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djb3's avatar
djb3
Tuning in
3 months ago
Solved

Are these scam calls

I have given VirginMedia 30 days notice to cancel my contract which ends on 28 Feb as I am finding it a bit too expensive. Since I've done this I've received a few phone calls on my landline and mobile from 020 3980 4396. As soon as I answer the call the person calling me hangs up straight away. When the phone rings it indicates that the call is from VirginMedia. I have googled the number and other people have said they are scam calls and others say it is VirginMedia but if it is VM why are they not speaking to me.

I would be grateful if a Forum member could check this out for me and let me know if these are legitimate calls. I am a pensioner and I find these calls very worrying.

Many thanks

djb3

 

  • rgs200's avatar
    rgs200
    3 months ago

    PS. I should have said - although I'm pretty confident these particular calls really were from Virgin Media, you are right to be worried about the risk of scammers calling you. If you get a call claiming to be from Virgin and they start to try to get you to do things on your computer (like visit a website, download something or run a command), then that definitely IS a scam and you should just hang up.

    Similarly, I don't think the genuine retentions team will need any of your payment details, because they will just change what they charge to your existing payment method. So if they call you and start to ask for financial information, I'd play it safe and hang up at that point.

    As I said, I don't think the calls you've received were scams - but I wouldn't want you to conclude that you can drop your guard about scams in general.

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  • rgs200's avatar
    rgs200
    Tuning in
    3 months ago

    Yeah, it's really Virgin Media. I've done the same thing as you've done and googled the number, which is something I quite often do for numbers I don't recognise. Because I do it often, I know that there are ALWAYS a handful people who say the number is a scam, because they use the word "scam" to mean anything that displeases them. But in this case, there are many, many more times that number of people who say that it was a call from the Virgin Media retentions team - and it makes sense that they'd be calling you, because you've cancelled your contract and they want to try to change your mind.

    Even if I'm wrong about that and it's someone trying to scam you, they can't do any harm if they don't speak to you. So although the calls are annoying, they're nothing to worry about.

    Based on my knowledge about how telecoms in general works, the reason nobody speaks is probably that they use an automatic system to dial you up, and only when someone answers do they check to see whether they have anyone on their end free to handle the call. If they don't have anyone available, they hang up.

    As you've experienced, silent and abandoned calls can be construed as harassment, and there are supposed to be rules to stop one person getting more than a single one. Based on your report, it sounds like these rules might be being broken. If you can be bothered, you could complain to Ofcom - search for "ofcom silent calls" to find out more.

    But if I were you I'd just block the number.

  • rgs200's avatar
    rgs200
    Tuning in
    3 months ago

    PS. I should have said - although I'm pretty confident these particular calls really were from Virgin Media, you are right to be worried about the risk of scammers calling you. If you get a call claiming to be from Virgin and they start to try to get you to do things on your computer (like visit a website, download something or run a command), then that definitely IS a scam and you should just hang up.

    Similarly, I don't think the genuine retentions team will need any of your payment details, because they will just change what they charge to your existing payment method. So if they call you and start to ask for financial information, I'd play it safe and hang up at that point.

    As I said, I don't think the calls you've received were scams - but I wouldn't want you to conclude that you can drop your guard about scams in general.

    • djb3's avatar
      djb3
      Tuning in
      3 months ago

      Hi rgs200

      Today I received another call on 020 3743 6970. This time when I answered there was someone on the other end from VirginMedia. They called asking me to rethink my cancellation and offered me a good deal so I decided to accept it.

      Apologies for not updating sooner but thank you. The info you provided was totally correct

      Many thanks

  • Molly_T's avatar
    Molly_T
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    3 months ago

    Hi djb3 👋 welcome back to the community forum! Thanks for posting. 

    Sorry to hear these concerns about some calls you have been receiving since putting in your notice with us. It's not unusual for customers who are leaving to receive calls from our retentions team - particularly if you have cited the reason for leaving as price concerns. 

    That being said, I've checked the number and it's not listed as one of our current outbound support numbers. If it is indeed a call from an unaffiliated number we are a bit limited in what we can do to prevent these from happening. There's a great help page with advice for dealing with nuisance calls here 👉 https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/block-nuisance-calls which I'd recommend taking a look at, as there's a little more than I can cover here. It also outlines how you can report unwanted calls to both OFCOM or the Police. 

    If you need our help getting any additional call features set up until you leave please do let us know and we will offer some help with this. If you have any other questions or concerns please get in touch! 

    Wishing you all the best. 🌞