OT: Cunning new scam.

[Andy Burns]

If the scammers wanted, they *could* replicate that too ...

You hang up, scammers keep you on the line, play you a fake dial tone, relay whatever digits you dial for your friend as an outbound call on another of their lines, patch the two calls together, let you speak to your mate, once you've convinced yourself the line is OK and hang up again, they *still* keep you on the line and play you more fake dial tone, then you dial the C/C number, they play you some fake ring tone and they "answer".

As described earlier, the recall button (or a different line, or mobile) really is your friend (does any of this apply in NZ?)

[Mike Clarke]

You can check for this by calling your landline *from* your mobile. If it rings out you're OK, if engaged then they're still holding the line.

[Huge]

If you have your mobile to hand, why not just call the CC company?

[Mike Clarke]

It could give you the chance to waste their time by making the call they suggest and feeding them with totally duff information.

[Jethro_uk]

If everyone did this, it would stop overnight.

Occasionally, for fun, I'll fill in a few phishing sites with bogus details. Which IMHO would be an excellent government-backed scheme for jobseekers. On piecework ;)

[Adrian C]

Definately. Site hosted on Amazon AWS. Poster anonymously posting from US IP.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That is the obvious way to get round this sort of scam.

[Scott M]

There was some service or other of little value (or probably even interest) that I registered online for and it insisted I came up with a password should I ever need to phone them and also asked for a reminder clue. I can't for the like of me remember what this service was, but a password was overkill; it was probably on a par with a paper delivery or a milk round, so I filled it in with an idiot password, not wanting to use my usual ones and promptly forgot about it.

A year or three later I actually had reason to phone up and was asked for the password. I couldn't even remember filling one in, yet alone what it was. I tried some of my simple ones I tended to use for things and after a couple of tries the operator said "Would you like your hint?"

"Oooh, yes please," says I, hoping I wasn't in one of my more obscure moods.

"Your hint is this: 'Your password is begonia'."

"Ah... Is it begonia?"

"Yes, thankyou, now what can we do for you today?"

[Bob Eager]

Or a VoIP system.

[tony sayer]

In article , [e-mail] scribeth thus

Many years ago we had a call from a Detective Inspector at new Scotland yard about some radio equipment we sold to a large construction firm in London.

This DI seemed more like the son of a country vicar than a John Regan soundalike and I was thinking just what mate of mine set this up and I asked if I could call him back so I took his name and rank and I thought I'd check if Whitehall 1212 did indeed exist....

Called New Scotland Yard and sure enough this DI did exist and it was a genuine call. Terrorism branch, it appeared that they found the radios wired up to some sticks of Semtex and wanted to know just who we sold them to!...

This was back in the days when the IRA were rather active in London!!!...

[tony sayer]

One for the "know-alls" over on uk.telecom but isn't there a difference in the time the line will remain held from a landline call to a mobbie one?..

Can't try it here as we only have VoIP and Mobiles these days...

[orion.osiris]

-cost-thousands.html

I just say, "Oh, you really need to speak to the householder. Just hang on a minute and I'll get them." Then I leave the phone off the hook for about

20 minutes or until they get sick of waiting. Gives me a feeling of tremend ous satisfaction. :)

[PeterC]

That's the way to do it!

[Davey]

My first car was an AC. An AC Petite, the three-wheeler.

But it sounds impressive when I leave off the model name.

[Bob Eager]

Or a BMW...

...Isetta bubble car.

[Andy Wade]

Maternal maiden names are as good as useless for security. As any fule (or genealogist) knows they've appeared in the General Register Office's index of births since 1912. The GRO indices are public records and with FreeBMD's coverage now extending well into the 1960s, you don't even need an Ancestry or FMP subscription.

Using the Companies' House website, one of the many directors' names websites and the GRO index I reckon that Colin's MMN is not Thatcher, but is one that has acquired royal associations in the last couple of years (begins with an M). It took me all of five minutes to find that out. Much harder for a John Smith though...

[Bob Eager]

Sounds like SWMBO's maiden name...!

[Andy Wade]

... checks marriages index. Oh yes so it is.

[Rick Hughes]

so you dial without getting dial tone first ? ..... self inflicted then. I always wait for dial tone

[Rick Hughes]

Only people who do not wait for dial tone before making a call presumably ?