Scam call from HMRC

the black fox

the black fox

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Just had a call allegedly HMRC , cut it off due to them having a American accent ,checked online it’s the latest scam going the rounds be aware as a phone call rather than a e.mail can catch you out ..
 
My wife has just told me that she once had a genuine call from HMRC to confirm a point. They quoted the correct reference for the matter and only asked her to respond yes or no to their questions.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
My wife has just told me that she once had a genuine call from HMRC to confirm a point. They quoted the correct reference for the matter and only asked her to respond yes or no to their questions.
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Andrew old chap , I’m 76 I have been retired for 12 years +. There is absolutely no reason for them to contact me . Plus it wasn’t a person it was a recorded message .. which if you Google it is how the scam works .. and I don’t think HMRC employs many Americans
 
the black fox said:
Andrew old chap , I’m 76 I have been retired for 12 years +. There is absolutely no reason for them to contact me . Plus it wasn’t a person it was a recorded message .. which if you Google it is how the scam works .. and I don’t think HMRC employs many Americans
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I wasn't disagreeing with you - just mentioning that my wife had a call which turned out to be genuine and how the genuine call proceeded. :)
 
I had one a year ago informing me that a warrant was being issued for my arrest due some money I owed :thinking:
I needed to ring some number and pay immediately, no I didn't
 
How would HMRC get your phone number?
Its not on a P45/P46, on your P60 or any other documentation you provide so any call purporting to be from HMRC will be false - unless you have an ongoing issue and its a return call.
 
AgentOrange76 said:
How would HMRC get your phone number?
Its not on a P45/P46, on your P60 or any other documentation you provide so any call purporting to be from HMRC will be false - unless you have an ongoing issue and its a return call.
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Perhaps I should have explained that the call to my wife was about VAT, so HMRC did have the phone number.
 
loads of phone scams,amazon refunds is very common, have a look on youtube for scam baiters
 
Since replacing my phone with a call blocking type, no scam call has got through. Because they will not be on my personal phone list, the caller is asked to state who they are. My phone then rings and the telephone voice tell me that there is an announced call and I then hear a recording of their reply and given three choices; 1 the call is put through, 2 the call is transferred to the recorded message system or 3 the number is permanently blocked. No scammer has left a name or even tried to get through; I guess they will choose easier options. There have been several occasions when it was a foreign sounding name but I went ahead to find it was a medical contact. It would help if they used specific numbers which could be added to the directory.

Dave
 
Dave Canon said:
Since replacing my phone with a call blocking type, no scam call has got through. Because they will not be on my personal phone list, the caller is asked to state who they are. My phone then rings and the telephone voice tell me that there is an announced call and I then hear a recording of their reply and given three choices; 1 the call is put through, 2 the call is transferred to the recorded message system or 3 the number is permanently blocked. No scammer has left a name or even tried to get through; I guess they will choose easier options. There have been several occasions when it was a foreign sounding name but I went ahead to find it was a medical contact. It would help if they used specific numbers which could be added to the directory.

Dave
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I know it's veering off-topic but I would be interested to know what phone you have?
 
Dave Canon said:
Since replacing my phone with a call blocking type, no scam call has got through
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Same here on my landline but most of the scam calls come via my mobile !
Not many people have my landline number and I can't remember the last time the phone rang
 
Ah that’s a point I never considered at the time .. we no longer have a house landline only mobile phones so obtaining the number would be hard .. in fact I don’t even know my own number I have to ask the wife for it if I do give it out
 
In the past you would get a lot of calls where often when you answered there would be no-one on the other end and then you would here a disconnect click. apparently a computer would dial a block of sequential numbers at once and the person/the computer would connect to the first one that answered. I havent had that for a good number of years now.

Then it seemed to move onto getting a call and what sounded almost human but had a pre-recorded air to it where I would be introduced to a person and asked how my day was going, if you didnt say anything it would move one with the next line of the script quite often telling you your car had been in an accident. Quite often you would get the same number calling so I had a contact called Crap and saved every number to this. I ended up with 3 Crap contacts worth and it was amusing when Crap1, 2 or 3 called.

Annoyingly they started using mobile numbers and random ones so you would get the same call several times in a row from different numbers

Since registering my mobile with the preferential phone service i get very few cold calls, its more text messages now.

Randomly Monday around 5pm I got a text from GP surgery saying they wanted to hear feedback on their service, I havnt been in 5 years. I always click the caller/email Id to see who is calling emailing - quite often I get " HSBC" email me from XXXX@hotmail.com. On this text there was no contact number. next day I got a similar text from NHS asking to update my records with an email address. Again no contact number, wasnt planning to respond to either but coincidence that both text within 24 hours?
 
I have a Greek PAYG phone for there banking and to receive texts from the various services etc and I have to google translate them all and boy most are scams
 
Chris_911 said:
I know it's veering off-topic but I would be interested to know what phone you have?
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Chris I have a BT Advanced Cordless Phone Trio (item code 090640) which uses a True Call virtual Assistant. You do need to have caller ID which is a service we have had for many years. It was 12 months ago I bought this model so it is probably superseded by now. I believe it is based on BT's True Call virtual Assistant software which may be included in some other brands as well and I think you can also pay for this service from BT direct for a fee. As far as I could see a trio of DECT phones with Answer Phone seems to cost about the same whether or not it includes True Call virtual Assistant. We are on Virginmedia so you do not have to use BT to use this phone.

99% of my call s come on the landline as we have used the same number for many years. Until a few weeks ago I used a PAYG mobile and did not give the number to many people and receive about one spam call a year. I do now have a contract SIM card which I needed for my SatNav.

Dave
 
AgentOrange76 said:
In the past you would get a lot of calls where often when you answered there would be no-one on the other end and then you would here a disconnect click. apparently a computer would dial a block of sequential numbers at once and the person/the computer would connect to the first one that answered. I havent had that for a good number of years now.

Then it seemed to move onto getting a call and what sounded almost human but had a pre-recorded air to it where I would be introduced to a person and asked how my day was going, if you didnt say anything it would move one with the next line of the script quite often telling you your car had been in an accident. Quite often you would get the same number calling so I had a contact called Crap and saved every number to this. I ended up with 3 Crap contacts worth and it was amusing when Crap1, 2 or 3 called.

Annoyingly they started using mobile numbers and random ones so you would get the same call several times in a row from different numbers

Since registering my mobile with the preferential phone service i get very few cold calls, its more text messages now.

Randomly Monday around 5pm I got a text from GP surgery saying they wanted to hear feedback on their service, I havnt been in 5 years. I always click the caller/email Id to see who is calling emailing - quite often I get " HSBC" email me from XXXX@hotmail.com. On this text there was no contact number. next day I got a similar text from NHS asking to update my records with an email address. Again no contact number, wasnt planning to respond to either but coincidence that both text within 24 hours?
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I had a text on Monday saying I’d allegedly been in close proximity to someone with Covid. The link in the text took me to a quite authentic looking NHS site where I could order a free test, just needing to pay £1.99 for p&p. Obviously I didn’t go any further but I wonder how many people get caught? Presumably once you’ve submitted your card details to pay, then you’ve given all your details to scammers. None of the links within that site worked, like the menu, “contact us” etc. so it’s obviously a scam site but it looked quite convincing.
 
Those HMRC scams have been going around a lot lately, and they can be pretty convincing. I always make sure to double-check any suspicious calls. A great way to verify if it’s legit or just another scam is by using https://whocalled.co.uk . You can search the number there, and it’ll give you the lowdown on whether other people have reported it as a scam. It’s saved me a few times from getting tricked!
 
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just treat every call you get as a SCAM as they pretty much will be
as a business owner for 20 years running 2x ltd companies HMRC have never called me they will allways send you a letter at
your registered address
 
Gremlin said:
I had one a year ago informing me that a warrant was being issued for my arrest due some money I owed :thinking:
I needed to ring some number and pay immediately, no I didn't
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I had one of these calls on my mobile some three years ago. I told them that I found it very interesting as I was a detective sergeant employed by Thames Valley Police. The line immediately went dead and perhaps it's coincidence, but I have never such a call since.
 
My wife had a two calls over one week saying " just returning your call you made to me" very strange as she hadn't called anyone
 
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