Yet another scam!

[Lynmax]

We recently registered mums LPA with her bank and we now have an overview of her accounts. On looking at her last few statements online I noticed a monthly direct debit for £21.99 to a telecom company, set up 9 months ago. I googled the company and was horrified by what I saw..

Apparently this "company" target elderly people by phoning them, saying that they are linked to the Telephone Preference Service and offering to stop international cold calls for a one off payment. They already have bank account details and just ask for confirmation and the cvc number off the back of the debit card. Goodness knows where they got this info. Mum obviously gave them the cvc as she would have trusted them because they could quote her bank account number and sort code. The scammers then set up a monthly direct debit.

If the DD is stopped by the bank, they are able to reopen a new one the following month, after they have made threatening phone calls to the account holder. How they do that I do not know but people have said it is because they keep a record of the phone call when the account holder verbally agreed.

They have been reported to police action fraud and trading standards but nothing seems to stop them. I got all this info from reputable consumer websites.

I want to stop the DD but need to avoid any nastiness for mum so I am going to make an appointment at her bank to get their advice.

I want to warn everyone who is caring for a person with dementia about what is going on, the scam seemed to start in 2017.

 

[karaokePete]

Scammers are a nightmare and my wife has been caught in the past.

I have a feeling of unease when my wife answers the phone or goes on the internet.

 

[Duggies-girl]

We have had many calls from these people, sometimes I am very rude and sometimes I just keep them talking but mostly we don't answer unknown numbers.

Scratch the cvc number off the back of your mums card. I have done this with dads for this very reason.

 

[LadyA]

Things like this make me very thankful that from early on in his illness, my husband, even on the occasions he would answer the phone (which wasn't often, he tended to ignore it), would just say "You have to speak to my wife." and hand me the phone.

 

[marionq]

The only solution would seem to be to close the whole account down and open a new one for her pensions etc. If you do then as suggested above scratch off the security number from the back of her new card. It's so difficult when you don't live with the person with dementia. I know I had to cut my husband's cards up at an early stage as he was being scammed. Didn't like it but soon forgot as he rarely paid for anything anyway.

The scammer ultimately got a warning from the police as they never give up once they have some success in getting money.

 

[Lynmax]

We have had many calls from these people, sometimes I am very rude and sometimes I just keep them talking but mostly we don't answer unknown numbers.

Scratch the cvc number off the back of your mums card. I have done this with dads for this very reason.

I have now scratched the cvc number off following previous advice from here! Now to do battle to stop the scam DD! Just need help from the bank to stop the company from simply setting up another one.

The people are evil!

 

[Lynmax]

The only solution would seem to be to close the whole account down and open a new one for her pensions etc. If you do then as suggested above scratch off the security number from the back of her new card. It's so difficult when you don't live with the person with dementia. I know I had to cut my husband's cards up at an early stage as he was being scammed. Didn't like it but soon forgot as he rarely paid for anything anyway.

The scammer ultimately got a warning from the police as they never give up once they have some success in getting money.

Closing her account and setting up a new one would stop them being able to reopen the DD but it won't stop them making the threatening phone calls unless we also get call blocking on her phone but I am not sure we can do that without mum knowing! Also her bank have said that if we open a new account, we would have to sort out all the DDs as the banks only take responsibility if someone is a new customer. But it is a last option. I am off to phone the bank to get some advice.

 

[marionq]

I have a BT 6500. There will probably be more modern ones. I can block International calls (no call centres from India!). I can block calls from withheld numbers and from specific unwanted numbers. It is fairly simple to do and she wouldn't know. Also use BT call blocking service. I had to do all of this when John's scammer started calling me up and threatening me unless I allowed him access to my husband. This is another minefield that our bureaucracy knows nothing about when they are dismissive of carers.

 

[MaNaAk]

We recently registered mums LPA with her bank and we now have an overview of her accounts. On looking at her last few statements online I noticed a monthly direct debit for £21.99 to a telecom company, set up 9 months ago. I googled the company and was horrified by what I saw..

Apparently this "company" target elderly people by phoning them, saying that they are linked to the Telephone Preference Service and offering to stop international cold calls for a one off payment. They already have bank account details and just ask for confirmation and the cvc number off the back of the debit card. Goodness knows where they got this info. Mum obviously gave them the cvc as she would have trusted them because they could quote her bank account number and sort code. The scammers then set up a monthly direct debit.

If the DD is stopped by the bank, they are able to reopen a new one the following month, after they have made threatening phone calls to the account holder. How they do that I do not know but people have said it is because they keep a record of the phone call when the account holder verbally agreed.

They have been reported to police action fraud and trading standards but nothing seems to stop them. I got all this info from reputable consumer websites.

I want to stop the DD but need to avoid any nastiness for mum so I am going to make an appointment at her bank to get their advice.

I want to warn everyone who is caring for a person with dementia about what is going on, the scam seemed to start in 2017.

 

[MaNaAk]

I have a system with my phone company which can cut out nuisance calls to a certain extent. If I were you I would contact your mum's phone company and tell them about this scam and then cancel the direct debit and change the bank account.

MaNaAk

PS: This sort of thing makes my blood boil.

 

[Lynmax]

I have a BT 6500. There will probably be more modern ones. I can block International calls (no call centres from India!). I can block calls from withheld numbers and from specific unwanted numbers. It is fairly simple to do and she wouldn't know. Also use BT call blocking service. I had to do all of this when John's scammer started calling me up and threatening me unless I allowed him access to my husband. This is another minefield that our bureaucracy knows nothing about when they are dismissive of carers.

With a call blue Coker, do you need one for each phone extension? I have looked at them but it was not clear in the descriptions of the products, mum has three phones in different rooms, they are all wired in, not moveable.

I think these might be the way forward especially if we can find the phone number this scammer uses as it might not be a withheld number.

 

[canary]

We have got a BT call blocker phone that has 2 extensions. You only have to program the blocked numbers into one of the phones and it automatically does it to the other 2. The only problem with the phones is that they are cordless phones and they tend to go walkabout......

 

[Guzelle]

I have a BT phone with call guardian on it. No one gets through unless their number is programmed into the phone. If the number is not programmed in they have to introduce themselves and then you can choose to accept or decline by pressing numbers which my husband can’t fathom, he is deaf as well as having dementia. It has an answer phone and people can leave a message, like the hospital or doctors,nuisance calls never leave messages. You can see who has called even though they can’t get through and block their number .

 

[MaNaAk]

Plusnet has a system for nuisance calls as well.

MaNaAk