I doubt anyone, on here, is daft enough to be conned but it’s easy to panic if you’re in a hurry or concerned. While having my porridge I received a call on my landline from ‘the fraud department’ of my bank … interesting as they don’t have my landline I was asked for my bank address so said I’d go to find it and carried on with my breakfast. After five minutes I gave him a fictitious address and he asked more questions which I answered but lied. When I became bored of toying with him I turned on Breakfast News, to create background studio noise, and said to Mohammed, ‘Thank for for calling, this is Jeremy Vine and you’re live on BBC radio 2, can I ask why you’re pretending to be from my bank and do you realise the police have now traced this call to where you’re sitting. They have the place surrounded and everyone inside will be arrested.’ Yes, I’m incredibly childish especially when I’m having my porridge.
Brilliant . Couple of years ago now had a similar call on mobile claiming to be barclays etc in regards to my savings account. Ran through my details and gave him the wrong password on purpose and he said yes that's great. Kept him on the phone for ages then i said ahh you mean my savings account there's nothing in that and he hung up.
I love the idea of this AI granny who can keep the scammers talking about knitting and the grandchildren for an hour or so. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0k4lbnw
When we had a landline we would get, on average, one call a week, generally from ‘Telstra’ telling me there was a problem with our modem and they needed remote access to fix it. Normally it was a David or Peter calling. Of course I knew straight away it was a scam. I had a rule that if it was a female on the other end I would be polite but at the same time tell them that I knew it was a scam call. I’d stay on the line until they terminated the call. If it was a man who was calling I would describe in as much detail as I could how I had anal sexual intercourse with their grandmother. I found that they would stay on the line longer. I was especially pleased with myself that on one occasion after they hung up I got another call from them a few minutes later where they called me a motherf”@ker for a few minutes. At least they were wasting their time on me rather than possibly scamming someone else.
We were on a break at work and a lad had a call claiming to be from his mobile network provider....it wasn't his provider, so he knew it was a scammer. He went along with it and pretended to be interested, but he pre-warned the caller that he had tourettes and was prone to sudden outbursts. He would be talking normally, then shout "you ****ing ****", "big hairy bollocks"...them type of things. He'd apologise, talk normal for a bit, then start again. Seemed to go on for ages, I think it was all of us laughing in the background that gave the game away, and they eventually hung up.
I answer any withheld/dodgy number with "Northumbria Police. What crime are you reporting?" That usually gets rid of them...
I have to say my worst ever was disgraceful. When I bought my first terraced house we had Jehovah’s Witnesses at the top of the street, Seventh Day Adventists at the bottom and Mormons two streets away. I was working two jobs, six days a week, and enjoyed a Sunday lie in. These religious groups would send out new recruits to practice their technique. Being lazy they’d walk up and down the nearest streets and bang on the door. One morning I’d been working at the club until 3am and was knackered. When the knock came I went downstairs to find a young apprentice with an older woman who was coaching her. I answered the door in a T-shirt and slippers. They asked if I had time to talk about how Jesus could save me and I invited them in with a big grin … … when their eyes dropped to my knob & bare bollocks they couldn’t get away fast enough. Word must’ve gone round ‘cos none of them ever knocked again
About a year ago, I got one of those "Have you had an accident in the last year" kind of calls on my mobile. To the guy on the other end's delight I answered yes and started to describe the accident. I was involved in a head on crash doing 30 mph with the other driver going twice that speed, firemen had to cut me out of the car and resuscitate me. The bloke on the other end was lapping this all up., he asked when the accident occurred - "about a week ago, I'm still in hospital and on a drip!", looking back I might have pushed it too far by then cos when I said that my doctor was approaching me, he cottoned on and give me grief down the phone about wasting his time and if I ever had an accident not to call them. Had him going for nearly 10 mins though which I'm seriously proud of!
