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A large number of companies now offer first line support services via Twitter. Generally this is a positive experience for customers who need basic help with their services or subscriptions. One such company who offer this service are Virgin Media, a telephone, television and internet provider for the UK. The Virgin Media social media team can provide assistance for basic issues and non-specific account queries. All tweets from Virgin Media related to user issues all follow the same standard template. Whilst this is positive from a consistency perspective, it makes things a little easier for scammers. This article details how scammers are using Virgin Media fake Twitter accounts to con unsuspecting customers to give sensitive bank information.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll earn a commission, at no additional cost to you.
Standard Tweet Format Allows Scammers To Replicate It
As previously mentioned, all Virgin Media replies to user issues follow the same standard template. This consists of the message followed by the caret symbol (^) and the initials of the person who is dealing with the enquiry as a point of reference.
From the screenshot, it is clear to see that this is the real Virgin Media account. It has the blue tick of authenticity from Twitter. It is also worth checking the Twitter handle or the @ name as it is sometimes called. Always make sure the word virginmedia is spelt correctly. Scammers are very clever in the naming of their fake accounts so this step is vitally important.
Scammers know what the standard style of response is from Virgin Media. You are going to have to have your whits about you to detect this scam. It is not obvious initially but there are many red flags which will alert you to the scam. As long as you take your time before replying to any request for information you will stay safe.
How The Scam Works
This scam begins when a customer tweets the legitimate Virgin Media Twitter account (@VirginMedia) with an issue or query. As Twitter is fully searchable, the bogus account can easily search for all recent tweets to Virgin Media. The scammer can then use their own fake Twitter account to impersonate first line support and ask for account information. This is done via the Twitter direct messaging functionality. As the scammer knows the template for Virgin responses, their messages seem more believable which is why so many people still fall for this scam.
Scammers will initially ask for the name and address of the account holder. Historically, Virgin Media first line social media support have asked this question as they were able to deal with more specific account queries. It now appears that a decision has been taken to remove this offering on the grounds of security. This is a good move by the company.
When customers realise the account they have been dealing with is a scam account, they are always horrified. They have just given away their home address. This is disturbing but the fact of the matter is the scammer is not interested in it in the slightest. It is a standard way into asking more pertinent questions. Once a scammer gets past the initial question they will ask for the card number for the account from which payments to Virgin Media are made along with the 3 digit CVC number on the back of the card. If they manage to get this information they are free to make any purchase with your card. This is a very worrying development, especially if you don’t realise what has just happened.
How To Tell This Is A Scam
Check your Twitter Direct Messaging Settings
Although this scam is quite well disguised, there are many ways you can detect it. Firstly when the fake account sends you the direct message to initiate the scam, you will need to accept or decline this. You need to do this because you aren’t following the account it is originating from. If you follow Virgin Media on Twitter, you won’t have to go through this step. This will help you detect any fake messages instantly.
If you want to go a step further, you can block direct messages from anyone you don’t follow by going into the Twitter settings.
This is a useful option switch off. In most cases you aren’t going to want direct messages from strangers. If you do turn this off, the fake Virgin Media account will not be able to contact you.
Check Out The Account’s Twitter Page
Scammers put a lot of work into making their Twitter page look exactly the same as the legitimate Virgin Media page. There are certain things they can’t do though and these are the giveaways that this is a scam.
Currently the legitimate Virgin Media Twitter account has 287.4K followers. The fake account will have exactly zero. There is no way they are ever going to spoof numbers to get remotely close to the legitimate site.
The legitimate Virgin Media account will also have a blue tick next to it’s name. This has been awarded by Twitter to large organisations and people in the public domain to prove their authenticity. Scam accounts will not have this tick.
Virgin Media Twitter Uk
The fake Virgin Media account will have joined Twitter very recently and won’t have tweeted any original content. In an attempt to make themselves look genuine, they will have retweeted content that the legitimate account has posted.
Twitter Handle Will Change In The Middle
Scammers will need to come up with creative variations as they will not be able to use @VirginMedia as their handle. Scammers play on the fact that the human brain can read full words by only looking at the start and end of the word. This allows them to put random character into the middle of VirginMedia and most people will not detect them.
Recent accounts that have been suspended by Twitter include @virgvimedia, @virgsimedia and @virgeimedia. All of these look obvious in the surrounds of this article. If you have just contacted Virgin Media via their Twitter account, it is not unreasonable to expect a response if more information is required. For that reason these accounts do get treated as legitimate by unsuspecting customers.
How To Get A Fake Twitter Account Removed
As long as you can prove an account is fake it is fairly simple to get Twitter to remove it. Go to the offending account page and click on the 3 dots (horizontal on a computer, vertical on a mobile). Click ‘Report’, you will be taken through a wizard which will ask why you are reporting the account. Select ‘They are pretending to be more or someone else’ and then select ‘Someone Else’. You can then supply the Twitter handle of the account that is being impersonated, in this case it is @VirginMedia.
Mira detective. As well as reporting this to Twitter, send a Tweet to Virgin Media also as they will also report it. This adds weight to your case.
In the examples above, we have used the legitimate Virgin Media site for demonstration purposes only. We never reported this account.
To Summarise
This scam can prove extremely costly if you provide bank details to the scammer. They will have full access to your finances with this information. Always look out for mis-spelt variations of virginmedia. Remember to look out for the blue tick to confirm authenticity. Virgin Media fake Twitter accounts are popping up all of the time with slightly different variations on the name.
Virgin Media Ireland Twitter
If at any stage, you are not sure whether the account you are dealing with is legitimate or not give Virgin Media a call on 150 from a Virgin landline.