Plagued by scam calls DON'T POST PHONE NUMBERS

Pandiculation · 15-05-2021 2:42am

yrreg0850 wrote: »

Will this not affect genuine callers who wish to leave a message.

Just record it in with your message. Doesn’t have to be at the start.

Humans can understand language, the autodialler software just listens for specific audio signals like that tone is 3 very specific frequencies that are interpreted by those devices, but also things like modems / faxes etc as a connection failure.

15-05-2021 3:51am

Mcelroa3 wrote: »

Hi all,

I got a call from +353 83 3665098 earlier. It was an automated voice saying it was the dept of social protection and they had found suspicious activity on my pps number and they are taking me to court for drug smuggling or some other nonsense.

I got that aswell, from two different 083 numbers, over two different days. Robotic voice telling me Social Welfare are doing me for fraud and the Gardai are doing me for drug trafficking, and I can 'press 1 to speak to the investigating officer'.

I do admire their optimism, that the Gardai and Welfare could cross-communicate and work so effectively together. :P

I also do laugh at the idea of the Gardai and Welfare inspectors huddled around a white board with all my details, info and movements, studying it for hours and EUREKA! We've got KKV for the money laundering and drug trafficking... better give him a phone call and let him know.

15-05-2021 3:57am

Also, got not 1, not 2, but 3 DHL text messages (SMS) to my phone.

"Payment of import duty/tax & advance fee is required for DHL Express [tracking number] from GREEN AND BROWN LTD. Pay securely: [link to pay]"

Needless to say I rolled my eyes and ignored it. Turns out it's actually genuine :rolleyes: I ordered blinds off BlindsDirect.ie. Turns out they operate under the name green and brown (which I only found out by googling it). You'd think DHL's text would have at least started with my full name, seen as they have it. The minute a text starts with the word "payment" I roll my eyes and mutter 'scam'.

It would help if legitimate services at least made an effort to standardise their services or at least seem more genuine by including more details. (although maybe if I'd known that green and brown was the name of the company i ordered from, it would have helped!)

Optimalprimerib · 15-05-2021 4:12am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I answered one of them, pressed 1 when prompted, then got put through to a guy with a foreign accent. I watch scambaiting videos all the time so I am already very familiar with his script. I told him my name was Mary Doil, I spelled Doil for him just that way, I told him I didn't know my Eircode but I live in Farmtown, Co. Cavan. He accepted all this information as genuine, then proceeded to tell me that my social security number was bring used in Dublin for bad things. I asked "What bad things?" He replied money laundering and drug trafficking. I said I know that, that was me. I did that. He went quiet for a moment then back to the script, telling me they would need to cancel my social security number. I said OK. Go ahead. He hung up.

And I haven't had a call since. A nice four minutes of my time, and theirs.

I would be worried about being charged for accepting the call. I would check your bill if I was you. I was called by them today but hung up straight away.

fritzelly · 15-05-2021 5:15am

Could easily block all these numbers if any telco in the country (or anywhere really, its not just Ireland) could be bothered to implement it into their systems

Tho I do love keeping the Indian scammers on the line for as long as I can

Iderown · 15-05-2021 6:35am

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

I've strung a few of them along through the years and wasted their time. I never get any calls now,

Used to love wasting these guys' time. One of the best things that I did with them was to convince them that my name is XXXXX YYYYY. They used to know my real name. So, now when they ring, I know immediately that it is scammer.
Things have changed now somewhat with those calls. Get the automated "headline" message first. I have never gone as far as to press the "1" to continue.

We are retired. We disconnect the line until maybe 09:30. That seems to have decreased the number of calls later in the day.

15-05-2021 8:45am

Optimalprimerib wrote: »

I would be worried about being charged for accepting the call. I would check your bill if I was you. I was called by them today but hung up straight away.

I wasn't charged.

Pandiculation · 15-05-2021 1:22pm

fritzelly wrote: »

Could easily block all these numbers if any telco in the country (or anywhere really, its not just Ireland) could be bothered to implement it into their systems

Tho I do love keeping the Indian scammers on the line for as long as I can

It may eventually happen, but voice telephone services run on fairly primitive computer technology - or at least rely on some very obsolete signalling protocols that have very limited ability to filter or verify anything.

There are huge issues trying to add security old systems and protocols that are used that were developed in an era when they just trusted the information that was sent because it was coming from some trustworthy telecommunication company. Nowadays with VoIP anyone can send calls into gateways with basically any caller ID information and the exchanges have no ability to analyse or filter that really at all.

Smartphones can do it using apps on board, but as yet the networks haven’t really bothered to implement spam filters.

There’s also a ton of regulatory issues as you’ll get complaints to the ITU etc say eir or Vodafone started applying filters to inbound traffic from certain countries.

The landline networks in particular, until they transition to VoIP, are largely still running on legacy digital technology from the 80s and 90s that has little or no intelligence beyond basic call routing.

What they should do is have verified Caller ID. That’s becoming possible and has begun to be (slowly) implemented in the US. It’s something the European regulators will need to look at. However, it seems spam calls tend to target English speaking and major language speaking countries e.g. french. You get relatively far fewer on the continent.

In the US the volume of scam and telemarketing calls has driven phone answering down, which is why the telcos finally reacted. It was making voice telephony as useful as spammy email.

It’s got to the stage over there you absolutely need a spam filter on your mobile and many people are just seeing landlines as a source of endless spam and having them taken out.

Alibear57 · 21-05-2021 8:28am

whiterebel wrote: »

....Mine is my business number, so its not as if I can'y answer it.

You are right to get annoyed with these twits. Many people on this forum have private home numbers and, whilst getting these calls when relaxing at home is bad enough, getting them when you are trying to make a living is criminal. Many a time I have, prematurely, and hastily said "goodbye" to an important customer, because they heard my phone ringing and acknowledged that it might be an important business call, so graciously left my shop to allow me to answer it. You can probably imagine my sheer anger when I hear some foreign idiot telling me about the accident I had last year (utter lies), or that my internet will be disconnected because of irregular activity (yeah, YOU CALLING ME, that's what I call IRREGULAR ACTIVITY).

Something NEEDS to be done by the telecom companies who KNOW this is going on and DO have the power to stop it, they monitor and record every call and know where they are coming from.

corkie · 21-05-2021 4:00pm

083 scam: Gardai share list of bogus numbers after major increase in scam calls

""Some of the numbers involved begin with the following digits.

+353 8336
080066
353 01 888
1(647)375

"Gardaí wish to warn members of the public not to engage or share personal information. The Department of Social Welfare will never call you to ask you for your PPS number or bank details."

Kalimah · 21-05-2021 4:36pm

I’ve been getting calls from 1529 4275 the last three days. Keep missing them!
Also got the “ Revenue” one with the legal action pending against me. I should have answered that one and strung them along for a bit of fun!

ongarite · 21-05-2021 6:34pm

corkie wrote: »

083 scam: Gardai share list of bogus numbers after major increase in scam calls

""Some of the numbers involved begin with the following digits.

+353 8336
080066
353 01 888
1(647)375

"Gardaí wish to warn members of the public not to engage or share personal information. The Department of Social Welfare will never call you to ask you for your PPS number or bank details."

I got 4 of these calls from different 083 prefixes in the space of 20 minutes.
All went to voicemail with robo-voice claiming to be from Department of Social Welfare warning of pending legal action

ElitesTeam · 26-05-2021 2:58pm

ongarite wrote: »

I got 4 of these calls from different 083 prefixes in the space of 20 minutes.
All went to voicemail with robo-voice claiming to be from Department of Social Welfare warning of pending legal action

I had 3 calls today of the same

Atlantic Dawn · 29-05-2021 12:58am

I'd normally get one of these calls every month or so, this week I have had 10 plus with 3 of them in the middle of the night, why can't mobile operators allow you to block all calls from absolute sh!thole kips of countries? Every time it's a different number, coming from North Macedonia and Cuba.

ClosedAccountFuzzy · 29-05-2021 1:01am

I don’t know why the telcos can’t just parse the numbers and block anything that’s not making sense.

We really need to move to verified Caller ID. As it stands the networks will just pass anything though and display it.

Some of the older aspects of the landline network would be pretty Stone Age computer systems (globally) but things are rapidly moving to more modern technologies that should be able to do more.

The other issue is the international rules and regulations for signalling protocols can be the lowest common denominator and you will find the ITU members will object to traffic being blocked or extra signalling being required.

A lot of interconnection still relies on a set of protocols called SS7 (Signalling System 7) which originated in the 70s, 80s and 90s in should be in the history books, along side ISDN and that early era of non internet based digital communications. It’s not flexible enough or secure enough to be interacting with modern VoIP systems, so it can’t see things like if Caller ID is real or spoofed and so on. Digital but primitive.

Really this needs to be dealt with by the EU regulators and FCC etc getting together and changing the rules.

29-05-2021 1:02am

If you answer them and say nothing they think you are ice cold and they dont call back

fritzelly · 29-05-2021 1:07am

Deleted User wrote: »

If you answer them and say nothing they think you are ice cold and they dont call back

If you answer you are confirming the number is real

ClosedAccountFuzzy · 29-05-2021 1:09am

If you see a weird number that doesn’t look like any recognisable format or appears to be from some odd country you’re definitely not expecting calls from just don’t answer it.

If it’s a real number, just hang up on it when you answer. Don’t waste your time engaging.

Also don’t assume the calls actually originated from the country codes you’re seeing. They’re mostly just entirely fakes with made up numbers.

For example I was getting calls from +53 which is Cuba, but I think it’s just a gateway switch somewhere screwing up a fake +353.

That’s also why blocking countries would be counterproductive end unfair as the calls aren’t even originating on their networks and have nothing to do with them.

29-05-2021 1:10am

fritzelly wrote: »

If you answer you are confirming the number is real

sure if they get a dial tone the number has to be real

ClosedAccountFuzzy · 29-05-2021 1:12am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

sure if they get a dial tone the number has to be real

If they just get no answer or voicemail they may remove it from a list as it’s a waste of time.

They’re looking for humans.

Often it’s even a computer dialling random numbers looking for someone who isn’t a voicemail box or an unanswered number.

So don’t answer and if you do answer just immediately hang up. Don’t even bother interacting.

fritzelly · 29-05-2021 1:13am

Deleted User wrote: »

sure if they get a dial tone the number has to be real

It's logged as answered and passed on to other entities

29-05-2021 1:17am

fritzelly wrote: »

It's logged as answered and passed on to other entities

We were getting land line calls from "microsoft security", the silent treatment worked

Sure they can probably see land line numbers in a phone book

fritzelly · 29-05-2021 1:19am

Deleted User wrote: »

We were getting land line calls from "microsoft security", the silent treatment worked

Sure they can probably see land line numbers in a phone book

Those guys sell their lists to other similar scams
They're not going thru phonebooks lol

ClosedAccountFuzzy · 29-05-2021 1:19am

The other thing to do is respond as if you’re the main reception in a business.

Good afternoon! How can I help you?
I’m sorry, do you know the extension number you are trying to reach?! Which department do you want?

They’ll flag your line as a business and you won’t get called again.

fritzelly · 29-05-2021 1:22am

FuzzyThinking wrote: »

The other thing to do is respond as if you’re the main reception in a business.

Good afternoon! How can I help you?
I’m sorry, do you know the extension number you are trying to reach?! Which department do you want?

They’ll flag your line as a business and you won’t get called again.

That doesn't work - they'll switch scams

ClosedAccountFuzzy · 29-05-2021 1:25am

fritzelly wrote: »

That doesn't work - they'll switch scams

Tends to if it’s a receptionist as they know they won’t get put through. They tend to try to target people directly in companies, or small businesses by dialling extensions directly.

Most of the “war dialled” phishing calls aren’t aimed at business. They’re looking for gullible individuals on their own, often landlines tend to lead them to older people too which is unfortunate and why you should endure you make older relatives aware of the fact they should immediately hang up.

I’d also suspect the volume of calls has increased because people aren’t in offices and are answering mobile and landlines more due to the pandemic being work from home.

JCX BXC · 29-05-2021 1:35am

Our landline at home was plagued with them since COVID arrived, several calls a day to a phone which would regularly sit idle for weeks.

Eventually I answered one, it was a Indian woman with the antiquated 'hello I am from Microsoft and your computer has a virus". I replied with, 'that's interesting because I don't have a laptop or computer". I got an aggressive "f*ck you" down the phone and since then we've not gotten a single scam call.

Very strange.

Ish66 · 29-05-2021 1:36am

Nobody rings me..ever !:D

fritzelly · 29-05-2021 1:37am

Ish66 wrote: »

Nobody rings me..ever !:D

Tell me your phone number, PPS number and name and I'll ring you

ClosedAccountFuzzy · 29-05-2021 2:07am

The main thing I would stress is that you explain very clearly to any more gullible family members that they should just hang up on these calls and never give them any details.

Also to stress not to be frightened by them. They’re just random dialling, thousands of miles away and can’t do anything to you.

I’ve just seen too many people being intimidated by these calls. They need to be just brushed aside like email spam.

For mobiles there are fairly good call filtering services like Hiya and so on. Samsung actually seems to bundle it into the software by default.

Plagued by scam calls *DON'T POST PHONE NUMBERS*

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Plagued by scam calls DON'T POST PHONE NUMBERS