Strange Answerphone Message.

[Cloverjo]

My home phone rang this yesterday. It was an automated vocal text message. It addressed me by my real first name and said that my urine samples had been sent off successfully. I haven't had a urine test recently. Is it some kind of scam? Why would anyone bother to send me that message?

[gingejbee]

Taking the ***, perhaps?

[Jackdaw33]

Beat me to it!

[chrissa1]

And me

[Old_Geezer]

Have you ordered any ? Maybe you can track your parcel.

[bookbinder]

Would you have any success in tracing that kind of call if you used 1471?

[DarceyK123]

Did it ask you to press any numbers to confirm or call back?

[Mamyalynne]

If that's all it consisted of then it's possible someone at a surgery/hospital has punched the wrong details in.

I get automated calls from a hospital department.

[Cloverjo]

Apparently it's some type of scam.
Similar number have been ringing people to confirm some kind of appointment that was never made by the recipient. They are urged to reply if they never made such an appointment (or sent urine samples) at a ridiculous phone rate.

So now I can see why, but I'm still bothered about how they knew my first name.

Anyway, they didn't get me this time.
Thank you all for your replies.

[Mamyalynne]

Ah so there was more to it and they ask you to reply - nasty.

[Mamyalynne]

It's worth knowing about Clover, thank you.

[riptide]

I was told by my Doctors recently that under the new data protection act they are not allowed to leave messages on answer phones and have to talk to the real person, unless of course you have your own name and voice on your recorded message machine, not sure even then. If their number comes up on 1471 then perhaps it is, if not it is a scam. Give them a ring and tell them what has happened, does no harm for them to know.

[murraymints]

report to your phone provider and block the number

[rowanwitch]

I do get odd messages, it's what the delete option is for.

[woofgang]

I have been retired from the NHS for 11 years now and for a long time before that we never allowed staff in our department to leave messages with detail in on answerphones unless the patient gave permission and they had a message on their answerphone identifying who it was. Otherwise, we used to say "This is the Rehab department of xxx hospital, could you please give us a call back on (phone number) to discuss your referral.