A friend, aged 80, has just been scammed via a really brazen scam,
well into 5 digits. Really quite amazing, but old people tend to be
unbelievably gullible.

Anyway, the initial "way in" was that she was asked to hang up and
dial 999 to verify the caller was really the police... yeah!

I've done some googling and could not find anything up to date but it
looks like the called party line disconnect time is not the 10 seconds
which BT announced they would implement precisely for this reason back
c. 2014.

The phone exchange is Henfield (01273).

Peter <occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:
> A friend, aged 80, has just been scammed via a really brazen scam,
> well into 5 digits. Really quite amazing, but old people tend to be
> unbelievably gullible.
>
> Anyway, the initial "way in" was that she was asked to hang up and
> dial 999 to verify the caller was really the police... yeah!
>
> I've done some googling and could not find anything up to date but it
> looks like the called party line disconnect time is not the 10 seconds
> which BT announced they would implement precisely for this reason back
> c. 2014.
>
> The phone exchange is Henfield (01273).
>

Maybe exchange dependant? I tested our line and it cleared straight away
when I hung up and lifted the receiver again.

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

On Sun, 28 May 2023 22:23:45 +0100, Peter
<occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:

>A friend, aged 80, has just been scammed via a really brazen scam,
>well into 5 digits. Really quite amazing, but old people tend to be
>unbelievably gullible.
>
>Anyway, the initial "way in" was that she was asked to hang up and
>dial 999 to verify the caller was really the police... yeah!
>
>I've done some googling and could not find anything up to date but it
>looks like the called party line disconnect time is not the 10 seconds
>which BT announced they would implement precisely for this reason back
>c. 2014.
>
>The phone exchange is Henfield (01273).

This style of scam of pretending to get you to verify that the scammer
isn't a scammer is years old. The called party disconnect does help if
the disconnect is working correctly at the exchange AND the receiving
phone is disconnected long enough.

The safest way to ensure that the dial tone you are receiving before
dialling out on these scams is to press recall first. This disconnects
the incoming call and places it (the scammer) on hold, giving you a
connection to the exchange, not a scammers recording of dial tone.
Then after you have dlaled whatever the scammer asks you to dial and
you find out that this 'check' is all bollocks, press recall again and
give the scammer some abuse (of any variety that you think is
appropriate.

--
brightside S9

>The safest way to ensure that the dial tone you are receiving before
>dialling out on these scams is to press recall first.

I've not had such a button for as long as I can remember.

Also this will help only people who are smart, and a smart person
won't fall for somebody doing this, asking for 25k in euros!

But anyway it looks like BT have NOT implemented that proposal from 10
years ago.

The scammers are also definitely targeting exchanges which do not have
a short hangup time, because if it failed at this step, the target
will on the real 999 line and talking to the police ;)

On 29/05/2023 10:06, BrightsideS9 wrote:
> The safest way to ensure that the dial tone you are receiving before
> dialling out on these scams is to press recall first. This disconnects
> the incoming call and places it (the scammer) on hold, giving you a
> connection to the exchange, not a scammers recording of dial tone.
> Then after you have dlaled whatever the scammer asks you to dial and
> you find out that this 'check' is all bollocks, press recall again and
> give the scammer some abuse (of any variety that you think is
> appropriate.

Or use a different phone, probably a mobile.

I suppose you also dial an incorrect number and see if the scammer still
answers.

Perhaps best not to piss them off, they might add you number to lists of
good targets.

On Mon, 29 May 2023 10:06:36 +0100, BrightsideS9 wrote:

> The safest way to ensure that the dial tone you are receiving before
> dialling out on these scams is to press recall first.

True. We have VoIP on our own PBX, so that's pretty safe (I think).

On Mon, 29 May 2023 10:17:37 +0100, Peter
<occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk> wrote:

>>The safest way to ensure that the dial tone you are receiving before
>>dialling out on these scams is to press recall first.
>
>I've not had such a button for as long as I can remember.
>
>Also this will help only people who are smart, and a smart person
>won't fall for somebody doing this, asking for 25k in euros!
>
>But anyway it looks like BT have NOT implemented that proposal from 10
>years ago.
>
Pretty sure they have, but I can't explain this. Perhaps the victim is
pressured so much that they replace the receiver for a very short
time, too short for the timeout?

>The scammers are also definitely targeting exchanges which do not have
>a short hangup time, because if it failed at this step, the target
>will on the real 999 line and talking to the police ;)