Yet another scam (boring), this time from “your local energy advisor” – makes a change from the usual “Microsoft” caller I guess. Like others this one is despite me being ex-directory and TPS registered. Now with a difference though, what seems a new way of trying to get round those of us who use an answering machine to intercept calls.
After allowing the recorded message inviting the caller to leave a message to finish, the call starts with “Hi it’s Chris I am the local energy advisor in your postcode area. I understand you are the homeowner of this property, is this correct (pause for an answer)?” the the call is then terminated. An obvious attempt to get round those who only answer their answerphone if it’s someone they know.
A quick 1471 check of the caller’s number shows it to be: 01202 143 290 (Bournemouth area code)
A further check, on a website that checks suspected scam numbers, confirms it’s a number used by scammers. This website allows publishing scam numbers together with a description of calls:
If it’s the same one I received a call from a few months ago, it is a bot, not a real person. I asked which area I lived in, if he was my local advisor & it said, I am new to the job, so I asked if they were not trained properly & it stuttered several times & then went silent.
That was probably the same twit who rang me at 6.20 a.m. the other morning!
Twice that day I had phone code 0226 . . . and they would not speak to answerphone.
Looked up that code and it said they were fake numbers.
This one I feel sure was not a ‘bot’ but a real person. However, even that can seem so genuine that it’s easy to be taken in.
Except that is, as some on here may know, I have given over my landline to the ‘scammers’, they’ve ruined it so they can have it. One thing learned from this is that when there’s no answer to the scammers time after time, the number of calls gets less and less. Also though I have an answerphone to intercept any landline calls, a message can be left on that should anyone genuinely want to get in contact. My mobile number is now my main contact, anyone who knows me will use that anyway.
There are any number of these ‘scammers’. Not having had this one before I thought it might be useful for others on OFC to know, also what seemed to be an attempt to get round the answerphone intercept. That hasn’t happened in the past so perhaps a new way for them.
I simply don’t answer my landline now. No way can anyone persuade me into getting caught out in any conversation that might lead to a ‘scam’. Hopefully that is, as there’s still the mobile phone.
I don’t answer my home phone either, for that very reason. Nobody knows the number - not even me, so when it rings I know its a “random”. and don’t answer it. It only rings about one a week now, if that.
‘Scam’ calls to my landline have reduced from six or ten a day to just one or two a week or even less. That is since I handed it over to them and put an answering machine on it as an intercept. As far as they are concerned, its a ‘dead number’ so not worth them wasting their time on.
One day I might even get it back, not that I used it anyway. The quality of incoming calls was so poor, thanks to BT Openreach and their 65-year-old deteriorating copper-wired network, which they consistently refuse to accept any liability for.
This is the scammer who called me and I told to ‘Get lost scammer and get a proper job’ and who called me back to say I should be aware they have my name and know where I live
That just shows them up for the real types of ‘people’ these scammers are. The lowest of the lowest scum would be my (forum-permitted) description of them.
I stopped using my landline not long after I bought a nice new phone, I actually found it last week in the bottom of a cupboard. I was getting regular calls from a company with a robot who asked for a name I’ve never heard of. Got so fed up, disconnected my new phone. I still get scam calls on my mobile, though. I do get fed up with calls about me supposedly having been in an accident.
Two scammer items in “Computer Active” Mag, this week .
One is a fake Eon page, which says you are due a refund after being overcharged.
The usually click on a link takes you to a fake EON page & you get done!
The other is someone pretending to be from Energy Regulator, Ofgem, suggesting that you switch to a different supplier, they ask for your Bank details to make their switch!!!
Stay safe by phoning your energy supplier - click nothing!
