The phone is ringing, but is it a scam? I'll ask my assistant

I am staring at my computer when my phone rings.

- Tim Dowling

The call is from an unknown mobile number, which I would not normally answer, but I’ve just emailed someone requesting an interview, with my own phone number appended to the bottom, and I’m hoping this might be them. I’m also hoping it might not be them.

“Hello?” I say.

“Hello, is that Tim, yeah?” a male voice says. I leave a long pause.

“Yeah,” I say. This is not the person I emailed. In the background I hear the sound of a busy open-plan office - a call centre perhaps.

“Good morning, Tim,” he says.

“I've just got some urgent questions to ask you about your account.”

“What account?” I say.

“The account you set up with us,” the voice says.

“With who?” I say.

“Maybe you don’t remember setting up the account?” he says.

“Maybe you ...” I’m pretty certain I hear him giggle.

“You may have dealt with my colleague Tony,” he says, now openly laughing. “I think...”

“I don’t know who you are,” I say.

“Or what you're talking about.”