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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?

Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?

Chris
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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?


wrote in message
...
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?

Chris


Sounds like a scam to me ... never give your card details to a cold caller.


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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?


wrote in message
...
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?


Something very similar to this was on my local (Leeds) news only this week,
http://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/s...id=12&iid=8610. A
spokeperson for the leccy company said the usual "We do not kow anything
about this, we would never ask for bank details, etc. etc,......."

HTH

John


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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?

On Oct 29, 12:57*pm, wrote:
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?

Chris


halving bills with a plugin box is impossible. If it were doable we'd
all have one.

A clear scam.


NT
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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?


wrote in message ...
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?

Chris


Get yourself a shrill whistle or one of those compressed
air personal alarms and keep it by the phone.
Next time somebody gets annoying on the phone start speaking
quietly so they hold their earpiece closer to their ear and
then suddenly give them a blast.

Then I like to say " Can you keep your end a bit quieter, I can't
hear you with all the noise in the background."






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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?

Dave-UK wrote:

Get yourself a shrill whistle or one of those compressed
air personal alarms and keep it by the phone.
Next time somebody gets annoying on the phone start speaking
quietly so they hold their earpiece closer to their ear and
then suddenly give them a blast.


Not sure that will actually have the desired effect on a modern phone
system. There's only so loud the receiving end will go.

Pete
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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?

NT wrote:
On Oct 29, 12:57 pm, wrote:
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?

Chris


halving bills with a plugin box is impossible. If it were doable we'd
all have one.

Agreed. The only thing to successfully cut your bills in half is a pair
of scissors.

A clear scam.


NT

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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?

On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:16:53 +0000, Pete Verdon
d wrote:

Dave-UK wrote:

Get yourself a shrill whistle or one of those compressed
air personal alarms and keep it by the phone.
Next time somebody gets annoying on the phone start speaking
quietly so they hold their earpiece closer to their ear and
then suddenly give them a blast.


Not sure that will actually have the desired effect on a modern phone
system. There's only so loud the receiving end will go.

Pete


Rick Roll them.
--
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http://www.holidayunder100.co.uk
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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?


"NT" wrote in message
...
On Oct 29, 12:57 pm, wrote:
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?

Chris


halving bills with a plugin box is impossible. If it were doable we'd
all have one.

A clear scam.


NT

However,
http://webnhance.com/2007/10/14/how-...ctricity-bill/
illegal but who knows?

EDF, however, are unlikely to be pushing this.



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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?


"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...

"NT" wrote in message
...
On Oct 29, 12:57 pm, wrote:
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?

Chris


halving bills with a plugin box is impossible. If it were doable we'd
all have one.

A clear scam.


NT

However,
http://webnhance.com/2007/10/14/how-...ctricity-bill/
illegal but who knows?

EDF, however, are unlikely to be pushing this.

Also http://www.epdonthenet.net/article.aspx?ArticleID=28266.
However the request for credit card details is a dead give away - however
technically possible (or not) any offer is they do not need your credit card
details unless they wish to take money from your credit card.
If they wished to validate your identity using a credit card they could
always read the details back to you for you to confirm.
Even then you should worry.
A firm with your details will ask for post code, address, date of birth,
account number etc. but never your credit card details.

Be afraid.
Be very afraid.

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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?

On Oct 29, 7:45 pm, "David WE Roberts" wrote:
"David WE Roberts" wrote in ...



"NT" wrote in message
...
On Oct 29, 12:57 pm, wrote:
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."


Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?


Chris


halving bills with a plugin box is impossible. If it were doable we'd
all have one.


A clear scam.


NT


However,
http://webnhance.com/2007/10/14/how-...ctricity-bill/
illegal but who knows?


EDF, however, are unlikely to be pushing this.


Alsohttp://www.epdonthenet.net/article.aspx?ArticleID=28266.
However the request for credit card details is a dead give away - however
technically possible (or not) any offer is they do not need your credit card
details unless they wish to take money from your credit card.
If they wished to validate your identity using a credit card they could
always read the details back to you for you to confirm.
Even then you should worry.
A firm with your details will ask for post code, address, date of birth,
account number etc. but never your credit card details.

Be afraid.
Be very afraid.


mmm

sounds like a job for the new national fraud centre that was being
enthused about on Radio 4 (you and yours?) last week
they have a website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyo...9_43_mon.shtml

"To report a fraud to the National Fraud Reporting Centre, call 0300
123 2040 or Textphone 0300 123 2050. www.direct.gov.uk/fraud"

and are rolling it out bit by bit but this to me sounds like a good
teeth cutter for them?

JimK
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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?

Graham. wrote:
But it's not a withheld number "The caller withheld their number",
it's an unavailable number "We do not have the number to return the call".
Probably from abroad.


Can't say I'm up enough on the systems to know if that difference is
significant or not.

If I was dishonest enough to do this, I would present a UK geographic number
that has nothing to do with me, It's easy to do with VoIP and would give a
false sense of security to people like yourself who believe that if it's got a
valid number, it's tractable :-)


From my point of view, that's correct. However, I don't think the
police would find it an intractable problem, as anyone would have put
full traceability (which is probably what you meant to type :P ) into
the systems. For bug tracking, if nothing else.

Andy
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Default Electricity Bill Reducer Scam?


"Dave-UK" Here@home wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be from EDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."

Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?

Chris


Get yourself a shrill whistle or one of those compressed
air personal alarms and keep it by the phone.
Next time somebody gets annoying on the phone start speaking
quietly so they hold their earpiece closer to their ear and
then suddenly give them a blast.

Then I like to say " Can you keep your end a bit quieter, I can't
hear you with all the noise in the background."


I prefer the "Oh, I'm so sorry, do excuse me, can you hang on a minute?" and
just put the phone on the table. 15 minutes is usually enough.




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In article , Andy Champ
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:18:20 writes


If it happens again, take good note of the time and call the Police
ASAP. I'm pretty sure they can override "number withheld", at least for
UK numbers.


A while back I was getting lots of cold calls despite registering with
TPS.

I called BT after such a call to ask them to trace it and was told it
was almost certainly from abroad and not traceable.

They advised to hang up immediately and they would eventually stop.

Indeed that was what happened.
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On 29 Oct, 20:18, Andy Champ wrote:
wrote:
Just had a strange and lengthy 'phone call claiming to be fromEDF
saying they're going to send me something to plug in to halve my leccy
bills. I was then passed on to a supervisor who wanted my credit card
number "for identification". Needless to say, I declined. The line
then went dead, but someone called back. I didn't answer, but no doubt
they'll call again. 1471 says "We do not have ..."


Is this a scam? They have no conceivable need for a card number, as I
pay by direct debit, and isn't a utility bill a common means of
identification?


Chris


If it happens again, take good note of the time and call the Police
ASAP. *I'm pretty sure they can override "number withheld", at least for
UK numbers.

Andy


Given the accents of the two callers, that'll be the police in Mumbai,
then :-))

It looks as if I'm on a hit list. I've just had this one:
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/0091255 -- first you get a
"bank satisfaction survey" which asks the name of your bank, then one
about overcharge refunds which asks for your CC number. They're
getting quite security minded -- the chap even gave me his name,
Jeffrey Patel (yeah!), and his staff ID at First Call Direct.

Chris
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