Spammy spam spam

Dr Lobster*
Posts: 2116
Joined: Sat 30 Aug, 2003 20.14

is it just me, or has there been a recent influx of: 'we are calling to inform you that your national insurance number has been suspended due to fraudulent activity, please hold to speak to an officer.' type calls?

had loads of them over the last couple of weeks, usually from a mobile number but sometimes from a random geographic number, obviously, spoofed and none of the numbers work and will accept a return call.

I'm guessing they are the result of a data breach or some dataset getting into the hands of scam group because I do try and keep them on the line to waste their time and see what they are after, but they seem to know if the name you give them isn't tied the address you give them.

other ones which really piss me off are the Royal Mail redelivery texts, had a few of those too - if you've not seen them you will get a text message containing a link like royal-mail-relivery.uk/35345 which, depending on the technical prowess of those involved can look very bad, or identical to the royal mail website. the annoying part is every time I get one of those type scams texts, I report the site to the domain registrar and hosting provider, it usually takes them days to remove it, even when it's completely obvious it's a scam - more often than not, live browser protections kick in within an hour or two.

you been getting more lately?
gottago
Posts: 274
Joined: Thu 29 Jan, 2009 19.50

I've had a few phone calls but absolutely tonnes of spam texts. Mainly pretending to be Royal Mail, DPD, UPS etc. A lot of them have given up on even hiding the phone number now, just sending it straight from the 11 digit number, they must know they get a good hit rate regardless. There was a BBC News article about it a few months ago so it's clearly exploded, have had to warn a few family members who would probably fall for it otherwise. I always forward them on to 7726 but don't know how effective that actually is.
Jonwo
Posts: 262
Joined: Sat 26 Apr, 2008 02.05

The spam texts are very annoying especially since it's pretty obvious it's not real.
Charlie Wells
Posts: 376
Joined: Tue 02 Nov, 2004 16.23
Location: Cambridgeshire

I've taken to reporting the nuisance calls I get to https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/nui ... nce-calls/. Despite being TPS registered I've had a few from call centres recently, as well as the computerised voice ones. By reporting them I like to think there's a possibility of those companies getting fined and/or those numbers shutdown.
"If ass holes could fly then this place would be an airport."
User avatar
WillPS
Posts: 2519
Joined: Tue 22 Apr, 2008 18.32
Location: Carlton
Contact:

They're not based in the UK, just use a VOIP service that allows you to appear with any UK/area code.

Sod all that can be done really, unless we somehow limit provision of phone numbers to companies who can prove a bonafide UK existence.
Image
cwathen
Posts: 1327
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 17.28

Occasionally I do out of interest check my spam folder to see how much and what is being filtered. Still quite a lot, but a marked decrease on the amount of spam that used to come through, and most of that which still does is the same handful of emails being sent daily. I guess with the quality of spam filters in place these days (I almost never get unfiltered spam now) it's just not a worthwhile avenue for mass spamming any more.

Also, phone calls from ambulance chasers seem to have all but dropped whereas there was a period about 5 years ago when I got them almost daily.

However, spam text messages have now taken off hugely, usually claiming to be a voicemail or about non-existent deliveries. They have become an almost daily occurrence. My phone has a feature to block the number when marking a text as Spam which I use on all of them, but of course they will have an almost infinite bank of numbers to text from.

Also, anyone else getting a marked increase in dodgy Facebook friend requests from spam/bot accounts? Up until last year I'd had one such request ever, now I seem to get at least one or two a month.
cdd
Posts: 2616
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 14.05

WillPS wrote: Wed 14 Jul, 2021 10.51Sod all that can be done really, unless we somehow limit provision of phone numbers to companies who can prove a bonafide UK existence.
10p charge to call/text a phone number you haven’t called/texted within the last 365 days. Plus the option for recipients to opt out of the scheme. Problem solved.
Laura-1
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue 06 Jul, 2021 22.08

OP... What network are you on?

I use one sim card for banking / PayPal/ web domain / web hosting only.
In over a year I had never received a spam call or tect, 2 months ago I changed network and moved the number across, now I get spam calls and texts weekly, sometimes up to 5 per day.

The callers know my name so it's not random hit and hope, I think its the new or old network who have given my data out.
Laura-1
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue 06 Jul, 2021 22.08

cwathen wrote: Wed 14 Jul, 2021 14.43Also, anyone else getting a marked increase in dodgy Facebook friend requests from spam/bot accounts? Up until last year I'd had one such request ever, now I seem to get at least one or two a month.
Females get them weekly, Facebook don't do anything about it, they brag that they have x million active users, they neglect to say 20% of them are fake/spam accounts.
Dr Lobster*
Posts: 2116
Joined: Sat 30 Aug, 2003 20.14

WillPS wrote: Wed 14 Jul, 2021 10.51 They're not based in the UK, just use a VOIP service that allows you to appear with any UK/area code.

Sod all that can be done really, unless we somehow limit provision of phone numbers to companies who can prove a bonafide UK existence.
you'd have thought they would try and shoehorn in a way to authenticate the caller ID, even if a few older PBXs need to be reconfigured. From what I've read, the spoofed caller ID problem will go away eventually.

I used to get loads on my landline too, but I disconnected that when the phone broke and never replaced it.

Laura-1 wrote: Thu 15 Jul, 2021 16.40 OP... What network are you on?

I use one sim card for banking / PayPal/ web domain / web hosting only.
In over a year I had never received a spam call or tect, 2 months ago I changed network and moved the number across, now I get spam calls and texts weekly, sometimes up to 5 per day.

The callers know my name so it's not random hit and hope, I think its the new or old network who have given my data out.
I'm on O2, but... I've had the same number for a very, very long time... and the reason I kept it is because so easy to remember - it's a bit like 077X2 5XXXXXX and all the Xs are the same digit (I changed the actual digits I did leave, but you get the idea)

Also, I use my personal mobile for work as well, so loads and loads of people have my number, I wish I'd had the foresight to buy another sim or cheap phone for work, it's too late now.
thegeek
Posts: 895
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 12.35

Dr Lobster* wrote: Thu 15 Jul, 2021 19.55
Also, I use my personal mobile for work as well, so loads and loads of people have my number, I wish I'd had the foresight to buy another sim or cheap phone for work, it's too late now.
I was offered a work mobile at the end of 2019 but turned it down because I didn't want to carry two phones with me (and neither my own network or the one work used offered eSIMs). A few months later I was rather regretting that, with work calls (and worse - WhatsApp messages) on my personal number, and the genie being out of the bottle with everyone having my number now.

Strangely, very little actual spam though.
Please Respond