Avoiding Nuisance Callers

sy6owl

I've been registered with TPS for ages now but the cold calls keep coming. How can this be? Signing up for a VOIP number is all very well but what about the companies who already have my landline number - they will still be able to make calls to that number regardless of the fact that I'm using a VOIP from now on for 'new' companies I deal with.


Is there a way you can 'sniff out' an unwanted call before answering it such as a display of some sort where you can see the number of the caller and be able to recognize it as a cold call?

MothballsWallet

sy6owl - if you get the VOIP number, and a cold caller reaches your landline, just say something like: "I'm sorry, but they moved - would you like their new number?" But don't give them any other details.

If the cold caller says "yes", then give them your VOIP number - they should then update their database and your VOIP number is in their system instead of your landline.

vixen1500

Hiya,

just signed up, and got a number for my local area, which I now assume I enter on any forms or internet sites that ask for my home phone number.

And then if they sell or give out my phone number it will just go through to a voicemail service. If they choose to leave a message, I will then get an email saying I have a incoming voicemail. (Do I get charged if I then pick up the voicemail?)

Also if I now get any more nusiance calls, I just give out this new number, which they will then - hopefully update on their records, and not bother me anymore.
:j

purplejac

the machine geordieracer was talking about is called truecall you can find it on the web looks interesting but if you dont have caller display i dont think it can work as good, it ranges from 70 -90 pounds, i believe you have to put in all the telephone numbers you do want to be able to call you, and if the international scammers arent on your list they are toast, ahhhhh bliss.... anyone out there got a truecall machine are they any good ????

savemoney

Yes I have truecall

It bans silent calls automatically any calls that coem from you can assign friends so they bypass the device or you can get it to reject known numbers I have many of them

I do have caller ID though. Its very good

purplejac wrote: »

the machine geordieracer was talking about is called truecall you can find it on the web looks interesting but if you dont have caller display i dont think it can work as good, it ranges from 70 -90 pounds, i believe you have to put in all the telephone numbers you do want to be able to call you, and if the international scammers arent on your list they are toast, ahhhhh bliss.... anyone out there got a truecall machine are they any good ????

Yukspeed

Dazzler_4u wrote: »

TAKE DIRECT ACTION

I'm registered with the TPS and my number is ex-directory, yet I still get these calls.

I used to wait and ask to be taken off their database, but it didn't seem to work.

So I decided to take direct action

I have got a spare smoke alarm near my phone now, and, I'm not sure why, but when these people call me, I have an uncontrollable urge to put the phone next to my smoke alarm and press the test button.
The smoke alarm starts emitting its high pitched noisy beeps. Suddenly the people on the other end seem to disappear!

I hope they're not wearing ear pieces - wouldn't it be awful for them if they bust their eardrums - and wouldn't it be awful for their employers if their employee sued them for their busted eardrum!

so come on everyone, get a spare smoke alarm and start fighting back and let's all of us bust a few eardrums!!

Hi Dazzler, (I'm also a newbie), like your answer!!!. I've started getting the calls 6/7 times a week on business/home line in the last month, or two Usually "can i talk to the owner", my standard answer is, "wish you could, he's in jail for for not paying anybody", (or whatever comes to mind.)
The best one was, waiting for a bus, a phone rings, it's the emergency breakdown phone next to bus stop, "Hello can I help you", "I'm ringing on behalf of save the sperm whales in China," "do you mind telling me where you got my number from"? "It's random dialling, "oh! can you tell me where you're ringing from? "Canada" was the reply, looking up the road, the bus is coming, I say, "I'm sure my dad is interested, can you hold the line?" and laid the phone down, and got on the bus. I was busting a gut to tell her she'd got a breakdown phone on the A64, in Yorkshire. Had some mileage on that one in the pub, "Ye! she was still on there 5 hours later" Yukspeed:j
PS, sussed out, if they take a few seconds to answer, hang up.
PPS, Mint youth this Martin!!

Googlewhacker

Playing with people on the other line is fine but physically wishing damage on them like some posters is disgraceful.

psyche678

A friend of mine works for a telemarketing company. Apparently if you don't let them say the company name, they'll call you back until they do as obviously you could be selling anything, even if you say not to call back.

She told me the people she works with purposely put abusive callers in for callbacks on a Sunday morning to get them back. I'd advise not to infuriate them.

Laz123

I used to get one phone call per day, every day, every day for three months:

'Hello, can I speak to x. I'm not selling anything.'

I told them I'm not interested and to not call again. THREE BLOODY MONTHS, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I got a personal alarm that has a very high shriek. I used it last week. I used it on the last person (Indian call centre), turned it off and said, 'Are you still there?'

'What are you doing?' he asked. I did it again, twice more. After the third time I said, 'Now f off and leave me alone.'

No more calls.

For the wallies on here who think this is bad treatment; you put up with this bad treatment first before you pass judgement on others.

Chipping

Making a loud noise at one end of a phone call does not translate to loud or dangerous or even any noise at all at the other end - the phone system limits the loudness of sound that comes out of a phone, and it can't transfer a wide range of sound frequencies either. So, with the fire alarm, the other end probably just heard a beeping or whistling noise. They probably got the message you didn't want to talk but its unlikely to have caused them any discomfort.

The VOIP method described does not overcome the nuisance calls to numbers sneakily obtained (through old records, illegally obtaining numbers, etc) or just randomly dialled. If you got a landline - you'll still get nuisance calls, especially from abroad. Also, note that if you get a new landline number from BT, it was probably a number that was used by someone else before.

I've hardly ever given my landline number to anyone and yet I get (used to get) lots of calls from India and they knew lots of details about me, e.g. what mobile phone company I was with. They didn't get that from my signing up to things - they got that from the companies themselves somehow.

On avoiding nuisance calls, I find that if there is no-one on the line for a few seconds after picking up, its probably an international call centre. Also, caller display will show 'out of area' or some gobbledy-gook number. Sometimes they do mimic standard numbers such as 0800 numbers. But, I just listen and don't say anything, or have the mute button on. They soon hang up, but the call has cost them money. After doing this a few times, they soon stop calling. I used to get a lot of international callers, but they have now mostly disappeared. And, I did find that as soon as I spoke to any, said anything, even just "hello", I would keep getting calls for a couple of weeks afterwards.

Also, I know they're a dodgy call centre if they speak and they don't sound British - I can usually tell, even if they've had 'posh English' training and call themselves 'Stephen'. Bit more difficult to weed out the British or Irish call centres in this way though, but almost all of the nuisance calls I have had have been from south asia.

I have on a couple of occasions fallen foul doing this as I've had calls from relatives abroad who have waited for me to speak, and I've assumed they're a call centre, and then they hung up! But not really an issue as we got through in the end.

PS I have been registered for TPS for ages before BT offered their free privacy service where they registered you for TPS and provided Caller Display. But since I took up their offer I suddenly started receiving a lot of nuisance calls from (probably) Indian call centres. A coincidence? Maybe. But I reported the matter to BT and asked them to investigate data security breaches with their customer database in their Indian operations. As expected, I got fobbed off -their systems are secure, etc - but I guess there's not a lot they could do anyway - except maybe never have allowed any foreign or external access to customer information.