Beware of Fraudsters calling as Home office

[Faz02]

by Subjanshan »

Hi All, I am a journalist and am intrigued with experience you have had around the subject. I would like to do a news report around the subject and would like to speak to you. Please do revert back should anyone of you want to speak up.

Thanks

[sagarkrish]

Hi all

Same story as goldencreeper

Its more than a year that this scam was reported and it is still happening, where I got this call yesterday. Same story, but luckily realised at the last minute and the amount he was asking was £1720

I have reported this to Action fraud team, but please beware of this calls and share as much possible to your friends.

Thanks

[Fahad460]

Hi also received a call from +44 20 7035 4848 yesterday and today. I found the following UK Gov site to report fraud but found nothing to report an attempt.

But i thought its worth sharing this website:

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

Thanks for this. Wasn't aware of such service

[dawningx]

Hello All,

I received a call "No Caller ID" from the person named John from Home Office and stated similar information that I heard previously from another person few weeks back that a case has been booked from British High Commission and they have arrest warrants against me and asked me not to disclose about this call to anyone while I'm on this call. At one point he also mentioned that my passport been frozen and I'll deported today.

As the call got disconnected, he called me back and later advised me to be home as police shall be arriving to my home address shortly.

This is the second time I received such a call and wondering if there is a best way to handle these situations!!! Please advise

Regards,
Sid

Why would you answer call from someone who don't introduce his number to you? I would have just ignore it if I got one of them. I even don't immediately answer call when it comes from a number, but I don't recognize. I prefer to look it up on Google or some complaint boards like http://whycall.me to see if there have been some reports filed under that number before I answer them.

[suddyg]

Today I got a call from 0207 035 4848. After reading so many articles and seeing news item in BBC about these fraudsters I shut them up with choicest of words. And call got disconnected after gentleman said I should pack my bags in UK and be ready to be deported .
Please be aware that home office for any inquiries NEVER call. They will write you a letter.

[kshamesh]

Beware of fraudsters calling as Home office UK
This morning my wife was called by unknown person claiming he is from UK Government Home Office. He asked her if she has done anything wrong in India or had any police case filed against her before arriving in UK, etc. and when she said no such issues then he said UK home office has received orders to deport you from the country immediately.
My wife became fearful and she handed over the call to me, and I could see her shivering hands while taking the phone from her hand. I took phone from her and gave my identity to him and the guy said that your wife need to deport to India immediately as she didn’t fill the British Resident Permit (BRP) number on the landing card when she arrived on the airport in UK and she tried to hide her identity and we should co-operate this investigation solely by not consulting anyone and should not hang my phone as I am under surveillance so asked not to breach protocol and police officers are on the way to your house.
Now it was my turn to get scare and the most uncommon tremors occurred in my body. I took a long breath focusing on it for a while and then I replied to the guy, if she has missed at that point of time, I can provide her BRP number right now and get this sorted. But he ignored what I spoke and repeated again that I am under surveillance and police officers are on your way, and don’t disconnect the call in between as you are under the UK Govt. protocols. I grabbed the chair and sat down as I my legs started shivering.
As request we provided passport number, BRP number, PAN number and driving license number and how many bank accounts does she hold in India. He said hold on for a minute as we are doing back ground verification for her, after a while he said, she has clean records in UK and she is not involved in any criminal activity. But he said however we haven’t received any clearance from Indian Government yet and they are going to take another 72 hours to respond.
In between the call was disconnected because of my wife’s favorite old handset misbehaves at time and got restarted. I got a bit more worried as home office should take it as the suspicious act from our side as were under surveillance. However when he recalled us again I thought he would react and probe as the call was disconnected, but he just asked why call was disconnected and I explained him the reason and still his response was normal. I started getting out of my fear as it seemed to be a fake call.
Now he explained me since they didn’t receive the clearance from Indian Govt., there are three provision and we have to choose one out of it. 1) Clause 18A - Deport your wife to India immediately and fight the case and come back to UK 2) Clause 18B - Remain in UK custody for 72 hours till we receive response from India Government. 3) Clause 20A- Remain as usual with your day to day life by paying £49 penalty for filling the landing card incorrectly, also write an apology letter and deposit £1600 as financial security until we hear from Indian Government and it is refundable. I said I will go for third option and he said let me inform the officers about this, and he went on hold, after while he said which account do I have in UK and I said HSBC UK and he said do I have internet banking? I said yes. Now by this point of time I doubled my confidence and shaped firm tone of my voice as it was nearly confirmed as fake call.
He again kept me on hold for some time and said ok let me tell you the home office account details where you need to transfer the funds. I said hold on I can’t transfer you the money without knowing your identity and authorize our conversation, he said you can confirm my identity opening UK Govt. website to verify the caller number. He asked me to go this linkhttps://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office and check contact home office section and surprisingly the number was same from where he was calling from +44 20 7035 4848.
I said although the calling number are confirmed, I still do not feel comfortable to send you any money and asked him to meet me personally or send police officers to my home and I will sort it in person. He raised his voice and explaining me that the home office doesn’t work according to your conditions and was trying to threaten me by taking the entire family in custody if I don’t deposit the money. I said the caller identity can be changed using any third party software or mobile apps, and I am sorry that I am from software engineering background. He said home office number can’t be traced. I was wondering he used the word ‘traced’ which was too technical and felt that one software engineer is talking to another software engineer in a conference call and I being reviewer of his work.
He again stressed saying your family would be behind the bars in UK and I am sending the police officers to your house, he also confirmed my exact address with pin code.
I said I will talk to them and call you back with the outcomes.
Friends, please be aware of any such fraud calls, it could happen to you or your family or friends in any part of the world. This whole trauma lasted for around 2 hours and fortunately I was on leave today with my family.
Please spread the awareness, stay alert.

[CR001]

Beware of fraudsters calling as Home office UK
This morning my wife was called by unknown person claiming he is from UK Government Home Office. He asked her if she has done anything wrong in India or had any police case filed against her before arriving in UK, etc. and when she said no such issues then he said UK home office has received orders to deport you from the country immediately.
My wife became fearful and she handed over the call to me, and I could see her shivering hands while taking the phone from her hand. I took phone from her and gave my identity to him and the guy said that your wife need to deport to India immediately as she didn’t fill the British Resident Permit (BRP) number on the landing card when she arrived on the airport in UK and she tried to hide her identity and we should co-operate this investigation solely by not consulting anyone and should not hang my phone as I am under surveillance so asked not to breach protocol and police officers are on the way to your house.
Now it was my turn to get scare and the most uncommon tremors occurred in my body. I took a long breath focusing on it for a while and then I replied to the guy, if she has missed at that point of time, I can provide her BRP number right now and get this sorted. But he ignored what I spoke and repeated again that I am under surveillance and police officers are on your way, and don’t disconnect the call in between as you are under the UK Govt. protocols. I grabbed the chair and sat down as I my legs started shivering.
As request we provided passport number, BRP number, PAN number and driving license number and how many bank accounts does she hold in India. He said hold on for a minute as we are doing back ground verification for her, after a while he said, she has clean records in UK and she is not involved in any criminal activity. But he said however we haven’t received any clearance from Indian Government yet and they are going to take another 72 hours to respond.
In between the call was disconnected because of my wife’s favorite old handset misbehaves at time and got restarted. I got a bit more worried as home office should take it as the suspicious act from our side as were under surveillance. However when he recalled us again I thought he would react and probe as the call was disconnected, but he just asked why call was disconnected and I explained him the reason and still his response was normal. I started getting out of my fear as it seemed to be a bad quality call.
Now he explained me since they didn’t receive the clearance from Indian Govt., there are three provision and we have to choose one out of it. 1) Clause 18A - Deport your wife to India immediately and fight the case and come back to UK 2) Clause 18B - Remain in UK custody for 72 hours till we receive response from India Government. 3) Clause 20A- Remain as usual with your day to day life by paying £49 penalty for filling the landing card incorrectly, also write an apology letter and deposit £1600 as financial security until we hear from Indian Government and it is refundable. I said I will go for third option and he said let me inform the officers about this, and he went on hold, after while he said which account do I have in UK and I said HSBC UK and he said do I have internet banking? I said yes. Now by this point of time I doubled my confidence and shaped firm tone of my voice as it was nearly confirmed as bad quality call.
He again kept me on hold for some time and said ok let me tell you the home office account details where you need to transfer the funds. I said hold on I can’t transfer you the money without knowing your identity and authorize our conversation, he said you can confirm my identity opening UK Govt. website to verify the caller number. He asked me to go this linkhttps://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office and check contact home office section and surprisingly the number was same from where he was calling from +44 20 7035 4848.
I said although the calling number are confirmed, I still do not feel comfortable to send you any money and asked him to meet me personally or send police officers to my home and I will sort it in person. He raised his voice and explaining me that the home office doesn’t work according to your conditions and was trying to threaten me by taking the entire family in custody if I don’t deposit the money. I said the caller identity can be changed using any third party software or mobile apps, and I am sorry that I am from software engineering background. He said home office number can’t be traced. I was wondering he used the word ‘traced’ which was too technical and felt that one software engineer is talking to another software engineer in a conference call and I being reviewer of his work.
He again stressed saying your family would be behind the bars in UK and I am sending the police officers to your house, he also confirmed my exact address with pin code.
I said I will talk to them and call you back with the outcomes.
Friends, please be aware of any such fraud calls, it could happen to you or your family or friends in any part of the world. This whole trauma lasted for around 2 hours and fortunately I was on leave today with my family.
Please spread the awareness, stay alert.

Horrible story for you and your family. My biggest concern is that you have provided the fraudsters with your most important information to clone your identity.

As request we provided passport number, BRP number, PAN number and driving license number and how many bank accounts does she hold in India.

[anshulmahajan]

I got a similar call today, at first i thought it was a prank, however, I was taken aback on how does this person have so much details about me, and also a bit confused on what he wants.
However, I kept on questioning him on his identity, and when he asked me if i have a computer in front of me, i said 'No', even though I had one and was checking this persons authenticity, the number is actually a UKBA number. I was shocked.

Anyway, when i started questioning him he got irritated and told me the I don't know who i was talking too, and he has power to get me arrested immediately. I told him to do whatever he thinks is necessary. He asked me to report to any nearby police station but not to hang up the phone. I said i won't and he got so angry that he told me to 'Go back to my country', and i dont even know how to speak English properly.

Once he said such things it immediately became clear to me that this cant be a UKBA officer. He is only words, and cant take any actions.

He probably wasted about 8 minutes of my time but I was also stressed about what wrong i had done. He kept on telling me about a landing card i had filled incorrectly, and had hidden my identity by not filling up an alien registration number.

My only worry is that these people have so much information about us that they can harm us in one way or the other. My mobile number is relatively new so they got this information recently, and possibly through home office, as this kind of information is only available to them. Is our personal information safe?, if not what can we do?

[SimpleMan2016]

This happened to me today as well. Just when I was about to start work for the day I got a call on my mobile from this number 02070354848 and a man with an indian accent claimed he was from the Visas and Immigration department of the Home Office. As I was in a noisy place that time and when my phone got disconnected accidentally he called me back and told me in a very rude voice that you need to isolate yourself in a quiet place. I had seen these posts earlier and some of my friends earlier had reported similar incidents so I just disconnected the call. He kept calling me a couple of more times but by that time I had blocked the number from my phone. I was sure that this was a fraud call and I used the action fraud website of the UK police and reported this incident over there.

[kalyan89p]

Hi,

This is to inform you about a fraud call that I’ve received this morning.
- I’ve received a Call from the office of UK Visas and Immigration’s Home office
- The person made me open GOV.UK home office website and confirmed that the number I’ve been receiving call and the number mentioned in the web site are same.
- It is quite sure at this point that the caller is a genuine representative Officer from UK Visas and Immigration.
- He told me that there is an Illegal immigration Case registered on my name with Immigrations office and I was requested to cooperate with him
otherwise I’m making them avoidable Hand-cuffing, police custody and interrogation for 25-30 days.
- I was given 3 protocol instructions
o Never put this call on Mute
o Never disconnect this call
o Do not use any other electronic device for the other police officers to track my phone and complete timely background verification.
- I’m sure that all My Visa and Passport information is already present with them and they confirmed the same with me.
- In other words, being unaware that this is a Fraud Call I have confirmed my identity, Visa and passport details with them.
In fact I was not given a chance to reach any office, personal help.
- Though prohibited, I have opened my other phone and googled about such calls and found that this is a fraud call.
- Then I’ve said the same to the person over phone, that I suspect this is a fraud call and I’m heading to nearest police station for proper investigation with all my identity proofs.
- The person over phone have disconnected the call.
Coincidence, my family in India have received some other kind of fraud calls on the same day hours before me receiving the above call.

Please suggest what is the best I can do at this point.

[sivag]

Today I got the call from the same number 02070354848, claiming that they are from home office and make sure that I'm away from internet and restricted to access internet while on call. ( They knew that we can google and suspect its fraudsters call!) Since I heard this such scam before as its happened to my friend, I didn't allow the opponent to talk, just replied that if you're from home office then communicate with me thru post with proper home office case reference number and I disconnected the call. As we've spent time quiet time long time in UK, we knew how home office people politely talk and communicate with foreign nationals. As we're not illegally staying in UK, we don't need to fear. As a right and honest person, If you fear then you would be encouraging such fraudulent people. - Take Care.

[kimgadi]

I received similar call and the caller number was showing as UKBA number in London. I am very well aware of this scam so challenged the person on the call and he started facial abuse. Home office never calls anyone directly as mostly the immigration matters are handled through your company.

[CR001]

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