Is this phonecall genuine?

[j-wilkes]

We have just had four phonecalls in ten minutes from a lady from the virgin media security department, my dad has recorded the number [MOD EDIT: Removed] from a previous occasion, now it is withheld number. She is saying there are odd messages coming from our router. I do not think this is genuine. Can someone confirm anything for me please? I am normally at work and my parents are not massively tech savvy so I am trying to protect them too.

Many thanks 

[Richard1959]

Your partly correct coenoby.

Yes answering the phone does activate the number as being live however these scammers are a lot more sophisticated these days than they used to be and a lot more information is stored against the numbers than you might realise. 

I was involved in security and although cyber security was not our main area we did cover it and that included telephone scamming, information trawling and manipulation. We employed ex scammers in order to learn more about it and as you correctly point out not answering the phone is the best solution of all to avoid being scammed and wont flag up as a live line however your advice to let it go to answerphone does not help as that is still answering the phone so whilst you might not be talking to them they are connected so they now have that as a live line.

Secondly there is something to be gained by stringing them on which is that your number gets blocked as "NOT TO CALL",  it wont stop computer generated repeat random dialling but it will stop targeted dialling by that particular organisation. Time is money for these people so quick calls are very important to them they do not want to have their time wasted.

Try it next time you get a call, if you just keep putting the phone down then they will just keep calling back but cause them grief and they will just take your number of their target list.

Of course as you say telephone lists do get sold on but usually only when there is other information to go along with the number such as your name and/or address, known service providers, bank or other personal information, without that information the lists are worthless as its quicker and cheaper to use random diallers. 

[coenoby]

For what it's worth here is Ofcom's advice which they posted in October 2021 on what to do when you receive what they describe as a suspicious call:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2021/45-million-people-targeted-by-scams 

You need to scroll down a bit on that page through some pretty scary statistics to get to it but it's very simple

STOP    HANG UP    REPORT.

Coenoby

[nodrogd]

I will just point out there are also risks in stringing scammers along. Indeed some people on this very forum have fallen foul of this.

A while after doing this they have been bombarded by irate callers, some of which have been abusive.

Yes, you guessed it. The scammers had cloned their number & used it in several thousand scam attempts.

In short, play the game at your own risk!

[DinoParry]

That is an extremely good point nodrogd.... Thanks for the advice. I will follow that now on - that's for damn sure.!

[paul_taylor]

I changed my Package yesterday, now i am getting calls from 0800 1836404 almost every 20mins non stop.

I answer and no one there. TrueCaller keeps saying its VirginMedia spam. Is this a genuine VM number ?, if so why does it keep rapid calling me. Ive changed my plan and its done, i dont need any followup calls.

[goslow]

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@paul_taylor wrote:

I changed my Package yesterday, now i am getting calls from 0800 1836404 almost every 20mins non stop.

I answer and no one there. TrueCaller keeps saying its VirginMedia spam. Is this a genuine VM number ?, if so why does it keep rapid calling me. Ive changed my plan and its done, i dont need any followup calls.

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You can tell nothing from the caller ID alone. It could be a scam call. If you have just changed your package though it could be VM sales trying to 'upsell' you to a higher tier of services.

Sign in to 'My Virgin Media' and opt out of marketing. If the calls persist, report to ICO for unwanted sales calls from a real person and OFCOM for silent/abandoned calls.

[Zoie_P]

Hi @paul_taylor, 

Thank you for your post, I am so sorry you are receiving these calls, I know they can be quite frustrating especially as you have mentioned you have contracted. 

Have you edited your marketing preferences? If not you can do so 👉here.

Keep us posted, 

Zoie

[JimboParsley]

The underlying question and most relevant is, how do these companies know that we use Virgin media? Answer, because Virgin media sell your name and number to these unscrupulous data thieves for a considerable price. 

[goslow]

The answer is because OFCOM publishes lists of the number ranges online, and which companies own them, in spreadsheet format. It's a trivial matter for scammers to use these and merge them into their script when they call up. The scammer's story falls apart if the customer has ported their number elsewhere but that is of little consequence to the scammers.

[nodrogd]

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@JimboParsley wrote:

The underlying question and most relevant is, how do these companies know that we use Virgin media? Answer, because Virgin media sell your name and number to these unscrupulous data thieves for a considerable price. 

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They don't. They are just using the data linked below & assume anyone using a number allocated to a provider is a customer of that provider:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/numbering/numbering-d...