Radio 4 featured a telephone scam this morning. Scammers phone saying they are from BT and the bill had not been paid. The phone will be cut of immediately if you don't pay by card there and then. If you question who they are they say they will cut the line to prove it's BT. Reconnection will be £75 plus VAT and you may have to have a new number. They tell you to hang up the phone and try to make a call. They can stop this so they must be BT!
You try and yes the phones dead but thats simply because they have not hung up and cleared your line. So you believe them. They ring back in 1 minute having proved their point, you think they cut the phone and must be from BT and pay your bill over the phone using your card. Sometimes they say it's declined and try another card so they scam two card and security numbers from you. Card numbers are used within minutes to buy phone top up cards which are as good as money. One woman gave out three sets of card details. Another suspected a scam and when she'd hung up the phone she phoned her bank immediately to cancel the card but still lost £30.

We are all savvy to emails from Nigeria and from banks and building societies. The Virgin email I posted yesterday and the phone scam are about unpaid bills and do not immediately ring the phishing bell. Done well there's lots of chat about the problem and helping you resolve it. You are almost friends with this helpful caller and off your guard by the time they ask for your details. They distract you by inducing anxiety and with the threat of inconvenience (changing your phone number) and the cost to you. Clever!

Tell everyone in the family and your friends.

Nigel

[Edited on 17/6/09 by Dusty]

It was only a matter of time before these people grew some kind of intelligence.
If BT phone me, i normally just hang up straight away. If it really is (which it normally is) BT they will phone back.