topic Re: 45% Discount - SCAM in Security

45% Discount - SCAM

BlueSkyBri — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 12:01:44 GMT

Why would a "traditional barbershop" be ringing me to offer a 45% discount on my mobile phone bill?

I just had a call from a Southend-on-Sea phone number (01702 528567) where the caller with a "foreign accent" was offering me a 45% discount on my mobile phone bill. SCAM!!!

Turns out the real owner of the number has nothing to do with my mobile provider and is infact a legitimate business "traditional barber" in Southend-On-Sea!

Turns out the owner of the number, who I have called knew nothing about this and is looking into it!

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

James_B — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 14:29:17 GMT

Hi @BlueSkyBri,

Welcome to the EE Community. 🙂

I'm sorry to hear you have received a scam call.

It sounds like the caller was using a 'spoofed' caller ID.

You can find out more in Call spoofing - The EE Community.

Hope this helps.

James

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

MisterMista — Thu, 04 May 2023 16:57:00 GMT

I had similar call (foreign accent from an 0208 number,where the individual asked me for the amount on my last bill.

They then asked me to confirm my email address.
I said that they need to send me an email, so that I can confirm they are actually representing EE.
This was met with "due to company policy, we cannot do this yada, yada'".
I was then given a 11 digit number to text to prove that the caller was from EE.
This made no sense and I ended the call.

I googled :"EE 45% discount" which lead me here.

Clearly a scam!

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

Katie_B — Thu, 04 May 2023 17:10:03 GMT

Hello @MisterMista.

Thanks for letting us know you have received a call like this.

You have done the right thing by trusting your instincts and asking for proof of caller.

If you ever want to have something like this checked please do not hesitate to give our customer care team a call.

Katie

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

HMR1778 — Tue, 09 May 2023 16:13:32 GMT

I just had a similar call from 01432356321

I told the caller I think this is a scam and asked if I can phone them back.

The number he gave me was 01227390534 and said his name was Mike.

I didn’t try the number but thought to report it.

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

M155SOH — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 17:24:00 GMT

I received a very similar call today from 01208 247414. Asking me if I wanted to save 45% on my bill. Asked me for my email address etc, I told the gentleman that I thought he was a scammer and he gave me a number to call and then hung up.

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

James_B — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 17:27:16 GMT

Thanks for letting us know @HMR1778 and @M155SOH

James

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

Lrobbo89 — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 23:03:37 GMT

I missed a call from this same number today - 01208 247414

Googled the number as I didn’t have time to answer and came across your comment! I don’t know anyone in Bodmin so found it odd 🤔

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

Christopher_G — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 08:11:22 GMT

Hi @Lrobbo89

Thanks for letting us know. Did you report the number by texting it to 7726?

Chris

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

JMilton — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 16:17:18 GMT

I told them my name was Adolf Hitler email adolf.hitler@hotmail.com and I didn't need international calling as my friends Himler and Goebbels live in Argentina but I lost touch with them. They genuinly fell for it hook line and sinker. Switched between floor supervisor, scammer #1 to call centre manager scammer #2 finally to financial manager scammer #3 and none of them had a slight inkling who Adolf H was. They even said they were from Manchester. I asked which offices in Manchester? As I have Google Street view open. Is it the large blue tower block or the small green one? Replied "oh, it's the large blue one" Manchester in Bangalore!? His name apparantly was Keith Rogers 🙄 I told him, when asked my providing providings is talk-s*%t, he even believed that 😂 It all went straight over their heads, so concentrated on getting some bonk details from me #amatures EE 45% off scam. Kept them on the phone for 47 minutes until one of them heard my partner laughing in the background. These people far prefer you to hang up straight away so they can move straight on to their next victim. I keep them on the line as long as possible to save some other poor souls from their calls. Utter, utter scumbags. He gave me a UK number 44 01227390534 and said I can ring it to prove that they are real, obviously not acting on anything they say though.

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

MisterMista — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 17:08:04 GMT

Ha, ha... nice!
If I ever (more likely than not!) find myself picking up the phone talking with one of these people, I'll take your lead and have some fun wasting their time

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

daisy46 — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 08:04:47 GMT

I had 2 of these scam calls on a week grrr

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

Katie_B — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 09:13:45 GMT

I am sorry to hear this @daisy46.

If you are ever unsure of a call please give us a call on 150 and our customer care team will be happy to confirm.

Katie

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

DrWilson — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 07:46:32 GMT

That is brilliant and certainly brightened up my morning. I was Googling these scams as I was a potential victim yesterday (26 July 2023). A foreign sounding guy phoned me to tell me about the infamous discount they were offering. Obviously, I started to ask questions and was interested because he did sound plausible. He claimed I would have unlimited internet, texts etc. This is consistent with my current package so I semi-believed it. I always check though and asked him to confirm my first name. Then the waffle started. He said he could not for security reasons and so forth. They can only access such and such etc. I then pointed out that it didn't look too efficient if EE calls me and doesn't know who I am! I won't bore everyone with a lengthy tirade, but I said that I would hang up and phone EE directly via the proper channels and he became irritated and bordering on the rude. He tried to insiste he would ring me back ON THE PROPER EE NUMBER. So one asks, if you are from EE why are you NOT ALREADY using their number? I like winding them up and keeping them on the phone (like yourself). A - it wastes their time and B - it prevents them and hopefully, discourages them from scamming others (although I doubt that one). I shouted at him - that I would be ringing EE myself and did he understand that. His reply was, "I understand - Mother F***er. Real EE standard - naturally. The disturbing thing is that I reported the number from EE, not realising that it was spoofed and the number he 'called' from was actually a carvery/restaurant. I even phoned it to verify that and it was. These people can actually make it look as if they ARE calling from an official department. I just do not trust anyone now who phones out of the blue. ALWAYS check, no matter how plausible it sounds, by phoning via the proper channels. ALSO, use a different phone from the one they called on. Or dial a different number to ensure they are not still on the line and able to make it sound as if you have phoned correctly to the department you seek. They are getting increasingly plausible, sophisticated and clever and we can never be complacent. I love the fact that you kept them busy for 47 minutes. Sadly, I did not achieve that, but certainly managed to wind him up to the extent that he swore at me.

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

Ulumma — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 13:01:28 GMT

Hi,

I've also just received the exact same call from two guys including one called Mike.

The number ID they were calling from showed up as Nutters (01392279941) on my phone, and as he spoke I did a quick google search and realised Nutters was a Unisex Hairdressers based in Exeter. He (with a clear Indian/ Asian accent ) said he was calling me from EE and that he wanted to offer me a 45% discount on my phone bill to compensate for the very poor services EE customers have been getting. He first asked me how I found my network service of recent, whether it was good or poor and that people had been complaining and that EE wanted to make up for this. I told him service was ok, can sometimes skip but generally EE was great.

He then proceeds to ask me how much I was paying monthly. Then asked me for my email address in order to apply the 45% discount for 12 months. Funny enough, he asked me to confirm my email using phonetics just to ensure it was the right one, and that due to data protection I had to do this as it was part encrypted at his own end hence why he couldn't see it. I felt at that point, if this was genuine, EE has got my details and surely without a call, they would just send me any offer by email and it is my choice to accept or not as they have nothing to loose?

I gave him the email but asked him to send me the details of the offer so I could go through it. He asked me to check my email and to give him the code I see on there in order to activate the discount on my account. I actually didn't recognise straight away that it was a code to change my password and ID at first, because I have never had to request for a forgotten password ever from EE. I always knew my password and use fingerprint ID with EE phone app. And yes, I should have read the email clearly, was but was simply looking out for just the so called code as I wasn't familiar with such.

He then said he'll connect me to his superior to complete the process after taking the code. It became clearly suspicious when his superior started confirming all of my details including my names and date of birth as he was spelling it all out, since he now had full blown access to my account. Funny enough, they were trying to be professional through it all by asking me that if I had any questions, i could ask them before they continued, and they were really trying hard to sound all customer caring and genuine 😂.

While his superior was still speaking, the line then cut off (which I suspect he'd cut off himself). I quickly went to my EE app to access it, but noticed it said I had entered incorrect details, meaning i couldn't sign myself in. I quickly requested a forgotten password link, and got same email as before with a code to change my password, which I did swiftly now realising what they had wanted to do. From the line cutting off to me changing my password details took less than 50 secs. I regain full access back to my account, quickly checked if anything had changed or was suspicious, and everything was fine. I've checked more than a few times after and everything on my account is all ok with nothing suspicious, thankfully.

It didn't surprise me that Nick then called me back again within minutes, this time with a different number reading 08000798586, tried to reintroduce himself again like it wasn't clear enough at this point what he was all about, and then said I should check my email as he had sent a confirmation of what was discussed.

They use genuine EE emails with the genuine domains (EE promotions, info.ee.co.uk, etc) to do this. And the email I received spelt my name all in lower case (very unprofessional and unlike EE) welcoming me to EE like i wasn't already a customer, and was confirming I now had a promotional plan, discount details for 12 months, however with a free iPhone visual voicemail🙄. Clearly, I have a Samsung phone, not an iPhone and never owned one from EE.

I confronted him and told him it's illegal and criminal for him to try and change customers passwords without their consent. He then said I didn't need to worry about anything, and that this was all genuine (me laughing now), but that the password change was for them to enable the 45% discount, and that I can always revert to a new password after 24 hours if I wanted to.

I told him that he should know at this stage he's fake (i didn't tell him he's scamming) and not a genuine EE person and that I wasn't interested in the so called offer anymore and won't proceed with the call. He politely said 'ok' and hung up.

Shame they can get away with accessing EE emails and promos though.

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

PickledP — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 13:53:08 GMT

I just had a similar call offering me a 40% discount and asking me for my email address. I told them if they were from EE they should have the details on their system then hung up

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

PixelPeach — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:56:12 GMT

I’ve just had a call from 07307 230916 offering this same “discount” - looks like they are still at it!

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

Samf308 — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 13:01:09 GMT

Same here, today, it amused me to listen to the caller try and guess my email before they finally hung up 🤣🤣🤣

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

SeanP1990 — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 12:16:05 GMT

Just had the same, asked how much I pay for my bill. My reply you should know this being my service provider. Very insistent that I should tell him, my reply I don't give details unless I can verify I'm speaking to ee etc. Foreign accent, guy got annoyed when I wouldn't give details

Re: 45% Discount - SCAM

Katie_B — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 13:17:55 GMT

Hi @SeanP1990.

Welcome to the community.

Thanks for coming here and letting us know.

It's great to hear you have not provided any details.

Please be sure to let us know if you receive anymore calls.

Katie