scams??

Hubby answered the phone this morning the line was so bad that he couldn't hear what was being said for all the crackling, but he did make out something about broadband...and switching it off...then don't hang up.....I told him just to hang up as it was probably a scam...I googled the number that called ...it was 03162790397......from Ukraine....03162 is uk area code which was withdrawn from service ,
yesterday there was another call ,very bad line ...area code 01526.....when I googled it , it was being used for broadband scam 9 months ago....these scammers are everywhere...

Re: scams??

Yep. Had a silent call yesterday at 6am. Only answered it as I thought it might have been my daughter, as she had an early start.

The number came from South Korea.

Re: scams??

My son has put a parental lock on here, .it’s not funny, because I was nearly scammed a while back, I’m scared to click on anything now.

Re: scams??

Silent call....what can they do with a silent call?

Re: scams??

Register that it's a live line being used by a human ( ie me). This info will be passed onto multiple scammers/advertisers who will, no doubt, call in due course.

Re: scams??

And they use the same area codes, but change a couple of the numbers....

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Have often wondered how they manage to have so many numbers. Hopefully someone on here will be able to explain.

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Apparently my Amazon account is £70 in the red.......

I've never bought owt' from Amazon, how can that be...

Re: scams??

Meanwhile, my PayPal and Netflix accounts have been suspended. Apart from the minor detail that, in fact, they haven't

Re: scams??

There are plenty of ways.

Most obvious is thast they have a "calling machine, maybe a simple PC" which rings every number between, say, 00000000000 and 99999999999 (UK example).

If no response, they mark it as a dead line and carry on, if it is picked up, by a person, or an answering machine, they mark it as "active".

It won't take very long to fill up a memory stick, or disc, and they will then put these nuimbers up for sale, or use them for their own purposes.

The next day, they can go on to the next country.

Make yourself safer?

1) Ideally, you need your (mobile )phone to show the calling number but not repsond. You can then, later, check out the number to see who it was. Personally I never answer a number not in my contacts list. That can mean that you miss family calls, but that's easier to sort out.

2) On an ordinary house phone, same as above, but I have an answering machine because it tells me the calling number plus the fact that a family member will leave a message on the recorder.

Other ways of getting numbers? Well, when a business closes down, a disgruntled empolyee may well grab all the cutomerr numbers and sell them on. They also can do that before the business closes down.

Others will know more than I, but that's my twopenny's worth.