One born every minute
 

This morning I was informed by a "BT engineer" that my Internet connection will be removed tomorrow because someone detected "hacking activity". This seems to be an upgrade on the previous scam in that the accent was British, not American, and the time frame rather shorter than before. At least I don't remember the last one having a 24-hour deadline attached to it.

I was instructed to press 1 for advice or 2 for "others". I wonder what "others" means? Any ideas? Anyway, I expect to log on here tomorrow as usual.

Others is for the people that know it is a scam. :rolleyes:

Ask to speak with someone and see how far you can take it.

Different expensive toll numbers? Maybe the same one?

Do this if you're free at the time; it will
(a) tie them up and prevent them scamming the more credulous while they're busy
and
(b) maybe give you a laugh at the end.

Definitely if you have some time. I get calls about student loan forgiveness (I don't have loans) all the time. When I have a free moment, I always get the callers super close to closing the deal, then I change my mind at the last possible second with the vaguest excuse. It's the seller's version of blue balls.

My hands hover over the keyboard and want to write “No!”.

But I remember that this really worked. I have witnessed a friend using a step-by-step strategy to lure a telemarketer ever deeper into his own trap, first by just being friendly, then answering every question with a slightly, then completely unrealistic declaration, like “Oh I have to disappoint you there, as I earn much more than 80 000€ a year.”

In the end it was “Yes. We should talk. But not about money.” And the guy on the other end hung up.

That's a contradiction in terms. It's precisely because I suspect expensive toll numbers are involved that I don't take the bait. It might be fun to string them along a bit, but I have to live on a pension.

Do you mean it was a recorded call and you had to press a number to get a response? (making note to self to read original post more carefully in future :redface:)

If that's the case they've taken away one of life's little pleasures.

I think it was a recording. No one was offering to talk; it was just "press 1 for help, 2 for others". Today I got a silent call. I gave my number and there was no response. I suspect they have a list of numbers that have proved unforthcoming in the past and they don't even bother to put the tape on if you are one of those.

I have a thought. Ignore the call :)

Are you being sarcastic? Of course I ignored it.

Changing the subject just a little, is it affordable in the UK to drop the phone part of the landline (assuming you're on ADSL) and rely on a mobile for phone calls?

I ask because when I went to mobile phone only all those nuisance calls suddenly stopped - and I hadn't realised until then how many I was getting.

Yes, lots of young people do that. But I haven't got a working mobile and I don't want to buy one. I don't like that technology. I have also heard of people getting all kinds of spam calls on their mobiles and apparently they have to pay for that. On a landline, incoming calls are free.

And I thought I was the last Londoner in that situation! I gave some-one my number the other day and she said "That's not a phone number" — she didn't recognise a land-line number.

You have different phone sequences for mobile than for landline?

Here in North America we do ###-###-#### for both where the first 3 digits are area code, the next 3 are prefix. It was the ubiquity of mobile phones and pagers that made Atlanta Georgia have to add a third then a fourth area code. So it is possible one would have a 678 number for personal mobile, 404 for home landline, 770 for office and 470 for work mobile. It is also possible to have any one of those area codes for all four phones or a combination (my office phone and work cell phone are both 678 but my home landline and the corporate switchboard are both 770).

Of course these days many people keep their mobile numbers when they move so it isn't unusual for Atlanta contacts to have area codes from other locations such as Houston Texas, New York City, Chicago etc... There is no long distance charged on mobile phones (at least between US locations). Oddly though, they do still charge for long distance on landline.

I keep my landline at home mainly because the first thing you always hear on the news in any major calamity is that mobile phone service quit working. Mobile was designed to work when some people are on - it fails completely when all people try to get on at the same time.

Ask the caller what underwear they are wearing and start breathing heavily.
If it's "Your computer is having a virus": Oh yeah, I know where I caught a virus, last time I was in (insert country) having sex with your wife/sister/mother/goat. Oh, and I want a refund.

And those are if I'm in a good mood! :D

At least you guys got your scam/spam calls in English. I got at least two in Mandarin, and don't have a clue what the scam was.

The first time I hung up, then blocked the number. Then they ring me up again the next week or whenever it was, and leave a message on my messagebank IN MANDARIN. Then they called me a couple of weeks later on a different number again and leave another message, IN MANDARIN.

If their going to try and scam you, they could at least do it in English!

Oh yes. They are quite different, at least in London. London landline numbers start with 010 for central London or 020 for the suburbs, followed by a 4-digit exchange number and a 4-digit personal number. Mobile numbers have a 5-digit prefix and a 6-digit personal number.

London is 020 only, followed by 8 digits usually starting with either a 3, 7 or 8. 01 hasn't been in use since the early 90s.

There were quite a few code changes, as I recall, the current 020 code replaced 0171/0181.

please hold...

Never say "Yes" if they ask you something either. It could be recorded and dubbed in somewhere else.

I was getting a few calls from the same guy over a couple months and always hung up when I heard his voice. When I checked the number it was from Jamaica.

If it's a Microsoft Tech telling me they have detected a virus on my machine I go into a panic and take over the conversation. I told one guy I probably got it watching porn, got him to google "elephant porn" (the first thing that came to mind), go to the site and asked what he saw. He said porn. I replied now you've probably got the same virus I do and laughed.

He hung up.

And exactly WHY did that come to mind so readily? :p

I don't know, it was the first thing that came to mind.

I was more surprised there was actually an elephant porn site. :p I haven't googled it to see but he did.

That's cheap fun.

"1 for advice or 2 for "others"."

I tend to view some British shows and don't really get all of the conversation references. I've never heard American English use the term others as any choice. Knowing if some country uses that term (translated term) may help id what rat is calling you.


I'd hang up for sure before I pressed any key.