Scam
What is the scam?
It involves getting a call from BT customer service’s (it isn’t them) asking for a demand in payment of your bill. Now this is initially quite a common scam, but it takes a twist in the fact that the caller is willing to provide proof of their BT credentials by ‘apparently’ disconnecting your phone.
The caller will ask you to try dialling out after you hang up your phone to them and tell you that you will not be able to as they will disconnect you. You try dialling out and are unable to, and after trying you will get a call back. The caller will call back telling you that you are re-connected and you should now pay your bill promptly. The scam is all about getting your card details and not the money.
How can they disconnect me?
What is in fact happening is the caller is not hanging up when you hang up. They will instead mute their call and stay on the line listening to you attempting to dial out, which of course you cannot do as you have reconnected back to the original call that is now muted.
This works by the fact that the caller has to hang up their call to terminate your existing call with them, if they don’t hang up you just end up reconnecting back to them. You are then not able to dial out, resulting in what appears to be a disconnected line, if you have been told that’s what it is.
We have had several reports of this, all with BT’s name being used as the caller. However there is no reason why they won’t use another carriers name.
Double check
Please note that if the caller gives you an 0800 number to call back, then double check that number on-line via the carriers website and dial the number from their website instead. Get names and ask them to give you your details instead of you giving them any details.
BE careful out there!