This is a latest version of the support call scam.

The Fightback Ninja received a call from ‘Agnes’ at BT support.

She told me they have found that my Internet connection is not working properly and that my IP address shows up as being in California. So they suspect someone has illegally gained access to my Internet connection and that is bad.

Once they have checked they will be able to help me to block this problem.

I just agreed with her as she listed each step, knowing this to be a stupid scam but interested in the process the scammers go through to steal from people.

There were a lot of people talking in her background and I complained that I could hardly hear over the noise. She told me I could hear perfectly well. ‘Agnes’ is a bossy scammer.

Agnes then asked me to check my IP address and said she could explain how to do that.

I checked online and my IP address of course shows my real location, not California as ‘Agnes’ claimed.

Agnes was now getting angry when I told her I could see on screen that the IP address was showing its location correctly. And she accused me of telling stories.

I told her I wasn’t a lying cheating scammer like her.

Then she put the phone down as it was obvious I wasn’t going to be scammed.

These horrible people will take money from anyone – do not believe cold callers unless you can prove who they are and what they say.  Anyone cold calling your home about your Internet connection is almost certainly a scammer.

Note: If you want to know the IP address for your device  there are various ways to check depending on what  device you’re using but a simple website such as https://www.iplocation.net/ will tell you your current IP address and also give you the apparent location of that IP address.

The apparent location will likely show the nearest town but sometimes may show the location of your Internet Service Provider instead so don’t be concerned if that’s the case.

The apparent IP location is generally unimportant – it’s mostly just for the curious.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.