[mowflow]

Posted by a friend on Facebook. Funny thing is he works for BT.

Received a phone call from BT, informing me that he was disconnecting me because of an unpaid bill.. He demanded payment immediately of £31.00 or it would be £ 118.00 to re-connect at a later date. The guy wasn't even fazed when I told him I was with Virgin Media, allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line renta...l! I asked the guy's name - he gave me the very 'English' John Peacock with a very 'African' accent - & phone number -0800 0800 152. Obviously the fellow realized I didn't believe his story, so offered to demonstrate that he was from BT. I asked how & he told me to hang up & try phoning someone - he would disconnect my phone to prevent this. AND HE DID !! My phone was dead - no engaged tone, nothing - until he phoned me again. Very pleased with himself, he asked if that was enough proof that he was with BT. I asked how the payment was to be made & he said credit card, there & then. I said that I didn't know how he'd done it, but I had absolutely no intention of paying him, I didn't believe his name or that he worked for BT. He hung up. I dialed 1471 -number withheld I phoned his fictitious 0800 number - not recognized. So I phoned the police to let them know. I wasn't the first! It's only just started apparently, but it is escalating. Their advice was to let as many people as possible know of this scam. The fact that the phone does go off would probably convince some people it's real, so please make as many friends & family aware of this. How is it done? This is good but not that clever. He gave the wrong number - it should have been 0800 800 152 which takes you through to BT Business. The cutting off of the line is very simple, he stays on the line with the mute button on and you can't dial out - but he can hear you trying. (This is because the person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back. You could almost be convinced! The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool many. By the way this is not about getting the cash as this would not get past merchant services - it is all about getting the credit card details which include the security number, to be used for larger purchases.

[RCUK]

Genius... might give that a try myself later with some mates

Then buy some random stuff for them on their credit card and get it delivered to their addresses!

[xenon]

Ancient.

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/telephone/btscam.asp

[nicktyler]

This is an old trick. It is easy to make the line go dead. With a land line only the caller can disconnect the call so he asks you to try and call someone else and by the time you hang up and pick the phone up he has hit mute. You are still on teh phone to him and he can hear you bashing the buttons. All he has to do is wait for you to put the phone down again and ring back.

Simple. You can try this at home.

Edit: Oops! I should learn to read the whole post before typing

[rjwojcik]

When you think about it , it's clever and I'm sure a lot of people get stung.

Thanks for posting.

[rich1068]

Sounds a little like the one where they target OAPs saying they're from the Serious Fraud Office and 'call back on this number if you don't believe me'. The (real) police recently had quite an awareness drive about that one.

[MEGA]

That's hilarious

[zltm089]

Someone
needs to bison them cants! That bison story was awesome!

[raf555]

Originally Posted by zltm089

Some needs to bison them cants! That bison story was awesome!

Big +1

[mowflow]

Bison story? Link?

[A_P]

I dunno something just doesn't seem right. A bit like a human bicycle at the Airport.

[zltm089]

Originally Posted by mowflow

Bison story? Link?

Arghhh I can't find it. It was on pistonheads aswell.

[The_Bear_Yid]

I would've said great please disconnect me, VM don't use BT equipment lol.