Phone scammers and how to deal with one sort
Everyone has a mobile phone nowadays but nobody ever makes a call. At least nobody rings me, although I had a nice long call today from the lovely Jenny in Montreal complaining about the rush of American immigrants to Canada after the terrible Trump vote.
My phone does ring regularly, it’s just that it’s almost all junk. 95% of callers from overseas numbers will be people with impenetrable accents vanting to spick to ze owner of ze biznez.
For the past three months I’ve been getting three calls a day asking me to press 2 to speak to an advisor. This is more than a niggle, it’s a nightmare, especially as my mobile cuts off after three rings and transfers to voicemail so I have to call up to listen to an automatic voice telling me to press 2 — the bastard even leaves junk messages for me.
This is how I learned how to avoid it. It’s a two-stage process.
Firstly, look at your screen. You see the number calling, say 01766 78026, and below it my phone reassuringly says Porthmadog, Gwynedd or Bridport, Dorset or some such benign country town.
But something is not right! The number shown only has 10 digits. It should have 11 in the UK. It’s not real. It’s a scammer. If you answer, a recording of a woman with a horrible voice will tell you to press 2 to speak to an advisor. If you don’t, she will leave the message on your voicemail.
Here’s stage two. I’m on Vodafone, so other carriers will have their own procedure. Search the Vodafone site for ‘How do I increase the time before a call goes to voicemail?’ and they will tell you the numbers to press. I raised my gap to 30 seconds, and when the next automated scammer called (25 minutes later) they hung up before the phone had rung for 30 seconds — so no voicemail message!
Extending the time before a call goes to voicemail is not a phone function, it’s the job of the network provider. I’ve only just learned that.
I haven’t had a call for over an hour. It must be working.
