Ways to stop overseas sales calls discussion

NonGeographicalMan

rickbonar. wrote: »

TPS, Offcom, ICO, etc are worse than useless.

This is not entirely true. TPS does stop all sales calls from large mainstream UK based companies including even the likes of TalkTalk these days (who had to be fined to encourage their compliance). However it is totally ineffective against scam based overseas call centres who think they are beyond the reach of the UK law and it also seems to be ineffective against certain small startup based UK businesses (especially those selling unregulated get quick rich investment products like carbon equities, rare earth metals and Bordeax Vintage Wine) who appear to think they are too small for the ICO to notice them or do anything about their activities. I can only presume that TPS screened data must therefore be considerably more expensive to buy and that there are probably 101 dodgy Russian sites from where you can get non TPS screened telephone contact data on the cheap.

Clearly from all the people writing here they fail to do anything to stop these calls which no one wants.

Not true. If there was no TPS you might be getting 25 calls a day rather than an average probably 0.3 or whatever from the foreign and small dodgy UK based operators. Whilst I say it is 0.3 a day if you go away from your home in the weekday daytime on the whole but are then at home for a week in the weekday daytime you may get loads of them because loads of these scammers keep calling the same numbers repeatedly. I find if I am not at home in the weekday daytime for four weeks and then come back home the first week is hell with these callers but then they soon dry up and are down to one or less a week.

Quite often the gullible people that fall for some of these scammers lose £s if not thousands of £s.

Totally Agree otherwise the scammers clearly wouldn't bother. Which is why the ICO should in my opinion focus their attentions on companies using phone calls to try to take very large sums of money off individuals and only come back to companies undertaking selling activity that would not result in any major financial damage when they have time. Unfortunately they currently seem to work the other way round.

TPS etc in reality are government funded smokescreens for the MPs to hide behind and tell the public that their concerns and complaints ARE being dealt with and that these official bodies will erase these calls... BUT they do exactly the opposite!

TPS is actually run by the Direct Marketing Association and was actually set up to stop all telesales being banned completely by the industry and on the basis that the marketing efforts of their members would then become more efficient if they only contacted those households who don't mind being called and so would not give them a flea in their ear. Of course I don't think when the DMA agreed to run the database that they ever anticipated BT pushing registration and ending up with around 50% of UK residential phone lines registered.

If you receive an unwanted call from a UK caller it doesn't actually do much good to report them to the TPS at https://complaints.tpsonline.org.uk/Consumer/ because all the DMA does is give the ICO a monthly report of the number of calls to TPS registered customers by each originating call centre phone number. The ICO have told me that this information cannot be used as the basis for a Prosecution in court of an offending company under the Privacy and Elecronic Communciation Regulations.

The ICO can only gather evidence to support a prosecution in court if after receiving a call you report it direct to the ICO's office using their much now easier to complete and submit online complaint form via the Report Your Concerns button at www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/marketing.aspx

So if you are short of time after receiving one of these annoying phone calls and have managed to identify the caller and their address and phone number (you will ogten have to pretend you are interested in the service to get this if they Withheld their number or it is Unavailable) then just report it the ICO on their website. If you have more time and it makes you feel better then report it on the TPS website as well.

If the caller is from overseas then you can only make a report to the ICO or the TPS if you can establish which UK company (if any) they are trying to sell for or acquire and gather data on behalf of. If you do manage to establish that data then report the UK company you believe to have been responsible for commissioning the call from overseas to the ICO and the TPS.

NonGeographicalMan

Just had a new overseas team operating the same sting of conducting a fake "market research" survey about areas they want to see if you are interested in or have money invested in so they can sell your contact data to boiler house investment scammers and the like but now under the name of Global Equity News.

From his accent and my previous dealings with Be Unlimited the caller was quite clearly Bulgarian and I could hear that other callers in the same call centre next to him were also Bulgarian. When I challenged him that weren''t they going to sell my data to people who would call me about Carbon Equities, Rare Earth Metals and Fine WInes as investments he denied it but in such a way that it was obvious it was true and that he knew the game was up.

In this case the number was just straightforward Internatiional/Unavailable rather than a faked UK telephone number. If you get a call from Global Equity News do not complete the survey or you will undoubtedly be pestered with calls from numerous different variants of the Boiler House investments scam.

rickbonar.

I suppose you could always give them the phone number of the local Police station.

EmehEm2005

rickbonar. wrote: »

I suppose you could always give them the phone number of the local Police station.

101?
101 is the number to call when you want to contact your local police - when it’s less urgent than a 999 call. 101 is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Whilst members of the public are encouraged to use the ‘101’ number to contact their local police force, where this is not possible, there is a list of alternative numbers which can be used for contacting police forces in England and Wales.
http://www.police.uk/101/

rickbonar.

No I don't mean 101 or 999

I mean the geographical police station number. They have kindly put these online.
Just give out your appropriate forces number

• Avon and Somerset Constabulary 01275 818340
• Bedfordshire Police 01234 841212
• British Transport Police 0800 405040
• Cambridgeshire Constabulary 01480 456111
• Cheshire Constabulary 0845 4580000
• City of London Police 0207 601 2222
• Cleveland Police 01642 326326
• Cumbria Constabulary 0845 3300247
• Derbyshire Constabulary 0345 1233333
• Devon and Cornwall Constabulary 01392 420320
• Dorset Police 01202 222222
• Durham Constabulary 0345 6060365
• Dyfed Powys Police 01267 222020
• Essex Police 01245 491491
• Gloucestershire Constabulary 01452 728199
• Greater Manchester Police 0161 872 5050
• Gwent Police 01633 838111
• Hampshire Constabulary 01962 841534
• Hertfordshire Constabulary 01707 354000
• Humberside Police 0845 6060 222
• Kent Police 01622 690690
• Lancashire Constabulary 01772 614444
• Leicestershire Constabulary 0116 222 2222
• Lincolnshire Police 01522 532222
• Merseyside Police 0151 709 6010
• Metropolitan Police 0207 230 1212
• Norfolk Constabulary 01953 424242
• North Yorkshire Police 01904 618691
• Northamptonshire Police 03000 111 222
• Northumbria Police 01661 872555
• North Wales Police 0300 330 0101
• Nottinghamshire Police 0115 967 0999
• South Wales Police 01656 655555
• South Yorkshire Police 0114 2202020
• Staffordshire Police 0300 123 4455
• Suffolk Constabulary 01473 613500
• Surrey Police 01483 571212
• Sussex Police 01273 475432
• Thames Valley Police 01865 841148
• Warwickshire Police 01926 415000
• West Mercia Police 0300 333 3000
• West Midlands Police 0345 113 5000
• West Yorkshire Police 01924 375 222
• Wiltshire Constabulary 01380 735 735

rickbonar.

If we all start using these numbers ....perhaps with the addition of your MPs number then they might actually do something to stop these phone scammers!

NonGeographicalMan

Unfortunately Cheshire, Cumbria and Humberside police still don't get it and are all still using 0845 as their alternative direct dial number to dialling 101. 0845 numbers are charged at a 1000% premium to 01/02/03 numbers from BT Payphones and are also excluded from bundled minutes on most mobile phones and with several landline providers including Virgin.:eek::mad:
However I think to continue discussing this issue furher we need to start a new thread as this is beginning to drag this thread about abusive incoming telephone calls significantly Off Topic.

rickbonar.

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Unfortunately Cheshire, Cumbria and Humberside police still don't get it and are all still using 0845 as their alternative direct dial number to dialling 101. 0845 numbers are charged at a 1000% premium to 01/02/03 numbers from BT Payphones and are also excluded from bundled minutes on most mobile phones and with several landline providers including Virgin.:eek::mad:
However I think to continue discussing this issue furher we need to start a new thread as this is beginning to drag this thread about abusive incoming telephone calls significantly Off Topic.

Well surely if the 0845 numbers cost the spammers more to phone that's a good thing.... I only suggested it as another poster mocked the idea by quoting

Quote:
Originally Posted by rickbonar.
I suppose you could always give them the phone number of the local Police station.

101?

Obviously UK residents can use the 101 number .... but then again is it freephone?

ladymills

I want to warn as many people as possible about this company who prey on old people. If anyone can give me the correct place to warn others I will be happy to post there.
My elderly father received a call from a company called AIMSREVIEW who proceeded to sell him a "membership" costing £250. As he wanted to make a will out and they offered that service he agreed, a week later without signing anything he realized he already had one and phoned up to cancel and ask for a refund. He was refused and told he was locked in until Nov 2013. He then received a PPI reclaim form from them, he doesn't even know what PPI is let alone ask them to act on his behalf. I called yesterday and told them I wanted a refund for him and ended up speaking to the rudest manager I have ever come across who said he agreed to it so tough luck. Having read posts on other sites this is not an isolated case. I am going to take it further to get his money back but want to warn others of the despicable tactics these PPI claims firms use to get business....

NonGeographicalMan

rickbonar. wrote: »

Well surely if the 0845 numbers cost the spammers more to phone that's a good thing..

The unwanted callers are only going to call the numbers their computer system dials for them. Also if you want to teach them a lesson then £1.50 per minute 09 numbers might work better but I think are barred from being called from overseas.

Obviously UK residents can use the 101 number .... but then again is it freephone?

Not its not Freephone and its not included in free minutes on any normal landlines and mobiles due to the stupidity of the Police in trying to get the cheapest price they could from the telecoms industry rather than going for the most customer friendly solution. Instead it is charged at a flat rate of 10p per call from landline or mobile.

It is however free to call from a BT Payphone (see www.bt.com/pricing/current/Call_Charges_boo/3545_d0e5.htm#3545-d0e5). This is probably because the machinery on BT Payphones is set up to charge a minimum 60p fee and the only way around this was to make it a Freephone call.

Of course this may be the start of a trend and the Police may soon agree to pay the extra for 101 to be a free call. They certainly should do this if they want the maximum possible help from the public and want the free 999/112 number not to be cluttered up with non emergency calls.

I would also be intrigued to know what users of foreign mobiles roaming in the UK will be charged for calling 101. So far I have had no luck in finding out.