Telephone Scam ??

I has one a few days ago, Indian sounding and supposedly from BT. they said they noticed a problem with my internet., gave me all the usual crap, and asked me to fire up me PC never did, and they asked what was on the screen ect then asked me to go to www.anydesk.com or something like that. Never did but kept them on the phone for a while when they found they were getting nowhere fast, they hung up. Pity really, cos I was just coming to the boil.

My telephone number is registered with the Telephone Preference Service, but I still get unwanted sales calls and attempts to con me. Quite frankly, the registration is all but worthless.My number has to be listed in the phone book for professional reasons. Fortunately, my wife and I are wise to all the con tricks, but I do feel sorry for many older people who fall for the con artists.

We live in the far north of Scotland, and a professional contact of mine received a call from a pushy cold caller on a Sunday morning. My contact said: "Are you aware you are calling the far north of Scotland? We are very religious up here, and would never do business on the Sabbath." He then strung the caller on for about 15 minutes, assuring him that he was destined to spend eternity in a fiery hell unless he mended his ways. He ended his tirade by saying: "That's the message from the good Lord. Now hear a message from me: f*** off!"

I had one the other day that may have been the BT one. Longish speal but I couldn't understand a word of it, Not the usual accent so no idea where the call was made from. I just said stop wasting my time and go away. Unusually haven't had any more calls from them.

The reference services do work but only with legitimate companies. Many of these calls don't originate in the uk. A few might but from the ones we have had when I have bothered picking up the phone they were only house insulation people - all houses have to be insulate by a blah blah date. Those have stopped. Another was one of those companies that look at house prices and their rateable value and offer to sort it out if they think something is out of order. I did spend some time talking to her. Caller ID tends to take care of most of the others. So phone just rings and no one answers.

One thing I have done that has definitely reduced the number we get is to deliberately enter the wrong number when companies ask for it. Especially postal come shipping companies. When needed I correct it later. Only car and house insurance and screwfix so far. There isn't any doubt that our numbers are being passed around. There is also the silent call lot - phoning numbers on the off chance that they exist and also to find out when people are actually in. A lot if not all of those now do not originate in the UK.

One day some company might put sensible options in call blockers. I looked around at them recently - to save looking at the caller id before picking up.

John

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We get no unwanted calls. Got rid of BT , telephone was not reliable and internet the same, think they used old fence wire. Had call barring and no. display, made no difference and all has to be paid for. Cheap mobile from Tesco, works fine and a saving in cash. No doubt some scammers will eventually pick up the number but not so far. How can a number be reported when no no. is given, or is false ?  I do feel sorry for some callers, esp. local sounding ones, these people probably think they have a job at last.

Edited By Gordon W on 01/12/2016 10:54:07

I have a BT phone that blocks international calls and nominated numbers. It reduced my cold-call problem by about 80%. TPS is semi-effective and I have had callers claiming that I gave permission for my number to be used in the past.

I've tried stringing 'Microsoft' along etc but the most effective 'put-off' so far is to tell them that I no longer have a computer. " I got rid of it because it had so many security problems."

Unfortunately I don't think anything I can do short of not answering the phone will fix this nuisance completely. Anyone else noticed that the websites provided to report this type of abuse seem to have been designed to fob the victim off? Might be worth giving your MP a problem to solve!

Dave

On a slightly different note, I have a method of knowing who is distributing my email address.

It will only work for people who have email set-up that lets you put anything in front of the "at" sign. When asked by a shop (usually when you try and order something) for an email address, I give them one that begins with their shop name - so it might be Tesco@**my email domain**. They often think I am giving them a dud address and inform me that they have to have a real address but then realise that the address works and shut up whining. It works because any address that does not have a dedicated mail box goes to a "catch all" account that I can check and I then know if my address has been sold on!

Mark

In most cases the caller has no idea who you are, or where you live, the number is random dialed by computer. I used to get calls telling me I had a problem with my computer, my reply was"if you know I have a problem, what is my E-mail address", they then hung up. Origin of the calls was India. I did once manage to string one along for about half an hour, just for the heck of it.

Ian S C

TPS? Totally Pointless System. Makes no difference, "Oh, sorry, didn't know"

Anglo Saxon jerky departure is more effective. Funny how the " Micro sloth Windows" technicians get confused when you start referring to tilt and turn and centre mullion windows.

Regards Ian.

TPS isn't totally pointless. It's cut down UK companies doing the same thing dramatically. There has been a period where they would still phone on the basis that you had previously contacted them and also the agree to this and that terms and conditions. Tell them to take your number of the list etc and they do.

Most scam calls are from numbers that start 00 or display out of area. Call blockers will get rid of those but are a bit limiting in other areas in terms of what calls can be allowed. The only option seems to be to enter all of them fully - unlike the blocking. What I would like to do is only have certain area codes ring and dump the rest to the answer phone instantly. There is also a problem with some answer phones - like the one we have - waste of time picking up any of the phones once it's kicked in. The address books are stored locally too - totally stupid for home use. Some store in the main machine so can be used from any phone.

Some interesting things can be done with business phones that come with wireless handsets but the facilities on the handsets are really crude - punch in 3 digit numbers to do things to the system and no menu's.I believe the BT ones cost £10 to buy new. A 4 phone set also with a router, wifi etc can be bought for under £100 for the single line model.

I did look at usb dongles that can be used for internet connections and ditching the phone like completely. These can be plugged directly into some routers. Then just use a mobile but I'd guess the numbers to these will still get passed around. I am wondering if the bandwidth on the dongles is better.

I don't find junk email much of a problem. It's filtered. The only emails that get into my inbox come from people in my address book. Ebay, paypal and a few others get split off into separate folders. The rest go to one I can trashish. It doesn't take long to scan through those at all.

John

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I haven't answered a nuisance call for at least 18 months and I have a normal BT landline. The nuisance calls still come but they do not get through to me. This is how I do it.

First of all the people in my contacts have a distinctive ring tone so I know immediately if it's a friendly call.

All the rest go through to the welcome message on my answerphone which simply says "if you are selling, after money or seeking personal information please hang up now or leave a message after the tone and I will get back to you".

It is surprising how many end the call immediately it detects an answer phone, presumably these are the silent calls and automatically terminate. Some listen to the first few words and then hang up, presumably looking for easier prey. A very few actually leave a message which I delete!

Just for fun if they leave a number in my call list I Google it and it often shows other people who have answered it and tell me what I have missed. You soon get used to the regular callers.

I am registered with the TPS but that is a voluntary scheme which firms who want to contact real leads will use to save their time. Time is money after all. It does not apply to those who choose to ignore it and use software to make thousands of calls daily.

In the old days when I did answer these calls I would invariably say they had got the name wrong. I would tell them my first name is Isaac and my second name is Hunt, then ask them to repeat it. Sorry could you repeat that again.

Then the penny usually drops and the phone goes dead.

I once had a call from someone who clamed he was from my insurance company and asked for some personal details "for security". I refused to give him any information and told him to write if he was genuine. Turned out he was and had cancelled my policy! It took quite a bit of trouble to get it reinstated.

Easy way round that scenario is to call them to check.

2 things address most of the issues mentioned here:

1. Most telcos offer "anonymous call barring",which simply prevents calls coming through if they withold their number. Works pretty well in my experience. BT offers it and so do most of the others like Talktalk and Zen (my last 2 providers).
2. Use your mobile instead. I still get the (very) occasional spam call but they are easily dealt with. Besides, I have my mobile with me 24/7 which is more useful than a land line. You can bar nuisance calls on your smart phone if you need to.

We still have the land line in case of emergency - or to ring abroad - but it almost never rings now and if it does, goes to answerphone. I honestly don't recall when it last rang. Being ex-directory probably helps too.

I had a new one today. It was an email saying I had a parking fine to pay. I checked the real company website to find a big warning about fake emails.You have been warned

For the last 10 yrs or so whenever i get a call , if i hear silence or office noise for more than 2 secs I hang up , if its anybody i know they know to speak immediately anyway or they call back if they miss the 2 sec cutoff , i think a lot of people especially the elderly are too polite to put the phone down with these scummers and can then get hoodwinked into handing over their banking details etc, with me they will never even get the chance .

It's great having time on your hands, I had the "we.re from Windows" lot on the phone for an hour before they got angry worked out I knew exactly what they were trying to do. Great fun

Had similar probs recently; are registered with TPS but was starting to get cold calls, I'm with Virgin media so called their customer support line & asked them to block unwarranted calls, one I found out was from Virgin media themselves... sales & marketing dept., I told them I had not ticked any sales & marketing box's anywhere for a long time... Oh, right, I'll tell sales & marketing was his reply. He then went on to say register with TPS, which I already told him we were... we ended up getting a new Tel.#, ex dir., so far so good.

​George.

George, I have found ex directory makes little difference, about the same as TPS, as soon as you add your tel number on any site for ID purposes it seems to get sold on.

Emgee