Scam phone calls

[spiderrog]

It seems its my turn again to be subjected to a variety of scam phone calls.

Do Virgin Media have the will to prevent these calls from getting through as this problem has existed for some years now and there still no apparent action by VM to do anything about it.

These call seem to be on a roation cysle as I can go for a month or two without any and then starts again with calls about a variety of subjects

I would be interested to know what VM are planning to do about this

[goslow · Accepted solution]

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@spiderrog wrote:

It seems its my turn again to be subjected to a variety of scam phone calls.

Do Virgin Media have the will to prevent these calls from getting through as this problem has existed for some years now and there still no apparent action by VM to do anything about it.

These call seem to be on a roation cysle as I can go for a month or two without any and then starts again with calls about a variety of subjects

I would be interested to know what VM are planning to do about this

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Everyone gets their 'turn' with the scam calls. The numbers called are dialled automatically in number blocks and in high volumes.

There has been much talk of improved anti-scam-call measures when telephony is switched to VOIP post 2025. In the meantime you can expect much of the same until that time.

Fitting a device at your end of the line (such as a trueCall device or a BT phone with trueCall features built in) is the only really effective way to stop such calls at present.

[spiderrog]

Thankyou goslow

[Kath_F]

Hi spiderrog, 

Thanks for taking the time to post about your spam call  issues in the Community. ⭐

It's great that you've been able to recognise a scam when you hear one. Make sure you are reporting the calls to Action Fraud UK here so they can get as much information as possible to close the scammer down.

It's also worth registering for the Telephone Preference Service here. It is the UK’s only official ‘Do Not Call’ register for landlines and Mobile numbers and is free. That should help reduce the number of calls you receive. 

You can also find more information on this here. 

Please keep us posted on how things go. 

Many thanks, 

[spiderrog]

Thank you Kath, the Action Fraud site looks to be very complicated and I imagine the starting point for any report is to state the number the call was from. Usually the numver is not displayed or it is a random, often local, number shows on the display and is no help at all if the intent is track these people down.
You say that I should register on the TPS system, I have done that some years ago so not being certain that my number is still on their list I tried to re-register only to be advised that my number is already registerd, so the effectivemenss of the TPS servive is highly questionable in my view..

[Nathan_B]

Thanks for your reply @spiderrog while I can appreciate that this may be complicated reporting any numbers that could potentially be a scam account we would always recommend reporting these numbers so they can be shut down before any scamming takes place.

The TPS system, doesn't 100% stop scam calls. This would only reduce the number of calls anyone would get.

Regards

Nathan

[goslow]

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@spiderrog wrote:
Thank you Kath, the Action Fraud site looks to be very complicated and I imagine the starting point for any report is to state the number the call was from. Usually the numver is not displayed or it is a random, often local, number shows on the display and is no help at all if the intent is track these people down.
You say that I should register on the TPS system, I have done that some years ago so not being certain that my number is still on their list I tried to re-register only to be advised that my number is already registerd, so the effectivemenss of the TPS servive is highly questionable in my view..

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TPS won't stop any scam calls as it is simply a 'do not call' database for legitimate companies to use. It will have no affect at all against criminal scam callers. It's only function is to reduce marketing calls from legitimate companies.

Similarly Action Fraud may be useful for generic anti-scam advice or to make a report if an individual has been a victim of a fraud crime. There would be no benefit to the individual in reporting each call in an unrelenting wave of automated scam calls. It would just be a time consuming waste of effort on the part of the customer, unfortunately.

VM's regularly mentions these two organisations in replies on here in the absence of having an actual solutions to the problem of automated scam callers. It gives the appearance of some kind of action a customer can take but has minimal (no) benefit in reality.

The only way to stop the automated scam callers, unfortunately, is for the customer to invest in some equipment to screen out the scam calls and prevent them ringing the home phone.

[spiderrog]

As a suggestion, if calls are received purporting to be from Virgin Media, Bt, Miscrosoft or whoever they choose to purport to being an that occasion just ask them for the Passcode you had registered with the supplier. They will not have that information but to make this work VM and all need to set up an optional pass code ability. I wonde if VM could take up this idea?

[jem101]

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@spiderrog wrote:
As a suggestion, if calls are received purporting to be from Virgin Media, Bt, Miscrosoft or whoever they choose to purport to being an that occasion just ask them for the Passcode you had registered with the supplier. They will not have that information but to make this work VM and all need to set up an optional pass code ability. I wonde if VM could take up this idea?

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I see what you are suggesting, but all it takes is for one disgruntled employee in an offshore call centre, on whatever passes for minimum wage there, accepting a bribe from a criminal gang to hand over a set of details of customers and then....

But, he knew my 'secure' passcode so it must have been genuine, no?

[Adri_G]

Hey spiderrog, thanks for all the posts and replies.

We appreciate all the feedback and the info is being passed across to the relevant teams for future prevention.

In regard to a passphrase and your suggestion above, we do set up a memorable word on the account with our customers so they can safely access it over a call, however we're unable to view the characters or the whole word and we can only confirm a few random on each call.

That said, we'd advise to report the incident to the relevant links and authorities as seen on our page regarding the incident asap inf not yet.

Pop back here when you have more updates and feel free to ask if you have more questions.