Has someone tried to scam me

drofluf

Just had a call from 01215376329 (which seems to be a suspicious number) claiming to be from Sky and that we had problems with our internet. Now that would normally ring alarm bells except I am with Sky and we do have problems with our internet so go easy on me

He got me to search for validator in Safari on my iPhone which took me to https://validator.w3.org

He then asked me to put Sky.com in there and I got a series of html errors.

So is https://validator.w3.org a legitimate site and was the string of Sky errors a ruse to convince me that they knew what they were doing? It was at this point that the alarm bells started to ring so I hung up.

bertie

its a legit site,  but the rest sounds very iffy indeed.

providers wouldnt normally call you, let alone ask you to do things unless you're previously logged a fault call.

First thing to do,  IMMEDIATELY -   call Sky and check with them.


EDIT

just found this  -   so reading the top few paragraphs - looks like you escaped JUST in time

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-scam-callers-ask-you-to-go-to-validator-w3-org


"he validator is a tool for people who both understand and care about what the validator is telling them. For most people out there, it’s unimportant. It means that you did something in a non-standard way when you were writing your website, that’s all. Errors in the validator might mean that your page doesn’t load well for some users or whatever - a validator error does not mean there’s a gaping security hole in your email address.

The scammers are hoping you don’t know that. They want you to have seen the errors and warnings from the official-looking validator site they’ve sent you to, and then they want you to let them fix the issue - for which they’ll need your username and password. Or perhaps your credit card details. And your mother’s maiden name, the name of your first school and the street you lived on as a child…"

RedRabbit

The results results from validator.w3.org have nothing to do with issues with your internet.  Such sites are used check whether websites confirm with various coding standards.  Very few big websites do so generate a load of errors that will largely be gibberish to most.

Kittyfrisk

I'd say it certainly sounds like a scam attempt.
https://validator.w3.org is a legitimate site, but there's no reason why you should need to go there unless you are checking the validity of Web documents.
Entering a non valid web page (sky.com isn't one) with throw up errors like you described.

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-scam-callers-ask-you-to-go-to-validator-w3-org?share=1
https://github.com/validator/validator/issues/842

drofluf

Thanks @bertie reason why I even spoke to them was we are in the middle of a fault call with Sky and have an engineer calling next week 

drofluf

Thanks all; think all I gave away (apart from html errors on sky.com) was my mobile number - they already had our home number from somewhere.

bertie

drofluf said:

Thanks all; think all I gave away (apart from html errors on sky.com) was my mobile number - they already had our home number from somewhere.

outside of "financial / security data"  -  pretty much anything you "willingly"  enter/share is in the public domain somewhere  -  and can be obtained by anyone.

PolarityMan

It's a bit embarrassing that sky.com doesn't validate mind you. 

Simonh

PolarityMan said:

It's a bit embarrassing that sky.com doesn't validate mind you. 

I'd be willing to bet very few mainstream commercial sites do

randella

Yep, 100% smells like scam. You did right to knock it on the head.

The w3 validator is useful, but you'd be a long while finding any site - commercial or otherwise - that passed with flying colours. I suspect the scammers know this full-well. It's an interesting hustle, I never thought I'd see the day that these cynical bastards would exploit a web dev tool for money. Hell knows what's coming next.

SteveRobinson

100% SCAM

chillidoggy

Anything to do with Sky is a scam. Including their legit stuff.

hywelg

Using the validator (which checks the HTML code of the site) is like the Windows scammers who get you to check the event log.

drofluf

chillidoggy said:

Anything to do with Sky is a scam. Including their legit stuff.

Amen to that. 

drofluf

hywelg said:

Using the validator (which checks the HTML code of the site) is like the Windows scammers who get you to check the event log.

Yes, I’m a little embarrassed but I’d just come off the phone with a genuine sky person so my defences were lowered. 

viz

I ALWAYS say “thanks for calling, I hope you understand but I’m going to hang up and call customer services back on the main number. Whom should I ask for?” If they say ANYTHING other than “yes of course, that’s fine”, they’re a scammer. 

BillDL

viz said:

I ALWAYS say “thanks for calling, I hope you understand but I’m going to hang up and call customer services back on the main number. Whom should I ask for?” If they say ANYTHING other than “yes of course, that’s fine”, they’re a scammer. 

Even that wouldn't work for a determined and organised financial type scammer that is able to hold your line open and, when you think you are dialling and getting through to your bank/isp/whatever to check up about it you are still connected to them.

The scam in this case is just the same old one that's been going for many years in a variety of forms where the next step would usually be to ask you to download a small program that allows them to see and control your computer as though they were sitting in front of it.  They deliberately mess something up or, as mentioned earlier, guide you to look at the "event logs" that always show hundreds of red x errors, then tell you that you have a virus and ask for a money transfer to fix it.

With these scams and insurance scams, they use dialling software to go through sequential numbers in the different dial code areas in turn and ring the phone.  Ones that are answered are flagged as live and potential targets for future live callers to try and scam you.  In the case of insurance scams where they say "it's about your accident", it is possible that something like 5% of people answering the phone have recently had an accident.  The same is true of Internet Service Provider scams.  There will always be somebody that is signed up with the ISP they have chosen to masquerade as.

drofluf

In hindsight the most suspicious thing was Sky being proactive in customer support….