I fell hook, line, and sinker for a telephone scam.
Ladies, gentlemen, boys, and girls, hello! I’m Dr Julian Northbrook from doingenglish.com.
As the title of this video suggests: I fell hook, line, and sinker for a telephone scam.
And this video is not really going to be able to do with learning English but I kind of
want to share this story. Part of it because I think it’s important to share this kind
of thing, it serves as a good warning to other people and it also spreads awareness of this
kind of problem, this kind of scam… but I also think it’s, you know, it's good to
share these kind of weird experiences and stories in our lives anyway. And although
yesterday, I was in a total panic about it (because it happened yesterday at the time
of filming) I’m now kind of laughing about it and my own stupidity.
But let me tell you what happened and it’s kind of an interesting one because I think
normally I would never would have fallen for this. But it happened at a time when several
different pieces came together, circumstantial, coincidental happenings kind of all came together
at exactly the right time to put me in a position where I actually just totally believed this
telephone scam. To give you a little bit of background:
Yesterday, I had a meeting (totally unrelated to the scam, of course) but I had a meeting,
and it was, it was quite a distressing conversation. And when we finished that, I was a little
bit upset, a little bit stressed, not really in my right frame of mind. Then, ten minutes
later, my phone rang. And without even looking at the number, I just picked it up. And as
I picked it up, I got an automated phone message saying that my Public Services Number (which
is kind of like your National Insurance Number here in Ireland) had been suspended due to
suspected criminal activity. And that… I had to contact the Public Services immediately
to get it sorted out because the police were investigating this suspected criminal activity.
And if I didn’t get it sorted out immediately, I risk having a police warrant issued about
it. And… I’m kind of laughing at this now because it sounds absolutely ridiculous.
I mean why would the police issue a warrant on the behalf of the Public Services people?
It’s not just how it would happen. But at the time yesterday… again, you’ve got
to understand, I was a bit upset anyway and I wasn’t in my right frame of mind and when
I heard this message it just really, it just really exacerbated the panic and just put
me in an even worse state of mind and I was really, kind of panicking about this thing.
Like “oh my god I’ve done something… something’s happened”. And actually it
was plausible that something could have happened. And this is where the circumstantial situation
kind of comes in, something that was totally unrelated but just happened to be at exactly
the right time for this scam call to have made me feel it was believable.
I changed my legal name fairly recently… and that’s a story for another day. And
then a couple of days ago, I also booked my COVID-19 vaccine online, and of course I had
to give my Public Services Number to be able to do that. So I was actually thinking that
it was plausible because, well, I’ve just changed my name… all these paperworks are
still sort of in the system, what must have happened is there’s two names in the system
and that’s triggered something and they’ve believed that there’s some kind of fraud
going on because of that. So again, for me, it felt plausible and I just totally believed
it. And in this automated message, they said you’ve got to speak to an agent immediately.
You can contact them yourself or if you hit 1 now, we will connect you directly to the
agent to speak to. And I’m just like “I’ve got to sort this out right away, I don’t
want to get into any kind of legal trouble, I don’t know what’s happened here, I’ve
got to sort this out” so I just hit 1. And then I’m connected to “an agent”.
And I’ve totally believed the entire thing. And he’s asking for personal information,
and I gave my name, and he wants to know my address. This is where I got very, very lucky
because my situation now is quite complicated: I’ve just changed my name and I don’t
have a permanent address. I live in Airbnb’s and therefore I’m moving around a lot. So
I asked the question, I said, “Well, I don’t have a permanent address at the moment, should
I give you where I am right now?” and as I asked that question, the line went dead.
It just cut off. And I thought, “Ugh, the signal’s really bad in here”, “We’ve
got disconnected, I’ll call him right back”. I’m trying to call back this number but
it doesn’t work. I’m just getting a message saying “We cannot connect to this number”.
And I think that’s weird, I don’t know what’s happening with this.
So I went on Google and I Googled the situation. And far from information about who I should
contact that I was expecting, of course, I got an entire page of warnings in the search
results about this particular scam and it took me like two seconds to look at some of
them and realise, “Fuck, I’ve just fallen for this scam”. This is exactly what just
happened. 10 seconds later, I had my jacket on and I was already on my way to the local
garda station (garda being the police; it comes from Irish Gaelic and that’s what
they call the police here, the garda, or in English, “the guards”). And I went to
the police station and a very kind, very patient guard or police lady sat me down, took my
statement, explained everything to me: how this is a scam, and that people have fallen
for it, took all of my, again, statement and information and everything. Gave me a very,
very stern talking to, and told me how stupid it is to ever give your Public Services Number
to somebody on the phone, she said it’s like the equivalent of, you know, giving somebody
your credit card details on the phone. Like “Who is this person who just called me?
I don’t know, give him my credit card details!” And that would be more obvious, but apparently
these people can actually use your Public Services Number to do some pretty nefarious
shit which ultimately leads to them, I don’t know, somehow getting money from it or, I
don’t know, blackmailing you, I don’t know how they actually do it, I don’t know
the details of it, but apparently if you, you know, in the wrong hands, your Public
Services Number can be used to do some pretty dodgy stuff. And it was very very lucky that
I didn’t because in that state, on the phone, totally believing the whole thing, I would
have just given it to them because I totally believed I was talking to a real Public Services
agent. And yeah, I got very lucky. Ironically, it’s
because of this complicated situation that I’ve got that I fell hook, line, and sinker
for this particular scam. But at the same time, because of my complicated situation,
the police lady explained, like these scammers are not just going to be bothered with that.
There’s just too much bloody hassle for them. So that’s why they basically hung
up. I thought it was just cut off, they obviously just hung up. And I basically got away with
having given them nothing but my name which they can’t really do anything with.
So, phew! I had a bit of a lucky escape there. But do be careful of these things. I mean,
these scams do happen, they do exist. Again, normally, in my normal state of mind, I probably
would have thought, “Wait a minute, this doesn’t make any sense.” But the call
came in at just the right time with the right circumstances where it seemed plausible because
I’ve just changed my name, and because I’ve just booked a COVID vaccine with my number
and therefore two names in a system, perhaps it triggered something. It was also, again,
kind of a bit upset because of a previous phone call and it was just the perfect timing
and I fell for it completely. Do be careful, these things happen. The police
lady again told me off, told me I was very, very stupid for, you know, even considering
giving somebody my Public Services Number on the telephone. She says “You must never,
ever do that.” And that was fair, I deserve that telling off to be sure. But luckily,
no damage done, no harm done, I got away with it. Do be careful. It’s really what I want
to say in this video. Be aware of these things, they exist, and they happen, and people do
fall for it. So be vigilant. Be careful. Don’t trust people. And by the way, it came in on
an 087 number which you know, should have been the first big red flag but I didn’t
even look at the number, I just picked it up. She also said, you know, anything like
that is never going to come from a random number like that, which now to me, sounds
completely obvious but, again, I totally fell for it. Totally believed it. I never, ever
believed I would fall for one of these scams, well you know, these email scams are just
so ridiculous like the things that people send you. But I would never, ever thought
I would fall for a telephone scam like that. Then again, I got lucky. Nothing, no harm
done. But the point is, I totally and utterly, did fall for it. And I feel a bit stupid for
that. Anyway, I’m pretty much ranting now and
repeating myself. So yeah, “Be careful” is what I’m trying to say in this video.
For me at least, at least now I guess I have an interesting story to tell. A bit of an
embarrassing one, but hey, a story to tell all the same. I’m sure you’ve got lots
of stories of your own to tell as well. But the question is, how good are you at telling
those stories in English? Or indeed, speaking in English in general? If you struggle with
that, I can help. And a good place to start would be doingenglish.com/emails. Sign up
for my free daily email tips for speaking better English. It should be about 8 a.m.
Ireland time every single day, that’s seven days a week, unless I miss a day which does
happen sometimes, but not often. You will get an email tip from me packed with all kinds
of ideas, stories, anecdotes, and of course, stuff for improving in English alongside,
of course, the chance to join my coaching courses.
Right, this is me, Dr Julian Northbrook. Yes, I’ve just been scammed, timing out from
this video. Stay vigilant, guys, take care, and I’ll speak to you soon. Buh-Bye.