New Telephone Scam?

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
Hi all,

Around a month or so ago, I started getting calls from random numbers (both UK and Swiss dialling codes).

When I answer, someone asks who I am and why I called them. Of course I don't give me details out and tell them they called me, so who are they? Then they often get a bit shirty.

Any ideas on this? Is some scam company somehow spoofing my mobile number and calling randoms and hanging up or something like that? I don't see the benefit/scam here?

Help!

2
Yep, known thing these last months. They spoof your number and you get called and have no idea who calls you and why.

I think there was already something on EF discussing this, iirc it was advised to contact the police.

3
Or ignore the call if you don’t recognize the number.

4
Unfortunately, my line of work makes this somewhat impractical.

5
Call me an old skeptic, but I am guessing that's a lot of effort for zero reward right there.

6
A recent call:

Caller: Who is speaking please?

nickatbasel: Inspector Knacker of Scotland Yard. This is a murder scene. What was your connection with the victim?

Caller: Brrrrrr....

7
It is like the drive around with your license plate number. This is not about you, but for them(*) to have a "valid" phone number.

Why the Swiss phone companies allow the use of Swiss spoofed numbers in their network is the real question (they cannot do anything abroad).

*) Insurance broker, wine seller, "Microsoft" support, grandparent scam

8
Do you have to answer in an specific language? Hallo/Hello/Allô are quite close. From there you speak the most annoying language for the person calling.

9
It just happened to me again right now.

Again the person seemed to be innocent and not know what was going on, but said I had called them (I have no outgoing calls since yesterday).

This is really bizarre.

The person was friendly and told me they were in Zurich...No clue what the craic is here.

10
Get a whistle and use it to send a clear message to the caller your not interested.

11
That would be extremely harsh, as it seems usually the caller is as unaware about this as I am.

I think someone must be spoofing my number somehow.

12
To be fair, it sounds like the person on the other end of the line is a victim also (unless I've misunderstood).

I don't understand what the end game is though. Who is benefitting from doing this? It just sounds like two random strangers end up very irritated with no payoff to whomever is orchestrating it.

13
You understand it correctly, two unaware parties.

I have no idea what this is - there seems to be no payoff at all. The only thing I can think of is that my number is being spoofed by scammers to use for whatever scam, but if someone misses their call and tries to call them back, then obviously I get the call?

14
It could just be bored person playing around with a switchboard, i.e. connecting two random people and listening in to the ensuing confusion...

15
What would the chances be of that person doing it with my number 5 or so times a month?

I am a fairly polite and placid person too, so it's not like he's getting fireworks on the phone

16
Do you remember in the olden days when you used to answer the phone by reciting your own phone number? Or did I misremember that?

I tend to answer with my family name these days (xxx speaking) when I don't know the number or in german short version just "family name" with a questioning inflection at the end... that tends to see them off if they are nefarious

17
Now, just had another one, same procedure, BUT, the caller-back was abroad.

Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.

18
I'm having the same issue since a couple of weeks, but I don't get called back too often. In my case it is my private number and 99% of the calls from unknown numbers are cold calls or mistakes, so I can just ignore them if it gets annoying.

19
Just started getting Microsoft scammer calls again, from a number beginning with 00 30, clearly spoofed. The person spoke execrable German, with an Indian accent, clearly reading from a script she didn't understand. I hung up without any interaction, as I was busy.