Continuous scam calls from call centers in India with UK, German and Swiss Numbers

Jieyielau27

We have been getting calls form call centers in India with various numbers (UK, Germany, Switzerland) wanting to make us believe they call from Microsoft to support issues with Office. Can you please address this issue, Swisscom? It is totally annoying and it has been ongoing for weeks.

Jieyielau27

Black Mamba

@Jieyielau27

Activate Callfilter and block numbers - Help | Swisscom

On this page: Activate Callfilter on your mobile and fixed network to block unwanted calls and premium rate lines (e.g. 0900 numbers).

Blocking numbers manually

In addition to Callfilter, you can create your own list of blocked numbers. To do this, select in My Swisscom 'Manually block and enable numbers' in the 'Related topics' tile. You can add up to 200 numbers and update your list at any time. If you would like to block calls from a particular canton or country, please enter the dialling code in question followed by an asterisk (for example, England with international prefix +44 12*).

You can also block numbers right on your phone. Please note that these call barring can only be reversed in My Swisscom.

You can block the last call you received directly on your phone by entering *00#: this number will be added to your individual blockinglist.
If you have a Swisscom HD phone, you can also block calls using the crown button. This video shows you how to set up the crown button.

wilorg

Yeah, that won't work - the calls are never from the same number twice, all with call spoofing, so blocking individual numbers won't work, and blocking, say, all calls form the UK of course cuts off the UK from you, so that won't work either - blocking all calls form India won't work because of the spoofing they use. Got a better idea? Somethign that actually adresses the root problem?

Gaeilgeoir

@wilorg I fear that another solution for that pain in the neck doesn't exist, exactly for the reason you mentioned. What I do, is not to pick up numbers I don't know, especially those with an uncommon country code. But of course this is not really a proper solution 🤕.

Gififfock60

These people are criminals. Why do the authorities or police not do something to stop these rogues?

Gaeilgeoir

@Gififfock60 You're right, but the biggest problem is, that they operate often from abroad, where the Swiss authorities have no hand on ☹️.

Tchris

Keep the b@$t@rd$ talking as long as you can (...as a service to other folk who might get conned)!

Sound as naïve & incompetent as possible.

Have a prepared file of screenshots resulting from the likely keypresses that they will prompt you to type.

If they push you to a screen you haven't anticipated, tell them that you got a big red warning message along the lines of ACCESS DENIED - THIS ACTION REQUIRES ADMINISTRATOR CREDENTIALS. (Optionally, use some language for this red-screen message that is NOT the language the scammer is using)

Above all, try to be polite: the callers are normally as dumb as $#1t and work for a pittance — if you are really good at faking it, you will be passed to a supervisor …their time IS valuable: waste as much of the supervisor's time as you can - while they are talking to you they are not scamming other folk.

…and if you waste enough of their time, THEY will delete your number from the call-list.

It is very satisfying when the supervisor drops the call without comment.

Don't be aggressive — they evidently have near-zero cost to call you, so they can repay aggression with random calls in the middle of the night (my experiments suggest that this does not happen in reality -- revenge doesn't feature in their bottom line).

Chris

bitracer

Just get a new number, that's the easiest way to fix this.

Gififfock60

Does anyone know where they get the number from? I suspect its something to do with Swisscom. When they last called me I eventually asked them for my Microsoft userid and they gave me my wifes name. It is my wife who is registered with Swisscom for our telephone account!!

bitracer

I doubt you were speaking with Swisscom employee, they know nothing about your "Microsoft ID". Most likely you provided the info to the scammers, and now they think you're a soft target. That's why they call you so frequently.

Check with Swisscom how you can get a new number.

Gififfock60

I meant that the scammers got the number from Swisscom somehow, I did not mean that it was Swisscom that was scamming me. I do not think its the same organization that always calls me. Sometime they are Windows Support, sometime Microsoft support and various other company names. I did not supply them with my details as I would never have given anyone my wifes name and our phone number - maybe she did:-).

bitracer

This kind of information usually comes from breaches of online services that you use, phishing email campaigns or similar. Maybe it was even harvested from public online directory.