OneGuyFromBarlick

That one is quite well known, I have had it at least half a dozen times in the last few months. I will set a rule up in the mail client to auto trash when the next one comes. I have just swapped from Windows Mail to Outlook.

I often wonder how people can live with the fact they perpetrate scams like it. Their brains must be wired up differently than mine. Same applies to the operators in the call centres who manage the 'voice scams'. They must be desperate for work but what does it do to them in the long run?

The quest for monetary gain is a strong driving force, top and bottom of it.

You're right Ian of course. I really do worry about the damage that is being done to young people desperate for a job..... It's an evil trade!

I got an email this morning from Talktalk advising me I was due a refund.... I shall call them later today but didn't act on the link in the mail.... I shall be happier if I initiate the call.

hover over the reply address and . or view headers, its normally easy to see what the last extension before and after the . is ! - normally a giveaway

I don't think TalkTalk have an e-mail address that you can use to contact them, Its either an on-line chat or a direct telephone number. Also, you pay one month in advance and any over/under payment is corrected in the next bill, which is still an advanced payment. Sounds fishy to me.

Turned out it was an offer of a better router and a fixed price contract for 4 years. Normally I wouldn't bother but looking at Brexit etc. I doubt if anything is going to escape getting more expensive so I took the punt and accepted. I've been lucky so far with my fixed price contracts.....

We contemplated pulling the plug on TalkTalk within our current 18 month contract. The exit bill for breaking the contract was around £100, We changed our minds not because of the price but the other providers available to us didn't have what we wanted.

I don't think there is much to choose between them P despite the plethora of offers. I take the simplistic view that Talktalk works for me, I can afford it and for that one reason I shall let well alone. Too many horror stories out there of loss of service and billing problems after changing. I sleep quiet at night.....

The TalkTalk router is good and probably has more computing power in it than they are declaring. ie; they can control its output. But I think the main thing is they are looking long term at 5G and keeping people captured until they have got their system up and running.

Is that the new one they tell me about?

Spam phone calls - finally caused me to act today. Several times a week.

Hello Sir - I am not trying to sell you anything just a few questions. . . .
I told him I was early forties, retired, didn't have electricity or gas etc etc - no effect whatever. TPS doesn't work as they are abroad, and they send a false British number, which changes every call, so you can't block them.

Decided to change my number. Plusnet website says it will cost £36'ish. Didn't fancy that, so I called them and explained the situation - no threat to leave was needed - the chap said that if I would take any number there would be no charge. He spoke to his manager for permission, then set it up with BT. Says it will change tomorrow.

Full marks for Plusnet Customer Service - assuming it all goes smoothly.

How do the spammers get your number? If it is just by random calling then won't you suffer the same with a new number?
My phone informs me if the number is known to be dodgy, and there is a quick way of reporting spam calls that then marks the number as spam.
Huawei phone, great!

"How do the spammers get your number?"
I work on the assumption they have got both mine and there is no way of stopping this. However, if you don't pick up and in general only use the phone for outgoing calls they can't get to you. Everyone who knows me knows that an email always gets a response. I have trained them over the years....

Talk Talk "Call Guard" works well in this respect. A free service on a phone/broadband deal. Incoming calls are challenged by the system and you have the option to accept or reject. Callers are required to give their name. If accepted they go onto the "friends" list and are not challenged in the future. Rejected calls go onto the banned list and you never hear from them again. I honestly can't remember the last time I had a scam call.

chinatyke wrote: ↑24 May 2019, 01:16 How do the spammers get your number? If it is just by random calling then won't you suffer the same with a new number?

The problem is not via random calling. The number came to me from a ceased line when I moved here ten years ago. The callers think I am him, and address me by his name. He must have been on a 'mugs list'. I have told them this several times, and they have promised not to call again, but they have continued to do so.

The transfer has gone smoothly - phone and internet are OK. Well done Plusnet and BT.Now I just need to tell all my contacts of the change. That should take about ten minutes.

We are on Plusnet too and now we almost never have any scam phone calls so I trust that you will have heard the last of them, Tripps.

Latest phone scam, Thomas Cook refunds...
https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... aV5sbRXFm8

How can such scams still be worth doing? Is there an inexhaustible supply of uninformed people?

Sadly, yes, millions of them. Apparently, people in their 20s and 30s have now overtaken oldies as the ones being scammed most. The scammers have realised that they don't check their bank statements, click on anything in an email message, put all their personal information online, put their GPS tracking on social media so scammers can see where they live and when they're out running, etc, etc.

Not an email but a scam phone call from a number that looked like a mobile so I answered as it can be lost delivery men looking for directions. This one was an automated call informing me that my Amazon Prime Account was due for renewal and to press 1 to cancel it. Col does have a Prime subscription but I knew renewal would be done online so the phone went straight down. A quick Google shows that this call is doing the rounds at the moment and folk are falling for it.

It's a jungle out there.....

I've just had an email pretending to be from a relative who died two years ago. It's very upsetting. It was caught in the spam filter, but hovering over it showed it was from datomino.de.

Google shows they are a seemingly a legit data management company in Germany. Perhaps she dealt with them once and they have captured her address list? In which case why pretend to be her? It's disgusting behaviour. I've asked them to explain themselves, and cease and desist.