Revenge in mind for soap star who plays scam victim
SOAP star Sally Lindsay says playing a victim of scamming who takes revenge in Channel 5 drama Cold Call is her “career highlight”.
The actress, who played Shelley Unwin for five years in Coronation Street, is passionate about the role and hopes it will highlight how easy it is to fall victim.
The 46-year-old said: “I feel a great social responsibility to get it right and it may be just as important as the ‘gaslighting’ plot that I was involved with when I was on Corrie. It’s that serious.”
While in the ITV soap her character had an abusive and controlling relationship with Charlie Stubbs, played by Bill Ward.
She added: “Cold calling and scams are a modern malaise and I think this drama will interest a lot of people.
“Everybody knows someone it has happened to. I know neighbours, relatives, everyone. It’s rife; it’s like cancer. It affects everyone.”
In Cold Call, Sally plays June, who falls prey to a scam involving funds from the sale of a house.
She said: “It’s called a ‘push/pull’ scam and what you see on the TV is exactly how it happens.
“The two writers are experts and researched the subject thoroughly.”
Over four nights next week viewers will see just how such a scam takes place.
Her character joins a self-help group in which she meets another victim Des, played by Daniel Ryan.
Together they set about getting revenge on the alleged perpetrator.
Sally was keen to work again with the actor who played her husband in Sky comedy drama Mount Pleasant – and signed up to Cold Call “in a heartbeat” before even reading a script, only seeing a description of scams portrayed.
The mother-of-two said: “I felt I
● Register for free with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). Reputable businesses take this service seriously because it’s a legal requirement not to make calls to numbers that are registered. But some still flout these rules and the TPS only applies to UK companies making unsolicited sales and marketing calls.
● Keep your name off sales call lists. Some firms may use online or paper phone books to find numbers to target. Ask for yours to be excluded from directories as this will help stop them from finding your number.
● Screen your phone calls. If you have caller display and an answerphone, consider only answering numbers you
needed to put everything into it because of how widespread it is. It’s like a social comment.
“I didn’t have to do any research because most people I talked to had been affected by this. Push/ pull is on such a large scale, it’s ridiculous.”
She was told by one lady that it happened to “my dad and he’s a professor”.
“Essentially, this scammer had managed to scare him so much and he transferred this money into this ‘safe account’. She said he’s devastated because he feels so stupid – and that’s why nobody talks about it. Self-help groups are massive. People are scared to talk about it recognise. Legitimate callers are likely to leave a message.
● Set up call barring. Many cold calls come from abroad, so unless you need to receive international calls, ask your phone operator to block calls from international numbers (it may charge for this service).
● Consider using a call blocker. Devices such as CPR Call Blocker and truecall Call Blocker plug directly into your home phone and allow you to screen the calls you receive.
● Report cold-callers. It’s important to report nuisance calls so offenders are punished but the body to contact varies depending upon the call. So you should report live sales and marketing calls to the TPS (if you’ve registered your number with it), while silent calls should be reported to Ofcom and scams to Action Fraud.
because they feel daft.” Sally believes a lack of police funding has left people vulnerable.
“You need people who are trained in forensic accounting so they can follow the money. The minute it goes into one account it splits all around the world, and then it comes back,” she said.
The cold caller in this drama says he wants to help the potential victim after an alleged fraud on their personal account and encourages the victim to move their money into a “safe account”.
Once the cash is moved, the victim never sees it again.
Cold Call is on Channel 5 from November 18 at 9pm.