jeallen01
Specialist Contributor
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Morning
You have all probably had or heard about the telephone calls from “Microsoft Technical Support” saying that there is a problem with your computer and that the person needs to connect to it to fix something, and which then turns out to cost people an infected computer and probably then a lot of money – but the following is a new one on me!
Yesterday I got a call from “someone” appearing to say that he was from some sort of BT “Technical Support” about “your BT Landline” – I got him to confirm that he was talking about a BT Landline, and then said “Sorry, we don’t have a BT Line” (which is true – it is a dedicated, not leased, Virgin landline!) and put the phone down! He never called back!!!
This seems to have been pretty obviously a “phishing”/scamming call because, had he been a genuine BT Tech Support guy, then he would have known that we did not have one of their lines and would not have called us – but it could easily catch out someone who does have a BT line (which is most people because they either have BT lines, or lines which are leased from BT, or don’t actually know who supplies their landlines). I don’t know where such a call might lead, but it could turn out to be very expensive if you get “caught”!
Therefore I suggest that if you do get any calls like this then do what I did (even if you do have a BT Landline then just make up something if you must), and/or if you know someone who has/might have one then maybe warn them of the possibilities. Perfectly happy for you to pass this on.
All the best.
John
You have all probably had or heard about the telephone calls from “Microsoft Technical Support” saying that there is a problem with your computer and that the person needs to connect to it to fix something, and which then turns out to cost people an infected computer and probably then a lot of money – but the following is a new one on me!
Yesterday I got a call from “someone” appearing to say that he was from some sort of BT “Technical Support” about “your BT Landline” – I got him to confirm that he was talking about a BT Landline, and then said “Sorry, we don’t have a BT Line” (which is true – it is a dedicated, not leased, Virgin landline!) and put the phone down! He never called back!!!
This seems to have been pretty obviously a “phishing”/scamming call because, had he been a genuine BT Tech Support guy, then he would have known that we did not have one of their lines and would not have called us – but it could easily catch out someone who does have a BT line (which is most people because they either have BT lines, or lines which are leased from BT, or don’t actually know who supplies their landlines). I don’t know where such a call might lead, but it could turn out to be very expensive if you get “caught”!
Therefore I suggest that if you do get any calls like this then do what I did (even if you do have a BT Landline then just make up something if you must), and/or if you know someone who has/might have one then maybe warn them of the possibilities. Perfectly happy for you to pass this on.
All the best.
John
