Strange call from Indian call centre

peaceandfreedom

I know there are lots of scams that originate in India - perhaps this is a new one.

Got a call from an Unavailable/Out of Area number - Indian chap asks to speak to the 'lady of the house'. Didn't have my name. Conversation went a bit like this:

Him: I am just calling to conduct a very quick survey which won't take much of your time. OK? (all very rushed)
Me: Well, no, it's not OK. Who is the survey for?
Him: I am calling from the UK Data Centre. We represent a whole range of companies including ..... (didn't catch most of them but Sky was one)
Me: Where did you get my number?
Him: We are phoning people who took part in a telephone survey with (again didn't catch the names he listed off) in the past 6 months. OK?
Me: No, it's not OK, I haven't done any telephone surveys in the past 6 months.
He then hangs up.

I am registered with the Telephone Preference Service so rarely get these kinds of calls but I know that the TPS can not prevent overseas calls. Kind of sorry he hung up so quickly because I'd have liked to find out what he was really after.

Anyone else had anything like this lately?

bosseyed

I may have had something similar but the conversation was a tad more truncated:

Him: I am just calling to conduct a very quick survey which won't take much of your time. OK? (all very rushed)
Me: No. Bye! *puts phone down*

To be honest I don't know why I leave the phone connected to the landline. I never use it for calls, whenever it rings its a scallywag. Only had the line activated for the broadband really.

hollydays

They are obviously trying to sell you something, it could have been automatic dialling, nothing out of the ordinary there .

System

I like to keep my own survey by the phone. I ask them to answer my questions before i will answer theres. They usually hangup after about 20 questions.

fluffnutter

I had exactly the same thing last week. My conversation was similar; he asked to speak to the lady of the house and said he was conducting a survey on behalf of the UK Data Centre. I just said 'remove this number from any lists you have and don't call again' and hung up. Haven't had any others. I guess you get the odd one, regardless of TPS, etc.

nomoneytoday

Does it come with "free" stuff?

jmrose

I have had about half a dozen of these phone calls so I contacted UK Data who confirmed that they do not collect information or survey by this method at all.

Taiko

Also had the same, one call at 10pm the other night.

Mupette

unfortunately TPS does not cover international calls

I got bombarded at my old home, once moved and when bt eventually sorted out a new line and number i was on tps immediately and don't give this number to anyone.. seems to have done the trick.. no sales calls, apart from

SKY.. because i have bb and sky hd, seems they have been caught handing out my number.

Ms-Pacman

This company use a varient of names and call themselves "The National Research Centre", "Lifestyle Research Centre" and "UK Data Centre". They are definately the same and use a huge range of numbers to call on, of which are not their actual numbers.
Neither of these are connected to UK Data in anyway.

There has been a lot of lengthy research into who this company is and how they get their call lists. There is a common trait of all callers having a strong Indian accent They often say they are based in UK, but many links seem to show that they are in the Phillipines.

They are asking you for information about things like electric, gas, telephony companies including tv subscriptions including SKY. They want to know how old you are, how much you earn, whether you own your home, what insurances you have, etc.

This data is then sold onto relevant companies who know to target you for cheaper electric etc and is one big circle. They make a lot of money out of this data.

A lot of the research (ironic I know) done on this company seems to suggest thatbas well as getting your details from your old / current suppliers they get names from electronic cencus records which is why they call old numbers and ask for people who no longer live there for what ever reason, some of them being up to 10 years ago. The 192.com site has been blamed a lot for this but you can check to see you appear on there and get your details removed. Using SKY as an example, it would make no sense for SKY to sell them your details if you are currently with SKY to give the opportunity of this company selling your details to a rival company however it does look like this happens.

Some people looking into this are claiming they seem to see a link between this company/ies and the National Research Centre based in Egypt but I've not seen any definate proof so that is speculation.

Taiko

Common theme, we're also on Sky.