How the National Trading Standards Scams Team is fighting fraud

I guess UK systems cannot currently do that. But even if they could, scammers could still make calls by spoofing existing valid numbers.

Jen – If your router is working normally I would ignore the message.

Even if your internet service provider [ISP] became aware of your router being ‘compromised’ they wouldn’t telephone you; they might not even have your telephone number.

There is a faint possibility that your telecom service provider [TSP – e.g. BT, Virgin Media] could become aware of a technical problem on the line but not a misuse of the router; they don’t routinely monitor router functionality for such events, and, again, even if they did identify a problem, they would not call you with an anonymous pre-recorded message but either fix the fault at source or contact the account holder with relevant identification and security checks – but in practice that never happens because there is no need; routers are reliable and long-lasting and easily replaced by the user directly with their TSP [or independently] if they wish to upgrade the service.

I believe you can normally do diagnostic checks on your router yourself via your computer or other device.

These scams are designed to worry people and panic them into a process for capturing personal data. They prey on people’s supposed ignorance about technology and fear of being disconnected. They set up a false sense of urgency: what if you had been away when the call came through? Always stop and count to ten before taking any action and never ‘press one’.

Jen, As John said, that call will have been a scam.

As your ISP will have your home address, if they did want you to have a new router, they would just send you one.

Fair enough, but why would an ISP not know your phone number when they provide the service? My ISP has phoned me a couple of times.

Are we getting confused between the ISP – which supplies the internet services – and the TSP [telecom service provider] which supplies the broadband service and router?

If my ISP has a telephone number it will be a very old one from around 1994 and I have moved several times since then and don’t think I have updated my account information; the usual means of contact is via e-mail or an on-screen message when logging-in, but I cannot recall ever being contacted by the ISP about an operational fault or other technical issue on the line or router.

I suggest that you let your ISP have your phone number, John. If there is a problem they might not be able to contact you by email.

Wavechange – I think they have my mobile number because they have that for verification and authentication purposes in the event of a system problem requiring a re-set and would send a text message. It has never happened, though, in over 25 years.

We are getting a bit off-topic as so often happens, but this reminds me that years ago I was contacted by my ISP because my router had been recalled because of a security issue.

John, I think for many of us ISP and TSP are the same company. But even when my phone line came from BT and my Internet Service came from another provider, it was the latter that supplied modems and routers.

Yes, that’s a good point, Derek. I had overlooked that many people have it all bundled together. My ISP has never had anything to do with telecom services and although they frequently advertise devices [except mobile phones], peripherals and accessories they don’t offer routers.

Wavechange, we go off-topic because the main thread has exhausted itself and we need something new to chew on.

In my view, prolonging these “Do you know about this latest scam?” Conversations rarely adds to Which?’s existing knowledge. They don’t summarise them, respond to questions on them, say what they are going to do with the information given, or engage in any way with the contributors. They might as well frame them in the form of a tabular poll with three or four columns and multiple rows for entries. It’s only when someone like you submits some interesting facts or technical details that any learning is possible at all.

This Conversation invites us to make comments about scams during the pandemic. Not having any useful examples I suggested that more use could be made of the GOV.UK portal to help tackle the problem.

There must be ten or more Conversations running at the moment about different scams. People don’t necessarily confine their comments to the particular type of scam so comments are mixed up across the Conversations. Nearly all the comments are stand-alone contributions and are not producing any dialogue with Which? or any conversation with other community members.

It is useful to have details of new scams as they arise although I get that quicker from the County Council trading standards service which also gives details of rogue traders including the localities where they are operating. It’s a free e-mail bulletin which anyone can sign up to from the Norfolk CC website. Other authorities might do the same in their areas.

Given that there are other sources of information about new scams I feel that Which? could more usefully keep a running list of scams in one place with brief details of each but not invite comments on them which tend to be repetitive and add little value to the topic.