Automated scam calls claiming to be from Virgin with bogus win

[QLDOOL]

I just received one of these calls and checked with Virgin:

Virgin are warning people about automated calls from scammers posing as Virgin staff claiming that they’ve won a credit towards their next holiday. If you receive this call, hang up.When the recipient picks up the phone and hears a recorded message that claims to be from Virgin. The message will claim that because the person has recently booked a flight with Virgin, they have won a ‘travel prize’ or ‘credit points’ – typically $999 – towards their next holiday.
In order to redeem the credit, the person is directed to press ‘1’. At this point, the person is put directly through to a scammer, who will then state that in order to be eligible for the prize, the person has to ask a few questions first. The scammer may ask whether the person is aged over 30, whether they have a valid credit card, and finally ask for their credit card details so that the prize can be processed.
If you hand over your credit card details, you will find that money has been taken rather than deposited from your bank account.

 

[Intra]

The warning message has been at the top of the main & mobile website of VA (And I also believe QF too) for weeks now! Had one myself a week back for $999, hanged up as soon as I figured out what was going on...

Feel sorry for those that fall for this. Some of that pity is lost on those that fall for these calls though, even if they have never flown VA ect.

 

[hummel]

Have been receiving these calls at work a lot of late.. very annoying.

 

[carwashhair]

I wonder if you can answer a recorded message with a recorded message...

http://itslenny.com/

 

[stux]

My wife came in this morning happily announcing "virgins on the phone, they say we've won a credit!"

(Was a late night at the office)

"Urgle, groan, oh.... Hang up"

<click>

"Oh.... It's a scam is it?"

"Yes"

My wife is normally pretty cluey about these things. It must be fairly convincing

 

[a330j]

Have been getting these calls as well. Didn't know about the scam so decided to ring Virgin. Sure enough they have a recorded message on their phone line about the scam.

 

[jellybelly]

Had a call from them as well, before the warnings came out. Knew it was a scam when they asked me for my details and I replied that since you called me you should already know, and was abruptly hung up on.

 

[jastel]

I got one haven't flown Virgin for 2 years, so hung up.
My mother got one as well and had flown them recently but she hates all computer/charity/competition calls and hung straight up.

 

[a330j]

What concerns me most about these types of calls is whether (and if so how) they know you have flown or they blanket call or have they raided the VFF library at Velocity?

 

[stux]

I suspect they just assume that everyone has flown VA "recently", but I hope its not because of a compromise on the VFF system

 

[Denali]

Where are the scammers getting the phone numbers from?

 

[williamsf1]

What concerns me most about these types of calls is whether (and if so how) they know you have flown or they blanket call or have they raided the VFF library at Velocity?

Like all scams, it is a game of numbers send 10000 emails / make 10000 calls and get even just 1% to take the bate .... that's 100 people ... scam each person $1000 and that's a $100000 easy return

 

[mannej]

Where are the scammers getting the phone numbers from?

Anywhere really - it is like the scammers who claim to be from Microsoft, but yet the person on the other end doesn't have a PC.
From the information available, it does seem very low end as the scammers are asking for details such as names etc.

A lot of phone numbers are available publically.

 

[notzac]

A lot of phone numbers are available publically.

What truly amazes me is the amount of personal information people will make freely available about themselves online - totally open Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, that sort of thing. Must be a fraudster's dream come true.

 

[mannej]

What truly amazes me is the amount of personal information people will make freely available about themselves online - totally open Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, that sort of thing. Must be a fraudster's dream come true.

For some reason, the scammers who do call us will use the names of the people who previously had our phone numbers. The number of wrong numbers is a tad annoying.
But yes, some people do leave a lot of information available in the public domain.

 

[markis10]

Where are the scammers getting the phone numbers from?

Anywhere really - it is like the scammers who claim to be from Microsoft, but yet the person on the other end doesn't have a PC.
From the information available, it does seem very low end as the scammers are asking for details such as names etc.

A lot of phone numbers are available publically.

They generally dont get specific numbers from anywhere. All they do is set up a dialler to run through a range using the published area prefixes. If they have a name, often thats from a compromised site such as the recent Ebay hack.

 

[Prof Henry]

They generally dont get specific numbers from anywhere. All they do is set up a dialler to run through a range using the published area prefixes. If they have a name, often thats from a compromised site such as the recent Ebay hack.

I think this is probably the correct explanation. I've had these automated Virgin calls twice this week, but I can't remember the lat time I flew Virgin – must be 5 years or so. Mine also start halfway through the first sentence, so they're not very convincing.

The Microsoft ones are the most persistent, but I got a new one last purporting to be from Telstra calling about an urgent need to reset my internet settings because of the error messages they'd been receiving from my computer [oh, reeeaaally?]. He said TELSTRA would have to shut down my internet connection within 60 minutes. I asked Sean (with the indian accent) where was calling from and he said Sydney, so I asked for a number on which I could call him back in a few minutes: he gave me a 14-digit number starting with 03. Another hang-up.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

And from the accent, on the call it's hard to discern what the accent is.
And yep. I got the call.
I said yes, as there was an interval, no clicks though, didn't press 1 either.
By me saying yes, I wonder if I am now the muppet.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Your recent Virgin flight has won you a $990 credit. Press 1 to claim... Or something very close to it.

 

[jastel]

Getting them from Qantas now as well...well fake Qantas anyway...