Phone call from Virgin

[Yvette-G]

Just received a call, on my landline, from someone saying they were calling from Virgin and that at least five people are using my wifi and have I given access to anyone outside my household, the answer is no I haven't.  They then asked me if I had a computer or mobile and to bring up W3c validation service on google.  I did this and it brought up a page to validate by URI.  I did not go any further and they ended the call.  I presume this is a scam.  Just wanted to confirm with someone.

[goslow · Accepted solution]

Yep, correct, 100% scam call.

[japitts]

Almost certainly a scam - not the first and, sorry to say, won't be the last.

No ISP will call you like this - it's a very common scammer's cover story.

I find that asking them to confirm the IP address they think is being used, often causes them to hang up pretty quickly - although alternative tactics are available, should you have the inclination. If you don't, then just hang up on them.

[Yvette-G]

Thank you

[goslow]

And to elaborate a little further, no broadband providers (inc. VM) make unsolicited tech support calls out of the blue. You will undoubtedly get more of the same and they may be slight 'variations on a theme' of whatever story they come up with (refund scam, tech support scam, banking scam etc. etc.).

As advised by @japitts, best approach is to hang up without talking to them. A phone line which is never answered, or hung up immediately each time, will slowly work its way down the list of numbers being automatically dialled and be demoted for the scammers' attention (although that may take some time to happen!)