Top 10 Shocking Moments on Scam Interceptors

#10: Phone Mule

In dramatic scenes, the gang managed to find a phone mule – that’s a person who accepts deliveries of smartphones on behalf of scammers. They manage to trick the scammers into thinking they’ve also received a phone and then get a QR code with the address of the phone mule after some detective work at the local post office. After doing some crafty surveillance, they see the recipient accept the parcel from Royal Mail and then go to speak to him. They confront the man – who claims to know nothing about it – and say he’s accepting stolen phones, all designed to be sold on to rake in some easy cash.

#9: Amanda Holden

Would you buy something just because a poorly dubbed video of Amanda Holden told you to? If you would, you’re not alone, because lots of people have been defrauded by dodgy videos of the star going around online. She’d even been inadvertently involved in a romance scam, with a con artist using her name and image to trick a vulnerable man into selling his house and giving the account the money. So, “Scam Interceptors” had her join the team for a celebrity special, confronting the fake Amandas head-on. Bizarrely, at one moment they even accused the BBC of using AI to sound like Amanda Holden, still insisting that THEY were the real one.

#8: Rush Hour

This patronising hacker had a woman on the phone for hours bossing her around, acting as if she didn’t know the letters of the alphabet while trying to rinse her for all the money she had in her account. The interceptors head out, but unfortunately, it’s the morning rush hour in London, where the victim is based. They eventually pinpoint her location to Essex, but they’re still miles away. Meanwhile, the scammer’s managed to trick his victim into thinking she’s being actively hacked by someone in America through a crafty Google search trick. The scam goes on and on, but eventually, the call drops, and they’re able to call the landline and get through.

#7: Free Airpods

The scammers rang up a poor old woman in Scotland to offer her some free Airpods – all she had to do was give up her bank account details. Once they have the details, it’s a repeat of the phone mule scam we saw earlier; they want to order a smartphone in her name and get it delivered o elsewhere, so that they can sell it on. While listening, they hear Rhonda’s address and, thankfully, she’s in Glasgow, just like the interceptor team. All we wanted was for Rhonda to get some help and get off the phone, especially while she was down with the flu. Finally, they get through and advise her to go to the bank right away.

#6: Amazon

This scam happens after you get a dodgy text supposedly from Amazon itself, but through some simple admin, they can send you a password reset code and trick you into thinking your account’s been broken into. Through their backdoor into the illegal call centres – all thanks to hacktivist Jim Browning – the team can watch the scammer’s computer, and subsequently, the victim’s devices after they install spyware. They even got his home address and card details. Luckily, the address means that the team can try to get someone to him and tell him to hang up, ordering the scammers to never call again.

#5: National Crime Agency

We bet you’ve had a few of these scary voice messages! In this scam, they trick people into thinking the National Crime Agency is after them and think they’re guilty of serious offences involving organised crime, which is certainly a terrifying thing to be told if you’re completely innocent. The objective of all this rigmarole is to get gift cards. They convince him that he’s going to be arrested for sending illegal transactions to Central America if he doesn’t prove his identity via those gift cards. Thankfully, he eventually realises that it’s all a trick and hangs up himself, despite them desperately trying to convince him they’re genuine coppers.

#4: Hang Up

Another National Crime Agency con, this one had our hearts racing as they tried to find the victim and persuade him to hang up the phone. Again, they want those coveted gift cards, going through their usual playbook of accusing the victim of paying for illicit substances in accounts opened under his name. Through a partial postcode, they realise he’s in Salford and send the ground team to make the interception. Eventually, they find him outside, still arguing with the fake police, and manage to persuade him that he’s not talking to the real NCA and needs to get off the phone.

#3: Invasion of Privacy

These scammers convince their victim to download a remote access app onto his phone, watching everything he puts in. They get his address but, with no way to contact him and no nearby ground team, they actually ring up a local business and try to get the owner, Debbie, to intervene on their behalf. They finally get his mobile number and keep trying to call, watching the scammer decline every time. In shocking scenes, the scammer answers, only to say there’s a software problem while spying on him through the phone camera. They finally help him delete the software from his phone just as Debbie arrives to chat to him and see that he’s alright.

#2: Identity Theft

You see a lot of identity theft on this programme, but this one was horrifying. They watched as a scammer managed to remote into a victim’s PC, getting into his browser and going through the password manager to get all of his logins one by one. They get his name and get through to his workplace in Wales, finally contacting the man himself, but then it turns out that he’s left his computer with his friend who’s trying to help him get rid of the dodgy software. They get through to the friend and finally tell him that there’s still software installed and he needs to get rid of it.

#1: Celebrity Deepfakes

Here, the team were trying to bait the scammers into contacting them directly by setting up new social media accounts and joining groups devoted to high-profile celebrities – notably, Hollywood A-lister Reese Witherspoon. Through these groups, scammers will pretend to be the celebrity and ask for various things – gift cards, cryptocurrency, and so on – tricking people who believe they really ARE talking to those stars. Through this grift, the team gets on the phone to the scammers, who keep insisting they’re Reese Witherspoon’s producer, and they should definitely give him some money. It’s made all the more convincing by the advanced deepfakes they send potential victims.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve ever had a dodgy run-in with a scam caller.