An elderly Threlkeld couple’s life is being made a living hell by constant calls from telephone scammers.
Carol and Roy Smith’s nightmare began nearly two years ago with a call from someone claiming to be from Barclays Bank and asking for account details. On that occasion they put the phone down because they don’t bank with Barclays.
Over the next few months, however, the nuisance calls continued to come thick and fast. They have included scam calls from Amazon involving a bogus £300 order, from Microsoft’s technical department demanding access to their computer, and even one in which a female caller claimed a lawsuit had been filed against them.
“Some callers wait for us to answer, then there is a silence and the line goes dead,” said Carol, 76.
“Often 1471 tells us, ‘We do not have the caller’s number to return the call’ – understandably. It soon goes dead when I answer in French, though!”
Carol says she is not worried about being suckered into giving the scammers money. But she is now fed up with the sheer volume of calls – they have even continued since the couple went ex-directory, and many have a Keswick dial code.
She is also frustrated at the inability of the authorities to clamp down on the perpetrators.
“I’ve compiled over 10 A4 sheets detailing the calls, and submitted some of them to the police,” she said. “In a reply they said scammers can ‘piggyback’ local numbers to make it look local and less suspicious, and that we’d done the right thing in ignoring it.”
According to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), there were more than 2.7 million attempted frauds last year, a near-four-fold increase on the figure for 2020.
Announcing a major crackdown Lindy Cameron, the NCSC’s chief executive, said one foiled scam involved a fraudster attempting to impersonate her.
“We know that scammers will go to great lengths, but as we continue to expand our defences we can see the tangible impact this is having.”
To report any suspected scams, contact the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre on 0300 123 2040.
