Offers from 01723******

[KennethT]

Has anyone ever received calls from 01723****** with special offers from 3?

[JonathanB]

Hi @KennethT,

We definitely wouldn't. I've starred out the number, just in case it's a spoofed number which belongs to an innocent individual.

@Anonymous good thinking, but if a number looks like a geographic, or mobile number I'd be hesitant to give it a call. I'm hoping this means that the scammers picked a number to use which is out of service, but someone may have unplugged their landline due to "returned" calls they never actually made in the first place.

As @MZone mentioned "spoofing" is done with software which allows a different number to appear than the actual phone line calling you. There's legitimate applications of this, like a contact centre or your bank showing their customer service number, instead of the specific extension for one employee's desk.

Unfortunately these calls from landline codes like 01723 or mobile numbers beginning 07, are in reality coming from criminals located abroad. I'd caution against contact with them, and to report them using the info on the page @MZone linked.

They seem to pick the number to display at random, and will frequently change this, but part of the con is that the average person in the UK is far more likely to answer a call from an unexpected UK number, than an unexpected call from abroad.

There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes from our Customer Protection Team, and organisations like Action Fraud. We hope to see a stop to this in the future.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Kelvin]

I have just had a call from someone claimiing to be calling on behlf of 3. She claimed "Head Office have selected my number to receive a 50% discount on my fees etc". A likely story! Anyway, she asked for and I provided my email address. Fortunately, she misheard/mis-transcibed the details, getting them wrong  and said something about sending me an email. How do you do that if the details are incorrect? Anyway, I hung up and 2 minutes later, another call from the same number, different female. She started with the same old patter. I ended up shouting at her and hung up. I thought I would call the number back to see what response there was and it was answered by a female, claiming to be the supervisor of the previous 2 callers. Once again, we got into the email address merry-go-round and I challenged her with "If you are from Three and you can see, my account use the address shown on that". She said we can't see it, all we can see is K******. Really? How did her mates know they had got the email address wrong if the only info they had as K****? As you can see, the number came back to these scammers when I called it so I don't think they are using some unknowing vistim's number so the number is 0207 *** *****

[JonathanB]

Hi @Kelvin,

You may be right about that phone number linking back to a group of scammers, unfortunately there's a number of different groups running various scams at any one time. In most cases the callers aren't in the UK and don't really have access to the phone number which is displaying as calling. If you've encountered an exception to this that's good to know.

We wouldn't call from a landline 01 or 02 number. It's best not to share what appears to be personal phone numbers on the community in any case. 

As @MZone said earlier on this thread: "Please report these landline and mobile numbers, they're spam or scams not Three. More info on how to do this here." 

That page will give you more guidance on how to report the numbers you receive spam or fraudulent calls from. When you contact the 7726 number detailed there, it passes info directly to our Customer Protection Teams.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Anonymous]

Understood Jonathan but I withheld my number. Your advice as always is appreciated.

[MZone]

Call from Three numbers all begin 0333 338 but... the scammers are "spoofing" the numbers they call from. They could make it look like any number is calling.

As @Paddiewack says, if you weren't expecting a call, and it sounds too good to be true, there's grounds to be suspicious.

Customer services will have records of calls they’re making, and if they have got a promotional offer for you, it goes in the account notes, so they wouldn't make an offer that's only available on that specific phone call.

Please report these landline and mobile numbers, they're spam or scams not Three. More info on how to do this here.

[Anonymous]

Three do not call with offers! They either email or text. I tried calling it just now and it didn’t even ring. I’d be suspicious if I were you.