Customore Service Calls

[Matt_hc]

Yesterday I was contacted by somebody claiming to be from Virgin Media, their reason was to do see if I was using their services fully. The number they used was: 08000521251. I asked for identification to assure me that it was really Virgin Media before I gave any personal information. They were unable to do so and eventually the call was terminated by the caller.

As a customer how can I be sure that is really is Virgin Media calling when the number is not not unknown? If this was a genuine call from VM, and not someone purporting to be working with VM, a bigger effort needs to be made by the team - they need to have the tools to effectively identify themselves. In this day and age of multiple scamming attempts - when calling customers the onus is on VM, not the client, to make it 100% clear that you they are who they say they are.

What is VM's policy procedure on contacting customers? How are you going to address the issue of positive identification on the part of VM before requesting personal information from a customer?

[Paul_DN]

Hi Matt_hc,

Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome, I can confirm the above number is part of our Sales team, apologies that the caller was unable to verify who they were, we do always advise if you are unsure who the caller is, end the call and dial us/ the company calling directly.

Were to able to speak to us since in regards to your package?

Regards

Paul.

[Matt_hc]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply, and for confirming the number is from Sales Team at Virgin.

So - can you answer the question on what the procedure is for your sales team to be able to identify themselves as genuinely from the Virgin Team? It would be helpful for me to know that. I am sure that you can appreciate that spammers usually target individuals so really the weight of proof should be on the caller (Sales team in this case), rather than the customer.

Matt

[Chris_W1]

HI Matt, they would state that they are calling from Virgin Media and confirm what the call is regarding. - Chris. 

[gproud]

Just to piggy back this, I've also received 6 phone calls today from 08001836416, which from another post seems to have been confirmed as VM sales team? Is that true?

While I hope it's obvious that getting 6 calls from your sales team in less than 8 hours is beyond excessive, I have to agree with the original post.

Getting an uninvited phone call from someone who then asks you for personal details is precisely how a phishing scam operates, so your sales team are indistinguishable from malicious actors.

It's wild to me that VM thinks that unsolicited phone calls asking for personal information is an appropriate thing to do. I think it would also be fair to argue that you make it worse for vulnerable people by behaving in this way, if VM normalises this behaviour then more people would fall for an actual scam. 

So please take this as a complaint in the strongest possible terms, not only for my personal annoyance and inconvenience, but also for all of the above.

[HughJarsse]

I've also received 6 phone calls today from 08001836416, which from another post seems to have been confirmed as VM sales team? Is that true?

BEWARE , please read the following post, as though this number 'might' be a VM number, it is flagged up on 'who called me' as a possible scammers' number, as they MAY be 'spoofing' the VM number. Advise being VERY CAREFUL if you are contacted from this number, as it may NOT actually be a VM employee!!

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Security-matters/Possible-VN-phone-call-or-scammers/td-p/545040...

[Robert_P]

Hello gproud

Thanks for posting in regards to the recent calls received, we understand the confusion caused and appreciate you taking the time to raise this via the forums. Welcome to the community.

As explained, the number you have been contacted from is a genuine number from one of our outbound sales teams. As the methods used become more and more elaborate it is possible that he number has been 'spoofed' 

If you answer a call and are in any doubt as to the authenticity of the caller, please refrain from giving out any personal or private information. Support on how to deal with fraudulent calls can be found here.

Rob