Some **** just tried to scam me!

[Melbourne12]

I'm at home this afternoon.  The phone rang.  A pleasant-sounding young man introduced himself as being from BT, informing me that I wouldn't be able to make outside calls any more.  Our line had been "restricted" ...

Scammer: We sent out correspondence to [correct address] between 14th and 21st December to inform you that your line is being converted from analogue to digital.

Me (thinking, ho, yus, analogue to digital indeed): I haven't seen any correspondence.

Scammer: Well, we sent it to you, sir.  A one-off payment of £6 is needed to carry out the conversion.

Me (let's get straight to the point, shall we?): So you're saying that we can't make outside calls any more?

Scammer starts to speak, then line goes dead followed by "unobtainable" signal.  I imagine that this is the point at which I'm supposed to try to make an outside call, but he has still left the line open.  So I replace the phone in its cradle and go back to work.

....

A few minutes pass, then the scammer calls again.

Scammer: Sorry, Mr Melbourne, the line just disconnected.  As I say, a one off payment of £6 ...

I'm afraid that I cut him short and told him to get off the line.  No doubt the next step would have been to offer to reconnect us after I'd given him my credit card details for this "one off payment of £6".  Or £600.  Or whatever my card would bear.

>:(

[Melbourne12]

[Chrispy]

They still at it, the *********, There has been so much publicity about this scam I thought they would have given up by now.

[betula]

Well done for being on the ball.

Anyway BT can trace the number??.............if they did don't suppose it would help but you never know >:(

[Digeroo]

Anyway BT can trace the number??.............

But not if it comes from abroad.

Not had this one, not heard about it either so thanks for the warning.

[halfofmanic]

Crap what some people will do when the majority of us go out of our way to look out for each other

another brilliant thing about A4A   

what about the older people   i hate to say it but my mum and dad at 89  may fall for it if they didn't check with us first     i will tell them      thanks for the heads up  peeps

[Pesky Wabbit]

I've got my mum well trained. Any calls and she tells them to ring me, also she tells them she lives in either a council flat or a nursing home - that gets rid of a lot of these home improvement people.

Also, I look after her cards so she cant give the numbers out anyway - even if she wanted to.

It took a long time to persuade her (and a couple of bad experiences) but these days she is happy with this arrangement.

As for me, I wait for the answer machine to kick in and only pick up if it is someone I know (or am expecting). If people leave a message, I'll ring them right back. If not ... I just carry on browsing A4A.  :)

And I also signed up for the TPS, but can get several calls a day. (Perhaps they just want to tell me they love me  ;D )

[markp2511]

I usually just ask people straight out why they are calling.  If it's to try and sell me something, I politely inform them that I don't do business on the phone with unsolicited callers, so they need to write to me with their details and I will consider it then.  If they ask for my address, I tell them that they've found my phone number, so use the same powers of deduction to figure out what to write on the envelope.  The conversation usually stops at "why are you calling me" though.   :)

[Paulines7]

This scam is very similar to the one I posted on here a few months back.

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,55533.0.html

[taurus]

Thanks for the warning