be careful if delvry guy wants to use phone

A question about : be careful if delvry guy wants to use phone

luckily Id come across this scam before

a few days ago a guy in a plain white van knocked here with a parcel, now then I was in the garden and had watched him try to deliver the same parcel next door.

so I naturally assumed that he was asking me to take it in

no, he said " Mrs JOhnson?" "no" i replied

oh he says oh well I have this parcel for a mr Johnson at this adress.

My mobile is dead can I use your phone to make a quick call to the depot to ask them to check the adress please

so in he comes (hubby was here and 2 sons so I wasnt scared) and he duly rings the number, and said

" you need to check the adress on the parcel for Mr Johnson Its not right ok ill hold

now, A --- how do they know right away what parcel and who mr johnson is without a reference number and B__ do I look completely stupid

so I go into the dining room and pull the plug on the phone

he looks at the phone and says " its gone dead" i make all the usual clicking noises and all that with the handset and base and say

oh well, sorry theres a phone box down the road anyway

off he went

i did 1471 and sure enough its a premium number hes dialled

he would have sat here for 5 -10 mins while our bill clocked up at Ј1.50 an hour

come the bill, we wouldnt have rememberd him and thered have been murder here over who had rang that number

Ive contacted BT and they are looking into it

so be careful
especially if your a company owner

they do it in reception which is where I came across it before

Best answers:

• phoning 1471 only gives you the number that last rang you doesnt it? I'm on ntl and if I want to know what number was last rang I have to press redial and try to find out from that. If theres a way to do it to get the actual number what is it?
• sorry thats what I meant to say, when I pulled the plug, and he left, the phone rang right away and someone asked for "their driver" and thats how we got the number
• Could had been worse. If he had delivered to Trafalgars, she would never had let him out ;D
• I don't mean to sound cruel but you never ever let anybody use your phone under any circumstances - even if it is a child who has no money for bus fare, young lady with car broken down wanted to call recovery people, sales representatives wanted to ring their office, etc. If anyone wants to make phone calls when they are out and not even have the change to use the phone box (assuming they have not got a mobile phone), they can jolly crawl their way to the nearest police station or the social services to seek help!
  By the way, put a block to this 0800Reverse service when you can get reverse charge calls for Ј2.35 connection charge plus 15p per minute by e-mailing their customer service! See posts at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi...num=1082142843 about this dubious and day-light robbery service.
• I don't mean to sound cruel but you never ever let anybody use your phone under any circumstances - even if it is a child who has no money for bus fare, young lady with car broken down wanted to call recovery people,
  AWWW If we all thought like that when my son was in a bad car accident and ran to the nearest house and asked to use the phone hed have been in a right state if shed said NO
  turn a kid away who cant get home??? never
  though if I were male Id be careful about letting a child in to the house if I was alone Id get the number and ring parents myself and keep said child at the door.
• Quite an eye opener, thanks for the warning cathy.
  On a slightly different note, does anyone know if it's possible to ask BT to block access to premium rate numbers? Is it a particular number I'd dial? Thanks if anyone has any ideas
• Yes you can block premium rate calls from your line - dial 150
• Thanks for that I'll get straight onto it when I get back home on Friday!
• Just rung the 150 to get BT to call block any premium rate numbers & after negotiating a few automated menus (from memory I think it is put in your phone number, 4, 4, 2 [that last menu is either 1 for something for internet or 2 for anything else]), managed to get through to a lovely lady who needed me to confirm my phone number then asked my name, address & BT account number (so make sure that you have this handy, it's on the top left of your bills!)
  From today anyone trying to ring a premium rate line from this phone will be blocked *phew* (NB - we need a 'relieved' smiley!)
• This is no disrespect or slur on anyone but I would like to point out a couple of things.
  Lots of delivery guys drive white vans, especially if they are independant of the company (ie, sub-contracted or have to supply their own van).
  The parcel may have been for a 'Johnson' and there are databases on which to look up the name. It could have been a small company with a limited and regular customer base, they may well have remembered the 'johnson' person from loading the deliveries that day or perhaps he / she was a regular customer.
  If this was a 'premium rate scam' then the person would not incriminate themselves by:
  1, coming into your house and being identified by a family
  2, leaving prints everywhere
  3, driving a possibly traceable vehicle
  4, someone calling you back and not witholding their number, leaving another piece of traceable evidence, even if they WERE trying to cover up.
  I think perhaps a little over-cautious in this matter.
  I would check your phone bill to see if the number dialled WAS premium rate. It may have been that the premium rate number that called you back was a seperate customer helpline (you know what some of them are like!) and that he dialled a normal business line to reach to appropriate person.
  Also having already aroused your suspicion I am suprised you didn't quiz the caller a little further when they asked for their driver.
  I'm not saying that someone is wrong or right but these phone scammers know a much better, less work, anonymous way for phone-scamming people.
  Some of these addresses are very similar - it may have been some confusion or mix-up with the names & addressses
  It doesn't add up to a scammer, just a scatty and confused driver who may have been new to the job feeling very embarassed when he delivered something to the wrong person.
  "In this World today it's very easy to be too pessimistic"