Yesterday I had a phone call from a guy with a heavy Asian accent who claimed to be from BT OpenReach and added that he was phoning about a problem with my Internet. When I pointed out that I am not with BT he quickly changed tack and said that it was a different BT 'in his country' but by then I had lost interest and told him where to go. The caller withheld their number but undeterred they have tried the same trick several times since until someone evidently forgot to hide the number with 0191 297 1211 coming up on Caller ID. Again they insisted they were calling from BT Openreach and clearly could not understand that BT Openreach do not operate as an ISP. Interestingly I recall from my work days in the early 2000s often having to call the genuine BT accounts office which was also an 0191 number (Newcastle area) so maybe someone has chosen an 0191 number as some sort of double bluff. Anyway, it turns out this is an oft used scam technique and ultimately they are after your bank details and by hiding behind the BT name they perhaps reckon on a better success rate than saying they are from say, Microsoft.
Obviously people need to be on their guard about this scam but is there anything that Plusnet or parent company BT can do to stop the calls? You need only look at the Who called me style of website to see how bad this problem is becoming.
