Potential phone scam aimed at businesses

irishdraught

irishdraught

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I have just been telephoned on my mobile phone by someone calling themselves Kevin, selling a crime initiative.

When I continued to ask where he was calling from and which company, he pretended not to hear me then put the phone down. He called from 01512368058 which now happens to be busy.

I believe this call to have been a scam so I thought I had better remind everyone not to pass out personal details over the phone to someone you do not know or are unable to verify.
Do not give money or credit/debit card details to the same people.

The caller was very polite and had no particular accent, easy to be caught out so be aware. I have been called on a similar basis by someone selling advertising space on behalf of Cumbria Polie previously, presumably because we operate in Cumbria. This I knew to be untrue and indeed spoke to their press office to check.

Just because they sound official does not mean they are!

Sorry if there is a post elsewhere as I haven't been able to check many posts recently and sorry if telling you how to suck eggs but people do get caught out.
 
mik said:
Why not pass the number on to the Police?
Click to expand...

Because they will need to go through masses of form filling in and red tape to find out who the phone is used by. Plus, as it isn't a life or death situation, I know it will not be a priority for them. No fraud took place only a potential attempt at most.
 
I think I had this yesterday!! Telling me my livery yard had been chosen to be featured in a magazine. He called on my mobile from 0151 2368058. I said I was at work and could they email me the full details and he sounded stroppy at said no don't bother! If it was genuine he certainly needs to work on his customer service. I'm sure he said something about emergency services magazine???
 
Yes thank you it does look like that's it. Good job I work in Sales myself and can usually spot these things. Let's hope no one else gets duped, my parents are alot more trusting and may have fallen for it.
 
Just bringing this up again because "Kevin" phoned me this morning - looks like they're up to no good again so take this as a warning to be on your guard if you run a business and have a website. Incidentally, this time he called from a "blocked" number but it's the same scam and he still uses the same name
 
irishdraught said:
Because they will need to go through masses of form filling in and red tape to find out who the phone is used by. Plus, as it isn't a life or death situation, I know it will not be a priority for them. No fraud took place only a potential attempt at most.
Click to expand...

We nearly got stung by these scammers when my partner set up his business last yr. They kept ringing me at home trying to get me to pay for advertising in their security community journal with the profits going to local services like police, fire and ambulance. When they started getting aggressive and threatening over the phone, as we didn't have cash spare for advertising everytime they rang, I googled them to find out it was a scam, on a forum someone had posted a number which you can ring to report them, its a non emergency number for crime/fraud prevention. They are very much interested in it, even if no money has been taken, it was a quick phone call and the police then sent me one form to fill in providing as much detail as i could remember, as they are trying to build a case against them, so it is definitely worth reporting. They target new businesses as they are unexperienced (like we were) and are likely to pay up without asking too many questions.
 
Long time ongoing scammers. They have been doing this for a few years now. My partner got caught about two or three years ago. Trading Standards and the Polce are well aware, but they are operating within a loophole, that really needs to be dealt with.:mad:
 
Along similar lines, we had a phone call from a man purporting to be from the High Court Bailiffs, saying we owed £5,000 for advertising with a business directory & they were on the motorway, coming down to seize goods!!!
Needless to say I was VERY upset, as it wasn't true, my level headed daughter googled the said directory & they had a warning notice on the front page saying that there were scammers purporting to be from Bailiffs, conning people out of money they were supposed to owe for advertising with the directory & they were nothing to do with the bona fide directory.
So beware!
 
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