Reply With QuoteYep definitely a scam - I’ve had a few of these recently. When they ask for me to confirm my name I reply with ‘Chief Inspector Wells from the Serious Fraud Office’. Oddly they hang up immediately :D
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Now this is strange. I just had a phone call from a mobile number. The woman claimed to be from HMRC and said that I had been involved in tax fraud and that an arrest warrant would be issued in two hours. They said that I owed the government £738 and that they believed this was a willful intend to defraud on my part. They said that it was possible that the organisation I work for had not paid the right amount of tax. I work for the NHS! When I said that I did not believe this and suspected that it was a scam they said that I would be arrested in two hours and hung up! At no point did they ask me for any money. I tried calling the number back but it was not recognised. So that was that about? They knew my name and address. Pretty strange really.
Yep definitely a scam - I’ve had a few of these recently. When they ask for me to confirm my name I reply with ‘Chief Inspector Wells from the Serious Fraud Office’. Oddly they hang up immediately :D
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Definitely a scam, both my wife and myself both have had these types of calls, they are very convincing and both times it has been a well spoken woman with an English accent, HMRC do not come to your house to arrest you ever, scam scam scam!
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They were really trying to convince me that I was in trouble. Sadly I can see how some people might fall for it. How did they even get my name, address and phone number?!
Yes scam , happened to me about four weeks after submitting my self assessment, fortunately the thick accent gave it away.
These days any call from anyone who is not in your directory or a known number is either a sales call or con. I always answer "who's calling?" and never confirm any details unless I'm expecting a call.
I'm also not a fan of this GDPR business. If someone rings me then it's up to them to identify themself, not the other way round. This often leads to some interesting exchanges
Same for me, about 4 weeks after completing a self assessment.
Accent was more American. HMRC or the police have yet to put my front door through.
The arresting is done remotley now, all to do with working from home..
Scamming b*stards.
My wife and I both had calls from the cheaper end of the con market from those automated synthesised voice calls. Just hung up on it and block the number. Also had a couple texts through as well.
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Had a call yesterday accusing me of fraud and a arrest warrant had been issues by HMRC. I hung up.
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I just this minute had another auto Amazon scam,one last week got very aggresive when I said I know this is a scam.
FYI with TalkTalk dial 14258 to block and report the number automatically as a scam.
I expect all providers have a number.
Same here, it’s definitely on the increase these past few weeks. I’ve stopped answering the phone to any unknown numbers now.
A lot of them have evolved from call centres to robot voice calling ala that old Simpsons episode.
Yep had the automated HMRC one a couple of times. Never bothered to connect through to the human scammer though.
Also had the scam HMRC “you are due a refund” text.
Absolutely correct. I’m a cynic anyway but never ever trust a cold caller. If I do answer a call from a no ID or unknown number, I say nothing and more often than not, they hang up.Originally Posted by Harry Smith
You also need to be careful here too. I had a call from a scammer the other day and they had cloned the telephone number for First Direct (the number as shown on the back of my debit card).
Trouble is the scammers seem to be able to generate fake numbers. I had a series of calls the other week - all the same first 7 digits and then the last 4 different.
I've had two similar calls, but in my case with an automated message saying "there's an HMRC case open under your name". Asked me to press 1, otherwise "you will get arrested shortly". Needless to say I just hung up, and wasn't arrested.
Given the number of annoying time-wasting scam/sales/survey/bullshit calls these days, in the high-tech world we live in, how is it that nobody has come up with a effective affordable reliable call blocking add-on that actually works properly and that does not require you to register/sign up/give mother’s maiden name/subscribe/be a Telecomms expert to connect etc!etc!etc!
Wow so many of you have had a similar call - these scammers must be busy!
Who are these people?!
This is indeed a scam but the other bit isn’t true. HMRC may well turn up at your home or business and arrest you.
They do, it’s called not answering from numbers you don’t know! 🤣
I had the very same call about 2 to 3 days ago.
I had the automated one yesterday, also had the “you’ve been involved in an accident” one as well
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I've got one on my landline, had it about 8 years, works really well. Before I bought it I was getting regular sales calls and occasional attention from the Indian subdivision of "Windows technical support". They dried up completely. It requires callers to make a brief announcement, until you whitelist their number.
Unfortunately I've been getting these more recent scam calls on my mobile.
I’ve had a couple, and my automatic response is to use rather fruity language I’m afraid, achieves nothing but makes me feel better. The same approach actually works with legitimate companies who repeatedly call, even though you’ve asked them not to. ‘I’ve asked your organisation to stop calling me. I understand if I use foul language I’ll be added to an ‘abusive’ list and you won’t call me again, is that correct? Ok, stick your phone up your A, you F-Ing C and never call me again you (choose swear word as appropriate). I think use of the C word puts you right at the top of the ‘never call again as it will affect the call centre workers mental health’ or some snowflake bs, but this approach has worked for me on many occasions (I usually follow with a polite ‘is that enough to put me on the ‘don’t call again he’s unhinged’ list and usually they chuckle and reply ‘yep that’ll do it’ - I think it brightens their day tbh!)
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I had 3 silent calls yesterday which were promptly blocked. If they aren't in my phone book they are always blocked.
So many people withhold numbers that i cant block them all otherwise i would.
The scammers also use withheld numbers so i just have to put up with them sadly unless im missing something.
Yes this is a particularly obvious scam on par with " you just won the national lottery, just give us £100 to set up the transer of millions into your account "
Last ‘you were involved in an RTA’ call ended when I described how the accident had a fatality, when pressed for more info I revealed it was I who had been killed, queue one very confused caller. I only answered the phone whilst heading for the pub and was expecting a call so didn’t check the number.
I dont get how they do it they must have thousands of numbers some are even UK code?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkiaILsshb8
I had several text messages from banks I don’t bank at asking for details; all came from mobile phone numbers so easy enough to spot. I’ve had to stop myself a couple of times from clicking on links in emails just as a knee jerk reaction though.
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Keep a high pitched whistle by the phone, let them get a sentence out then give to them. Don’t stop me getting the phone calls but I get a good laugh out of it.
All you have to remember is HRMC would never ring to tell you anything like these people say.
Been happening to me all week, home & mobile numbers. even got one on my work mobile....relentless!
Damn, beaten to it! I was about to say "oh yes they do"!
Anytime they use a mobile this also goes for banking it’s a scam just hang up I normally tell them to feck off first.
Squashy1
Do they? Or do they actually bring the police with them to do the arresting?
HMRC do have some officers who have the power to arrest.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
They have no need for the police. And don’t think they are soft touch either.
Customs powers predate the existence of the organised police forces.
1.1.1 Power of arrest
HMRC has specific powers of arrest for HMRC offences and these cannot be used for non-HMRC offences, for example, robbery. Arrests are made only by officers who have been trained and authorised to use the power. At any time HMRC has approximately 1,500 officers with the power of arrest.
My view is, the longer you can keep them on the line ,with inane questions etc, the less time they have to bother other, more vulnerable victims. They really can be taunted for quite some time. ......
Must admit I’m pretty rude with these muppets - usually play along for a bit and then ask if he/she would like to gargle with my bollocks.
I had a text yesterday supposedly from the post office telling me my parcel wouldn’t be delivered till I paid the postage on it yeah right
I don't know about iphones but the google phone app is increasingly good at blocking this stuff.
On the rare occasion someone gets through, I'll like to see how odd I can get before they hang up.
Unfortunately your number often comes from one of those phone number id apps people install on their mobile phone.
It doesnt have to be you just a friend etc that has your number.
They have permissions to access your contacts and so scrape all your contact numbers.
Beware of any apps that require contacts permissions.
I think michael bassel sp? (ex fbi) covered it briefly in one of his osint privacy podcasts
HMRC fraud go all over to arrest...my son is a fraud manager for hmrc
I take a similar line and depending how I’m feeling I’ll play along and wind them up. Everyone’s got to make a living but I can’t do with these people, they’re a nuisance and they invade people’s privacy.
I'm surprised you have to ask. I never answer my phone unless it's from somebody that I know. If it's important they can write to me.
It's even more straight forward than that - UK mobile numbers follow a set format so it's trivial to programme a bot to ring through numbers until someone answers - it's why there is often a pause before they speak - you answer and the bot transfers you.
Just had this call myself. Apparently a warrant has been issued from HMRC for my arrest. Currently got my bags packed ready for the police to storm my door down.
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