Have any of you suddenly gotten and increase in UK based scam calls?

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Exciting-Weird3078@reddit

Twice a day every day now. Generally just before 10am and around 2pm. Spoofed numbers and generally always from south Asian scam callers when I have been caught off guard and answered one.

Activated my iphone screen calling again as I'm so sick of it.

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Budget_Example_5140@reddit

Scammer address

5 rookery gardens st mary cray

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Budget_Example_5140@reddit

5 rookery gardens st mary cray

Scammer address

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JAKA96@reddit

I actually loved answering and wasting their time. If they're on the phone to me, they're not scamming old people out of their money for a little while.

Had one the other day calling about the fact my washing machines manufacturer warranty had expired and I needed to renew it.

A short ramble later and I could tell how sneaky their language was about not mentioning the manufacture for whose warranty had expired.

I simply asked "who is the manufacture of my washing machine?"

The line went silent and hesitantly they said "LG?"

I said "Nope, good bye".

It's quite satisfying tbh, gives me a little rush

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NeedleworkerTasty878@reddit

It is no longer recommended to speak on spam calls, not even a hello. Just a recommendation, as voice cloning is now a genuine risk and it has malicious uses.

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WoodSteelStone@reddit

When they call I say they need to answer my security questions. Usually it's one of the following: their boss' mother's maiden name, the third and fourth digits of their company number, or the favourite colour of the colleague sitting next to them. As soon as they flounder I say "so sorry, you have failed the security check" and put the phone down. Once, the guy whom I was talking to actually asked someone there what their favourite colour was!

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JAKA96@reddit

Love that, I'll be using some of those next time :)

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

I would do that but I'm waaay too worried about these voice cloning scams.

I'm tempted to do the "Right I've taken care of him, but I'll need your help to move and bury the body."

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JAKA96@reddit

Oooo, I hadn't heard about the voice cloning scams. They take your voice and use it on other calls as robo calls?

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FriendlyCan4037@reddit

yeah, and if they find out any of your friends or families details, they can use your voice using ai to trick them, it can be as quick as 3 seconds of you talking and they have enough of your voice to make you say things you wouldnt say in your wildest dreams. Its becoming a scary world..

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Any_Status_3094@reddit

I have had multiple this week from 07 numbers - many of them vary only by a few digits.

If you have an iPhone (IOS17+ i think) one that isn't used for marketing/enquires, you can turn on 'call screening' I've not been bothered once while using it.

Any calls from numbers which are not in your contact lists are asked by Siri, who they are and why they are calling - it then presents their answer to you and you can choose to then answer the call, ask for further information, or decline it. Scammers usually hang up straight away. I believe any mentioned information is stored as a voicemail if the call isn't answered - but I'm unsure of how consistent that is.

The only downside is if you naturally receive several calls from unknown numbers for whatever reason, there's a chance some legitimate people might be wary of the automated questions and hang up. I have found that service providers however typically do respond to it - Argos/dentists have in my experience. But there's no current way to differentiate probable scam - legitimate numbers.

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GreedyAd3559@reddit

Io ne ricevo una decina e più tutti i giorni, blocco ma continuano a cambiare ultimo numero, Vodafone a detto che non possono bloccare, cosa posso far

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neilharper73@reddit

Yeah, I’ve noticed the same thing lately. The problem is scammers keep cycling through new numbers faster than blocking lists can catch up.

There isn’t really a perfect fix on mobiles. Stuff like iPhone’s “announce callers” or Google Call Screen on Pixel helps a bit, and signing up with the Telephone Preference Service doesn’t hurt.

I've been looking up numbers on Phonely Who Called Me to check if its spam

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fallen_angel_81@reddit

Its relentless. I block one and they ring again on the same number but with just the last 2 digits changed. I e had 3 this morning already, 5 yesterday

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Emotional_Hope2108@reddit

Definitely, it started yesterday night, and the calls always come late in the night. I have on call screening so they always hang up and call right back from a different number. It’s back to back calling but I also turned on the feature to silence calls from unknown numbers so 🥸🤷🏾‍♀️

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rocketscientology@reddit

I had a big uptick last week after making an online purchase from a store I hadn’t used before - wouldn’t be surprised if my number had been leaked or sold by that company. I have call screening turned on and they always hang up when it activates.

I only pick up if I’m expecting a call or if the same number rings back twice or leaves a legit voicemail. Otherwise it all gets ignored.

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Emotional_Hope2108@reddit

This! With the call screening they always hang up then I get multiple calls from multiple different numbers back to back. And I also turned on the feature to silence unknown numbers.

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asuka_rice@reddit

Any dude with an English Indian accent ringing me then it’s likely to be a scam call.

I’m happy to talk to them, give them a false lead and waste their time.

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Lots-o-bots@reddit

I keep getting them claiming to be from a mobile provider I left years ago. I dont think its increased recently though. FWIW, these calls arent actually from Britan, they are just proxied or spoofed to make it appear that way and they originate in the usual suspect countries.

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OriginalPlonker@reddit

Mobile switching companies cans see the date a SIM was first activated, and will assume that you're ready to change contract 12/24 months after that, so you'll see these around the same time of year.

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Overall-Lynx917@reddit

I've recently had an increase in calls from my Bank's Fraud Department about a £900 charge on my account.

Makes a change from Amazon calling me about my non-existant account and the need to make a payment using gift vouchers.

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OriginalPlonker@reddit

My bank doesn't call. They send me a text asking me to call urgently. Only had it happen once (someone using the company card details at Bet Fred) and it was very obviously UK staff that answered.

Contrast to a scammer that called a week later, which MrsPlonker answered with the recent card problem very much at the front of our minds. A professional Indian voice being vague about 'gold purchases', and not asking me to confirm even the basics before discussing the 'problem'.

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OriginalPlonker@reddit

Mine have dropped off. I've clearly been marked as "too much of an arse" on a list somewhere. May as well repeat myself here.

Challenge everything. If they don't ask for you by name, your first question should be "Who do you want to speak to?" If it's regarding your bank, ask "Which bank? Which account?" Ditto O2 account, car accident, credit card, washing machine insurance etc etc etc.

Legit companies will know all of the details, but that doesn't make it a legit call - it could still be a very good scammer. You have to build up a picture of who's calling until you're happy it's who they say they are.

They sell lists to each other, so your aim here is to get marked as 'too savvy' on one of these lists.

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Stinkinhippy@reddit

nope.. I’ve actually been getting less lately.. signed up your number to any new websites or anything recently?

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bio4m@reddit

The scammers get peoples numbers and other information from data breaches

O2 had a data breach that exposed a lot of my details so I get scam calls where they pretend to be O2 to get control of my account

They also use the stolen number to impersonate it. Ive had some very confused calls from people who were called by a scammer impersonating my mobile number. For me this is vastly more annoying, dont want my mobile number getting flagged as a spam/scam call number

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Jordain47@reddit

I'm getting these o2 ones as well. I've never once answered, I block the numbers but they change them slightly and carry on. Also blocking them just means I end up with multiple voicemails per day. I got in touch with o2, they can stop individual numbers from leaving voicemail but within a couple of weeks it's a very slightly different number just doing the exact same thing.

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Aromatic_Pea_4249@reddit

I don't get any since I set my iPhone to ask incoming callers to identify themselves before I answer. Known numbers (family/friends) come straight through but unknowns don't.

It's bliss.

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ancapailldorcha@reddit

Wait, what is this sorcery? I didn't know this was possible.

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LegSpinner@reddit

Newer Pixels have this too. It's called "Call screening" and if you tell your phone to screen, an automated message asks the caller to ID themselves and state their reason for calling which is transcribed as a message. You can read this message and choose to take the call, but every time I've screened a call the spammer has hung up.

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New-Outlandishness28@reddit

You're a star, I've been getting so many of these calls in the last couple of weeks and never realised I could screen them.

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ancapailldorcha@reddit

Brilliant! I just found it and switched it on.

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Any_Crazy_500@reddit

Same here. Still get the call notification, but at least I don’t have to tell strangers that I know their name really isn’t “insert blatantly English name here”.

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H0vis@reddit

They're getting routed through a third party company. I looked it up when it was happening to me. You can't be a scammer in the UK, that's illegal dontcha know, but apparently it's legal to provide the services they use to spoof numbers.

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D3mentedG0Ose@reddit

I used to get shit loads, then I turned on the Call Screening thing on iPhone and they’ve all stopped now. It’s great

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Jealous_Sympathy9402@reddit

Not calls, no. But thousands of emails every month pretending to be British Gas or admiral insurance saying I’ve won something. I always report them as spam/phishing but nothing works.

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reddiuniquefool@reddit

I used to get several scam calls a day with live scammers. Then, they switched over to most the ones that are press 1 for English language support, and press 2 for Chinese. But, those have gone down in number considerably recently. I received my first scam call from it seems likely to be India the other day. But, nowadays, most days I'm getting none.

It sounds like you've been put on a list that's being used by scammers.

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geeered@reddit

They are spoofed numbers.

They will be coming from abroad, pretending to be British numbers roaming - it's not easy for our systems to verify that a roaming number definitely comes from the SIM it claims to.

However, I would presume/guess that it's only from certain destinations, so it feels like telcos here could do something about it.

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haaris_ahmad16@reddit

How do they manage to do that? Someone called me yesterday saying that I called them. But I didn’t, I imagine it was spoofed. And when I called back a number that I missed a call from, it was again, so someone who said they never rang me - probs spoofed. I don’t know much about this stuff - but how can someone from another country call me using a UK number (when that number already is in use)?

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R2-Scotia@reddit

Just like you can put any address you like in the From of an email

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Unhappy-Meal-1646@reddit

Sure, but aren’t most people’s email providers aware of this and putting measures in place to prevent it?

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geeered@reddit

They are, because it's a long standing issue. It's a much newer situation to be majorly abused.

u/haaris_ahmad16 I don't know the specific details, however...

First off, it's very easy to spoof a number in the UK. I have unintentionally put the wrong outgoing number in our PBX (missing a digit, number couldn't exist) and it gave that out as the CLID fine and out provider didn't stop that. However, I presume that could be easily traced back to me. And a lot of providers now want more details about their customers.

In this case - say BT gets a call from Algeria which says it's a 0743haarisnumber which is a Vodafone number, they just have to take it on trust that it really is that number calling, because they don't have a way to check if it genuinely the right number. If it Vodafone receiving the number that claims to be a roaming Vodafone number they should be able to see it's registered to a UK tower, so is being spoofed.

They could display if someone was roaming I presume, but that could potentially have some privacy issues. And the "sorry, really ill, can't come in today" call shown as "Roaming from Ibizia".

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haaris_ahmad16@reddit

That’s crazy. I didn’t realised scammers were able to do that - or anyone really. I wonder if the scammers know (let’s say) it’s a Vodafone number, so they avoid spoofing a Vodafone number when calling a Vodafone number. I can imagine how bad this could become, normal people having their mobile numbers reported and removed from service for something they never did.

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geeered@reddit

Having had a vulnerable relative scammed through this recently, I've been thinking about what can be done. (Luckily they did stop it before too much was taken and have had that returned from the bank.)

It's fairly easy to get an idea of which number is which - at least from where the number originated. But this does presume that each company does actually have spoof-detecting stuff.

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haaris_ahmad16@reddit

Wow, the govt definitely needs to work on this.

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haaris_ahmad16@reddit

Wow, I didn’t know you could do that

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Mediocre_Shallot1659@reddit

My phone is always on silent and I never answer my phone if the number isnt in my contacts.

Its really not that hard.

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indigomm@reddit

I use call screening and they all say something about the NHS, HMRC or other British institution, then say "press 1 for English or 2 for Chinese" which kind of gives the have away a bit!

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Basic-Pudding-3627@reddit

I don't answer the phone.

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0oITo0@reddit

Neither does my wife. Even when I call.

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HarB_Games@reddit

Strange, she answers the phone to me xD

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Sandman1812@reddit

Same as that. If there's no caller ID I'm not picking up. Leave a message, text, or email.

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ancapailldorcha@reddit

Yes. I had one a few weeks ago about my Vodafone SIM expiriing. I am not with Vodafone. Got one about my EE one expiring. Last week I got one offering my 45% off my bill. Thankfully, my BS detector switched on but they were able to send me a PIN which looked like it came from EE. It was in the same chain as their other texts.

I feel really bad for anyone who falls for one of these. They can be life-ruining and the scammers are only going to get better.

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grimseverrr@reddit

I answered one the other day as I was waiting for a callback from my maternity center and sometimes the midwives call off of their mobile... nope just a weird speech AI thing saying hello and now I'm inundated with them and am blocking 2/3 a day :(

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helpnxt@reddit

No, your number has probably recently been sold in a database or something.

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

Wouldn't even know how lol, I don't give my number out willy nilly, so either the few reputable businesses I use have sold it or it got out in a data leak or smth.

A few businesses I've used did have data breaches but, to my knowledge, I wasn't affected.

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helpnxt@reddit

It doesn't matter, your number is probably out there for years and just needs to be resold in a package for it to matter again or for a 'company' to just cycle back to the start of their list.

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

Do you know how I could get it off any of these lists?

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helpnxt@reddit

Mate there's no real way, like services will say they can but those who ring you are scam companies, they don't care if they are legal or not.

Just waste their time, don't answer or when answer stay silent and they will stop calling eventually

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irish_horse_thief@reddit

Thought about changing your number..

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

If nothing else works, yeah probably. Though it took me two years to remember my number automatically so it'll be a pain to learn a new one

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rawpaprika@reddit

I registered my number with TTS a few years ago so I rarely get scam calls anymore. On the off chance I do, tell them your number is registered with TTS and they’ll shit themselves and take your number off the database. They get heavy fines for calling these numbers

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Master-Trick2850@reddit

Great for UK based scam centres

Not so great for those based in India who dont give a shit about UK law

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hurricane_97@reddit

Can you elaborate on what TTS is?

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rawpaprika@reddit

Oops sorry I meant TPS (edited original comment now). It’s the telephone preference service which is the UKs official “do not call” register

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Immediate_Machine_92@reddit

Definitely worth doing - I'm on it too - stops legit marketing calls (except from companies you're a customer of, I think?) but it won't stop actual 'scam' calls from robots and overseas scam call centres, there's absolutely no way those people are checking TPS before calling.

It does reduce the volume of sales & marketing calls you'll receive overall though and if you do receive one, you *know* it's not legit because they obviously haven't checked TPS.

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Doctordelayus@reddit

Nope, in fact now that I think about it, I haven’t had a scam call in over a decade

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FlatsInDagenham@reddit

I don't pick up from unknown numbers

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Howl112@reddit

With the rise of i.p calling they can now change on how the number appears on your screen, last week I was getting spammed with calls from Croatia but it had a UK mobile number.

Also to add be extremely wary of these calls if you answering yes/no can be used against you as they record the call and use the voice for there own means

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

I'm aware, I scan all the unknown calls, if it's really someone that needs to talk to me they won't immediately hang up the moment they hear the robot voice

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Howl112@reddit

I wonder if anyone on here has tried the iphone screening option that they added on the latest update and how it works. I am hesitant to use it as use my phone for work and sometimes get unknown calls

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GrumpyOldFart74@reddit

Yeah - I’ve suddenly gone to getting 6 or 7 a day (which I don’t answer)

And have had a couple of messages left by people who had obviously been called from my number being spoofed. That’s even more annoying - I’ve had this number a long time and don’t want to change it!

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Squeak_Stormborn@reddit

No but something has happened to my email address! I suddenly have 20 phishing emails a day, and I've always been so careful with it.

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Koda614@reddit

Make sure your number is registered with TPS - Unlikely to help in this situation but never hurts to enroll with them for free.

If you don't want to lose your current number but are finding these calls annoying, move to a network that has network level scam and spam call filtering. O2 have this totally free for their customers and it works really well. EE also have a pretty good filter too but they charge customers for that.

While everyone loves the cheap deals from the likes of Lebara and co. one of the features they lack is call filtering. Short of starting over with a new (and unrecycled) phone number, this filtering is the best solution if they are otherwise becoming excessive and annoying.

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

Registered with TPS, let's see what happens I guess

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SpudFire@reddit

It's random for me. Hadn't had any for ages, then a few weeks ago I was getting 5+ per day for a few days, then I haven't received any more since.

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Kyber92@reddit

They come and go for me. I think it's when I provide my number to a company that is less than reputable but I'm never sure who it is.

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cold_tap_hot_brew@reddit

Top tip. When you sign up for stuff - make your middle name something that identifies the company you’re giving your info to, ie Sarah Tesco Smith so you can unsubscribe to whoever keeps dishing it out.

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

Clever

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Familiar-Yam-4200@reddit

Yeah it feels like they come in waves, I’ll get nothing for weeks and then suddenly my phone is basically unusable for a few days. Half of them hang up immediately which is extra annoying. I just stopped answering unknown numbers altogether.

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SeaweedBasic290@reddit

Lots of scam calls from the UK and Belgium over the last number of days.

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KingKhram@reddit

I've set my phone to screen any unknown numbers and I hardly get any random calls now

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jamesyjam@reddit

It's really irritating. My phone has a call screening thing though so if I see a weird number, I just get them to talk to the robot. Almost immediately every time it's an instant hang up.

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

Same, either immediate hang up or angry noises

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AlGunner@reddit

I have occasional calls from numbers I wont recognise so have to answer them. As soon as I know its a scam call I tell them I dont deal with scammers so dont call me again. I learned a few years back that a lot of the call centre workers who do these scam calls just go for a job and dont even know its a scam so I make sure to tell them they are working for a scam company.

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Fit-Choice2368@reddit (OP)

Huh, that's pretty sad actually, for the workers I mean.

I never pick up the phone, I screen it because I don't want to risk that a.i voice cloning scam thing.

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