Phone fraud alert - BT openteach

Wed 31 Oct 2018, 13:12 (last edited on Wed 31 Oct 2018, 13:12)

Helen, I'm afraid that the answer to your last question is "probably not very many", because otherwise it would (presumably) not be worth their while to do it.

Tue 30 Oct 2018, 21:59

We are also plagued by these calls. I have adopted a number of approaches, including - engaging them at length in conversation (if they are talking to me they are not bothering someone else), saying I need to turn something off in the kitchen and then not going back to the phone (they wait some time before hanging up), placing the phone next to a radio playing a speech program, usually Radio 4 and it takes a while before they realise what is happening, switch to speaking in a language other than English - which causes great confusion, or just end the call......
Not once have I ever done anything other than disbelieve them, nor has anyone I know - one wonders how many calls they make before they get a victim.

Tue 30 Oct 2018, 18:43 (last edited on Tue 30 Oct 2018, 18:44)

Just had good fun when I also got a call from this presumably same organisation. I strung the Indian man along for a while asking what he wanted me to do, which firstly was to turn on my Windows computer. When I told him I did not have a Windows computer he said I must therefore start my Apple-Mac and follow his instructions.
Here it became even more fun when I told him I don't have an Apple-Mac; he told me that I must be wrong and that I must use either one or the other if I had a working computer. He'd not heard of Linux, it seems!
I eventually ran out of time to string him along, so told him I obviously knew more about computers than he did at which point he rang off; he must have accepted that I was a lost cause.

Sun 28 Oct 2018, 21:48

Likewise. First time the person was totally unintelligible. The amount of background noise suggested that he was calling from a curry house or similar. Second time I asked them who was my internet provider and when they got it wrong I hung up.

Sun 28 Oct 2018, 20:33

Me too

Sun 28 Oct 2018, 19:55 (last edited on Sun 28 Oct 2018, 20:07)

I've also had several calls from a robotic voice claiming to be from BT and telling me that my broadband was about to stop and for me to dial 1 in order to find out how to stop it. I hung up and still have my broadband so it was obviously another scam!

Fri 26 Oct 2018, 17:12

Got a call from an Indian-sounding guide about my underperforming Openreach internet service. I'm with the Phone Coop. Also on my mobile which I don't give out much. So must have been a scam so I hung up. Be a lert.