OT: Cunning new scam.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

This scam was rather more 'professional' than most. I'm usually quite alert to them, but damn near got caught by this one.

Got a call about 6 pm on the landline from someone saying they were a DC at Paddington Police station and they had a suspect in custody who had used my credit card, at a posh shop in Westfields, to buy a watch costing

7000 quid. Had my name and address right - and I'm fairly sure mentioned the card(s) I actually have. Didn't ask for any personal information, but urged me to phone the credit card company right away to cancel it and report the fraud. Gave a crime number too. The 'DC' was very well spoken with a slight 'black' accent.

So I dialled the number on the back of the card and got through right away. (that should have rung bells - but I'd not used that number before) Was asked all the usual questions - date of birth, mother's maiden name etc. All fairly normal until she told me I had to go - now - to the shop where the offence had taken place with both my credit and debit cards. That made no sense to me so I asked why and she got a bit irate. Again, well spoken with a slight 'black' accent. I asked to speak to her supervisor. She said she was the supervisor. So I terminated the call.

Decided to phone the credit card company - no dial tone on the landline. So used the mobile. Got the switchboard with the usual press 1 or whatever. And cancelled the card. Was told I'd given the wrong mother's maiden name (which was true - I'd changed it some months earlier) so the scammers hadn't got that. Just really my date of birth.

Checked my bank account and credit card balances - all normal.

Just what would have happened if I'd gone to the shop, I dunno.

[Graham.]

It's a good thing I'm honest, I could set things up on my Asterisk box to deliver that telephone scam, and it would have all the authentic dial tone IVRs MOH and call queues.

[Bob Eager]

Not a particularly new scam. The old trick of not ringing off, then playing a dialtone and ringing tone when the mark thinks they are calling the number on the card. Detailed in an article in the 'i' last week as well.

Except for the part about going to the shop. Perhaps they were waiting to mug you for the card on the way.

[Bob Eager]

Same here!

[Tony Bryer]

[Graham.]

Not very imaginative getting the "CC call-centre" to ask you to go to the shop. More plausible if the "detective" called back and asked you to go on the pretext that the criminals are likely to have targeted a victim they knew, and you might be able to identify them.

[Graham.]

I put the phone down, picked it up again and dialled 999... ...When a constable picked up the phone, I asked: ?Do you have a DCI Jane Seymour of the Serious Fraud Squad?? ?Yes, I?ll connect you.?

[Matty F]

This can be summarised by "if you put the phone down, but the other party does not, they stay on the line" Well how stupid is it for the phone system to do that?

[Bob Eager]

Replace 'other' by 'calling', though.

[Tim+]

Actually quite a useful feature if you want to change extensions that you're answering a call on. You can "hang up" on one handset and the pick up another without losing the caller. Does this not work on your phone system?

That said, now that this "feature" is being exploited maybe it's time to do away with it.

Tim

[Martin Brown]

I'd be very suspicious of any call handling centre that could do that!

I have found a new way to annoy cold callers that leave momentary dead air as their dialer handling system routes cold calls to a free bod. They now get the same in return "dead air" back and close it down. (much quicker than remonstrating with them)

[Andy Burns]

Or BT could implement a feature so that when you pick up the phone again you get prompted "press 1 to continue with the previous call, or 2 to make a new call" except they'd charge £3/month for it and nobody'd know what it was about anyway.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Called party cleardown timer - around 3 minutes before BT disconnects although the exchange can vary it in some circumstancies, e.g. much shorter for international calls, and unlimited if emergency operator calls you back.

There's also a Calling party cleardown timer which is set short enough to cleardown with anything longer than a hookflash, but again there are exceptions, e.g. you can't clear a call to the emergency operator - it remains connected until they cleardown.

It doesn't exist on mobiles, and as fewer people regularly use landline phones, awareness of this feature (which used to be taken for granted) has probably dropped to very low levels.

[GB]

It only takes a moment to say "Can you hang on a minute, please." Then leave them hanging. One chap hung on for 10 minutes. I was really surprised when I went to put the receiver back that he was still there.

I think that we all have a duty to up the cost for cold callers, as if we all did it the flow of calls would reduce.

[GB]

And the scammers could replicate that, too.

[Andy Burns]

Not really, because you'd have had to press 1 to re-connect to the scammer before hearing the scammer's fake "press 1" announcement.

[Adrian]

Dead easy workaround.

When you pick the phone up, ring 1471 and make a note of the last caller's number.

If you're still suspicious that that might have been "replicated" - yes, it could fairly easily be using Asterisk or similar phone server software

- then just dial 1571 and listen to whatever voicemail you've got kicking about on there. That _can't_ be replicated.

Then ring the number that you've just looked up via t'web or the back of your plastic.

Job jobbed.

[Andy Burns]

Scammer plays recording of DigiDot saying "You were called today at $TIME, sorry we do not have the caller's number to return the call"

How is it a dead easy workaround, if it too can be hijacked?

Scammer plays a recording of DigiDot syaing "you have no voicemails" or whatever. Not everyone has a 1571 service.

Or clear the call down the proper way?

press recall, replace receiver, wait for the ringback (which the scammer can't fake) ignore the ringing until it stops, pick up receiver and make your call.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thanks for that...it explains exactly how it was done too.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It always has done. The caller initiates the call and is responsible for clearing it.

Moral: use a mobile if the call comes in on the landline.