M&S Bank (UK) Scam !! UK Users please watch out.

Hi folks

Beware of ANY calls from M&S bank (nothing wrong with the legitimate bank BTW) -- no banks should EVER call customers directly - especially when they sound like some indecipherable Indian / Phillipino call centre.

If you get a call from THIS 800 number - please report to City of London Police - tiny force just for the 1 Sq Mile -- not much bigger than the Vatican State !! of London's financial city centre (actually a very good force for dealing with this) -- forget London Metropolitan police (the Met).

Non Uk citizens also can use this number -- this small police force is actually very good at this stuff -- often better than the USA's FBI and does get a load of these scammers -- although not well publicised. !!

Unfortunately the UK doesn't do "CEO's etc being removed in Handcuffs" like the FBI does but is still very effective internationally behind the scenes - even after Brexit etc.

M&S Bank Indian pester number -- nr : +44 800 345 7401​

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Proper number : 0345 600 5860 ​

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City of London Police Fraud number : +44 207 601 2222​

I'm sure most people in the UK having used M&S stores don't realize or even think that some Indian call centre would call somebody up NINE -- yes NINE times starting at 07.30 local time because (OK I forget by about 2 days) to pay a credit card balance of precisely €6.22 = total outstanding balance -- not even "Minimum repayment" !!!.

I like M&S but who now owns their bank -- and don't most countries have things in place that say banks should NEVER call you without first texting a message to say please call them first. Plus if you ARE in financial problems -- (I doubt if M&S is going bust for around €7.00 or the average person also is in a horrendous muddle for that tiny sum) then pretty well any financial debt help charity - plus the govt financial regulators in most jurisdictions tell people "Never ever agree to discuss financial problems or make arrangements -- often under duress via phone".

Cheers
jimbo

I check numbers via who called me:

Bastet said:

I check numbers via who called me:

https://who-called.co.uk/Number/08003457401

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Thanks

@Bastet

There'senough activity on that number just to block it.

Banks (almost in any jurisdiction in the world) are by any sort of sensible financial regulatory codes not supposed EVER to make unsolicited phone calls to customers and ask for personal info etc etc -- much less attempt to pressurize people to make financial arrangements over the phone and certainly not call umpteen times a day over a €7 bill !!!!!!!.

M&S seems a respectable company so how in the world does it get involved in this sort of nonsensical procedure. !!!! My experience is that if a Bank wants urgently (although meaning of "Urgent" seems to be overused these days) to contact someone they will send an email / postal letter etc requesting you to phone them or contact them.

Cheers
jimbo

You’re welcome @jimbo45
As you know scammers usually spoof genuine numbers so blocking them often isn’t effective enough as they just change the number. Our home phone has a call screening option where the caller has to give a name & a reason for calling (the same as the new iOS 26 feature for iPhones) scammers usually don’t bother leaving a message.
My bank sends a notification for important messages which are then read via their app.

Unfortunately there’ll be enough people who will fall for these calls to make it profitable.

Bastet said:

You’re welcome @jimbo45
As you know scammers usually spoof genuine numbers so blocking them often isn’t effective enough as they just change the number. Our home phone has a call screening option where the caller has to give a name & a reason for calling (the same as the new iOS 26 feature for iPhones) scammers usually don’t bother leaving a message.
My bank sends a notification for important messages which are then read via their app.

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one way of dealing with these --especially if they sound Asian or Middle eastern is that they on the whole take far more offence at choice English words - can't say which ones on this nice Forum - but I think people know what I mean -- words involving male and female genital parts plus mothers ancestry etc -- the scammers invariably hang up straight away.

If you DO get called though don't just hang up a landline (even if its on fibre optical digital) -- unplug the whole thing for around 30 mins.Pull the phone line out of the WAN box if on fibre optic cable plus turn off the power supply to the phone's base station if it's one of those with a load of "satellite" handsets.

On a mobile - turn off and remove battery. If you have an immovable battery then at least take out the sim card and leave phone switched off for 30 mins (to youngsters under about 29 -- yes Most mobile phones do actually have an "Off Button" !!!!!).

Also report incident to both City of London Police -- note NOT THE MET !! (even from outside the UK -- they are actually quite good at this stuff !!!) and to your Bank or Credit card company plus any regulatory financial authority too.

Cheers
jimbo

I use a call-blocker on my landline phone. Almost all of these calls are made automatically, and are only connected to an "advisor" if you answer. For all unrecognized callers, the caller is asked to press a button (2) to get through to us. This means they never get through.

I did at one time not block mobile calls, but then started getting mobile calls with the caller saying "This is an urgent call from your bank". So had to shield these too.

jimbo45 said:

I'm sure most people in the UK having used M&S stores don't realize or even think that some Indian call centre would call somebody up NINE -- yes NINE times starting at 07.30 local time because (OK I forget by about 2 days) to pay a credit card balance of precisely €6.22 = total outstanding balance -- not even "Minimum repayment" !!!.

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How would a scammer know the outstanding balance?

BruceR said:

How would a scammer know the outstanding balance?

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they don't initially but actually it's easy to find out !!!-- all they need to know is who the customers are and on all those sites like Experian and other credit ref agencies etc they can check who even "wipes their bottoms in a public loo".

Those credit agencies even have data on how many times someone might have spat in the street in public -- they are more invasive than even the CIA or Mossad on what data they hold on private individuals -- and there's no appeal against them either.

Even the R.C Catholic Church forgives (or alleges that it does) forgive sins -- but one little transgression on Experian , Transunion or Equifax and !!!!!! -- No appeal, you can't get data -- easier to retrieve data from Mossad or CIA, and that's it -- .

So all these people have to do is just hack into one of those 3 Credit reporting companies where if you are even 59 secs late with one payment in 4,000 years it's all on their records then -- "Dear Reader -- I leave the rest of the story to your imagination !!".

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

So all these people have to do is just hack into one of those 3 Credit reporting companies

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You think your caller is likely to have been capable of doing that, and that it would have been worth doing before calling?

BruceR said:

You think your caller is likely to have been capable of doing that, and that it would have been worth doing before calling?

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It's relatively easy -- just get any electoral roll, house owners / renters lists etc etc -- this stuff is usually in most countries in the public domain -- go down names at random, call up any of the credit agencies and say you have a customer xxxx can you please run a quick credit check -- job 95% done !!! plus if you can make say an average of €50 a customer on say 100,000 customers several times a month -- that's a nice lot of dosh for a small outlay.

The trouble is "Nice people" usually have no conception often on how the nastier, sleazier side of humanity often works and how prevalent it is. Probably a good thing though - otherwise paranoia would be rampant. The best method is to be aware of current scams and take steps to avoid them.

Cheers
jimbo

M&S were victims of a well publicised hacking and big data breach a few months ago so although everyone should be aware of these scamming c**ts they may also be in possession of M&S customer details making them seem all the more genuine to vulnerable or less than savvy people.

jimbo45 said:

It's relatively easy -- just get any electoral roll, house owners / renters lists etc etc -- this stuff is usually in most countries in the public domain -- go down names at random, call up any of the credit agencies and say you have a customer xxxx can you please run a quick credit check -- job 95% done !!! plus if you can make say an average of €50 a customer on say 100,000 customers several times a month -- that's a nice lot of dosh for a small outlay.

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Requires social security number and a fee:

How to Obtain a Credit Report on Someone Else

P.S. How was this "scammer" going to make money from you?

BruceR said:

Requires social security number and a fee:

How to Obtain a Credit Report on Someone Else

P.S. How was this "scammer" going to make money from you?

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Easy -- if some people paid money to them via card number or whatever. Even now also on the streets of Bangalore (in some of their more dubious parts --actually there aren't any nice bits) one can buy packs of legitimate credit card numbers with CSC's and holders name on them for a few $US per 1000 !!.

It's actually very simple for people who have that type of knowlege and mentality -- you can read daily in the US and UK press how wealthy people have lost 1000,000s of £,€,$ etc by even simple obvious "timeshare" scams and the like. I'm not going on with this -- but they didn't make any money from me - but loads do scammed and any mention of Court cases, Debt collectors etc even when there's not a legal leg to stand on have people just giving in.

I think a lot of people should be glad I wasn't born as the saying goes "On the wrong side of the tracks" !!!.

Cheers
jimbo

It is practically a scam buying food from M&S anyway at the outrageous prices they charge LOL.

jimbo45 said:

M&S seems a respectable company so how in the world does it get involved in this sort of nonsensical procedure. !!!! My experience is that if a Bank wants urgently (although meaning of "Urgent" seems to be overused these days) to contact someone they will send an email / postal letter etc requesting you to phone them or contact them.

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What make you think that M&S had anything to do with the calls?

I answer such calls saying I'm Inspector Holmes from the the fraud squad, their location has been tracked and police have been despatched to arrest the caller. Oddly they then hang up.