Is This A Scam Or From British Gas?

[smurfchops]

Telephone number 07786200698. ‘From British Gas. To make sure your consumption is charged as accurately as possible ahead of any price changes, could you please reply with a Gas and Elec Meter Reading in the following format G1234 or G12345 E12345. Thanks, your British Gas Team.’
Sent as a message and yes I am with British Gas but number comes up as a scam….. thanks all.

[Tilly2]

Does it have your name on the email?

[StyleMonkey]

Yes it's a scam. Why would British gas use a mobile number... Come on now!

[Ellipsis]

Scam

[brian j john]

Google the telephone number there are sites like Who called me with peoples comments about it

[StyleMonkey]

You don't need to google anything. Ignore all mobile numbers, they are a scam.

Royal Mail, NHS, British Gas, will never contact you from a mobile number.

[Peter Pedant]

they are
even the wise bods on AB are telling you to photo the meters

but this is a scam

so send onto [email protected].

well spotted

[Hopkirk]

British Gas get you to enter your meter readings by logging into your own account and filling it into boxes.

This is a scam.

[Arrods]

Oh dear. I've just submitted the readings requested as the B Gas web site was down. What should I do? Have I been scammed?

[Arrods]

What can the scammers do with my response/meter readings?

[Hopkirk]

Nothing, but you have identified your mobile number as active. They may now target you with calls claiming to be BG, or requests for more information.

You are ready for them though. Don't believe anything you receive.

[Buenchico]

>>> Royal Mail, NHS, British Gas, will never contact you from a mobile number

Somebody had better tell all of the NHS services that call me from mobile numbers about that then! My GP's surgery often calls from a mobile number and the hospital pharmacy always calls me from a mobile number, as do several other departments at Ipswich Hospital and also callers about Covid vaccination appointments.

Some 07 numbers are premium rate ones, rather than mobile numbers, so it's always wise to be wary of calling them. However 07786 is a regular Vodafone number (or a number that's been transferred from Vodafone to another service provider, as my own 07786 number has been), so whatever scam is being tried here isn't one where people are tricked into paying for expensive calls.

However submitting meter readings to British Gas (or to any other energy provider) today is actually something that's being legitimately encouraged
https://www.nationalworld.com/lifestyle/money/martin-lewis-households-meter-reading-31-march-energy-price-cap-3631372

It seems though that the vast number of people trying to submit meter readings online today has knocked several company's servers offline. The websites of British Gas, EDF and Shell Energy (or, at least, their 'meter readings' sections), are among those that have crashed today.

[smurfchops]

Thanks all, I did Google Who Called Me and it came up as a scam, thought I would double check … and warn everyone else!! It was a message on my Samsung phone, not an email. So they had my phone number.

[THECORBYLOON]

If you've included text messages as a method of communication from British Gas, they can text you.

[Arrods]

Many thanks Hopkirk and Buenchico. I always block mobiles that get through my 'security' system but the publicity about submitting readings combined with utilities web sites being unavailable put me off my guard. Thanks again.

[Arrods]

Interesting point TheCorbyloon. I may well have - except that I can't check on their web site at the moment!

[THECORBYLOON]

"So they had my phone number."

No, they had A number. They will have sent the message to random numbers in the hope that someone replies and they then know it is in use and add it to a list of future targets.

[THECORBYLOON]

British Gas had technical problems last Friday. I spent about three hour on a text conversation on the Saturday with four or five different folk trying to find out why they had stopped my electricity direct debits.

At least twenty minutes between replies was not helpful.

[THECORBYLOON]

I've just had the scam message showing a different 'phone number.

I've blocked it but don't know if that works only for the "spoofed" (supposed) number or the actual number.

[StyleMonkey]

Arrods if someone from British Gas calls you in regards to the numbers you gave to this mobile number then you hang up the phone.

[ichkeria]

Yes you can certainly get texts from British Gas, HMRC, the bank etc

But as you’d pointed out you’d already googled it and found it was a scam