Cold Callers

RICK..._2 · 29 January 2010 at 12:54PM

Basically I switched phone line to VirginMedia earlier this month and within days of it being installed I was receiving cold calls, and a lot of.

I counted 15 last week, so called them up and they said there is nothing they can do other than change my number. So they did that free of charge and said if I wanted it doing again I'd have to pay £25.

Now the cold calls have started again on the new number. Pre-recorded messages offering me loans, credit cards, mortgages, insurance etc etc..

Worst part is I haven't even handed out any of the numbers to a single person or company yet! Not even family! Oh and I'm ex-directory aswell. :mad:

Is there anything I can do at all to stop it?? Really starting to annoy me now :mad:

Mark_In_Hampshire · 29 January 2010 at 1:22PM

We get these on our Skype landline number sometimes, though you can stop them at one click "Block caller's number".

Are the numbers "caller withheld"? When we had NTL years ago, you could disable the ability for withheld numbers to call you by dialling a 3 digit code. I don't doubt that carries a charge these days (!) but that would be a start.

I believe the Panasonic handsets are quite good in that you can program known numbers into them, set a particular mode, and a caller from one of those numbers activates the ringtone, whereas a caller from any other number does not, which means you're only alerted to pick up calls you know you'll want to receive.

RICK..._2 · 29 January 2010 at 1:46PM

Yep - all witheld. I'll look into blocking them, cheers.

I was actually thinking of buying a new handset aswell so will have a look into that aswell thanks

DonnyDave · 29 January 2010 at 2:17PM

I was initially going to say that it sounds as though you had a number that was previously used by someone which is on phone-spammers' lists. Perhaps they're just dialling sequential numbers.

I'm not sure; is this business of playing recorded marketing messages illegal?

RICK..._2 · 29 January 2010 at 3:48PM

According to Virgin the majority of the numbers they give out now are ones that have been used before. Probably explains why, although it's still not on.. Unplugged the phone line at one point as I got 3 in a row!