Forum Discussion

Steve_Clayton's avatar
Steve_Clayton
On our wavelength
25 days ago

Scam mobile calls from India on landline

I have started receiving a lot of calls from supposed UK mobile numbers (a different number every time), 20 calls to date, all between 09:00 and 17:00 Mon-Fri. Initially we answered the calls as we did not know who was calling, lately we have just let them go to voicemail.

When you answer the phone it is always someone saying they are from Virgin Media and that there is an issue with the broadband connection, when challenged to tell me who I am and where I live they immediately hang up. The calls are from a call centre, you can hear the chatter in the background and appear to be from (I'm guessing) India or similar.

It is very annoying and worrying as my wife's parents are both nearly 90 and not very well and they are normally the only people who ring us on the landline - we don't give the number out anywhere as we use our mobiles for everything - it stresses my wife as soon as the phone rings before you can see who the caller is.

How can we stop these people calling? It is obvious that they are international calls and that the numbers are being spoofed and changed every time, so it is pointless blocking the numbers as they never repeat.

07850 0914xx, 07938 5829xx, 07775 8906xx 07891 3825xx, 07786 5401xx, 07815 7318xx, 07891 4093xx, 07847 4772xx, 07514 9048xx, 07803 4932xx, 07548 0010xx, 07399 6596xx, 07901 3336xx, 07425 0149xx, 07595 2257xx, 07835 2450xx, 07557 2382xx, 07710 8234xx, 07886 2952xx, 07956 6167xx.

p.s. Member of TPS already.

 

 

[mod - numbers edited in case innocent numbers being spoofed]

home phone
Landline
Mobile number
Phone
Scam
spoofing

6 Replies

  • Steven_L's avatar
    Steven_L
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    25 days ago

    Hello Steve_Clayton,

    Welcome to the Community and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums. I’m sorry to hear of the issues that you’re having with calls from all of the numbers stated in your post. As the numbers are UK mobile numbers theres nothing that we can do to directly block those numbers as it would block all of the calls to your line from mobile numbers. We do have some ways that you can use to help combat such calls and that can be found here.

    Kind Regards,

    Steven_L

    • Steve_Clayton's avatar
      Steve_Clayton
      On our wavelength
      5 days ago

      I've done all of that and can't block anonymous/withheld calls because they're not. Just very annoying, it's obviously the same calling centre calling and spoofing UK mobile numbers. I'll see if I can disable the voicemail

  • ALF28's avatar
    ALF28
    Super solver
    25 days ago

    letting cold calls go to voicemail is a very good tactic and an effective method, I do that if I do not recognise the number or out of the house . It is rare that they ever leave a message.

    I prefer to use my own BT  model answerphone which alerts and records any messages, rather than use voicemail.

    I get cold calls, often mobile numbers but also UK phone numbers with area codes and suspect most are spoofed.

    I check the phone display and tend to only answer local calls which might be important such as medical etc.

    I am also TPS registered  myself, but still get these calls. 

    Virgin phone numbers are well known so can be recognised, they do not call from mobile phones. (an exception would be from engineer  visits and they do use mobiles)

    Scam callers can spoof any number and use computers to dial many people hoping you will pick up the phone. It is best to ignore these calls or just say thanks but I am not interested.

    It makes life difficult trying to establish if a call is genuine or not, and not enough is been done to prevent international calls from call centres abroad. 

    I pay extra for the anonymous caller rejection which may help.

    The other problem can be spam texts to mobiles, I usually delete them and also cold calls to mobile phones can be an issue.

     

     

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    24 days ago

    In the past, I found such scam calls would come in cycles as the scammers auto dial a particular block of numbers. If you answer the phone, or it goes to voicemail, it comfirms to the scammers the number is live and they will continue to call.

    Eventually the scammers move to a new block of numbers and the calls reduced. After another period of time another cycle of scam calls would follow when their auto diallers return to the number range.

    You could use a call screening device on the line. I have used this before with 100% success at stopping scam callers

    https://www.truecall.co.uk/category-s/116.htm

    Programme the phone number of your in-laws into the device and their calls come straight through with any screening. Any other numbers not programmed to the device go through a screening process where callers have to state their name before your phone rings.

    When you answer the phone, you hear their announcement and decide whether to answer or not.

    Scammers normally do not bother trying to get through as they know it is not a good use of their time trying their routine on a person who is sufficiently scammer-aware to have a call screening device fitted

    • ALF28's avatar
      ALF28
      Super solver
      23 days ago

      The use of a screening device is interesting and worth consideration.

      A lot of phone spoofing is going on at present. I get a lot of unknown calls that when answered it has a message please leave a message after the tone, so no person is there, perhaps a machine is just dialling out, this is mainly on my VM hub phone.

      I had a call today on a mobile phone from an unknown person saying he had a missed call, wanted to know who had called, but we did not ring his number, he just kept saying hello many times, very odd  but have had that a few times on different mobiles.

      I also have had unusual sales text messages repeating every few days on one mobile phone from an unknown person. Also regular calls which appear to be linked to china/immigration documents.

      It seems that  they know my phone numbers, and if so how, or they just put out a block of numbers including my numbers. These calls are happening most days, and the technology now being used by phone providers has no way to filter these spoofed callers, but the scammers can use any number they want including my numbers it seems.

      As we expect genuine calls we have to pick up some of these scam calls, but careful not to divulge information to unknown people who will not give their details.

  • Steve_Clayton's avatar
    Steve_Clayton
    On our wavelength
    5 days ago

    thanks for all your replies, much appreciated, we have caller ID so can see when mum and dad are calling. We haven't been answering the calls for a month now and still getting 3/4 per day. TBH can't justify the expense of a screening device as we don't use the landline, it's tied in with the broadband and we would have got rid of it ages ago if we could, unfortunately mum and dad being almost 90 won't ring our mobiles for some reason, hey ho. It's just annoying more than anything.