For some while now I have been plagued by recorded messages on my voicemail from a woman with an American accent claiming that my e-mail account with TalkTalk had been compromised and telling me to contact her. This is a clearly a spam and I have always ignored it.Yesterday for the first time I received a recorded message very possibly from the same woman with an American accent clainming that £600.00 had been removed from my redit card within thepervious 15 minutes and again asking me to contact her. I have checked with Barclaycard and again this is spam. be warned if you receive asimilar message. Above all, just put the phone down and under no circumstances make contact.
Leslie McDonnell ● 2638d18 Comments
Thanks Leslie. I no longer use a landline phone partly for this reason. Anyone who wants me urgently or otherwise knows to send me a text as I don't answer unknown numbers on my mobile either.
Lucille Grant ● 2638d
Leslie: Thanks, I get these calls daily - in fact just had one now - sometimes a recorded message and sometimes a foreign sounding person. I just put the phone down, as you advise.
Caroline Whitehead ● 2638d
I wonder why our telecommunications companies cannot be put on trial for "joint enterprise" in these scam attempts.
David Ainsworth ● 2638d
I received a call this afternoon saying £600 had been taken off my Mastrcard, It was a recorded message, I just put the phone down.
Barbara Stevens ● 2638d
I never get these calls. I feel quite left out.😐
Sue Hammond ● 2638d
Thanks Leslie, yes I get these calls too. Sometimes I say "but I'm not with Talktalk" which I no longer am and they just cut off the call.Sometimes, if I'm bored, I say I don't have the internet, same result, phone down.
Bunny Payne ● 2638d
I've had a few lately, they want your name and address, then when I ask what country their ringing from they say UK. I say where, they say confidential, so I say so is my name and address then I say something else nice and put the phone down.
I haven't looked into the details of this yet but it appears there is an initiative in the US to do something about these automated spam and scam calls. Let's hope that as many telcos are globsl or have international operations these procedures and standards will get implemented in Europe and the UK as well.
Michael Ixer ● 2637d
And the link!!!https://www.npr.org/2019/08/22/753524482/phone-companies-ink-deal-with-all-50-states-and-d-c-to-combat-robocalls
Goodness! Thanks for the warning. We've not had any calls like that on the landline. Yet. But worth knowing.
Victoria Diamond ● 2637d
My father just reminded me that a couple of months ago he got a call about fraudulent spending on his credit card. He managed to get online to check his cc whilst the call was still talking and there WAS a fraudulent transaction. In this instance it was a genuine call, and he did call from his mobile to check. Bank said it's so frustrating when they're making genuine calls and no one believes them anymore.
After my perported call from Barclaycard I checked my account electronically and saw no movements. I then phoned Barclaycard using the contact number on the card itself, they were able to let me know immediately that it was spam.
Leslie McDonnell ● 2637d
I had this spam call a couple of hours ago - £600 allegedly taken by a foreign account. Hung up on it - then panicked a bit and rang my bank. They confirmed it was Spam.
Judy Allen ● 2637d
You should be pleased you were left out Sue. I received a call. Took no notice. It was real. Am still ongoing fighting with M&SThe only advice I had from anyone, (official ) was never use a credit card in a newsagents, a restaurant or to buy petrol.
Barbara Shillabeer ● 2637d
So fed up with these calls. Action Fraud has not had a very good press recently either. Very long winded trying to report anything and they only seemed to be interested if you had actually been defrauded instead of being proactive about stopping fraud happening.
Philippa Bond ● 2637d
My funny calls seem to come at regular times, so now I just pick up the phone and say nothing, and wait. After a few seconds there is the sound of the call ending. I could of course be losing shy friends …
David Ainsworth ● 2637d
I must admit I tend to consider ActionFraud as a centralised help desk and information source. In my experience any service investigations are carried out by other agencies such as the National Crime Agency or Met Police.
Michael Ixer ● 2636d
I don't answer the phone unless I recognise the incoming number. Lately, there's been a huge upsurge in nuisance calls, with me getting three a day on average. Many of the incoming numbers are not even legitimate UK numbers, usually being too short. They hang up when the answering machine kicks in but the fact that they never get through to a person doesn't seem to deter them.
Frances Clarke ● 2636d