GemaTech Technology Blog » telephony

Phone scam: be aware of the latest scam to get your money

Karen Jones — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:57:20 +0000

A new phone scam is making the rounds. This time someone may call you up claiming that they are from BT and that your account is an arrears. If they are unsuccesful in getting your account details out of you to make any ‘alledged’ due payments, they threaten to cut off your line. If you don’t believe them they have a neat little trick up their sleeve.

In order to convince you that they can cut you off, they ask you to put the phone down and then to check the line. The customer puts the phone down and then picks up again…there is no ring tone and it appears as though the line has been cut off. The caller then calls back saying that they have retsored the line but that this should convince you to pay up. How is this done? Well, when you put the phone down the caller does not, they simply press the mute button, keeping the call open and silent thus giving the impression that the line is dead when in fact it isn’t.

The only way your line can be cut is if a true BT engineer does so, or you are affected by any of the many ways in which the ‘last mile’ circuit between the local BT exchange and your premises is severed. This could include scenarios such as:

1. Road works cut through the cable by accident
2. Someone has been able to vandalise the green BT cabinet which serves your premises
3. Cable thieves have ripped up the copper cable between the local exchange and your premises (an increasingly UK-wide problem)

My advice is stay vigilant and if you don’t think you owe BT any money then you probably don’t!

Business Continuity: Why Pay twice?

Karen Jones — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:26:12 +0000

How many organisations have paid for a buisness continuity solution for their inbound telecoms, only to find that when disaster strikes, it is not sufficient for their needs, forcing them to sepnd again on a fit-for-purpose upgrade?

Undertaking some research, I have discovered that there is in fact a psychological reason, known as ‘optimism bias’, for why we tend to think that such a negative disruptive event is unlikely to happen ‘to us’.

For my full article on the subject of insufficient telecoms recovery planning click here.

Karen Jones

World Health Organisation on brink of declaring global pandemic

Karen Jones — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:20:56 +0000

The H1N1 swine flu virus has spread to 74 countries, with a sharp increase in reported cases in Australia. The UN have called an emergency meeting to discuss the imapct of an imminent declaration by the World Health Organisation to raise the level from 5 to 6, which would see the world in its first global pandemic since 1968. A pandemic which killed around one million people. The disease is classed as a pandemic when it has spread from human to human when widespread within two regions of the world. If a pandemic is declared, governments could quite quickly call for travel bans and school closures, a move which could in theory start bringing organisations to a standstill. It seems that time is running out for those who have not made sufficient business continuity plans to cope with mass illness or to facilitate flexible working options which enable healthy employees to continue working from home or other isolated location. The reliance upon our country’s telephone system for communication will be massive. For those people at the leading edge of technology I wonder whether IP telephony will stand the test of huge increases in residential broadband use? Especially when the children are at home because the schools are closed..