Scam Telephone Call Pretending To Be Virgin Media ?

[RobCheatle]

I am getting repeated calls, clearly originating in the Far East, suggesting that I have a problem with my Router and wanting me to give them access to my router.

This felt like a scam. I have had three calls just today.

The number given after calling 1471 is 01472325599.

Any ideas?

[goslow]

---

@FFumbler wrote:

The problem that I have is that I was convinced a call about my hub was a scam because they wanted my details and were barely legible in English and yet when I terminated the call and checked with VM, it had been an actual real call.  It was virtually indistinguishable from a scam one.

I had a call from 0208 2623454 from today again, someone barely understandable wanting to rectify apparent problems with my router and to err on the side of caution, I terminated the call but have no way of knowing if it were legitimate or not. 

---

You might possibly have received a marketing call from VM but VM would not ring you up out of the blue to advise/help you to 'fix problems' with your router. These are scam calls.

The phone number you have posted does not return any meaningful search results so that call was a scam call too.

To avoid marketing calls from VM, sign in to 'My Virgin Media' and change your communications preferences accordingly to remove that option.

If you have technical issues with your VM services then you need to make an outbound call to VM for assistance. Alternatively post your issue on one of the relevant VM forums and someone will aim to help (either a community member or VM forum team member).

[r21442]

Just had the call. Barely intelligible, Indian probably? Had 4 calls on the landline in quick succession and on hearing the connection delay on answering had hung up each time but eventually took it to try and get them to **** off as it interrupts the home working going on.

She went through the 'lights on the router' then asked me to reboot PCs which was NOT happening! You're Virgin, right so tell me the address the problem is at? She hung up, rumbled.

Why is it governments will not do useful stuff like acting on this crap? 

[nodrogd]

---

@r21442 wrote:

Why is it governments will not do useful stuff like acting on this crap? 

---

While we continue to use an outdated analogue phone system with no useable internet security it will continue to happen. The security system being developed in the US that uses a VoIP handshake requires both originator & receiver to be digital. The UK will not go all digital until 2025, when we will all be plugging our landlines phones into our routers.

The indian authorities are constantly chasing these bogus call centres, but the truth is that they can set up a another scam operation in a matter of hours of one being closed down.

[vanstond]

I had the same call a couple of days ago. They got access to my computer and almost got to my bank account. 

I virus scanned the PC , but I cannot access the Router to change the admin password - is this a risk?  Or other steps I need to take 

Thanks 

[Anonymous]

"I had the same call a couple of days ago. They got access to my computer and almost got to my bank account. "

education is always the way to avoid scams. People shouldn't be doing or giving anything to anyone that calls.

[Tudor]

NEVER EVER give out details of passwords, sort code, account #, address, date of birth or let them have access to your machine to anyone on the phone. Makes me have some sympathy with the banks who will not refund money to customers who have been lost money this way. It’s just common sense. Maybe it would be better to stop all incoming landline calls and just use it for emergency calls and of course calls to VM customer services!

[workmad3]

Just had this attempted scam from a displayed 0151 number.

It was quite amusing really, as I started by asking what they wanted, and said about intermittent problems and asked if I'd had any.

I refused to give any confirmation until they'd confirmed who they were more fully. They said they had my virgin customer ID... they then reeled off a long string of numbers and digits that didn't match anything I'd ever seen on any virgin paperwork. So I said they sounded like a scam call, and that they weren't to do anything until I was confident.

They then said that they'd turn off my router to 'prove' who they were, and were sounding quite upset. At the end, they said "Sir, you are a user, I am a technician, why won't you trust me?"... So I pointed out I was a Principal Engineer for a subdivision of a fortune-500 company, and that I deal with networks and software daily... while they were still flummoxed at that, I hung up on them.

Currently on hold to virgin to flag this up, although very little hope that they'll do anything. 

[Lisa_CC]

Thanks for posting this up workmad3 and for helping us and our members be aware of the different techniques they are using and we'll pass this onto our Security Team to give them a heads up.

Thanks,

Lisa

[mkneafsey]

What should you do if someone in your household recieved a call like this and started to do stuff they asked including command prompt stuff? I stopped them from going to the website they told them to go to, and thankfully they didn't give out any details regarding the Virgin account or bank accounts. I'm now wary of using my internet banking and stuff like that because of what's happened

[Lisa_CC]

Hey there mkneafsey, I completely understand your concerns. To confirm, we prefer to contact our customers via your online account and our service checker here . It's a good job that they didn't enter any log in details on the device but we would advise that you clear your browser cache and run your antivirus software to check if there is anything. It's also a good idea to periodically change your log in details to your various accounts too.

Thanks,

Lisa