it must eventually fall on the end-users hands.
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I had one last week, from a fine wines investment broker (/scam).
By the end of the call, once he realised I was wasting his time, and in fact quite a lot of his time, he offered ... 'shall I take you off our list?
'No thanks' I said, 'I enjoy these calls, please keep calling'. :D
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I had one last week, from a fine wines investment broker (/scam).
By the end of the call, once he realised I was wasting his time, and in fact quite a lot of his time, he offered ... 'shall I take you off our list?
:D I would have loved to have had that option and many many time have asked them to take me off the calling list and they said yes Mr ______ you won't here from us again and then next day same ID number on phone and the next day and so on ::)
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Truth is of course, there is very rarely an actual 'list', from which they could remove your number, even if they wanted to.
For the pre-recorded message calls, PPI, green energy, Loans repayment, etc, I do usually press '9 to be removed'. Once I see, from repeated calls that has had no effect, I press '5 to speak to an advisor', and annoy them with all my might. They can be very abusive indeed, if you annoy them enough. Especially once the 'advisors' get to recognise your voice, which makes it a great deal of fun. :D
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Ah well those days are a distant memory with call blocker installed acting like a telephone firewall and as with any firewall you need to keep it up to date with new rules.
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The problem with most nuisance calls we get is that they continually change the caller ID which means you have to have at least one before you can block that number. I am registered with TPS and on the only occasion I can remember where it was a real company calling I mentioned this and immediately got an apology and confirmation my number would be removed. All the others we get are either because of the TT fiasco which actually have reduced in number now to maybe a couple per month, and a new one being supposedly an Accident Insurance claim company with Indian callers again, two of those in the past couple of weeks. Again different numbers each time. We are ex-directory, and have been for some 20+ years and that I believe has had an effect on reducing the amount of nuisance calls we get, as at least companies who use lists wont find us easily, we also have anonymous call reject set on our line, only issue there is our son cannot phone from work on his work phone but since he knows that it is not an issue, however the Indians still get through because they are spoofing caller ID and it confuses the rejection software.
Most spam/nuisance calls these days use number generation and caller ID spoofing and again are outside of the UK and EU so nothing much can be done until their own jurisdiction does something about it.
Stuart
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Agree about the rapidly changing caller ids.
I think I mentioned in this or a different thread, an increasingly common ploy, at least for users of whatever 'suckers lists' our number appears upon, is to display a valid-looking number that has same dialling code as myself.
It's a trick that works, to an extent. I am much more likely to answer the phone, and more likely to listen to what's being said, if I think it is somebody else in the village calling...
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The BT 8500 has a whitelist that you create and if a calling number is not on that whitelist, the caller is asked to state their name which is then played to you so you can decide whether to take the call or not.
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It's a trick that works, to an extent. I am much more likely to answer the phone, and more likely to listen to what's being said, if I think it is somebody else in the village calling...
The idea behind the call blocker is you won't here the phone ring when its blocked so need to answer the phone.
SLM just get a telepone call blocker and your life will return to normal and any phone calls getting through willl be from your family and your mates the way it should be and you can block a family member if need be ;)
http://www.cprcallblockerforum.com/index.php?threads/call-blocker-programming-codes.2478/ (http://www.cprcallblockerforum.com/index.php?threads/call-blocker-programming-codes.2478/)
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The idea behind the call blocker is you won't here the phone ring when its blocked so need to answer the phone.
SLM just get a telepone call blocker and your life will return to normal and any phone calls getting through willl be from your family and your mates the way it should be and you can block a family member if need be ;)
http://www.cprcallblockerforum.com/index.php?threads/call-blocker-programming-codes.2478/ (http://www.cprcallblockerforum.com/index.php?threads/call-blocker-programming-codes.2478/)
I am well aware of the functionality of call blockers. I have explained the reasons why, whilst I wish I could profit from making and selling them, I do not want one in my home. I like to think that my reasons are understood, and valid.
You have explained why you like them, and why you want one. Your reasons are understood by me, and valid.
Let's just accept our differing requirements? :)
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Let's just accept our differing requirements? :)
Agreed :hug: