Lately there has been a rash of fraudulent phone calls. These fraudsters claim to be representatives of British Telecom. There is no way to apprehend scammers of this type. Usually they live within a distant country. This puts the onus on you, the target of these scammers to arm yourself with the knowledge to know if you are being had.
First and foremost, if you are ever contacted by a company that has official business with you and you do not already know the person that you are speaking with, it is not unheard of to hang up and call the company back. Scammers prey on those that are willing to stay on the line with them and reveal more and more personal information. When in doubt just hang up, no company including BT will ever call to ask for personal information out of the blue. It is important to note that the con artists have already taken this into account and will try to give you a call back number. Do not take the call back number, simply call BT or contact them on their official website. Also, BT or your bank, or any other organisation will never call you to take control of your pc.
What to watch out for
These scammers are after any information that they can use to make money. The easy money comes from those people that loosely handle their personal information. A scammer or con-artist will do as little work possible to get the largest pay off. They will call individuals until they find someone that stays on the line with them long enough to gain their trust. They do this so often that, like a good salesman, even the keenest person can be caught off guard.
Suspect behaviour
- The caller is rushing the call.
- They tell you that your computer is infected with malware.
- They may say that someone is illegally using your internet.
- They might promise you a new deal or arrangement for your phone or internet plan.
- They may ask you to input an outside URL into your web browser.
- Anything to get a conversation started with you to bring you into the scam.
Scammers are after:
- Bank account information
The quickest and easiest way to get a good pay out comes from gathering bank account information or getting the caller to wire a sum of money to an account. In the case of BT phone scammers, they will use a program that takes control of your computer, so they may extract this personal information from you. They do this by instructing you to go to a specific website and walking you through the steps. - Personal information
By gaining access to your computer, scammers can get your username and passwords to your accounts. The sky is the limit here. Any information about you may be used in Identity theft. the fraudulent acquisition and use of a person’s private identifying information, usually for financial gain. The fraudster will pose as you to open credit cards, bank accounts and other types of accounts. They will destroy your name and reputation in the process.
Preventative measures
- If you have any doubt about the officiality of the person that has just called you, hang up.
- Contact BT through their official website if you feel like your account is compromised.
- Never give out personal information over the phone to people you do not know.
- Never hand over control of your pc to any organization unless your directly know that person and 100% trust them.
- Call BT immediately if you think you have been scammed.
To contact BT
- To check your account to see if you have any problems you may go online and check here www.bt.com/mybt
- End the phone call that initiated your interest in the issue.
- Go to Contact BT, then click Contact BT which is displayed on the next page.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page where it says, “Chat with us online” and click on the banner dropdown menu that says, “Choose a category.”
- Choose the issue that you want to check and engage with the BT live chat help there. This is an official BT representative.
Current events
Even though this is an old angle of attack, this phone scam has been dealing damage every day. BT has reported that they have been receiving calls from many victims of this type of fraud every week. And that is just the people that report it. Certainly, not every call will yield a successful attack. Maybe not even one in twenty attacks will be successful. This means that the perpetrators are extremely active and will not be stopping any time soon.
From these victims it is reported that £1000’s have been taken from individual customers. Recently one of our customers handed over £6000.
We are always here to help so if you are concerned or would like any further information feel free to call us on 01626 773365
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