Surge in cold calls targeting older people about personal alarms

Reports of older people being targeted by cold calls about personal alarms are on the rise.

We received just five reports about personal alarms (medical pendants or wristbands used to alert emergency services at the push of a button) to our scam sharer tool in the whole of 2023. But that number jumped to 25 in the first five months of this year.

Some of the tactics reported mirror those of predatory cold callers flogging useless white goods and appliance repair cover. 

Here, we explain how these cold callers operate and tell you how to tackle them head on.  

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Callers may know your medical conditions

Cold callers may already know your name, age and even details of your medical conditions. 

One tactic they use is to claim you're eligible for a free alarm, asking for card details to cover the ongoing subscription costs or a one-off installation fee. 

They may say they're a local health worker, as one Which? reader reported: 'He said that as I had health conditions, they would give me a free alarm pendant in case I fell. He knew I was over 70 and when I asked where he had obtained my details he went silent. I asked if it was via the NHS or the doctor, and again he went silent. 

'I told him that I'm registered with the Telephone Preference Service to not receive such calls. He hung up. I looked up the number online and it has been reported as a medical scam.'

Harassed by cold callers

More often than not, we heard from family members who said their elderly relatives had been harassed or misled by callers claiming to be linked to a legitimate company that provides medical pendants, perhaps offering an ‘upgrade’ or claiming that you need a replacement ahead of phone lines switching to digital by 2025. 

One reader told us: ‘My 88-year-old father has an emergency alarm service from Careline and received a call from a company pretending to be them, telling him they needed to upgrade his device. They knew how much he was paying. 

'They then asked for his bank details, but he became suspicious and hung up. I looked up the number and, sure enough, it came up as a scam. I told Careline and it's aware this is happening.’

• Find out more: how to stop nuisance calls.

What is Doctor Alert?

Two recent reports point the finger at a company trading as Doctor Alert, with a registered company name of Digitex Global Ltd. 

One relative told us that her mother, 94, received a call claiming that ‘as phone systems are going digital, she needed to sign up for Doctor Alert for a personal alarm which would work anywhere in the country’. She already has a medical alarm through Careline and assumed that this was who she was talking to, so handed over her card details. 

‘She has dementia, and is easily confused and therefore vulnerable. I phoned her credit card provider and cancelled the card before any money could be taken. Later, the seller phoned mum back to retake her card number as the transaction had failed. When she said they needed to speak to her daughter, they hung up. She was given the telephone number 0800 520 0168.’

Offered an upgrade

Another reader said that her elderly father was offered an upgrade on his personal alarm in May. Believing this was the company that supplied his existing device, he paid £99.99 over the phone. 

‘The next day I found out and called the company to cancel and get a refund. I was advised that the item had already been dispatched, but once it arrived if I returned it they would refund the money. We returned the item at our own expense. They haven't refunded the money, nor have they returned my calls or replied to my emails.’

These aren’t isolated complaints. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) confirmed to Which? that members of the public have made several complaints to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) about medical alarms, including complaints allegedly about Doctor Alert. 

The phone numbers listed on doctoralert.co.uk have been linked to both cold calling and scamming by members of the public searching for numbers on who-called.co.uk (a website where users can report unwanted and scam calls, as well as search for unknown numbers). 

We contacted Doctor Alert multiple times using the contact details listed on its website, but didn't receive a response.

• Find out more: how to buy the best personal alarm.

Fake customer reviews

Digging into Doctor Alert led us to another company called MPIT Global Limited, trading as Active Alarm and using the website activealarm.co.uk.

We noticed that identical ‘customer testimonials’ had been published on both doctoralert.co.uk and activealarm.co.uk. 

Fake reviews aren’t all they share. They also share a business location (Crawley) and a wholesale telephone provider called Magrathea Telecommunications Limited.   

Which? contacted Magrathea Telecommunications Limited about all of the phone numbers listed by the two companies and it confirmed that 0800 066 2254 – which features on activealarm.co.uk – has been allocated to Digitex Global Ltd (that is Doctor Alert).

Active Alarm responds

We also approached Active Alarm, asking it to explain why the same customer reviews featured on both websites and expressing our concerns that its phone numbers are associated with cold calling and misleading claims. 

It acknowledged these reviews ‘were not vetted thoroughly for authenticity’ and removed them from its website. It apologised for ‘any confusion or concern caused’, confirming that it ceased all cold-calling activities from 30 March 2023. 

We asked where it had obtained its data from when it did conduct cold calling. It said the primary methods were ‘conducting surveys’ and ‘purchasing data from reputable vendors’. 

The link to Doctor Alert

Active Alarm stressed that it has discontinued these practices and is 'fully committed to operating within the boundaries of ethical marketing standards'. 

Regarding its connection to Doctor Alert (Digitex Global Ltd), it told us: ‘We want to confirm that we do not have any direct affiliation or connection with Doctor Alert or Digitex Global Ltd. While our web team may have sourced testimonials from various sources, including Doctor Alert, we were not aware of any specific association with this company.’

When we later explained that Which? has evidence that Digitex Global Ltd owns a phone number listed on activealarm.co.uk, we didn’t hear from Active Alarm again.

Dodgy data harvesting

Which? has warned about cold calls targeting older and more vulnerable people many times, most notably rogue firms selling outrageously expensive repair policies for washing machines and other appliances. 

This became the focus of an Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) investigation, resulting in fines for some companies. 

We're concerned that some callers are harvesting personal and medical data through deception, by claiming to be from registered health charities, the NHS or medical researchers. 

For example, one person who contacted Which? said that a cold caller claimed to be from the General Medical Council: 'They asked if they were speaking to my forename, and when I said yes, they then started to ask me about my Covid vaccinations. I work in medical research and was therefore immediately suspicious. They immediately hung up, without any explanation.’

Another was contacted out of the blue by the supposed head of a UK health survey company: ‘I answered some of his questions, telling him my age (97) and that I have a leaking heart valve. Then he began to quiz me about my personal alarm. I realised this was a scam and hung up.’

101 numbers linked to unwanted sales calls

Which? asked who-called.co.uk to identify numbers associated with unwanted calls about personal alarms which have been active in 2024. 

It found 101 numbers, based on analysis of the following keywords: 'medical pendant', 'pendant alarm', 'lifeline alarm', 'medical alert', 'fall alert', 'lifeline pendant', 'fall detection' and 'alarm pendant'.

Its data reveals that, since February 2024, there has been a clear increase in terms of the number of daily calls reported and searches registered, jumping from 40 in early February to a peak of 3,408 in mid-May. 

It also created a heatmap to illustrate the locations receiving the most cold calls related to personal alarms, adjusted for population size. 

How to beat cold callers

Speak to your telephone network to see what call-blocking solutions may be available to support you or vulnerable friends and family. 

You can also:

1. Register landlines and mobile numbers with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) free of charge. Then report marketing firms that breach this. 
2. Report nuisance calls, spam texts and breaches of the TPS to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) using its online reporting tool.
3. Send the company a subject access request – via email is fine – asking it to supply you with copies of your data and proof that it had consent to contact you. It must reply within one month of receiving the request, and can be reported to the ICO if it doesn't.
4. Refer to Action Fraud (in England, Northern Ireland and Wales) and Police Scotland (in Scotland) if you or someone you know has been the victim of fraud. Wider concerns about a business' practices can be referred to Trading Standards.