Amazon scam.

[AMGeed]

Just a heads up to what happened this morning to my missus whilst I was out of the living room.

She received a phone call allegedly from an Amazon customer service advisor telling her that her account had been hacked and someone had ordered an iphone using her details. She is a technophobe and although she managed to open her Amazon account on her laptop and see there were no outstanding orders, the guy was requesting she downloaded Askdesk on her phone so the "advisor" could cancel the order for her.

I returned to the room just as my wife had given this scammer control of her phone. She realised, too late what was going on and panicked, hung up the call and hoped no monies had been taken from the card.
I asked her to remove the card from her account and just then, the caller redialled using another number and started getting aggressive, asking why she had hung up and why didn't she continue with the cancellation of this so called order.

I'm pretty good at smelling a rat and after challenging him on his Amazon connection told him in no uncertain terms to go forth and multiply and tried to end the call. Couldn't do it. Whatever this guy was doing, the phone couldn't be switched off or the call terminated. The keypad was going mad with numbers being inputted.
He went on to say she was banking with **** and if we didn't cooperate the phone would be a brick and money would be taken from her account. After failing to switch the phone off or end the call I just put the phone in a cupboard and left it for 10 minutes.

Returned to the phone and he was still there, trying desperately to persuade me to continue the phone order cancellation.
Finally I was given the option to restart the phone in safe mode. I then deleted Askdesk, and blocked all the (4) numbers he had used.
Restarted the phone again and it was back to normal with his call terminated.

So, maybe a lucky escape from money being lost or goods ordered on her account.
Now she is a little wiser to the scams its possible to fall for. I just told her not to be so naive and trusting in future and to hang up if it didn't feel right.

The numbers used have all been reported to Amazon and I thought it worth mentioning. If it stops one person being caught out its worth it.
FYI, the caller spoke with a heavy Indian accent. Why are almost all scammers Indian or of Indian descent?
None of the numbers were reported on Who calls me either.

 

[markjay]

The Called ID numbers showing on your mobile were spoofed, 'picked out of a hat'.

Some very interesting YouTube clips on the subject, including YouTube investigators who show the call centres in India where these calls are made from. It's a thriving industry that turns out er millions of dollars every year.

 

[Fununcle]

Never buy anything from the tax evading amazon and these things won't happen.
Glad you sorted the scamming barstools

 

[markjay]

E.g.:

 

[AMGeed]

The Called ID numbers showing on your mobile were spoofed, 'picked out of a hat'.

Some very interesting YouTube clips on the subject, including YouTube investigators who show the call centres in India where these calls are made from. It's a thriving industry that turns out er millions of dollars every year.

Funnily enough. one number used was a landline in Slough
01753 427806

 

[AMGeed]

E.g.:

I'll watch this later and force the other half to watch as well

 

[Dryce]

Is the software they use not called 'AnyDesk' rather than'AskDesk'?

That aside. It's really pathetic that it's so easily possible to spoof caller-id.

UK regulators should insist that UK numbers displayed are authentic - or that they are prefixed or marked to indicate that they are non UK numbers.

 

[AMGeed]

Is the software they use not called 'AnyDesk' rather than'AskDesk'?

That aside. It's really pathetic that it's so easily possible to spoof caller-id.

UK regulators should insist that UK numbers displayed are authentic - or that they are prefixed or marked to indicate that they are non UK numbers.

You are right. My mistake. It's what was downloaded from the Google Playstore.

 

[Deleted member 159894]

Learn sister ****er in Indian, start all calls with that,

 

[Chrishazle]

This business of scam calls on your mobile phone (or, for that matter, emails) is a worry to me. ATM when wife gets something she is not sure about on her mobile she comes and asks me, but I'm not immortal and she's likely to outlast me, she's also one of these "very hard to teach" women, so how's she going to cope when the inevitable day comes??

 

[st13phil]

That aside. It's really pathetic that it's so easily possible to spoof caller-id.

UK regulators should insist that UK numbers displayed are authentic - or that they are prefixed or marked to indicate that they are non UK numbers.

According to an article I read in the specialist IT press a few months ago, its not possible to prevent number spoofing at this time due to the technology used in parts of our telecoms network. There is, however, ongoing work to resolve the underlying issue and stop number spoofing - I believe that to be linked to the switch off of PSTN telephony and migration to 100% VoIP in 2025 .

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

According to an article I read in the specialist IT press a few months ago, its not possible to prevent number spoofing at this time due to the technology used in parts of our telecoms network. There is, however, ongoing work to resolve the underlying issue and stop number spoofing - I believe that to be linked to the switch off of PSTN telephony and migration to 100% VoIP in 2025 .

Apologies for the dumb question, I barely understand this stuff.

How will the 2025 UK migration to VOIP stop spammers outside the UK spoofing themselves to be UK numbers?

 

[markjay]

According to an article I read in the specialist IT press a few months ago, its not possible to prevent number spoofing at this time due to the technology used in parts of our telecoms network. There is, however, ongoing work to resolve the underlying issue and stop number spoofing - I believe that to be linked to the switch off of PSTN telephony and migration to 100% VoIP in 2025 .

I have no doubt that you are right, but equally I have no doubt that hackers and scammers will develop the technology to overcome the technology...

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

This business of scam calls on your mobile phone (or, for that matter, emails) is a worry to me. ATM when wife gets something she is not sure about on her mobile she comes and asks me, but I'm not immortal and she's likely to outlast me, she's also one of these "very hard to teach" women, so how's she going to cope when the inevitable day comes??

Having done the whole "Mother-in-Law outliving her husband by 22 years" thing, I'd say you have to be blunt, and start moving things now. Kids can deputise "in loco (father) parentis" but only to a very small degree.

Assume that you've got another x years of life expectancy left, and you'll come a cropper - in more than one way.

(Works the other way, sometimes, when men discover the buttons on the oven and washing machine for the first time, but it's far less common)

 

[Wolfie1]

I had a scam phone call on thursday past from carphone warehouse with unbeleivable deals on mobile phones, now since i was enquiring about a new phone at christmas time and wanting a sony phone and them not doing them i said to the guy i was interested in a sony and yes they did them latest phone unlimited data, texts and minutes for £28 a months, my phone provider is £66 for the same deal, so i told him it was a scam and he hung up, they are bastards its all i can say!

 

[st13phil]

Apologies for the dumb question, I barely understand this stuff.

I'm far from an expert on telecoms matters, but AIUI there are elements of the UK's PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) that prevent end-to-end Caller-ID validation and thus bad actors can easily spoof the Caller-ID.

VoIP telephony does allow end-to-end Caller-ID validation so - until the bad actors work out a way to circumvent it as @markjay suggests, although in territories where the technology is fully deployed they haven't worked out a way to do so yet - the Caller-ID given will be real. For calls originating outside the UK network, if the originating network supports end-to-end validation then the Caller-ID will be real; if the originating network doesn't support it then either no Caller-ID will be given, or it will be flagged as unreliable.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

I'm far from an expert on telecoms matters, but AIUI there are elements of the UK's PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) that prevent end-to-end Caller-ID validation and thus bad actors can easily spoof the Caller-ID.

VoIP telephony does allow end-to-end Caller-ID validation so - until the bad actors work out a way to circumvent it as @markjay suggests, although in territories where the technology is fully deployed they haven't worked out a way to do so yet - the Caller-ID given will be real. For calls originating outside the UK network, if the originating network supports end-to-end validation then the Caller-ID will be real; if the originating network doesn't support it then either no Caller-ID will be given, or it will be flagged as unreliable.

So, taking the obvious example of India, Pakistan, Russia, Korea, China, USA et al, aren’t they on Old tech which would just be shown as No Caller ID, like many UK commercial VOIP connections?

Sorry to Labour the point but I’m unclear how the interface to UK VOIP works.

 

[st13phil]

So, taking the obvious example of India, Pakistan, Russia, Korea, China, USA et al, aren’t they on Old tech which would just be shown as No Caller ID, like many UK commercial VOIP connections?

Dunno. Ask me one on sport...

 

[markjay]

So, taking the obvious example of India, Pakistan, Russia, Korea, China, USA et al, aren’t they on Old tech which would just be shown as No Caller ID, like many UK commercial VOIP connections?

Sorry to Labour the point but I’m unclear how the interface to UK VOIP works.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but developing countries often have better telecoms infrastructure than Western countries. They have mostly given-up on copper and went straight to GSM, which is easier to implement.

As for the UK moving to VoIP, I'm guessing that an overseas call will either be marked as such, or at least marked as 'Caller ID could not be verified' (or words to this effect).

Either way, correctly identifying a foreign number involved scam calls in the UK is probably not very helpful anyway, because the UK police are unlikely to investigate it unless it's a particularly successful scam that collects very large amounts of money (and those targeted at peoples home phones will always be low key).

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Dunno. Ask me one on sport...

Why isn't Djokovic captaining the England Cricket team ?