Home Insulation scam (UK)
RockyRoger
Shipmate
in Hell
Mrs RR and I had a cold call yesterday purporting to come from a company empowered by the government to check our loft and cavity wall insulation. The lady cited ECO4. Mrs RR very suspicious.
Today a chap called with a large tool box. But no proper identification. Didn't feel quite pukka. I didn't let him in and I sent him on his way. Mrs RR (who had been praying) very relieved.
Shipmates beware!
Today a chap called with a large tool box. But no proper identification. Didn't feel quite pukka. I didn't let him in and I sent him on his way. Mrs RR (who had been praying) very relieved.
Shipmates beware!
Comments
I asked who she represented. She repeated that she was "Jo" and carried on talking about insulation.
I asked who she worked for. She repeated that she was "Jo" and returned to her insulation script.
I asked who was paying her to make the call. Again she said "My name is Jo" and back to the script.
I must have tried six or seven times to find out what company / organisation / whatever she was calling from and she replied "My name is Jo" each time.
I gave up and hung up on her, but I don't know why she kept persisting. There wasn't a language difficulty, because she sounded like a native English speaker.
Your lady caller wasn't called Jo, by any chance?
What is ECO4, please?
You and Mrs RR acted wisely IMHO. Well done.
Thanks!
It's repeating the same message that makes me suspicious. If you'd given the answer she wanted, you'd have got the next sentence, giving you the impression she was a real person but until then the previous sentence will automatically repeat.
A good way of testing for this is to ask a question, preferably one that you think might be unexpected.
Responding to what @KarlLB ays, sometimes, if I'm not in a hurry, I'll spin scammers along on the basis that while I'm wasting their time, they aren't scamming somebody naive. It's a point of pride if the scammer eventually swears at me.
I, too, enjoy spinning out a scam call. Especially the ones from "microsoft"
*Translation: Whatever you want it to be...
And yes if a caller to my mobile isn't on my contacts I will ignore. Sometimes I phone a mystery number back from my work phone -usually no-one picks up the call.
That’s much more offensive than I was expecting tbh.
Double points if you make them cry.
As most calls come on the landline, I just say, honestly, 'I'm deaf. I can't hear you'. (Only my mobile is Bluetoothed to my aids).
Mr F demands to know who he is speaking to, and who do they represent?
Basically, one morning I received a call from someone claiming to be the the director of a firm of County Court Bailiffs. He seemed very friendly and although he had my full name, he was aware that most people address me by the shortened version of my name. He said that there was an historic debt outstanding and that agents were due to call at my address that morning, but that having looked through the case himself there was something that “didn’t sit right” with him so he wanted to check a few things with me.
It was apparently from several years previously when I was working as a sole trader. He said that I’d taken out a 30 day free trial for an online advertising campaign and that although I’d cancelled within the 30 day period on the phone, because I’d not cancelled in writing they had decided to pursue the “debt” of around 3K. This sounded feasible, as I had done this a few times and cancelled if the campaign wasn’t working. He explained that although the advert was in the name of my business, because I was a sole trader I was personally liable for the debt (this is true) and that because I hadn’t responded to them, they had taken it to court. He told me the reason for his call that having read through the case he was curious as to why I had never responded to any of their letters. I explained that this was the first I’d heard of it, so he gave me the details of the “case” and this included my old address that I’d moved from several years before.
When I explained that they had the wrong address, he said something along the lines of “oh, that explains it. This sort of thing happens all the time” and explained that because the court documents had been sent to the wrong address I’d have a case to get the case set aside and the debt cancelled. He also reiterated that the bailiffs were due to call that day, but he’d be able to stall them, but couldn’t do it indefinitely as “they’re just interested in earning their commission”.
This is where the call ended. I looked up the firm of bailiffs and saw they existed and that this person really was the CEO. I also looked up the company I supposedly owed the money to. I didn’t remember dealing with them, but back in the period we were talking about I’d dealt with several online advertising companies so concluded that this was just one of them - I don’t remember the names of all the businesses I had dealt with at the time.
A few hours later, he called me back. He said the had managed to stall the bailiffs call for 48 hours, but to stop it completely I would need to contact the court, explaining that although I had a case for cancelling the debt, it was still live, but it should be an easy process to do this and asked me to leave it with him.
The following morning, he called again saying that he had set the wheels in motion with the court. Because the case was still “live” I would still need to pay the outstanding debt to a third party, usually a solicitor, but that once a judge was satisified that the court papers were issued incorrectly, the case would be cancelled and the money would be returned if full. He explained that in “22 years in the business” he had never known a judge to refuse this and that the whole thing would take no more than 2 weeks.
He then emailed me some official looking court documents along with the phone number for “Derby County Court” to start the process. The person I spoke to at the “court” had a Derby accent, so it seemed legit. He backed up what the “bailiff” had said and sent me the bank account details of the “solicitor” to send the money to. This was now about 36 hours after the initial call that I’d received.
OK, maybe I was a fool to fall for it, but the whole thing seemed so plausible. A few alarm bells had been ringing during our phone conversations, but whenever I asked a question about anything I wasn’t comfortable with he always had an answer straight away. Other factors were that in the past I’d had financial difficulties, especially when running my own business, and it had taken years to get things straight and rebuild my credit rating so I didn’t want to go back there again. Also, at the time, I was in the process of applying to be a magistrate, so didn’t want something like this against me (that didn’t work out, but that’s another story).
It very soon became apparent that I’d been scammed. After a bit of digging I found I wasn’t alone. It seems that this person had spent those few days targeting sole traders with similar stories. I even spoke with the real CEO of the bailiff firm. He’d had a lot of calls from people with the same story and put a warning on his website.
In the meantime, the scamming bastard had blocked his phone and disappeared into the ether.
I do tend to be polite. Mainly because I know the person on the end of the phone is probably desperate for work and this provides some. And they might hate themselves for it as well. Or they might enjoy it - I have no idea. But the responsibility for running these scams is not always with them - they are often run by people who will never get on the phone.
I don't hate people who make poor life choices. I do hate people who make life choices to exploit vulnerable people.
I had a call some time ago from a loft insulation salesperson, I feigned interest and let them witter on for a while before telling them (truthfully), sorry but I live in a ground floor flat.
I told a double glaing caller that I lived in a tent. They had the good humour to play along with the idea.
A former colleague of mine told of feigned interest to the point where the salesperson was looking to organise a visit to quote before asking whether or not the conservatory also came with stilts. The story went that the saleperson asked what he meant, and only then was it revealed that he lived in a first floor flat.
@Spike I'm really sorry you were hood-winked by that plausible scammer. I can tell it still rankles.
That is so sad to hear, it's not something I'd thought of.
I misspoke somewhat - it seems like the Cambodian scams using trafficked workers are more the longer-term online scams like romance scams, rather than scam calls. But certainly from watching Jim Browning's Youtube channel, in the Indian scam call centres people are lured in with the promise of legitimate work.
It's worth remembering that people who work in call centres - whether scamming or legitimate - often have little else in the way of employment to choose from, especially as regards payment.
Many lustra ago, my Auntie Ethel received a *cold call* from a double-glazing company. It was AIUI a genuine call, but Auntie let the rep describe his firm's product at some length, and in fulsome terms, before asking him to hold the line, whilst she went and had a word with my Uncle Tom.
Uncle Tom had, at this time, been lying quietly in the graveyard for some ten years. When, after about half-an-hour had gone by, Auntie returned to the phone, she was not surprised to find that that caller had hung up.