Scam callers pretending to be Sky don't log into [removed]

[Chris+Stilton]

Hi everyone, I got a call yesterday from an Indian man purporting to be calling from London, my phone number tracer said the number was in Nottingham area, anyway apparently my broadband is sending him messages, and he and his friends at Sky technical India scamming department wanted me to stop as it was upsetting their scamming. we entered into a discussion on his antecedents, I suggested his mother was a Squirrel, and his father a species of monkey, and that he was a bad scammer, a really bad scammer. There was a huge intake of breath from his end and I put the phone down! I particularly like the animal discussions with these people, they seem to lose their rags quite quickly. Sensitive! Well I personally think they should'nt ring me up if they don't want to be insulted. Anyway people I hope this post made you smile, beware though these calls are happening daily at the moment, don't blame Sky it's something they can't do much about. Try sending an Email to the Indian embassy explaining the problem, perhaps a few hundred calls to them may stir up some response! Happy christmas all!!!!

[Skyfan123456]

One of the scammers swore at me down the telephone and was actually quite abusive. 

[neil425]

Had these today as well

Wife is working from home & had the same call centre number call twice in a matter of minutes infomring us that someone was using our internet & that we needed to download an app from the Google Play store so they could fix the issue 😂

Obviously just hung up but they are still trying it on so be warned people

Neil

[Chris+Stilton]

@neil435 Dealing with these people is a problem, yes insulting them may not help your case, (but it gets it off your chest). I personally have found that the best way to get something done is to annoy someone in authority, preferably in the country of origin, if this is not possible then just put the phone down,(best method!) If however you have the time and are an awkward so and so (like me), then engage with them find out some details, religion perhaps, location, anything really, then proceed to wind them up making them waste their time and getting their blood pressure up, till eventually they break and ring off or you insult them into apoplexy!! Don't blame Sky, just have some fun at the expense of the scammers, let them run up a phone bill and tear their hair out, I find that comparing them and their ancestors to species of lower animals has the best effect, it's insulting to the animals, but the scammers are really the lowest form of life, single celled! Have fun and don't blame sky!

[PJCWSM]

Looks like this scam is back again, if it ever went away. Just received two calls from a 0203 590 number trying to tell me that my router is sending messages to the Sky Technical Department saying that my internet speed is going up and down. The guy I spoke to had a very strong Indian accent and was trying to bamboozle me tech speak. So I just hung up on him. They haven't tried again, yet.

[Archie122]

Hi All,

I had 2 telephone calls today on my landline, they both purported to be from Sky and said (in their awful english) they have been alerted to a fluctuation in my broadband and to fix it, I need to log onto the 'Sky' secure server, which i didnt and terminated the call.  

[KeKe0000]

So interesting to see that so many of us are receiving these Scam calls and loved your very amusing message. 

Whilst you have said that 'Sky can't do much about it', I do feel that we should have an email from them, warning their customers may be contacted by Scammers and so making us aware that these are not legitimate calls. 

Many people will spot these scamming idiots but there may be a few who do not and may be taken in by these morons. If even one person is misled and is taken in, it is one customer too many. 

Surely as customers we deserve very good service and care. Just one standard email to us all, to make us aware of what these idiots are doing, isn't asking too much. 

By not even acknowledging that this is going on, Sky are just ignoring the whole issue and not looking after its customers. Not good at all!

[Mark39]

@KeKe0000 this is not an issue solely related to Sky. Scammers and fraudsters are everywhere. I'm not with Sky for my landline and I've had multiple calls too attempting to scam me. I doubt that there anybody with a landline phone, or who uses email or the Internet who hasn't been a victim at some point. It's up to us as individuals to be alert. Nobody should need reminding. 

I've no idea how you've come to the conclusion thay Sky don't acknowledge the issue. Where have you looked for their guidance?

https://www.sky.com/help/home/scams-fraud/articles/sky-scams

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/Help-with-scam-calls-texts-amp-emails/td-p/3437640/jump-to/fi...

[Alison-]

Oh!  I get it, because there are other companies who disregard helping their customers by alerting them to particular scammers, it's perfectly ok for Sky to ignore their moral responsibility also!

Let us not forget that I had two calls* from the same man within 1 hour, from two different area codes from two completely different parts of the country, so either he was Superman or he was calling from fake numbers which Sky allows to be routed to my home.  This is a bit different than a gas company who does not have control over scammers using their own service to make people believe the fake numbers must be real.  I am sure there are many excuses Sky has to omit any responsibility for that too, but are excuses helpful?

I can't speak for Keke0000, but I am offended by Mark39 flippantly asking "Where have you looked for their guidance?" This suggests that the information is available, so why not be helpful and post a useful link where Sky does acknowledge that this is going on so Keke0000 and the rest of us can peruse it. 

*Alison - 19 Nov 2020 01:34 AM

[Mark39]

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@Alison- wrote:

I can't speak for Keke0000, but I am offended by Mark39 flippantly asking "Where have you looked for their guidance?" This suggests that the information is available, so why not be helpful and post a useful link where Sky does acknowledge that this is going on so Keke0000 and the rest of us can peruse it. 

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I take it you completely missed the two links in my post then.....

Yes, the numbers a scammer calls from are inevitably spoofed and meaningless. Quite how you expect Sky or any other provider to intercept these calls and prevent them from being routed to your home is beyond me. 

Edited to add: Sky does, of course, offer the excellent Sky Talk Shield which you can use to screen all incoming calls and decide whether to accept or reject them.

[GD1]

The world of what people expect and actual reality are simply poles apart.

[Alison-]

You might think that is too much to ask, but when there are big organisations targeting Sky customers and Sky has access to every fake phone number they are calling from and providing them with access to our home, they should be doing something, anything!

As for the "excellent Sky Talk Shield", what do you think that actually does?  Firstly, the scammer is instantly told they are definitely through to a genuine Sky customer, so there is no need to fish for information, or guess the wrong company.  They then simply say they are from "Sky" which is quite easy and because the customer has no idea a scam is going on, a genuine phone number has appeared on their display and they know Sky has access to their home phone number, why wouldn't they accept the call?  You seem to have confirmed the need for some sort of scam alert to inform Sky customers what to look out for so they know to reject the call.

As for what I expect and what is reality, this is the 21st century, we all know the technology is there, we are not trying to send holiday makers to Jupiter, scammers constantly invent new ways to fool people, Sky has a massive customer base allowing them the ability to reach many people to help prevent them from losing their life savings to a scammer. 

I never fell for it, in fact I found my interaction highly entertaining, but for some people it's just not funny.

[Mark39]

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@Alison- wrote:

I never fell for it, in fact I found my interaction highly entertaining, but for some people it's just not funny.

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Well, if you think you have a valid case to make, rather than posting here for the entertainment value too, it's probably best you raise it by way of a formal complaint with Sky.

[KeKe0000]

I was actually addressing what Chris+Stilton and Alison had said when they discussed Sky and they can't really do anything!

I hope that clarifies my comment. 

Keke

[Elizabeth000]

Thanks to your post, I escaped being scammed by a hair...

Received a call from "Sky' aka Scammers and it was all very believable and normal.  She asked if I was experiencing broadband issues and I confirmed that I had (Sky wifi has been bombing out frequently in the past week so that got me convinced and helped me to not see this was a scam).

It wasn't until she asked me to enter a few letters and words in my Google browser, that I felt something was off.  So just before I was about to press enter to access the link she provided, I decided to copy the text she asked me to enter and I pasted it in a separate search with "Sky users being asked to enter WC3 Validator" and that's when I saw your post thank goodness. 

I asked her name (she hadn't mentioned it to me at all) and she said Alyssa Morris.  Then asked why hadn't she asked me to confirm any details the way Sky normally do - she said she's in the technical dept which is different from billing (almost word for word of what you wrote in your situation).

I then asked her what my name was?

She vomited the same story of not being privy to my information as that's a separate dept.

Upon reflection, I did notice that:

1.  Whilst waiting for me to log in to my laptop, she kept talking at me.  I suspect it's to not allow thinking space or time for me to realise what is actually happening.  Normally the caller would wait until you've reached the next step and acknowledge that step.

2. She did not say who she was until a few minutes into the call, I asked.  And then she said it like a script.

3. She was hurrying me along whilst keeping me occupied.  

4.  At one point she asked me to 'cool down' when I got annoyed as she kept repeating that she was phoning to help me.  I corrected her several times saying that my inconsistent wifi experienced is not what I'm paying for and therefore she should be calling to apologise and make things right not a reframe of helping me.