KCOM Warns of Scam Customer Support Calls in Hull, East Yorkshire

Customers of telecoms operator KCOM, which serves the Hull and surrounding areas in East Yorkshire (England), are being warned to be on their guard after fraudsters attempted to target subscribers with fake support calls.

According to KCOM, some customers have recently received telephone calls from a person, posing as a fake KCOM employee, who informs them payment has not been received for their phone or broadband service. The fraudster tells them their service will be disconnected if they do not make a payment and tries to persuade them to give their credit or debit card details over the phone.

New statistics out from the ONS today have similarly revealed that there were 2 million computer misuse offences and 3.8 million fraud offences in the 12 months to the end of March 2016.

Martin Duff, KCOM’s Head of Customer and Technical Services, said:

“Unfortunately, scams are on the rise. While many customers reporting them to us have realised something’s not quite right and have avoided losing money as a result, we are aware of some who have been taken in by what can be very convincing calls and emails from experienced criminals.

The best way for people to protect themselves is to treat any requests for bank details or indeed any personal information, with extreme caution. We never ask for customers’ credit or debit card details over the phone and will always refer customers who wish to make a payment to our secure, automated payment line.

To protect against online fraud, we advise customers to install a high-quality, up to date security package on their internet devices, to avoid opening emails and attachments from unknown sources and to make sure when shopping online that they’re on a legitimate and secure website.

We’ll be sharing much more information about spotting and avoiding scams over the next week and we’d love customers to help us spread the word and make it harder for fraudsters to get away with their cons.”

The scam itself is very basic and by no means uncommon in the wider industry, but it’s good to see KCOM making light of the threat as the fraudsters only need to succeed once. The best defence is to be aware of such threats and always use a little common sense when dealing with such calls.