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Richard1959
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Message 11 of 17
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Re: Is this phonecall genuine?

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. 

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coenoby
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Message 12 of 17
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Re: Is this phonecall genuine?

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

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nodrogd
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Message 13 of 17
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Re: Is this phonecall genuine?

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!

VM BB TV Landline. Vonage 2nd line. Freeview/Freesat HD, ASDA/Tesco PAYG Mobile. Customer since 1993

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DinoParry
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Message 14 of 17
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Re: Is this phonecall genuine?

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

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paul_taylor
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Message 15 of 17
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Re: Is this phonecall genuine?

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.

Hub3 on Modem mode. Archer C9 Router, and Ubiquiti UniFi AP's with controller. Pi-Hole DNS.
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goslow
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Message 16 of 17
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Re: Is this phonecall genuine?


@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.


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.

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Zoie_P
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Message 17 of 17
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Re: Is this phonecall genuine?

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

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