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Nov. 6th, 2013 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morwenIn this age of mobiles and digits, we have come to forget certain quirks of older technology. One such peculiarity is the way that a circuit on a phone line on the British fixed public telephone network can only be closed by the initiator. Or, in English: you can only hang up on a landline from the end that's calling it. If you've been called, there's nothing you can do. I encountered this concept during my childhood, when someone did this accidentally, presumably by failing to place the receiver down properly. We blew a whistle down the line, to try and get them to notice.
More recently, people have been taking advantage of this anomaly, to conduct quite a clever scam. They call you claiming to be the police, and tell you, often with dramatic adornment, that your card has been cloned or stolen and needs to be cancelled. They advise you to phone the number on the back of your card. I had one of these maybe a year ago. The call was very suspicious, so I ignored it, but I couldn't figure out their angle.
The trick is, they never hang up. They fake the dial tone. They fake the ring tone. They pretend to be your bank. They wheedle your PIN out of you. They fake the police. Eventually, they send a courier to pick up the card. And then they go off to the ATM and empty your account.
I was lucky that time, but not everyone is. An acquaintance got taken good and hard. So when they called yesterday, I immediately realised what was going on, scrambled for my iPhone, put the thing on speakerphone, and taped the bastard.
A recording [anyone fancy transcribing it?]
It's quite funny. Especially the ending.
More recently, people have been taking advantage of this anomaly, to conduct quite a clever scam. They call you claiming to be the police, and tell you, often with dramatic adornment, that your card has been cloned or stolen and needs to be cancelled. They advise you to phone the number on the back of your card. I had one of these maybe a year ago. The call was very suspicious, so I ignored it, but I couldn't figure out their angle.
The trick is, they never hang up. They fake the dial tone. They fake the ring tone. They pretend to be your bank. They wheedle your PIN out of you. They fake the police. Eventually, they send a courier to pick up the card. And then they go off to the ATM and empty your account.
I was lucky that time, but not everyone is. An acquaintance got taken good and hard. So when they called yesterday, I immediately realised what was going on, scrambled for my iPhone, put the thing on speakerphone, and taped the bastard.
A recording [anyone fancy transcribing it?]
It's quite funny. Especially the ending.
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Date: 2013-11-06 10:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-06 10:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-06 10:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-06 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-06 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-06 10:56 am (UTC)Transcript
Date: 2013-11-08 08:45 pm (UTC)DCI Thompson: Yes.
M: Hello, can you hear me?
T: Yes.
M: Okay, right, sorry, you were saying?
T: My name's DCI Thompson.
M: Right.
T: Okay, and the reason why I called, two young males have been arrested. The reason why, one of them were actually making a transaction on a fake {unintelligble} debit card under the name of Miss {unintelligble} living 125 Farmer Road, that's E10 5DJ.
M: Oh dear, that's not very good
T: Sorry?
M: That's not very good then. Okay, well you've caught them then, that's good.
T: Okay, what's happened then is we caught these young males, and they've, well I'm not sure exactly we're going to interview them now to see where they've got hold of these cards. In other words madam what's happened is these young males have made another copy of your debit card. Now this is actually a high level of fraud. What I'm going to advise you to do right now madam, I'm going to advise you to give your banking provider a ring. Now before I ask you to give them a call can you just confirm that you still have your debit card in your possession, that it hasn't been lost or stolen?
M: Right, I'll just check. Yes, got it.
{rustling}
M: Yes, got it.
T: Okay madam, in front of me now I have the cloned card. It's just a plain white card with a black mag strip going across. Can you confirm which banking provider provided you this card?
M: Well, I'm not sure I should tell you that, I mean you know—
T: Okay that's fine—
M: —so I'll tell you what, I'll just call the bank, yep?
T: —can you see a telephone number on the back?
M: Sorry?
T: Can you see a telephone number on the back of your debit card?
M: There is, yes.
T: Sorry?
M: There is, yes. I'll give that a ring then. Righty-ho, thank you very much for—
T: Give that a ring right now.
M: Okay, thank you for alerting me to this.
T: Okay, bye.
{Pause, key tones, ringing}
Card enquiry team: Hello, card enquiry team, how can I help you?
M: Hi, actually, sorry, can I just call you back
C: —how can I help you?
M: Sorry, can I call you back in a moment? I've just forgotten something.
{Pause, brief dial tone, key tones, ringing}
Emergency responder: Hello, 999 emergency?
M: Hello, sorry?
E: Hello, 999 emergency?
M: That's very strange, because I just phoned the speaking clock.
{line goes dead}