TO THE MOON AND BACK

Received a phone call yesterday and today the 17th July.
FROM VISA SECURITY, a female informed me that a £600.00 transaction was about to be transacted on my Visa account and to PRESS ONE.
So we can go THERE but not STOP this type of call.

Maybe another way to look at it might be ...

Some were clever enough to help man go to moon and back ...

Some were clever enough to avoid an obvious scam ...

Have had a dozen or more of the back end of this type of scam call on the answer phone over the last few weeks.

In reply to a post by burble:

Have had a dozen or more of the back end of this type of scam call on the answer phone over the last few weeks.

I�ve a call blocker phone .... I�ve not had any.

I just don't get them full stop, but then my home phone is not connected

Most cunning

How does a "call blocker" stop a new number calling? I thought you had to block a number manually.

If the caller does not announce themselves, it rejects the call.

+1

I'm interested in how that works, Zarjaz - sounds clever. Suppose I ring you and when challenged I say 'Visa Security Department'?

What happens then?

Well you still have the option to refuse the call, and even block the number.

I certainly wouldn�t answer a call from someone announcing themselves as �Visa Security Department� and hope you wouldn�t either.

Out of interest, how would the �Visa Security Department� (or similar) get in touch with you if you wouldn't even answer?

The phone system announces who they claim to be when you start to listen to the call. Only then do you decide whether or not to accept the call, always allow it, drop it, or drop it and ban the number.

It would be the card issuer, not Visa. I�ve forgotten how they call, as it�s years since that happened. I think you get a message to call them and have to find the number off their website or from a card statement.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 21-Jul-19 10:38:15)

Best thing I ever bought.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ig6exbk42b0pywt/phone.jpg?...

Indeed, Rob, just trying to point out it is not the panacea for all ills - you could still be 'fooled' into answering if the announced name is relevant to you. Also, how does it work with 'ansaphones'?

The system I use is caller display and to block all undeclared incoming numbers and not pick up on any '00' incoming unless I am expecting.a 'foreign' call. Works 98% of the time. Also a bit cheaper! There is NO simple cure-all answer to the problem, but a bit of intelligence eliminates most. The others I am quite rude to.......they do not call back...

I DO appreciate, by the way, "It would be the card issuer, not Visa." - it was ONLY an example!!

No, it�s not a panacea, but it sure helps.

If the card issuer (or whoever) genuinely needs to get in touch, they could leave a message, or try again later ....

In reply to a post by helpoort:

Received a phone call yesterday and today the 17th July.
FROM VISA SECURITY, a female informed me that a £600.00 transaction was about to be transacted on my Visa account and to PRESS ONE.
So we can go THERE but not STOP this type of call.

What a silly comparison. This is a common mental failure known as a false analogy.

And in any case something like the Trucall unit can stop these calls and it's been available for several years now.

Edited by Andrue (Sun 21-Jul-19 18:06:17)

I have caller display and a answerphone, a glance across at the display will tell me if I know the caller, if I don't it usually goes to answerphone, but sometimes I'm expecting a call but not sure what the number might be, I don't think I've ever seen a scam call with 00, they always spoof what they think is a UK number, but most times get it wrong. If it's an actual person calling (I'm guessing here) they hang up when it goes to answerphone, if it's an automated call by the time the answerphone starts to record it's halfway through message.

But the number may be spoofed to a correct number so how does it work in that instance?

Just trying to find how people deal with these issues.

Get yourself a TruCall phone. As another poster said, money vet well spent ..

In reply to a post by broadband66:

But the number may be spoofed to a correct number so how does it work in that instance?

Just trying to find how people deal with these issues.

They don't arise. Oh it's possible but how would a scammer find my Dad's phone number in order to spoof it to trick me? And if you only white list personal contacts such a ruse won't work. I know the voices and habits of everyone on my TrueCall white list so you're not going to be able to scam me that way.

All companies have to go through the Whisper functionality whether I know them or not. But then again - who ever calls anyway these days? It's all done through email or possibly SMS. Companies know that telephone calls are a costly and inefficient way to communicate with customers. If you just blocked all but personal incoming calls it'd probably have little to no impact for most of us.

Truecall isn't perfect but it is very, very effective. I've owned one for over six years now and I think at most I've had half a dozen people that it didn't stop. A couple of them left their spiel when asked for their name (zapped within half a second) and the rest left their name and I ignored them. Most of them listen to the message and give up without bothering. I see them sometimes - the red light on the unit comes on..stays on for a few seconds and then goes out.

I seem to recall reading that I could create a white list for my TalkTalk line, with unreliable mobile coverage at home we need the landline for calls other than friends and family, so not something we could use, last week alone have had return calls from retailers, DEFRA, and NHS,
p.s. today whilst I've been at home making sure paperwork was ok for DEFRA we had at least half a dozen calls which where most probably scammers, as soon as answerphone kicked in they rang off, in amongst that we had a call from a unknown to us number, that was a genuine call which gf picked up as a message was being left.

Edited by burble (Mon 22-Jul-19 18:40:05)

"They don't arise"

Yes they do. We had a call, seemingly from our bank, with the correct bank number showing on the caller id.

The so called operative spent too long being overly friendly and trying to explain about a possible transaction that I twigged and told him that the call was being terminated.

So, how would your phone cope with that scenario?

Well my landline number isn�t known to the bank, so if someone calls it claiming to be from my bank, then they get hung up on.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Well my landline number isn�t known to the bank, so if someone calls it claiming to be from my bank, then they get hung up on.

Interesting you say that, I've had several people say to me that they've had emails from the tax office about a refund, I always say to them do the tax office know your email address then? they then scratch their heads and the penny finally drops that's its a scam.

In reply to a post by dect:

Interesting you say that, I've had several people say to me that they've had emails from the tax office about a refund, I always say to them do the tax office know your email address then? they then scratch their heads and the penny finally drops that's its a scam.

If you do self assessment, like I do, HMRC DO have your email address (and also my mobile and landline numbers, used for log in codes). And as I do self assessment I know exactly how much money I owe them next January and that my tax account has no unexpected amounts appearing out of the blue.

In reply to a post by dsergeant:

If you do self assessment, like I do, HMRC DO have your email address (and also my mobile and landline numbers, used for log in codes). And as I do self assessment I know exactly how much money I owe them next January and that my tax account has no unexpected amounts appearing out of the blue.

Totally agree, They also have my email for self assessment that's why I always ask the question, For me I find it safer to logon through the personal tax home page if I want to check anything rather than open any emails that could be scams.

Edited by deleted (Wed 24-Jul-19 08:48:19)

That's not the point.

How does a phone automatically block a number especially if the spoofed calling number is a company's real number?

You said previously ....

Just trying to find how people deal with these issues.

But now you say ....

That's not the point.

How does a phone automatically block a number especially if the spoofed calling number is a company's real number?

You asked how people deal with it, several told you, but now you are querying how it technically works.

You don�t seem to want follow others suggestions, so don�t fret about how it works.

Cheapest option ? Unplug the phones.

But what YOU stated wasn't helpful.

I was querying how a call blocking phone blocks calls (see my first post).
I don't want suggestions I want answers.

Again, how does one of these phones block calls?

Magic software.

If the method were made public then the hack would follow within two days.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

I don't want suggestions I want answers.

A forum is not the place to make demands, specially to those members who are very helpful.