Sky Contract?

A question about : Sky Contract?

Dear MSE,

Hi,

Writing on behalf of a senior citizen whose husband sadly passed away 14 months ago. Her spouse had a contract with Sky for a Sky Box. The agreement was cancelled by Sky when they heard of the spouse passing away.

However, last week the lady received a phone call apparently from Sky saying she'd taken out a contract with Sky for a new handset in 2012. She denied this of course and asked for the matter to be sent to her in writing so she could study it. The request was agreed to. Nothing arrived in the post.

Today she received another phone call, this time from 'DTS' saying she'd taken out a contract with Sky for a Sky Box (no mention of the handset this time) in 2012. Whoever these people are they have her telephone number & postal address. The same denial followed plus the same request for the matter to be put in writing. This was again agreed to.

The only contract between Sky and the household was in the name of the deceased spouse and that account has now been closed. Nothing has ever been in the name of his widow. What is going on please?

Help much appreciated.

R

Best answers:

• It won't be Sky. It's a coincidence that her late husband had a Sky account and it's very likely that the caller did not even know this prior to the call. She'll never receive anything in writing either. Her name and address will likely be from the electoral roll or even the 'phone book.
  Tell her to ignore any such cold calls and make sure she signs up to the Telephone Preference Service, so as to minimise such obvious spam calls.
  https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html
  She is correct to demand anyone calling her without prior permission to communicate in writing only. This won't stop the calls, but will prevent any money being defrauded from her.
• Many thanks - that sounds right - it must have been a total coincidence that there were legitimate dealings with Sky a month ago and these fraudulent people - a month on - have picked the lady's details out of a hat while coincidentally claiming to be something to do with Sky :-o
  Just checked and the telephone number is already registered with TPS so it hasn't blocked these people in this instance. Never mind.
  Once again sincere thanks!
  R
• It does sound like a scam. Some emails say you owe money or are owed money by bank X and ,of course, if you don't bank with them you ignore the message. However, if you do bank with them, you could be scammed into giving confidential information to the conmen.
  I don't think Sky, unlike BT, have ever rented out or sold handsets, so this also points to a scam.
• The "normal" scam involving the use of the Sky name, is the insurance "renewal" one.
  Watched something on TV last night - some gangsters based in Swansea finally got locked up for the scamming of the older generation -they had conned at least Ј500.000 over a couple of years.