No matter how convincing they sound, never give your card details to someone who’s called you out of the blue. That’s what Which? member Dev found out…
Dev Raj told us: ‘Around three months ago, someone rang up claiming to be a Sky employee, and told me that, as I was a valued customer, they wanted to reduce my bill by 50%. I agreed and told them to go ahead. The caller then told me that I would have to pay £1 as a legal requirement to process the application.
‘I thought something smelt fishy when they asked me to pay this amount using my credit card. I suggested they should charge an extra £1 on my direct debit, but they refused, so I declined the offer. I contacted Sky and they confirmed that nobody from their office had called. I think I was saved from handing over my card details to a scam caller.’
Our say on cold call offers
You were very right to be cautious. If a cold caller offers you something which seems too good to be true, it normally is. We would encourage customers of all home phone and broadband companies to be wary of cold callers asking for credit card details.
Many of these companies instruct sales staff to make outbound calls to existing customers, often with the aim of encouraging them to take out new contracts. But, if they are genuine employees, they will be more than happy for you to call them back and complete the sale.
We also have more details on how to get your money back if you’ve been a victim of a scam, including information on how to make a claim under Section 75 and useful letter templates.
Have you been cold called by a scammer? Did you fall for it, or see right through their wily words?