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[sevenlayermuddle]

I just had a call claiming to be from "Amazon's security department".   A pleasant sounding lady wanted to confirm if I'd bought various expensive things yesterday.  I instantly assessed that it was, of course, a scam.

I tried to play along with her, to maybe identify the exact nature of the scam, but she wised up to me and ended the call.  I'm guessing it would have been a phishing attack on my account, but hard to know for sure.

 

[kitz]

Gosh, that's the first call I've heard of claiming to be from Amazon!

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My mother is being plagued with so called BT & Sky calls right now and getting several per week.   
TBH I'm beginning to getting a bit fed up because she calls me after every single one just to check.   I've lost track of the number of times I've told her that her phone or broadband is not with either of them, but she still gets worked up each time she gets a call.   
I really did not appreciate the call at 6:30am when she rang me to say she'd been awake worrying all night because "BT" had phoned her the night before saying that unless she paid them, that they would cut her off.    I really don't know how many more time's I can tell her she has nothing with BT, and although she at least always hangs up...   she still ends up worrying about the calls...  and needs to contact me just to double check.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Sorry to hear they are causing worry for your Mum but tbh Kitz, it’s no longer just the “elderly and vulnerable” that I worry about.     

The scammers are getting craftier.  This latest one as well as a similar scammer last week that claimed to be my bank reporting card fraud, were both almost convincing.   The amazon one even called us by correct name (other half’s name), but names/numbers  leak from 1001 sources every day, so no great surprise.

I can well imagine anybody of any age, including the “tech savvy”, could be taken in, if caught off guard.   Good to hear your Mum at least, just hangs up.

[d2d4j]

Hi

I have not had any phone calls but have seen many scam emails pretending to be amazon, Morrison’s asda etc...

Many thanks

John

[Ronski]

Kitz, perhaps put a sign by her phone stating that her broadband is not with xyz so just hang up and don't worry.

[tickmike]

Kitz, perhaps put a sign by her phone stating that her broadband is not with xyz so just hang up and don't worry.

But do not tell her which one it is with as she could tell the scammers and they call her back with the correct details and she could pay them.
 

[sevenlayermuddle]

My own strategy is to assume it is a scam regardless of which ISP, or CP, they claim to represent.  They are after all just guessing, and might sometimes guess correctly.

Even if they correctly guessed my ISP was Zen, and they claimed to be calling from Zen it'd still be safe to assume it was a scam, and nothing they could say would ever make me doubt it was a scam.  I simply don't believe any genuine ISP or CP would contact a customer in that way.

That said, I know that BT do actually cold-call landline customers to remind them of overdue bills.  I have received such a call myself and even though I knew it might be genuine, I simply explained to the caller that "You are probably a scammer and so I am disregarding everything you say to me".   They tried hard to convince me and got quite annoyed with me for refusing to trust them but I stuck to my lines, they eventually gave up, and nothing bad happened other than a letter through the post reminding us to pay.