Scam phone calls

[#1]

My mother-in-law, who is a Plusnet broadband and home phone customer, recently received two calls which are probably of criminal intent. In the first, the caller claimed to be a Plusnet representative and ironically stated that she was calling in response to a complaint. As no complaint had been made my mother-in-law hung up the call.

Later the same day she received a call claiming to be from Visa security. Sensibly she put them off by saying she would have to find her cards and could they call back later.

Whilst my MIL did the right thing on both these instances, she does get a little flustered and also has in the past been getting similar types of call about 'problems with her computer'. 

We set up Call Protect which will hopefully reduce the incidences in future. We were going to add Caller Display but a charge was applied so we decided to delay this until after 5th June.

Can someone from Plusnet confirm that the first call was not genuine - there is nothing in the My Questions on her account but the caller seemed to know she was a Plusnet customer (how would they know this?)

[#2]

Hi @maranello,

I'm sorry to hear that this has happened. From what you've said, it doesn't sound like the call was from Plusnet but I'd like to double check this for you. Please can you send us your mother-in-law's username (or landline number if you've not got the username to hand) via private message?

Call Protect is a good way of reducing any nuisance calls moving forwards, and I would definitely recommend adding Caller Display to the line when this becomes free of charge tomorrow.

[#3]

@EmilyD

@Thanks Emily, PM sent

[#4]

Update on this issue.

Caller Display has been added and Call Protect set up to reject calls to unrecognised numbers. However, the scammers have attempted to get around this by spoofing an international number, which we hadn't blocked. 

If the international numbers are blocked, is it still possible for the scammers to spoof a UK number?

[#5]

We have call protect and the number of scam calls is much reduced. But we still get some, usually (but not always) with apparent UK numbers. Whether these are genuine or spoofed I couldn't say. We use the 'block last answered call' option in cases where a scam has got though to make it harder for them next time.

[#6]

Thanks for the update @maranello

It's possible the call may be spoofed to appear to be a UK number.

[#7]

Thanks Anoush.

It appears that my MILs number is on a list of potentially vulnerable to being conned. Our best approach is therefore to reduce as far as practicable the number of calls getting through using Call Protect options, give her advice on how to spot a scam, and persuade her to use her answering machine to filter calls before answering. Other than changing her number (a last resort), are there any other options that Plusnet could provide to protect an elderly and potentially vulnerable customer?

[#8]

If the UK number is showing on their phone handset and doesn't change can they add this to the Call Protect?

Other than that I can only suggest changing the number which may resolve this.

[#9]

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@Gandalf wrote:

If the UK number is showing on their phone handset and doesn't change can they add this to the Call Protect?

She is not confident at doing this, but I suggested dialling 1471 and noting down the number. Can such numbers be added manually in Call Protect at a later date?

[#10]

Hi Maranello, 

Yes, you can store up to 100 nuisance numbers at a time. There's a guide here, you'd just need to click on "how do I use call features?" https://www.plus.net/help/phone/call-features/