Plagued by scam calls *DON'T POST PHONE NUMBERS*

Dempo1

I'm feeling very left out, not a single scam, text, phone call, email...... I did see a carrier pidgeon on my windowsill this morning, got terribly excited but alas, just a wink and it flew off.

Where do I complain????......

tgdaly

Dempo1 wrote: »

I'm feeling very left out, not a single scam, text, phone call, email...... I did see a carrier pidgeon on my windowsill this morning, got terribly excited but alas, just a wink and it flew off.

Where do I complain????......

Joe Duffy

c/o

Rte,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4

ClosedAccountFuzzy

None today, so far!
Maybe my dump to voicemail works. They’ve had zero interaction with me.

Glaceon

FuzzyThinking wrote: »

None today, so far!
Maybe my dump to voicemail works. They’ve had zero interaction with me.

Same here. I enabled the “silence unknown callers” option on my phone but have had nothing since. Anything I read about this setting suggests that the call should be logged so I’m guessing that I’m just not getting anything. I don’t know if that has anything to do with me answering one of the calls and giving them a tirade of abuse! I felt a little guilty as someone who has worked in client-facing roles in the past, but I shouldn’t need to be nice to someone who is trying to scam people. :pac:

xhomelezz

Dempo1 wrote: »

I'm feeling very left out, not a single scam, text, phone call, email...... I did see a carrier pidgeon on my windowsill this morning, got terribly excited but alas, just a wink and it flew off.

Where do I complain????......

Post your number here and we'll do our best to help you out. My acc would do with few bucks

triona1

Dempo1 wrote:

I'm feeling very left out, not a single scam, text, phone call, email...... I did see a carrier pidgeon on my windowsill this morning, got terribly excited but alas, just a wink and it flew off.

Lol me also but I do have my settings on my phone set to only contacts in my phone can call me and private numbers blocked.

ClosedAccountFuzzy

I'm just wondering have the telecoms companies reacted. There were large numbers of complaints on social media about spam calls.

It's possible they have blocked the source at their gateway stitches, or that the spammers' VoIP services got terminated as they providers detected misuse.

I know the Department of Social Protection was definitely very concerned about the PPS scam, so there was pressure coming in from both customers and state bodies to solve this.

The very high volumes of calls over the last few days likely tripped security somewhere.

Enjoy the silence! Let's hope it lasts for a while.

patnor1011

Dont know about the silence you are mentioning. Started getting calls from tunisia. :mad:

Jim_Hodge

patnor1011 wrote: »

Dont know about the silence you are mentioning. Started getting calls from tunisia. :mad:

It was just the weekend break. I laughed when people posted as though a stop had been put to the calls.

.42.

My last call from the scammers was last Thursday where I was receiving a number of calls from them daily.

Seems to have stopped when I talked to one of them questioning their scam.

Glaceon

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

It was just the weekend break. I laughed when people posted as though a stop had been put to the calls.

Yep, back with a vengeance today. It was the first one I got that was similar to my own number.

ClosedAccountFuzzy

Still none for me, vs 9 on Friday.

beachhead

tgdaly wrote: »

Joe Duffy

c/o

Rte,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4

Claire Byrne,RTE,Donnybrook,Dublin 4

honeyjo

Aw The poor Brazilian fella I work with got a scam call this morning. He didn't realise it was a scam and gave them his PPSN.

ClosedAccountFuzzy

Unfortunately, if you're a second language speaker, it's much harder to identify accents.

The various agencies and banks etc need to get info out to everyone and people need to also talk to less tech savvy older relatives etc etc too.

whiterebel

3 today.

emeldc

I pressed 1 today to speak to 'officer' Brian Smith with an American twang. I asked him was he a law enforcement officer and judging by his answer he wasn't sure. He also wasn't sure what building he was operating from, just Dublin. So I asked him for his phone number so I could call him back and he hung up. Fcuking Wa*kers.

patnor1011

emeldc wrote: »

I pressed 1 today to speak to 'officer' Brian Smith with an American twang. I asked him was he a law enforcement officer and judging by his answer he wasn't sure. He also wasn't sure what building he was operating from, just Dublin. So I asked him for his phone number so I could call him back and he hung up. Fcuking Wa*kers.

You are too polite. I am going with straight pure flood of insults. None of them last more that 3-4 seconds.

I doubt anyone needs to be trained on how to talk to a scammer but in a case that you are struggling...
edit: No.
(I am posting just a link and do not embed video as some faint hearted people may find it offensive even though it is just a "proper usage explanation")

rn

No calls for a few days now...

Cee-Jay-Cee

I was getting approx 5 or 6 calls every day last week and the previous one. Last Thursday I got one and pressed 1 and spoke with a girl who claimed she was from Dept Social Protection but couldn’t give me the address she was working at. She was looking for my PPS number in order to process my details, I told her I could t give it to her as I was a police officer and was afraid of my details being compromised. I asked for her address again and said I would get my colleagues to confirm that the address was Dept of Social Protection and the line went dead. Haven’t had a call since.

Very few here.

scotchy

3 today so far.

Mecrab

I've gotten 3 calls from 083 numbers in the past 3 days

.42.

6 Calls today. 3 to each mobile

083, 085 and 087

One left a voicemail which was a dodgy pre recorded message from the Dept of Social protection.

is_that_so

Had three today from numbers with Irish prefixes that didn't exist. Didn't answer any of them.

Discodog

.42. wrote: »

6 Calls today. 3 to each mobile

083, 085 and 087

One left a voicemail which was a dodgy pre recorded message from the Dept of Social protection.

I got called by the 087 yesterday but just blocked it.

Doc07

Discodog wrote: »

I got called by the 087 yesterday but just blocked it.

Got loads of these from various 087s last few days

Fuascailteoir

I answered my first one today. Was someone waffling on about Bitcoin. I was bored so said that is interesting, as my aunt Betty had been talking about bitcoin the other day. That is aunt Betty married to Eugene with the permanent sore toes, not aunt Betty married to Eugene with periodic gout. He got on account of a diet of red wine and steak for many years. Lucky him could afford such a diet since the early 80s on account of investing in Amway. He did have the gift of the gab though so could sell snow to the Eskimos. Probably not politically correct to call them that anymore. Kind of a mine field there, but Eugene wouldn't have minded as he was tone deaf. Not in the can't hear kind of way but in .... Hang up.

namenotavailablE

The original and the best master of telling stories that go nowhere:

rn

No calls since. I guess I'll never rekindle that magic between garda roisin and myself. Oh well, better to have... Etc etc

Mimon

Anyone else have a call with an automated voice from an 021 number? Was saying my PPS number has been compromised. Hung up before any options given.

L1011

Its the same scam call as half of the ones on this thread, with a different faked caller ID

Caller ID is not trustworthy.

Jim_Hodge

Mimon wrote: »

Anyone else have a call with an automated voice from an 021 number? Was saying my PPS number has been compromised. Hung up before any options given.

The 021 is immaterial. You could have 021. 087. 01 and any other prefix in a single day. It really is pointless people posting prefixes or phone numbers as they are where the call at from. Likewise, blocking particular numbers is a futile exercise. They're blitzing at the moment but it'll pass as they move on to somewhere else.

daheff

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

The 021 is immaterial. You could have 021. 087. 01 and any other prefix in a single day. It really people posting prefixes or phone numbers as they are where the call at from. Likewise, blocking particular numbers is a futile exercise. They're blitzing at the moment but it'll pass as they move on to somewhere else.

They are spoofing the number they are calling from. Don't pay any attention to it. Guaranteed if you called it back I wouldn't be working.


Stayed on the line when one of them called me on the PPS scam. Got through to some lad. He started the speil....I asked him his name and he suddenly got real defensive and said I rang him etc. Then hung up.

Spoiled my fun for the day ☹️

screamer

I’ve found if I don’t say anything when I answer the calls, it just cuts off.
Last week my phone was hopping with scam calls, even from an 038 prefix that came up as “Ireland” on the phone, obviously sir scam a lot reversed the digits by accident and should have been 083....

ClosedAccountFuzzy

Could be anything. They’re sending fake caller ID and sometimes it gets sliced up by gateway exchanges.

Eg I think they’re saving 353 but getting 53 out at the other end, which comes up as Cuba.

Also things like 038 7xxx xxxx may actually be 353 87 xxx xxxx sliced up.

Occasionally, on real calls, I get U.K. numbers passed though without +44 and same with french ones and then display weirdly on iPhone as if they’re Irish

Like I got a call from France showing as (055) 604 xxxx
It should have been 00 33 5 56 04 xx xx in Bordeaux

KildareP

The pattern is very odd, I have a work number (086) and a personal number (083).

The 086 number was plagued by those single ring international calls that were all the rage a few months back but hasn't had a single one of these 08x calls pretending to be Revenue, Gardai, etc.

Whereas the 083 number never got hit by the single ring international calls but is currently being plagued by several spam calls every few days from various 083, 085 and 087 prefixes. Always a different number each time. Very few people have this number - it can't have been included in any of the Facebook, HSE, LinkedIn, etc. breaches so it's obviously fallen into one of their randomly generated dialling lists whereas the 086 has not (and far too many people know the 086 number for my liking!)

Looking online and it seems the USA is being similarly hammered and, to a lesser extent, the UK, by similar style robocalls threatening action by the FBI, IRS, etc. and showing up as from local numbers.

However, the FCC (equivalent of ComReg here) have mandated that all telecom networks had to have in place, or have a firm roadmap to put in place, caller ID authentication by midnight just gone. That way, someone faking outbound caller ID will have their call blocked automatically.

I would hope at a minimum the providers here are able to restrict calls with spoofed Irish numbers in the caller ID that are originating from outside Ireland. While it won't stop the previous spamming from international numbers, it's far easier (for most anyway) to screen international calls as opposed to calls showing up with Irish numbers.

Can only imagine this sort of spamming will continue and become more sophisticated otherwise.

wezg

Just got a call automated voice claiming to be from DSP and a warrant for my arrest etc. Initially thought it was on 086 number. Checked the number again and it was 068. That's the area code is for Listowel.

Fuascailteoir

wezg wrote: »

Just got a call automated voice claiming to be from DSP and a warrant for my arrest etc. Initially thought it was on 086 number. Checked the number again and it was 068. That's the area code is for Listowel.

Better go on the run quickly. Few years living out of a suitcase and living on your wits

sheroman01

Started getting my first spam calls today. Got 4 calls all from different 087 numbers but the first 3 digits always match the first 3 digits of my own number. Anyone else getting that?

E36Ross

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117619543#Comment_117619543

Yes!

Have had 6 or 7 different numbers ring over the last week.

All very similar to my own with same prefix and same first 3 digits so for example 087 123 xxxx

Its the your Pulic Services Number has been suspended, Press 1 to speak to an operator.

Jim_Hodge

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/116988810#Comment_116988810

I'm not on Facebook and never used Fastway and I'm getting several each day.

ClosedAccountFuzzy

They’re random caller IDs. You’re very likely blocking legitimate numbers that have absolutely nothing to do with the scams.

I had some utter loon who has a number that starts with the same 3 digits mine ring me up earlier absolutely roaring abuse at me at me, telling me she’ll call the Gardai because her mam’s phone got call from my number.

I asked her did she seriously think I was a call centre in India and tried to explain it to her but she was having none of it and just continued to roar at me.

All reporting these numbers to spam blocking services will do is get legitimate numbers filtered as spam.

Posting people’s numbers online is just abusing innocent parties.

They're quite literally generating fake numbers.

Just hang up!

Cunning Stunt

It seems a second wave is hitting my phone now. Had been pretty quiet the past week or so but back again now. Why do they just ring your phone and hang up? Do they want us to call back? Is it for them to save money on phone bill and scam people at same time?

Garlinge

The way they operate is that 20 numbers are dialled at a time and when one answers the other calls are aborted, hence nothing there if you are one of later responders.

drogon.

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117626478#Comment_117626478

I think if you don't answer, they don't bother calling you again.

Two weeks ago, I had a call and I just ignored it and that was it.

Two days ago, got another call in the morning and I picked it up. The line went dead as soon as I picked up, but man they called me 8 times throughout the day.

Jim_Hodge

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117627210#Comment_117627210

Not that simple I'm afraid. I didn't answer 5 in one morning and they keep calling.

Cunning Stunt

the calls I am getting are mostly too short for me to be able to pick up, even if I wanted to.

AndrewJRenko

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117634188#Comment_117634188

They're trying to get you to return the call, to an overseas premium number service, and they'll get a cut of the call fee.

drogon.

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117634357#Comment_117634357

The ones I have been getting are all 087 or 086 numbers, I have actually called them back on the 087/086 number twice and they all ring once and then just cut off.

Typically don't call them back, but since it was a local mobile number, I just used a VOIP service to call them back and nothing was charged, so my guess is they are not a valid numbers but just spoofing the caller ID somehow.