Sky calling to say slow speeds

[Anonymous User]

I today received a phone call from somebody professing to be from the Sky call centre.  He told me my speeds had been slow for the last few days and wanted to help me, with the free inclusive service, to speed it up. I followed his instructions on accessing information about my running speeds but would not action anything that would have made changes to my hard drive.  In the end I hung up on him as it really could have been anyone phoning.  I would appreciate knowing if this would have been a genuine call and whether I should have continued with it.

Thank you,

Diane

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

When the ‘man from BT’ called me, I asked him to quote my BT account number.

Ho couldn’t of course.

Even if your ‘man from Sky’ had known yours, though, it still wouldn’t be quite definitive; he might be working off a list he bought on the darkweb.

But if he couldn’t quote it, no room for doubt that hanging up was the right thing to do.

I also take the pragmatic view that if we can’t get hold of the buggers when we want them, it perhaps seems unlikely that they would have the time to contact us, proactively 😛

[Anonymous User]

So I did right then, there's no way he could have messed with my computer with me not giving him access to the hard drive?  Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

You did the right thing.

Nothing you do to your computer will change the speed of your broadband. The router is a computer, and it does all the work.

You should report the call to the police. If it was from the UK it's very easy to track the tool on the other end of the line, and they will just keep trying with other people. These people aren't pranksters, they're organised criminals.