New Telephone Scam has Arrived
There is a new scam where an alleged employee of BT is ringing demanding immediate payment of an unpaid bill, or the telephone line would be ‘cut’.
How Does it Work?
In the example given to the BCRC, a ‘BT employee,’ rang, demanded payment immediately of £31 for an unpaid bill, or it would be £118 to re-connect at a later date.
When it was mentioned that the company didn’t have a BT line, he claimed payment was due as other companies have to pay BT a percentage for line rental .
The employee was allegedly called John Peacock, although he had a very strong accent, and gave a phone number that didn’t work.
He demonstrated that he was from BT by allegedly disconnecting the phone line, and asking the victim to dial a number. This worked – although in reality the ‘BT employee,’ simply stayed on the line and pressed the mute button. This meant that he was still on the line, but the victim cannot dial out. When the victim stopped trying, the ‘BT Employee,’ hung up and re-rang the victim.
The scammer then rang up and asked if that was proof enough and demanded payment by credit card. When it became clear that he was not receiving payment he hung up.
The scammer did not give the correct BT Business number, and instead gave a fictitious number.
There is a new scam where an alleged employee of BT is ringing demanding immediate payment of an unpaid bill, or the telephone line would be ‘cut’.
How Does it Work?
In the example given to the BCRC, a ‘BT employee,’ rang, demanded payment immediately of £31 for an unpaid bill, or it would be £118 to re-connect at a later date.
When it was mentioned that the company didn’t have a BT line, he claimed payment was due as other companies have to pay BT a percentage for line rental .
The employee was allegedly called John Peacock, although he had a very strong accent, and gave a phone number that didn’t work.
He demonstrated that he was from BT by allegedly disconnecting the phone line, and asking the victim to dial a number. This worked – although in reality the ‘BT employee,’ simply stayed on the line and pressed the mute button. This meant that he was still on the line, but the victim cannot dial out. When the victim stopped trying, the ‘BT Employee,’ hung up and re-rang the victim.
The scammer then rang up and asked if that was proof enough and demanded payment by credit card. When it became clear that he was not receiving payment he hung up.
The scammer did not give the correct BT Business number, and instead gave a fictitious number.
Advice from the Police is to inform as many people as possible that this scam is in operation. The fact that the phone does go off would probably convince some people.