Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?

[chrisj.doran]

Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of identification?

Chris

[Ash]

Sounds like a scam to me ... never give your card details to a cold caller.

[John]

Something very similar to this was on my local (Leeds) news only this week,

A spokeperson for the leccy company said the usual "We do not kow anything about this, we would never ask for bank details, etc. etc,......."

HTH

John

[NT]

halving bills with a plugin box is impossible. If it were doable we'd all have one.

A clear scam.

NT

[Dave-UK]

Get yourself a shrill whistle or one of those compressed air personal alarms and keep it by the phone. Next time somebody gets annoying on the phone start speaking quietly so they hold their earpiece closer to their ear and then suddenly give them a blast.

Then I like to say " Can you keep your end a bit quieter, I can't hear you with all the noise in the background."

[Pete Verdon]

Not sure that will actually have the desired effect on a modern phone system. There's only so loud the receiving end will go.

Pete

[PJ]

Agreed. The only thing to successfully cut your bills in half is a pair of scissors.

[mogga]

Rick Roll them.

[Andy Champ]

If it happens again, take good note of the time and call the Police ASAP. I'm pretty sure they can override "number withheld", at least for UK numbers.

Andy

[David WE Roberts]

halving bills with a plugin box is impossible. If it were doable we'd all have one.

A clear scam.

NT

However,

but who knows?

EDF, however, are unlikely to be pushing this.

[David WE Roberts]

Also

the request for credit card details is a dead give away - however technically possible (or not) any offer is they do not need your credit card details unless they wish to take money from your credit card. If they wished to validate your identity using a credit card they could always read the details back to you for you to confirm. Even then you should worry. A firm with your details will ask for post code, address, date of birth, account number etc. but never your credit card details.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[JimK]

messagenews: [e-mail]...

mmm

sounds like a job for the new national fraud centre that was being enthused about on Radio 4 (you and yours?) last week they have a website

"To report a fraud to the National Fraud Reporting Centre, call 0300

123 2040 or Textphone 0300 123 2050. "

and are rolling it out bit by bit but this to me sounds like a good teeth cutter for them?

JimK

[Graham.]

pretty sure they can override "number withheld", at

But it's not a withheld number "The caller withheld their number", it's an unavailable number "We do not have the number to return the call". Probably from abroad.

If I was dishonest enough to do this, I would present a UK geographic number that has nothing to do with me, It's easy to do with VoIP and would give a false sense of security to people like yourself who believe that if it's got a valid number, it's tractable :-)

[Andy Champ]

Can't say I'm up enough on the systems to know if that difference is significant or not.

From my point of view, that's correct. However, I don't think the police would find it an intractable problem, as anyone would have put full traceability (which is probably what you meant to type :P ) into the systems. For bug tracking, if nothing else.

Andy

[OG]

I prefer the "Oh, I'm so sorry, do excuse me, can you hang on a minute?" and just put the phone on the table. 15 minutes is usually enough.

[Les Desser]

In article , Andy Champ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:18:20 writes

A while back I was getting lots of cold calls despite registering with TPS.

I called BT after such a call to ask them to trace it and was told it was almost certainly from abroad and not traceable.

They advised to hang up immediately and they would eventually stop.

Indeed that was what happened.

[chrisj.doran]

Given the accents of the two callers, that'll be the police in Mumbai, then :-))

It looks as if I'm on a hit list. I've just had this one:

-- first you get a "bank satisfaction survey" which asks the name of your bank, then one about overcharge refunds which asks for your CC number. They're getting quite security minded -- the chap even gave me his name, Jeffrey Patel (yeah!), and his staff ID at First Call Direct.

Chris

[Andy Champ]

Could be Leicester :) But the Bombay or wherever police might be interested, if they can be tracked.

Andy