Is this a scam?

[HFE Signs]

I've just had a phone call from someone claiming to be from Openreach, they told me my IP has changed from private to public and asked me to check by searching 'what is my ip' on Google. They went on to explain how all the data including emails and banking was available for the public to see.

They wanted me to change settings and visit a portal where I could correct it, obviously I didn't.

I'm no expert but if you google 'what is my ip' doesn't that always return your public ip?

It sounds like a scammer to me but can anyone verify this?

 

[zigojacko]

Yes, this is complete nonsense.

 

[Graham Tyers]

These guys do sound very convincing and make so many calls that they have a *huge* stock of answers for every possible answer they get. Definitely a scam. It's a shame the authorities don't take these things seriously.

 

[Hooble]

Definitely a scam, best way to catch anyone like this out is to ask them to e-mail you through the account you have with them. Had to do this once with a govt organization who turned out to be very real. But SOUNDED very scammy via the phone call.

 

[HFE Signs]

Definitely a scam, best way to catch anyone like this out is to ask them to e-mail you through the account you have with them. Had to do this once with a govt organization who turned out to be very real. But SOUNDED very scammy via the phone call.

I did ask them to email me, they said because they were Openreach and not my provider they couldn't, I asked for a number to call them back and they gave me the correct Openreach number (probably expecting me to Google it whilst they were on the phone). I called Openreach and they only want to know about infrastructure problems such as lines and poles, everything else you have to go through your provider.

 

[HFE Signs]

Thanks guys, you confirmed my suspicion, never can be too careful these days.

 

[UKSBD]

There was a clever scam a few years ago where they told people tosearch in google for "My IP Address Location"

The number one result was a featured snippet which made it look like your IP was in Mountain View and they said it was because your router was hacked.

What it actually was though was the featured snippet generated when Google crawled the site and you were just seeing the cached snapshot of the page.

I blogged about it 5+ years ago - https://www.penrodshero.com/my-ip-address-location-scam/

 

[ammarhamdan]

Yeah sure

 

[Uwe (Invoiceberry)]

That's why I avoid picking up my phone these days lol

100% scam

 

[Marilami]

No, this is likely a scam. Googling "what is my IP" will always return your public IP address, so there is no need to take any action.

 

[UKSBD]

No, this is likely a scam. Googling "what is my IP" will always return your public IP address, so there is no need to take any action.

There was a period when Google had a featured snippet at the top and it was showing a cached snapshot of when Google was crawling the IP checker which made it look like your IP was in Mountain View

The scammers obviously saw this and used it as a way of trying to scam people

 

[caseytoliver]

That's why I avoid picking up my phone these days lol

100% scam

Totally agree