Fake call - offering a promotion?

[Psarss]

Hello I was called by this number +1 (647) XXX-XXXX is this a real bell support number? 
they offered me a 40% discount on my bill. 

[Ottawa Valley Lad]

I got a call today from 416-90*-**** told me my offer was 50% off for being a loyal Bell customer for years, he did not know how long I have been with Bell, He wanted me to confirm my email to process it and told him to just use what he had on file and he insisted on confirming the email. First of all my number is not even with Bell and we do have home internet and TV with Bell, he told me my new bill would only be $102,47 per month, he would not tell me for how long and that amount is more that 50% off.   When i kept asking him what email he had on file he just repeated that all that info was with Bell, i asked him what my name was he he kept saying i was breaking up, I played his game for about 6 minutes then he got mad and hung up on me.

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community Forum.

Next time hang up. Bell will never call you and ask for information such as this.

What can I say! In this day and age is there anything sacred any more?. What ever happened to honesty, integrity & trust? What is the worth of any human being if they lie, steal & cheat from their fellow man?

My apologies for preaching. Need I say more......

I wish I could once again offer up to you some form of permanent solution. I can not. Just be vigilant with eyes & ears out front.

Never give out or share any of your personal information to anyone you do not know.

Thank you for sharing this example of fraud & theft with all of the Bell Community Forum members.

Take care.

[MKazzy]

I too just received a call from 226-***-****, a very heavy accent asking for feedback about my Bell services. He then offered a 30% discount on my bill for 24 months as "a Loyal longtime customer".  They knew my email address and sent me a verification code and the email even looked legit as they are using the noreply@bell.ca address.  They asked me to verify my username as the final step to send the promotional confirmation.  Thankfully that raised a warning bell as Bell never asks for my username for anything.  I hung up and called Bell and they confirmed no emails had been sent from them to me.  It is scary the info they have and how legit it seemed.  I changed my username anyway just as a precaution.  BEWARE...Total scam...most long time Bell customers know 30% off is too good to be true and it was.

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community Forum.

Thank you for sharing this with all of the members. What you did was the right thing to do, "Hang up". Do not give them the time of day or the personal satisfaction of adding you to their fraudster list.

Never share any personal information with anyone onlline that you do not know.

Fraud today can come in varying shapes, sizes, events, messages, calls, web links, attachments, etc. etc. etc.

There are all kinds of ides & tips out there. None of them seem to work in stopping these fraudsters.

If & when you figure this one out.... patent the idea. You will make millions if it works.

Take care.

[AlwaysSkeptical]

Seems like the offer is now up to 50% - that's what they tried on me.  This was a (216) area code; that is Cleveland OH, which confirmed it was a scam for me.  But even before that, when they asked for my email, I told them repeatedly, 'if you are from Bell, you have my email'.  The third time I repeated that, he hung up.

It's sad, I wish Bell would put some customer retention programs in place, but they should always put that on your MyBell page, not some fishy phone call.

[Hoodwinked]

I got a call from 1-437-***-**** offering a 40%off on my bills and as an added bonus they would send a first Generation Apple Watch.  I noticed on my bell account that 2 separate phones were purchased on my account and were being sent to my home address.  I called Bell to question the purchases and took steps to change my password on my account. The actual Bell representative looked into my account and took care of the situation.  It was too late to stop the delivery of one of the phones and Canada post tried to deliver it.  I refused delivery and it was sent back.  The little weasel that contacted me with the offer called me after seeing that the parcel was refused called me to ask why I refused the package and I told him that he was a scammer and I was on to him. His response was he hung up.  

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community Forum.

This was not Bell calling. It was a fraudster trying to scam you.

If you have not done so by now, you should change your MyBell Account & email passwords. I would suggest you monitor for any unauthorized activity that may appear on your credit card or financial accounts.

Next time.... just hang up! There is no reason for you to talk to fraudsters. They want to talk to you. There is no requirement for you to connect with them in any way, shape or form.  They want to sell you something, steal something from you or add you to their live contact list! 

Reputable companies such as Bell, banks, utilities & highly regarded services & institutions do not send you messages or make calls such as this! They do not call you asking to provide personal information. Hang up! Report the fraud! Delete!

Never share any personal information with anyone you do not know or trust! Do not open web links or messages in Emails or text messages!

If you need to reach Bell Customer Service call: 1 866 310-BELL (2355)

A word to the wise: "Caution is always the better part of Valour!"

"If it is too good to be true; it is not true! It is a lie!" "Stay Vigilant!"

Thank you very much for sharing your experience with everyone in the Bell Community.

Take care.

[User8581]

I think Bell is one of the easier companies to impersonate in a scam (and pretty much the only company I've heard come up semi-occasionally in my circles in this context) because... it acts scammy. Obviously Bell is a legitimate business which, for the record, does seem to offer solid bang for the buck for internet/phone service. But it is the most aggressive company I've ever done business with in terms of how much it markets to and attempts to upsell its existing customers. It also does cold calling/outreach, unlike other telecom companies. Not to mention that it is constantly framing its prices as a promotion of one sort or another. While I was trying to figure out if the "we're giving you 30% off on your internet bill" thing I fell for over the phone was a scam, I logged into my account to see the details of my package and if a new price had been applied. I noticed that the price I was paying had been framed as basically a 50% discount (something along the lines of being charged $X but then given a credit of $Y that was about half of X). Too good to be true, eh? Furthermore, I was sold this plan by a Bell employee who showed up at my door, unsolicited. I was pretty sketched out but took a leap of faith because it was a good deal. 

So, while red flags abound ("why would the Bell employee calling me be asking for my email address since that's probably on file with them already?"), it honestly just didn't feel all that out of the ordinary to get a call from (someone claiming to be from) Bell saying that they're randomly giving me a discount. Would it make much sense? I suppose not, but what do I know. 

And for the record, Bell is a little rough around the edges with some of this phone stuff. I cancelled my service to return to the previous company I was dealing with (their internet plans aren't quite as good as Bell's, but the prices are fair and they operate in a straightforward way--e.g they have a certain price that they charge, they say what the price is, and you pay it, as opposed to Bell's "anchor the customer at some really high price and then offer them a lower price and call it a promotion/discount" shtick). Of course I couldn't cancel online or anything though. Nope, had to be connected to the "loyalty team", a.k.a one more chance to get a sales rep talking to me. The loyalty team called me from a random 973 area code. No big deal, you have a call center in New Jersey. But still, the whole thing felt a little rubber band and paperclip-y. I only knew I wasn't being scammed because the agent was like "we are about to call you" and then when they called they were like "hi, we just said we'd call you". Idk though. 

Interestingly, one part of the process was the loyalty team person having a code emailed to me and then I had to say the code to them. The scammer did a riff on that. What might be useful for anyone reading this (if they made it through my slightly unhinged rant so far) is that the way the scammer got into my account was asking for my email, then on their own end going through the "forgot password" process, whereby I received an email with the code to enable a password reset, gave them the code, and then they just made their own password and got in. I didn't know this was happening, and had given them the code because I recall going through that process before with Bell, maybe while I was setting up my service or something. (the other heads up for anyone reading this is that the pretext the person used for trying to get my credit card info was offering to set up pre-authorized bill payments. I did not give him the info and just said I'd set it up on my own time if I felt like it). 

A final thought is that the scammer's familiarity with how these Bell calls go, from the general tone and speaking style, to possibly knowing that legitimate Bell calls do at times involve sharing a code that you get in your email, to even trying to upsell me on a phone plan at the end of the call (lol), kinda makes me speculate that it was a current or former Bell employee, or someone who's been marketed to by Bell quite a bit. 

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community,

Thank you for your feed back & sharing your comments and concerns with the members of the Bell Community Forum?

You have asked a lot of why's, not too many why nots, & offerred no solution. There is no easy answer or quick fix. You can be given all kinds of red warning flags when someone calls you. It makes little difference whether it is Bell or some other company that the thief is trying to impersonate.

He is now targetting you & you are unsure of what to do!

If this happens again, call Bell to confirm the legitimacy of the caller & the promotion, etc., being offerred. He should have an employee number that can be verified. (It is questionable whether any of us will consider doing this.)

Fraudsters are not just using Bell as an alias. Thiefs are using all of the ways & means out there to defraud you & gain acces & ownership of your life. They are getting very good at it. They fooled you in to believing they were from Bell. (Next time it could be something else: E.g. Financial institution, credit card company, utility, duct cleaning service, home repair, etc.)

If you do answer the call, listen & say nothing. Hang up! There is no reason for you to talk to fraudsters. They want to talk to you. There is no requirement for you to connect with them in any way, shape or form.  They want to sell you something, steal something from you or add you to their live contact list! 

Reputable companies such as Bell, banks, utilities & highly regarded services & institutions do not send you messages or make calls such as this! They do not call you asking for you to provide personal information. Hang up! Report the fraud! Delete!

To quote you from your posting: "Why would the Bell employee calling me be asking for my email address since that's probably on file with them already?" That is a very good question. Why would they ask you for that?

Never share any personal information with anyone you do not know or trust! Do not open web links or messages in Emails or text messages!

If you need to reach Bell Customer Service call: 1 866 310-BELL (2355)

I appreciate the time & effort you put in your message.

Thank you once again.

Take care.

[Hoodwinked]

Most likely a scammer.  You are better off hanging up and calling Bell directly and ask if they have a promotion going on.

[Yennefer]

Yeah I got an call to regarding the same promotion.

[Alberta 007]

Had the same call today.  When I asked what happens to my bill after 2 years are up - unable to answer.  In fact they were unable to answer any questions.  Finally I just hung up.  If it sounds too good to be true - its a scam.

[OneL]

This doesn't specify what to do after receiving these marketing calls.  I get them constantly and they refuse to tell me how they got my number or that they remove my number from their list. 

[WelshTerrier]

Good Day & Welcome to the Bell Community Forum.

I will try to answer the question that you asked,  "How they got my number or that they remove my number from their list."

You may have given it out directly or indirectly; knowingly or unknowingly. Fraudsters are not going to remove you from their marketing list..... they are going to keep calling you until you stop talking to them & sharing personal information.

Next time.... just hang up! There is no reason for you to talk to them. They want to talk to you. There is no requirement for you to connect with them in any way, shape or form.  They want to sell you something, steal something from you or add you to their live contact list! 

Fraudsters can random call anyone & everyone. E.g. Robo, computer, auto-dialer calling, etc.; maybe a contact or distribution list of a family member, friend, work associate, organization, etc.;  a hacked computer, imbedded web link in an email or text message; how about a web site; etc.etc.

Reputable companies such as Bell, banks, utilities & highly regarded services & institutions do not send you messages or make calls such as this! They do not call you asking to provide personal information. Hang up! Report the fraud! Delete!

Never share any personal information with anyone you do not know or trust! Do not open web links or messages in Emails or text messages!

If you feel that you have been the victim of a fraud or scam there are some important steps that you can take.

• If you receive any suspicious email that appears to be from Bell by forwarding to phish@bell.ca then delete the email.
• If you receive any suspicious SMS or MMS messages forward them to 7726 (SPAM) then delete the text.
• If you are victim of a ransom threat, contact your local police.
• If you have been a victim of identity theft, Telemarketing, Email or Internet Fraud; contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre or call them at 1 888 495-8501
• If you notice unsolicited requests, transactions not requested by you or are being locked out of your account for no apparent reason, please contact Bell Mobility Loss Prevention at 1 800 509-9904 immediately. 
• Educate your friends and family on your experience – it may help them be more aware.

To learn more about fraud and how you can prevent it we encourage you to read our other articles for more in depth information.

• How to identify fraud
• What does fraud look like?
• How to identify phishing or smishing
• Cell phone service provider scam

Take care.

[Big Daddy Denie]

So I received a Phone call offering me 40% off my current phone bill.  They asked what my current bill was ( Which  I did not divulge), I asked how do I know this isn't a scam?  They offered their name/Employee ID and Dept #, I mean how can they not be real???

I asked them to be patient while i validated their info.  They immed asked for my email.  I said pls wait, they insisted (kinda) that it was just so they could send me the promotion. I again said if you are who you say, you wont mind waiting.  They put me on hold.  I then went to log in my bell chat online, and verified that the Employee Id in fact existed, but the name and dept were incorrect.  I hung up, even though I was still on hold.

Point is, why should it be so difficult to confirm.  Here is my siggestion.  Any promotions being offered from a third party site, should issue the client ( In this case ME)  an offer authorization #, then I could later log into my Bell and use the Authorization # to then recieve the offer.  This allows me to independently validate that I am on a trusted site, and it is a valid offer. 

BELL: Pls do something!! I think this is a viable solution.  tks for listening to my rant