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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 29 Sep 2009 Posts: 1

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but I have just had someone try to scam me and thought I would post the details..

Just had a phone call from a man with a very strong African accent, claiming to be calling from the International Accident Investigation Compensation board in London. He asked if anyone at this phone number had been involved in a vehicle accident in the last two years as he had a compensation cheque for them for £2600. He couldn't give me the name of the person due to the Data Protection Act, nor could he tell me the address of where he was calling for the same reason (despite the fact that I was of course standing in that address Very Happy

). He was also unable to supply a phone number where he could be called back as their phone system didn't accept incoming calls... At this point I hung up the phone before he could get into a discussion of transfer fees and bank account details, although now I wish I had kept him on the phone for as long as possible, as I doubt it is cheap to call the UK from Africa.

The call came up as being an international call, with the number unavailable. Clearly he did not have any name or address, just the phone number. This is somewhat worrying as my number is ex-directory and I have no idea how he would have gotten hold of it.

I reported this to the police, and was informed that they haven't heard of this particular type of scam before. They also were surprised that the scammer had my telephone number.

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:39 pm

jjgr123 wrote:

the International Accident Investigation Compensation board in London... cheque for them for £2600... He couldn't give me the name of the person due to [insert excuse here]

I didn't even read the rest of it. It's a scam, hands down.

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:46 pm

@ jjgr123
I too am ex-directory and have the BT npreference thing to STOP cold calling BUT the odd one still gets through. Don't panic they can't get your name or address.

Main thing is you reported to police.

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 5:13 pm

He might have been phoning randomly. Call enough numbers, and it's not unlikely that one is ex-diectory.