Something Phishy Going On...

[ownwonnow]

16th Jan 2024 - NOW Broadband line set up and connected. By 20th suffering dropouts and getting suspicious blocked msftconnecttest/redirect page message. Then internet dies altogether.

27th Jan 2023 - BT Openreach re-connect me and NOW Broadband running again.

Today at 6:55pm - got 2 unsolicited calls from 0800 761 3372 which who-called-me.co.uk identifies as scam calls posing as Sky. And then within ten minutes my NOW Broadband internet dies for about 2 minutes and again I get msftconnecttest/redirect message. At the same time an email comes through which the notification partially shows (without opening it) claims to be from "customerservices@nowtv.c..." and subject "“NOW TV Help – Case ID: nnnnnnnn()  [ ref:xxxxxxxxxxxxxx..." [where n=digit and x=alphanumeric]. Might not be significant but my package does not include NOW TV at all or passes.

When I log into my NOW account, there are no messages and technical checks pass, although curiously it carries out a TV check also but as I say I don't have NOW TV only broadband and PAYG calls. I would perhaps expect the account to have messages mirroring the email if NOW were contacting me about the service.

It just all feels very off; and something about all the times I phoned the helpline gave me scam vibes.

[gavs82008]

@ownwonnow 

The company name used to be Now TV. Hell the website url still says nowtv in it.

Are you calling the number from this link?
https://help.nowtv.com/article/how-to-submit-a-broadband-complaint1

[RoyB]

@ownwonnow @gavs82008 

‘Hell the website’. Good name for it 😈 👹👿👺

Re that phone number, it’s genuine:-

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/received-call-from-08007613372

[ownwonnow]

The notification for the email looks similar to the one in this reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/16x8he5/been_having_issues_with_now_tv_for_a_while_now/  . When £7.5 billion a year is lost through scams can you honestly blame anyone for thinking they're being phished with the bizarre punctuation and odd grammar littering such emails? 

[RoyB]

@ownwonnow 

The example in that Reddit is the genuine transcript of a Live Chat, which Now routinely will have sent out at the end of such, to the person who initiated the Live Chat.

Having had very coherent emails from Now, none of them looked like that.

So there were crossed wires somewhere; either the poster got a message intended for someone else, or he had a Live Chat session as well as sending an email, and confused the transcript of the Live Chat with the expected answer to his email.

But if you have the decent antivirus that you should have when reading any unsolicited mail, then you should be safe enough to open mails that purport to come from Now or Sky, as long as you don’t click on anything in them, if you are the slightest bit suspicious,

[Jayach]

@ownwonnow 

Having followed a few of your posts, you seem to be convinced that everything you receive on the web is a scam.

It's right to be suspicious, but you seem to take it to the extreme.

[ownwonnow]

@Jayach 

@Jayach Yes, but to be fair it's all very odd. Viz.:

I have been on the phone most of today with both professional and personal calls; everything all fine and dandy.

I decide to call NOW Broadband helpline to discuss and sort out a few things, Option-4 (Membership) & Option-2 (bills & payments). Put on hold for 14 minutes.  Literally at the very moment I get through to the CSA in India (she said that's where she's speaking from)... my internet connection dies!  The internet connection has been up since the morning of 27th January and I've used it extensively for many hours day & night since apart from one morning. In all that time, the ONLY time the connection has dropped has been AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME as (a)I receive two unsolicited calls + voice mails + dodgy email ostensibly from NOW and (b)when my call to NOW connected to Indian call centre.

Now (pun intended) I'm not a betting man, but that is too coincidental.

[RoyB]

@ownwonnow 

The internet died as in the WiFi went down, or as in the centre light on the hub went out?

But that experience is also strongly reminiscent of telephone interference with broadband; if you have one of those little broadband filters in your setup, it may have failed, in which case it is worth replacing it.

[ownwonnow]

The centre light of the Hub Two NR801, which was temporarily out when my call was connected with the CSA, is labelled 'internet' and the connected device I was using notified me of the lack of internet access although still connected to the network.

The socket to which the router is connected does not require a little broadband filter. But in any case, as I say, I had been using the phone all throughout the day before (and after!) the NOW Helpline call-simultaneous internet outage with no discernible issue with the internet service.

[Jayach]

Despite the apparently coincidental occurrences, I can't see anything that seems like a scam.

You're not being asked for personal financial details or to click on any suspicious links. so just what is it you suspect?