topic Re: Phone abuse to an elderly customer in Home Phone

Phone abuse to an elderly customer

chartman — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 21:26:13 GMT

I'm trying to help an old lady that has had enough of rogue/scam phone calls pretending to be a bank... She doesn't have a clue about IT type things etc. She is on the verge of leaving TT just so she can get a new land line number. What can be done ?
I could go round and see if I can block the number that's calling, but I'm old too, and I wouldn't know how to do that without searching a lot... And she's not sure what the nuber is that calls and it could be spoofed and changed with each call.... I doubt she has acess to her online account but I could be wrong. - I'll know tomorrow.
The most sensible option is for TT to give her a new number... but how hard is that? I would have thought that if she is suffering scam calls, TT ought to be able to give her a new number. From what I can make out, TT won't/can't do that. She suggests that she has tried that but I'm not sure.
Is that an option ?

Re: Phone abuse to an elderly customer

chartman — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 21:52:04 GMT

More info... It seems the scammer is spoofing phone numbers of her friends/customers ( so she says). I don't see how that can be possible unless they have access to her phone records. She has alsotold me that this is a 'known issue' with TT and there's nothing TT can do about it...

Re: Phone abuse to an elderly customer

Gliwmaeden2 — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 22:24:22 GMT

Help her set up Last Caller Barring in My Account, @chartman:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/Using-Selective-call-rejection-Last-Caller-Barring/ta-p/2222798

Set up Callsafe:

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/About-CallSafe/ta-p/2204784

You can't have both at the same time. Changing the phone number is going to be more challenging and as (genuine) banks and doctors' surgeries might need to reach her, it's best to keep it of possible.

Re: Phone abuse to an elderly customer

chartman — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 22:30:12 GMT

Yes, that's a start but a) I think she has call safe, but I've sent her links on how to set it up and how to use it. b) she has intimated that the scammer is somehow spoofing numbers of her legitimate contacts... I have to check more with her tomorrow. I also suggested registering with TPS.
She has a mobile and that might be used for banks etc. I don't know though- I have to ask. She uses the land line for business and changing that would be very painfull...

Thx.

Re: Phone abuse to an elderly customer

Gliwmaeden2 — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 22:43:55 GMT

If the calls are genuine, callsafe will work - it would block spoofed numbers.

Her nerves may well be rattled though, if she's actually had people impersonating banks. That might make her start thinking that genuine friends' numbers are being spoofed too. Sounds unlikely.

Re: Phone abuse to an elderly customer

Arne-TalkTalk — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 08:57:32 GMT

You can test if she has callsafe by with holding your number and calling her landline, the callsafe screening message should be heard if active..