Had a client in recently who had received a call from a Heather Grey purporting to be from HMRC
Told the client he was in trouble with HMRC and needed to take urgent action. Had to call back on the number given or get his accounts attourney to do so
The use of attourney got me suspicious, its not a UK term, not to mention I know his tax affairs are up to date. Did some checking and discovered that others in UK had received similar calls from an 0203 number (London). There are several numbers that have been used. Others have been threatened that court orders or bailiffs are on the way in next 45mins
It seems they are targeting older people. So if you or relatives or friends get any of these calls do not reply, they are a scam
These are scam numbers
02031293460
02031295553
02031296397
02031291027
HMRC will not contact you out of the blue and threaten court action in this way
The real General helpline HMRC number is 0300 200 3300
To report a scam relating to HMRC Action Fraud http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
0300 123 20 40
I just don't answer anything if its not a number I know.
I ended up closing my Lloyds account as everytime they phoned up, usually to try and sell me something, they would insist on me giving them security information. They couldn't grasp that I wasn't going to give security information to someone who had called me out of the blue asking for it!
It's not just the ones that both Osb or Chiefdave mentions, but also cold caller phoning up about trading/latest invest etc. I remember that I had one who when you tell them you're not interested and put the phone down, they phone back immediately to harass you as if to say they're keep phoning until you say yes.
0203 was the the code for Cov back in the day before it became 01203 and then 024.
I appreciate the helpful folks who contact me about the car accident I've had - but seems odd they never know my name, car colour/reg, address, insurance company or that I've not actually had an accident!
I appreciate the helpful folks who contact me about the car accident I've had - but seems odd they never know my name, car colour/reg, address, insurance company or that I've not actually had an accident!
Had a call from someone with an incomprehensible Indian-subcontinent accent claiming to be from Talk Talk and 'advising' me that my PC had been 'compromised' by malware. He would not doubt have offered to 'fix' it for me in return for certain information had I not shouted "nice try" and slammed the phone down. What was worrying is that he knew part of my billing name but I declined to furnish the rest of it when prompted.
Went immediately into Talk Talk's forum and discovered quite a few customers had a similar experience that same morning.
I find playing along with their nonsense is good sport, as they're so use to having the phone put down that if you start answering the questions and playing along they think they've got you - plus whilst you're wasting their time they're not wasting anyone else's.
0203 was the the code for Cov back in the day before it became 01203 and then 024.
I appreciate the helpful folks who contact me about the car accident I've had - but seems odd they never know my name, car colour/reg, address, insurance company or that I've not actually had an accident!
If I'm feeling bored, I usually ask them where they got my information from and demand to speak to their manager so that I can make an official complaint about a DPA breach.