Contributor
received a call about my Direct TV Satellite positioning.
Yesterday, I received a call from a local number, claiming to be a rep from Direct TV. Caller knew that I had Direct TV through my AT&T account, and claimed to be calling to inform that the satellite linked to my receiver was going to be repositioned. I suspect this was a phishing call, because the caller ID showed a number with the same first 3 digits as my home phone number, which is consistent with scam calls. Additionally, caller identified himself with a common American first name, but had a very thick Indian accent. (Another scam indicator.)
I would expect to get any notification from Direct TV about a satellite positioning change from a phone number that identifies as Direct TV, and also as a message passed through my receiver and displayed on my tv. Am i right on this?
If i get another suspicious call, i will report the number to Direct TV directly.
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
Constructive
Employee
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34K Messages
6 years ago
yes its a scam.the only time your dish would need to be re positioned would be if you lost signal and that would prompt a call from you to them
While AT&T employees do look at forum posts from time to time, we are here to represent the forum with our experiences as customers and do not represent AT&T in any official capacity with our responses and do so on our own time unpaid and off the clock. As employees we are not rewarded nor compensated to participate in these forums This forum is comprised of regular customers to communicate with other customers to offer advice and share experiences same as any other user Although there is a small team of customer care specialists that monitor the forums the sheer volume of posts are simply too many posts for these agents to respond to each one of them.
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sandblaster
ACE - Expert
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2K Messages
5 years ago
Actually, they don’t reposition satellites. You would never get any such notification.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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ml529
Contributor
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1 Message
5 years ago
Had the same thing about a month ago. Foreign accented man said box would be not functioning, wanted to do a reset, but had me turn it off (which I did not do). Nothing was happening, while I was on the phone with him. Then, He wanted a payment. Could not find a place to report it to DirecTv
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Watcher88
New Member
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2 Messages
5 years ago
I have had the same experience. "Peter Young" said I would lose reception, but for $149 i would get lifetime service on dish, receiver, and remote. I wrote to DTV, but have not heard back.
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shannon02
ACE - Expert
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21.1K Messages
5 years ago
If DTV where to reposition the sats they would have to realign every dish they installed and nothing needs to be done to the receiver.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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bigbus1
New Member
5 years ago
Wife got a call from man, John Anthony about satilite repositiong, was told recieveer need to be updated. then asked for $ 175. receiver did not need to be reset. sounded like scam. lucky she had not sent check. address was TV box,1950 w. Corporate way, Anahiem, Cal,92801
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shannon02
ACE - Expert
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21.1K Messages
5 years ago
Yes it was a scam, sending a check to a PO Box should be a big red flag. DTV will never move the satellites and even if they did it doesn't effect the receiver just where the dish points.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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22.9K Messages
5 years ago
@bigbus1
That was absolutely a scam. There is no satellite repositioning as they must be kept in geosynchronous orbit to provide service. Changing a box does not affect the angle of the signal from satellite to receiving dish.
Scam artists are trying to capitalize on a real situation. DirecTV is in the process of a complete shutdown of their old MPEG-2 feeds. Some customer do need to call DirecTV for a complimentary swap of equipment. But that is free and they call the official publicly listed customer support number, not get a call from the company.
So yes that man was a crook. However if you want to double check if you should call DirecTV, just post the model number of your boxes and guidance can be given.
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(Included after every post)
I am a customer, not an employee. This is a public forum.
For official support call DirecTV 1-800-531-5000, DIRECTV STREAM 1-888-429-4023
www.directv.com
(AT&T has sold off their share in DirecTV)
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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myuenger
New Member
5 years ago
yes, this is a scam. I received these calls a few months ago and again today. When they last called I checked w/DTV and they had no record of the call and said that they would never call for this reason. That's something that would be notified by email or by messages on the TV screen.
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epfingsten
New Member
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1 Message
4 years ago
I just got this call today. They never asked for a credit card number or payment though so I'm trying to figure out how they were attempting to scam me.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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22.9K Messages
4 years ago
Usually they will social engineer acting like they are veryfing satellite and equipment info. After they feel they have got you in a good place, then they will claim a software update is needed to reposition (an act that is impossible to do) and that it is not free.
Software updates are automatically delivered to keep service working.
There is no repositioning as satellites are in geosynchronous orbit.
DirecTV does not call on changes to software and/or equipment.
There is a real situation of DirecTV shutting down the old MPEG-2/SD-only feeds. Customers with that equipment must get it replaced. But you are notified either by email or a bill insert and then you call the official DirecTV number to place the MPEG swap order (or optional upgrade If preferred). Anyone who might be affected by this should post their model numbers in the forum to get guidance before calling DirecTV.
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(Included after every post)
I am a customer, not an employee. This is a public forum.
For official support call DirecTV 1-800-531-5000, DIRECTV STREAM 1-888-429-4023
www.directv.com
(AT&T has sold off their share in DirecTV)
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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YeahItsAbe
New Member
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1 Message
4 years ago
I just got that call yesterday. It made no sense while he was talking and I wasn't about to get taken for $190. What really tipped me off was that he was trying to justify the price due to how much the software cost. Hmmm...nah. Anyway, I Googled about it and in fact, Direct TV IS repositioning a satellite because it's in danger of exploding because of a damaged battery and the explosion would spread a ton of super dangerous space debris in orbit. They're gonna move it to a higher, safer orbit in Feb and shut it down and send up a new satellite to service their customers. Funny how they got lucky with an ACTUAL satellite "repositioning". Maybe Direct TV knew of this a while ago and that public info sparked this scam.
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coachrick58
New Member
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1 Message
4 years ago
I just got the same call. He had me look up the model number of the main box and asked me how many other boxes we had. He had my name and address. He asked for my birthdate but, I refused to give him. He then told me that the boxes were not compatible with the new satellite but he could save me $25 a month if I upgraded to new boxes. I told him that I would keep what I had and hung up.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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22.9K Messages
4 years ago
@coachrick58
That was definitely a scam. DirecTV never needs your birthdate to manage your account. And they don't call to have you look up model numbers as that shows in their system.
What we can do is let you know if you need to call DirecTV (their official publicly listed number) for a legitimate swap (MPEG-2/SD-only is shutting down). What are the models of each box you have? This way you can be sure not to have surprises later.
(edited)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Included after every post)
I am a customer, not an employee. This is a public forum.
For official support call DirecTV 1-800-531-5000, DIRECTV STREAM 1-888-429-4023
www.directv.com
(AT&T has sold off their share in DirecTV)
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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Qswendy
New Member
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2 Messages
4 years ago
Just want to report that as of Dec 16, 2020 this scam is back. My call contained all of the features of the one listed by the chaos1128 post from Aug 2019. They wanted to charge $299 to do the upgrade, a refundable after 6 month deposit. These people are despicable, as I'm sure that a lot of people fall victim to this.
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