Scam phone calls warning

From AudlemOnline reader Anne Pearson

Like most people these days, I get my share of unwanted telephone calls which are usually easily ignored and the number blocked. However I found a message on my answerphone yesterday which I think is worth sharing.

It claimed to come from HM Customs and Excise and said that serious losses had been incurred against my name and gave a telephone number which I was urged to phone immediately to avoid "hard and unwanted legal consequences". It was obviously some sort of scam but couched in such threatening tones that I imagine that some vulnerable people, and maybe not so vulnerable, could be panicked into responding to it.

I spoke to BT today who told me that it was an apparently common scam which was designed to get people to disclose bank or credit card details. BT and the police can do nothing about it because the call comes from abroad and cannot be traced. I thought my experience is worth sharing to alert anyone receiving a similar call and to get people to warn potentially vulnerable neighbours or relatives.

Ed – Thanks Anne for the warning – just another of the threats posed by modern technology in unscrupulous hands

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