Ways to stop overseas sales calls discussion

WhiteHorse

I had the one of these the other day.

I helpfully explained to him that I was also 'windows certified technician' and that my system was now examining his system and it clearly showed that his system was infected and that for a nominal fee, I would be able to clear his computer.

He got quite upset and rang off. There's just no helping some people.

give_them_FA

A simple "eff off" and hanging up is often rather effective, in my experience, and covers pretty much every situation.

Dave_C_2

Here's my theory about overseas call companies:

• They are there to make money ( a sale) by either getting you to sign up for their service or conning you.
• Despite being cheap, calls to the UK from abroad are not free so they will not want to ring obviously disinterested targets
• If you show that you are plainly not interested by being abusive, keeping them on the line and other such tactics, then they will cross you off their list and move on to the next victim. This is because calling back will not get another sale or complete a scam
• By the same token, they must have a maximum time per customer.
• The reverse may be true. If you show the slightest interest or politely decline then it's worth them ringing back because they haven't obviously lost the sale. On the other hand they may simply have a list to work through without repeats.

Conjecture:

• Indian Call centres are open to any customer with a list of numbers, a script and money to pay for their services
• The call centres may maintain a Master list of numbers that should not be called as it's a waste of time. I aim to be on it.
• The volume of the calls we are experiencing is probably from different call centres or even the same call centre working from a different list supplied by a new call centre customer.
• There must be a high turnover of call centre customers as the money coming in must be greater than the cost of call centres. If the call centre customer doesn't get enough income to pay the phone bill then it will go under
  In the case of the Microsoft scam income must be going down as more and more people are aware of the scam. As an example just look at the way postal gold has practically disappeared.
• If an Indian call centre has no customers then it too will go out of business.

To sum up, when dealing with these call centres, forget that you should be polite and use all of the tricks on these pages and force both the customers and the call centres out of business. Then we could get some peace.

Dave

Gavin57

give_them_FA wrote: »

A simple "eff off" and hanging up is often rather effective, in my experience, and covers pretty much every situation.

I tried that a few months ago, they had the cheek to phone back several times looking for an apology from me.

idlemarvel

Given that most postees have registered with TPS, is there any evidence that this does any good at all? Before I installed my call blocker I religiously reported numbers, times of call etc to TPS but apart from an acknowledgement it never seemed to get any better or stop them calling. I would guess it can only help with UK based operations from registered companies which is probably 0.1% of the problem. If anyone from TPS reads this forum perhaps they can enlighten me but I have this feeling it is another toothless quango that no-one would miss.

Justamum

idlemarvel wrote: »

Given that most postees have registered with TPS, is there any evidence that this does any good at all?

I was going to register with them, but haven't bothered. I can report though that just ignoring the phone call and letting the answer machine pick up seems to be doing the trick. From getting at least half a dozen a day I am now down to a couple a week at the most. I think they are getting the message. Hopefully the calls will completely dry up.

There was one call I had a few months ago where a woman was trying to get me to buy £75 of lottery tickets a month with a guaranteed win every week which, according to her, was a real bargain. I pointed out that if I won £10 a week then I would still be £35 out of pocket so it wasn't really much of a bargain :rotfl:

bargainbetty

Sorry to dip back in, but I wanted to respond to Shantiji and Flakydawn:

Did you read my post? Did you note the part where I politely inform the person that I am not interested, and don't want to continue a conversation? I agree that up to and including that point, it doesn't take much to be polite. However, the call is unwanted, uninvited and inconvenient. Why should someone who has rudely interrupted me get more courtesy than a brisk 'No thanks'. I don't need to be extra nice to them to make the world go around, I want to finish my tea or go back to sleep.

When the caller persists, calls back, has colleagues call back, tries to scam access to your computer, or convince a person to hand over money, contacts people who have made every effort to avoid sales calls etc, they have broken the social contract of politeness first. They are the initiator of the problem.

If they won't accept a polite 'no' as an answer, then I will offer alternatives. If 'f**k off' is one of them, they had a choice about pushing it, didn't they?

Oh, I would not use a whistle on a sales call. it can cause damage and that isn't acceptable to me. Years ago, that advice was given only to people who were receiving heaving breathing calls etc. Bursting an eardrum might well have put a few perverts off their strokes, but it's hardly appropriate for some drone trying to sell you double-glazing.

WhiteHorse

idlemarvel wrote: »

I would guess it can only help with UK based operations from registered companies which is probably 0.1% of the problem [...]I have this feeling it is another toothless quango that no-one would miss.

I have actually had some success with TPS, but as you say, it's only applicable to UK based call centres.

BT claim that there are technical difficulties with blocking unidentified overseas calls, but I think that demonstrates a lack of will, rather than a lack of technology.

Dave_C_2

idlemarvel wrote: »

Given that most postees have registered with TPS, is there any evidence that this does any good at all?

Can't speak for just now but when I registered on TPS (many years ago) the calls stopped dead. Since then we have the dreaded call centres, mostly in India, which TPS can't or won't stop.

Most reputable UK firms abide by the conditions of the DMA/TPS and we get maybe one every couple of months. They don't pester us after I mention TPS and I always ask to be removed from the list.

I agree with Whitehorse in that BT lack the will (not the technology) to block these calls. Maybe it's because they make too much money on the deal - or am I being cynical?

Dave

John_Pierpoint

I bet that GCHQ and "Home Land Security" have a method of identifying overseas calls.