Tag Archives: scam

Top5 Annoying Callers – The Unknown Spammers

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Dear tellows friends!

Finally we manage to give you an update on the recently most annoying numbers on tellows.co.uk. Most of the numbers of todays ranking will still be impenetrable afterward, but see it for yourself!

1. 08000641087 with 7 comments and 8433 search requests. tellows Score: 5
2. 01925555601 with 5 comments and 2962 search requests. tellows Score: 8
3. 08003160492 with 1 comments and 828 search requests. tellows Score: 6
4. 02078909052 with 7 comments and 3005 search requests. tellows Score: 7
5. 02084336082 with 2 comments and 714 search requests. tellows Score: 8

The tellows community is quite unsure about the source of number 1. A lot of people got called, but no one answered the phone. Calling back was not working at all. Joe reports:

This number called 5 times but leave any message; surely it is up to something bad. I dont how it had number but I have two theories. Either from ITV after submitting an answer to a competition or moneysupermarket.com after buying insurance, the only two companies I have recently given my number.

His two options might be good hints for someone else, who also got called and now sees a connection. Do not hesitate to share your experience on 08000641087 as well! Another conclusion about the source if this number can be made be looking at a comment on the German tellows website of this number, Lee Mollins tells us:

It’s a firm called LBM marketing and they appear to work on behalf of several of the networks – including O2, Orange

The case is pretty similar with number 2 of this weeks most annoying numbers. Although we registered 2962 search requests, there are not much comments that tell more about the origin of 01925555601. A lot of times, no one answered or the phone was put down. While Ryan says:

sounded like the guy off fonejacker persistant in offering me upgrades rolling contract says hes from O2 then from Carphone none of which have ever rung me off a Warrington number… avoid

River has a different explanation:

they called me today and said i qualified for a new handset- it is being delivered to my work tomorrow. It’s Carphone Warehouse whom I have a contract with. Nonetheless it sounded a little too dodgy for me.

Either way, there is no solid conclusion what this number is about. Still, most of the users rated this number as untrustworthy.

Also number 4 02078909052 is a quite mysterious number, the suspected owner ranges from staff of “carglass”, service providers for several banks and even members of the department of education. What is clear, there is no serious intention behind these calls. Kathleen sums up, what a lot of other users might also think:

I am really fed up with these type of constant calls, I am ex-directory and with the Telephone Preference Service I have complained about this number to Ofcom and will keep doing this every time I get these unwanted calls. It’s about time the government did something about this constant harassment.

We always want to provide you with a lot of information regarding nuisance and spam callers, but as a matter of fact, you, the community of tellows, is needed for it! Through commenting and sharing experience others will be encouraged to talk as well, or even take action against scammers and spammers. This week we come to realize, that it is sometimes hard to get the needed information, which makes cooperating much more essential.

Stay tuned

your tellows team!

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Ofcom Study – Ban on Cold Calling is claimed

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A research initiated by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) reveals the truth about unsolicited nuisance calls in the UK and thus calls for action to solve to problem of far too many cold calls.

The Ofcom Study
Within a period of four weeks 850 consumers were asked to keep a diary of all cold calls they receive. The Ofcom research revealed that 80 percent of the participants received unwanted calls regularly, on an average even more than twice a week. Especially calls on PPI reclaim (Payment Protection Insurance) were the most annoying and yet also the most often ones. While at least one out of four people got called more than 10 times, most calls came from PPI claim companies as well as from market research firms.

What is next?
In terms of the survey findings the Citizens Advice called for a complete ban on cold calling. Not only because more than one third of all complaints from companies are related to cold calls. Mostly firms dealing with financial services use cold and silent calls and thereby demanding upfront fees or trying to sell unprofitable offers, cheating people out of their pension. Furthermore the companies get personal data through the nuisance calls, mostly unbeknown and unauthorised by the individuals. A ban would help to make cold calls clearly identifiable as illegal. Citizens Advice recommends the banning of credit brokers and claims management companies as well as of pension unlocking services.

Ofcom follows a different strategy though. Not the banning but a wide investigation into claims management companies making the cold calls is needed. Thereby not only the big companies will be in the focus of enforcement actions, also smaller companies are responsible for the nuisance calls to a large extent and should be overseen. Ofcom is now promoting wider investigation and action regarding cold calls, especially dealing with claims. Thereby they focus on silent calls as well, which are done by the company’s telephone systems automatically without even having a staff member conducting the calls.

Taking Action
The government as well as other regulators and institutions are called upon to take action more effectively. Ofcom already imposed penalties for silent and abandoned calls done by major firms as TalkTalk. Furthermore the ICO supports the attempts of Ofcom by pointing out the regulations and industry rules to over 170 marketing companies. Nevertheless householders can get active themselves. By signing up for the free Telephone Preference Service (TPS) individuals can stop nuisance calls on the purpose of marketing and sales. However, as we already mentioned in our last article, it is extremely hard to block most of the calls, as they often come from overseas call centres. Not more than one third of all abandoned calls can be cut out. For further improvement Ofcom is currently collaborating with the ICO and the Ministry of Justice for more effective actions.

We will keep you informed about upcoming achievements in the struggle against nuisance calls in our blog on tellows UK.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/may/17/ofcom-urged-ban-cold-calling

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Students – more likely become victims of a scam

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Mobile phone fraud involves a variety of scams that either persuade you to buy phone-related products/services that turn out to be non-existent or to make phone calls or texts to premium services by accident or to unknowingly sign up to expensive subscription services. And each year millions of the UK consumers fall victim to mobile phone frauds.
There is one group of people who are more likely to become a victim of a scam – students! Students are using their mobile phones almost 24 h a day and they are open to communication with the world. Those might be the reasons for the latest frauds in the UK, when students were victims.
Last fall college students have been left in thousands of pounds of debt after becoming involved in a mobile phone contract scam. A fraud has made young people sign up for numerous expensive mobile phone deals on the promise they will not be required to fulfil them. Young people from Preston College have taken out mobile phone contracts which they hand over to a fraudster, who promised to cancel the contracts. But instead he shipped them abroad to places like India and Pakistan leaving students facing bills for more than £2,000 each. Some of them were paid a fee for their work, while others were probably conned into the belief taking mobile phones would “improve their credit rating.” Police have today revealed frauds – criminals from Blackburn.
Very often scammed are especially international students. Tellows user m.wentzel reported number 02032398294 and his comment:

This is one of the numbers that pretends to be from the UKBA to fool international students in the UK and tell them there is something wrong with their imigration application. They have parts of your data (maybe name, zip-code etc.) and they try to get ALL of your information plus your credit card details. Do not give that information!

In 2012 BBC informed that in nine months viruses that steal cash have jumped from 29% of mobile malware to 62% . Mobile security firm Lookout said viruses were getting on to phones via booby-trapped apps and through adverts and webpages harbouring malware. Those viruses added charges to a user’s bill to cash in. Fraudsters inserted a virus called “NotCompatible”. Such a virus might be used to artificially inflate the popularity of an advert, a song on a music website to help generate a larger return for criminals.
Another example of scam adds has been reported by Tellows user London on number 07572597532:

Be careful people. This guy puts fakes adds on gumtree. But is a scam.
Trust me. This guy is a scammer.

People are being tricked into signing up, often by typing in their mobile number online, for services they actually don’t want. Messages are then sent out which can cost users up to £4.50 per text to receive. Unless people keep a close eye on their mobile phone bills those charges can add up very quickly. For example, twenty-four-year-old Beth Coundley from Chichester got caught out after receiving around five texts a month for five months. In total she was charged around £130 despite insisting she never signed up for any services.
And those are just few examples of this huge problem. To protect yourself it is better not to respond to unknown numbers, to reply to text messages from someone you don’t know, to reply to any text that claims you won money. We have to remember it is not possible to win money without entering a competition.
Taking into consideration the amount of phone frauds, the UK government is doing everything possible to protect their citizens. There are advices how to protect yourself and your money in the internet, also everybody who becomes victims can make a fraud information report on webpage of Tellows. Police and National Fraud Authority are working together to fight this fight. Unfortunately, the development of technologies guarantees the development of fraudsters’ imagination.

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Weekly Update on the UK’s Top 5 Most Wanted Telephone Numbers

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Here we go again with Tellows weekly update on 5 most annoying spam and scam numbers in the UK. Let’s have a look what has been changed and who is the new Top 5 leader this week:

1. 01422387713 from Halifax – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 9
2. 01618505451 from Manchester – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 8
3. 01792455426 from Swansea – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 8
4. 01933441081 from Wellingborough – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 7
5. 01942710601 from Wigan – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 7

1st place this week goes to the number 01422387713 from Halifax. There were more than 15000 inquiries for the Top Leader this week. Tellows user tmstony reported this number as harassment call and commented on this number:

Calls and hangs up. Unable to take no for an answer and behaves badly when I refuse to confirm personal data.

2nd place goes to the number 01618505451 from Manchester. Our users already know this number very well as it has been irritating them for the last couple of months and still persist being harassing. Tellows user Mad woman told us:

These blighters called my mobile phone – a number I never give out and saved for friends and family only and worried about a friend in hospital. Called them back, in a panic. Obviously a chattering call centre. Asked for who were they – HYC – what does that stand for Help Your Claim (hello??). And why did you think I needed help with any scurrilous claim? Got the schpiel, personal questions etc. OUTRAGEOUS! Said something unprintable and have now reported to Information Office Commission (government run) www.ioc.co.uk. Thx for your good work.

Last but not least this week number 01942710601 from Wigan. This is the first time this number appears in our weekly Top 5. Our user Jag commented:

I made a financial query on the MSE site and this number keeps on calling. FED UP!!!

Please do not hesitate to share your experience with us! Number of inquiries for unknown numbers increase every day and we need your contribution in order to provide more and more information on spam and scam numbers.

Together we can!
Your Tellows Team

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New Top 5 of Most Annoying Numbers in UK

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Whenever someone receives a call from a strange number arrises a question: ”How to check who is calling me?” Answer is simple – check it on Tellows It works very simply. Put in the number of someone who called you, read the complaints and see where the number comes from, read experiences of other people and then post your own. Simple, you see!

Regarding the most wanted numbers we make our weekly updates on most annoying numbers in UK. So, are you ready to know who is hiding behind UK’s most annoying numbers this week ? Here we are with UK’s latest update on Top 5 of Most Annoying Numbers.

1. 01422387713 from Halifax – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 9
2. 01618505451 from Manchester – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 8
3. 01709384780 from Rotherham – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 6
4. 01933441081 from Wellingborough – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 8
5. 01614867770 from Manchester – United Kingdom with a tellows Score of 8

The most wanted number 01422387713 this week comes from Halifax and Tellows user Fed up posted the last comment on this number:

Call daily on my work phone. Have requested they stop but they still persist

This is a classic harassment call and it has been our top leader for a couple of months already. The second place goes to number 01618505451 that has been reported as harassment call, also. Our user bagsy told us:

Calling me everyday for months despite me ignoring their calls. ask too many personal questions over the phone

If you receive harassing phone calls, hang up immediately on obscene callers or strangers who ask questions regarding private matters. Do not share your private information and be aware of scammers!

We wish you a scam free week!
Yours, Tellows Team

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UK – world’s most phished country in 2012

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According to the world renowned cyber experts RSA, in 2012 UK consumers lost more money to online fraud than any other country. The RSA Anti-Fraud Command Centre (AFCC) released figures of a £405.8m loss in the UK for 2012 which was gained from 250 000 phishing attacks.
For the UK, this resulted in a 25% increase from 2011. The top five countries, which have a significant English speaking population, are as follows. US are second even though there loss was a decline of 19%. Canada, India and South Africa make up the rest.

An annual lost to the UK through cybercrime was estimated at £27bn by Detica-BAE Systems. From this £27bn, £21bn is believed to come from businesses.

The cost to consumers is equally catastrophic. Detica believes that a total figure of £3.1bn has a more encompassing scope than RSA. Fake antivirus packages and ‘scareware’ cost the consumer around £30m.

However, one must use caution when using estimations of cost as previous usages have been exaggerated wildly. However the RSA’s figures are based on attacks detected and dealt with by its AFCC. The attacks are then given the value of $300 per attack as this is the average from 8 years of operations, with 500 000 incidents tackled in this time. Detica’s totals use analysis from 25 industrial sectors and consultation with five British government agencies.

Due to the widespread use of chip-and-pin technology and other multi-factor authentication, the UK population are less at risk than those in the US.

Limor Kessem, Technical Lead of Knowledge Delivery at RSA believes that the UK are targeted due to an increase in technology for the average person. She said “The problem with the UK is that more people use the internet, more people have technology”.
The Office for National Statistics released figures last week that show that 84.7% of the UK public have used the internet at least once. In comparison, the US has a figure of 77.9%. In addition, the UK has the most usage for internet access from mobiles which increases the risk of attack.

New tactics are constantly being evolved by potential fraudsters to rid you of your money. For example, online fraudsters often require an individual, or an ‘insider’, to reside in the country of the target. This is in case attendance at a bank is required and in this sense the fraudster can impersonate the target. “It’s partly because of the accent. You have to sound like a local if you really want to make sure the transaction goes through”, said Kessem.

Highlighted in a 2012 UK Cards Association report on payment fraud were methods that a potential fraudster might carry out in-branch. The theft of a card at an ATM, or tricking individuals into revealing their card and PIN by posing as a telephone salesperson have been used in the past.

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UK’s Most Wanted Spam and Scam Callers

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Another week has passed and we are back to you with our weekly update. This week’s peculiarity is concerning all those annoying PPI claims companies and telemarketers with their calls and even worse is that they are refusing to remove people’s numbers from their lists – that’s the way they work. As a result, in these tough economic times, your telephone seems to ring more often and the amount of annoying or harassing phone calls from telemarketers and PPI claims companies may even double.

Let’s have a look on UK’s most wanted spam and scam callers this week:

1. 01422387713 from Halifax – United Kingdom with a tellows score of 9
2. 01618505451 from Manchester – United Kingdom with a tellows score of 8
3. 01792455426 from Swansea – United Kingdom with a tellows score of 8
4. 01942710601 from Wigan – United Kingdom Score with a tellows score of 6
5. 02076197597 from London – United Kingdom with a tellows score of 3

First place goes to the number from Halifax with a tellows score of 9 that has been reported by our users a Harrasment call. Tellows user Annette commented on the number 01422387713 :

They rang me – I hadn’t a clue what he was taking about – I told him he shouldn’t have my mobile number anyway – And I wasn’t interested in what he had to say noe was I going to confirm to him any information he asked for. I told him not to ring me again and to remove my number from the data base

A newcomer in our Weekly Top 5 with a number 01792455426 belongs to another PPI claims company called Lifestyle Money. Tellows user fred bloggs commented on the number:

apparently, through searching on the web, 01792455426 belongs to Liefstyle Money who call you about reclainming PPI which is very easy to do yourself and there is no reason why anyone should use a separate company !

The last but not least is another newcomer with a number 02076197597 that was reported as a fund raiser and Peter wrote the last comment on this number:

It’s a call center working for a fund raiser.
If you signed up to give money for a good cause, a third company working together with the fund raiser will call you and ask you to increase your donations.
It’s no scam but can be annoying if you ignore them and don’t ask them to remove you from their records.

As you can see there are many newcomers this week what means that the world of spam and scam is changing every day. New and new players are joining the game and we need your help to find them out !

Take care, friends of tellows !!!
Team tellows

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Work Methods of Call Centres – The Importance of Telephone Number Blocks

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Constant avaiability through our mobile and smartphones has become a part of our daily routine. Although there are, undoubtably, advantages to this avaiability, for some people this benefit turned into curse, especially as far as unsolicited calls are concerned.

One Company, Innumberable Phone Numbers – Thanks to Phone Number Blocks

Who does not know about the problem of being called by unknown phone numbers? Often the perpetrator is only one call centre disguised behind a broad range of phone numbers. How does that work? On one hand, call centres employ the Voice over IP technology to generate random phone numbers to conceal their true numbers, on the other hand, most call centre request vast blocks of telephone numbers from the network provider.

A phone number block contains at least 10 phone numbers which match each other in their initial digits. The public telephone network offers block numbers containing up to 1000 phone numbers. Some companies with a high affinity to telecommunications maintain block numbers supplying up to 10000 phone numbers to support their telephone systems. Another variant of block numbers refers to the bulk of extension numbers to define a telephone systems substations.

The main advantages of number blocks enables companies the use of Direct Dial Ins, that provides the telephone system’s substation to be avaiable directly from internal and public networks without the need of being relayed manually. As far as the consumer is concerned, he or she will be able to skip the company’s or institution’s swithboard and call the desired colloquist directly through the extension number. Additionally, consumers can recognize the number and attribute it to a certain company or institution.

Call Centres Use a Large Variety of Numbers

De facto most call centres use their number blocks to their own profitable ends. Hence consumer will be targeted by various numbers behind which telemarketers and lottery scams lurk. Most call centre expect their numbers being blocked every now and then. In order to avoid any losses call centres draw on a vast pool of numbers, essentially, thanks to the number blocks provided by the nertwork operator. The more number block a company has at its disposal, the more phone numbers it can employ. Although numbers of nuisance callers are blocked not only by consumer on a regular basis but also by official institution – some only after thousands of complaints – the call centres supply of replacement numbers enables the company to go on as if nothing happened.

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The Most Wanted Scam and Spam Calls in the UK

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Here we go again with last week’s 5 most annoying spam and scam numbers:

1. 01422387713 , from Halifax – United Kingdom, with a Tellows Score of 8
2. 01618505451, from Manchester – United Kingdom, with a Tellows Score of 8
3.01933698538, from Wellingborough – United Kingdom, with a Tellows Score of 7
4. 01709384780, from Rotherham – United Kingdom, with a Tellows Score of 6
5. 01942710601, Wigan – United Kingdom, with a Tellows Score of 6

The first 3 places this week go to PPI claim companies. I’m sure you’re all sick to death of having these calls and the day when they will stop calling you will be the happiest day of your lifes.

Tellows user Fed-up commented on the number 01422387713 :

Call daily on my work phone. Have requested they stop but they still persist

Another tellows user Lucius wrote the last comment on this 01618505451 number:

yet another scam with profound interest in me claiming my PPI. they cold call any number they get their dirty little fingers on. scum/scam.

Telemarketing calls are also still annoying our users. This time calls from Vodafone. Our user Ian_Belfast is writing:

I recently had a text from Vodafone telling me they would call soon to check that I am on the right price plan. Inquiries on the web suggest that this number belongs to Vodafone,so nothing to worry about except that it’s irritating that they have rung three times in one day and hung up on answer each time

We’re looking forward to reading more of your comments!
Keep us updated and have a spam free week !

Yours,
Team Tellows

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Mobile scam that hit thousands of people

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Last weekend tens of thousands mobile phone users in Ireland woke up to a missed call, that, at the first glance, appeared to have originated locally. However, it was actually just a carefully disguised premium rate service number based in Slovenia, which the scammers used to profit from those who called back. While there is still no exact data on how much money in total the users have lost, it is estimates that connection charge alone was in excess of €2 in addition to similar costs incurred by the users for each minute spent on the call.

The scam was initially set up to play on peoples’ feelings and emotions after missing a call in the middle of the night, and it worked to the extent that people called back. Once the user had called back, the automatized system would play random noises to ensure that the caller stays for as long as possible and pays as much as he can. Many of tellows users are also annoyed by the calls in the middle of the night, our user sleepless reported:

Last night, while I was sound asleep, my phone rang. WTF! I was really pissed because I was sleeping soundly and then a sudden phone call woke me up. I did not answer the first call and then, someone from this number gave me more rings and it reached 20 missed calls. That was ridiculous. I HATE IT , REALLY !

Our user Jippard gives a good advice to everyone who has ever got a missed call:

Don’t answer calls from this number. If you answer you’ll only get harassed more and more from this company and others. If you get calls from strange numbers that you don’t recognise don’t answer. If its an important call they’ll leave you a message and you can phone them back.

The good news are that everything is being done to stop the fraudulent earnings reaching the scammers pockets, and, hopefully, Irish consumers will be reimbursed for any costs they have incurred due to the scam. Nevertheless, the idea behind prevention of this particular fraud is not just to keep the customers happy or to stop those in charge of the scam profiting from it. Irish communications regulator ComReg has stated that prevention is also being done to prove to others who may attempt a similar trick that the payment system in Ireland is secure enough to be able to withstand such scams and not to pay out the wanted money.

No data protection issues can be seen so far in the case, as the numbers that were called had been generated by a computer and all had the same prefix of 087, therefore it appears that there is no connection to any phone lists being leaked or used. However, regardless of the fact that the scammers will not get their money, they are also unlikely to be traced as the host numbers that appear to have come from Slovenia may have been cloned and could have come from a completely different place.

ComReg spokesperson has said that such scams are not uncommon in Ireland and are dealt with as quickly as possible and that any person, who believes that they may have been a victim to this particular scam, should contact their personal phone service provider to check whether any costs have been incurred.

Phone scams are by all means not the only type of fraud that are constantly happening. Letters from supposed foreign Lottery funds asking you to cover administration costs before you receive your money; SMS telling you that you have won money and that you need to call back; advertisements suggesting work from home where you have to pay for materials first; fake computer virus alerts and emails from banks requesting your financial details – all of these are scams that are not uncommon and might be attempted on anyone, therefore it is always essential to watch out for them. And Tellows is always here for you to help fighting against annoying scammers. Together, we can !
Your Tellows

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