Just had a phone call making sure I had bought a train ticket from london to manchester with a credit card for around £80. if this was incorrect press 2 on the phone for the fraud dept, which I did.straight away an Indian sounding voice answer asking if he could help. I SLAMMED DOWN THE PHONE
I had a similar experience a few years back. An Asian sounding lady called on the landline advising me that she was from Microsoft and that there was an issue with my computer.
I simply told her that I have the number she was calling from and that I’d report her to Microsoft.
I’ve never known anyone hang up on me so quickly! 
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The fact that that it was an Indian or Asian voice on the other end of the phone proves nothing of course.
Most of the legitimate(Banks,Insurance,power companies,Internet providers,etc…)tele sales here are Indian/Asia people.
I was able to check the code/ prefix of the call I received. It was India. In retrospect I wish I had sent that number to Microsoft.
Does anyone still have a phone to slam down? Difficult to slam down a mobile phone.
I just enjoy wasting their time.
I’d put the phone down regardless of the accent and phone my credit card company using the number I have on the card.
most of these such calls are obvious scams and I just hang up.
Accents are no help in determining that here as both legitimate callers and scammers have various different accents here
if there is a call that could be genuine I ask for their name and ring back the bank or company myself on their listed number.
If anyone is thinking of ringing their own bank or credit card company, just to check all is ok, after receiving one of these suspected scam calls, be careful. The scammer may still be holding the line open and could intercept your call, fooling you into believing you are talking to a member of bank staff on the number you have just dialled.
- Check the line: Be aware that scammers can keep your phone line open even after you’ve hung up. Use a different phone or call someone you know first to check the line is free, or wait at least 10 to 15 minutes between calls to make sure that any scammers have hung up.
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Not only that they also hijack legitimate numbers so it looks like they are a local call. I get them occasionally and used to block the number but have since discovered that is a total waste of time. because their number is never real.
The only numbers I block now are charities that ring - when I donate to charity I have learned never to give my phone number.
BTW that only works on the old step by step land line system where the caller can block a line, on mobile phones either caller hanging up releases the line and I think that is also the case with the newer computer controlled exchanges.
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Thew initial call was from someone claiming to be from the railway company. That raised alarm bells as I only once been on a train for over 30 years at least. Then it was on the
IN Tokyo Japan
I’m not sure if this is still so - but seems good advice to follow just in case.
Ring another number first - even your own landline/mobile if you have both - and/or wait 15 minutes or so before ringing the real bank/company.
Thank you - I will do that in future as an extra precaution.
As I thought caller held lines are a thing of the past. Largely due to these scams.
When I worked in a telephone exchange in the 1960s rivals would phone a business from a phone box and not hang up, in theory they could block the line all day then. However, in the exchange it was pretty obvious as a light came up on the final selector and any passing tech would release the call anyway.
Yes, telephone systems have changed over the years and time limits were introduced to automatically close the call, if the Caller didn’t end it by hanging-up, so those “Called Subscriber Held” type of scams are probably not the risk they once were.
I remember them being very prevalent about 20 years ago and I understood the telephone systems had been changed to reduce the automatic cut-off time from about 10 minutes down to less than a minute - plus we have a range of different communication systems now, with mobile phone networks and Voice over Internet Protocol etc, so the risks of the CSH scam are obviously not as high as they were in the old days - but are they impossible now? I don’t know.
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All I know is that, here in U.K., both Age U.K. and Action Fraud still publish on their website the Advice I quoted about not ringing your bank immediately on the phone line you just received the suspected scam call on - while we still have some of the old style landlines, maybe it is possible to still have a slight delay in the line being closed, so maybe they feel it is best to err on the side of caution and issue this Advice - and it’s easier to give it out as blanket advice and Keep It Simple, rather than trying to explain all the technical info about why it may usually be OK to dial out straightaway and why you may get caught out, depending on what type of phone line / telephone exchange system is in use.
