Plagued by scam callers? A helpful tip...

new2012

I have a personal number that goes to voice mail and I get emailed the message.

I had an interesting message the other day, It was a survey where you are asked to press a number to answer yes or no. Question asked and asked to press a key, voice getting more irritated repeating we have not heard a tone please press 1 for yes and 2 for no.

It seems that the caller does not realise there is no one there.

ticking-over

johnnyboyrebel wrote: »

As discussed thousands of times before, the best 'tip' available is do not share your phone number with anyone or anything at any time then you will simply not get calls like this.

NEVER enter your phone number on ANY sort of application etc.

Too many people inadvertently hand their details out then complain when they get spam be it email, mail or phone.

Last year I got the phoneline and broadband reconnected and within 3 days of connection we were getting between 4 and 9 calls a day from various call-centres including the infamous fix your computer calls.
Now bearing in mind we hadn't even got round to giving the NEW number to our families AND it's an EX-DIRECTORY listing I was a bit suprised at getting any incoming calls at all. After talking with our phone provider it seems that the calls were being placed by random dialling numbers... if a number starts ringing then it's forwarded to whichever operator is available to handle the call and therefore they have a 'live' number to add to the list and you wind up getting more unsolicited calls without ever having given out your number to begin with.

Needless to say we registered with the TPS and most of the calls eventually tailed off, although a double glazing firm did claim I'd requested they call me - made me laugh when the date they gave was a week before I'd even started the process of getting the phone connected:rotfl:

Unfortunately the calls we're still getting are showing up as 'International' on the caller id and apparently there is no way of blocking these. Phone provider suggested just ignoring the calls but as we have family abroad that's not really practical so we have to settle for taking the name of the company and telling them not to call again before hanging up but some of them are too persistant for words. Mind you one caught me on a bad day just before christmas and got left listening to Black Sabbaths Paranoid for a few minutes before I hung up on them.

But back to our Computer fix calls... had several calls about the error messages our machine was apparently sending, and have tried various responses but the best one so far was when my other half answered the call and asked them what a computer was... bless him he's not as old as he acts sometimes... he asked the poor girl on the phone if it was like an abacus or was it more like the tv screens in 1984 in which case wasn't it something the government used to spy on you, in which case he wouldn't like that cos he doesn't want them seeing what's in his head.... needless to say she couldn't cope with the conversation and hung up:j

squack

I used to be a decent person

However the stress of dealing with unwanted phone calls several times a day from these overseas muppets

Has turned me into a vile ardent racist

Foggyminded

It is worth rembering that these calls, particularly if They originate from Asia and now Africa, is that the caller is working to a prescribed script! You can have a few minutes of great entertainment by not giving them the expected responses. It is even more satisfying when they disconnect the call when their frustration is almost palpable!

letsbehonest

I like others get these calls but the other day my mates wife phoned to say she nearly chocked on her own laughter when she got her pc problem phone call. She told the Indian gentleman to speak to her husband as he deals with all that sort of thing, Don then takes the call and after a couple of seconds he tells this chap that he is to busy at the moment to carry out he's instruction's because he is pleasuring himself (not the exact word used) this fellow said he would wait until he was finished, what an idiot. It made me laugh though.

phoneguy

Laz123 wrote: »

My solution was to blast the callers with a very loud and shrill personal alarm. It seemed to reduce the number of calls to about one every 2 months..

The old 'loud whistle' tactic died when exchanges went digital some 20 years ago. Compression and limiting mean the only ears you are likely to hurt or damage would be your own.

It is true that you don't necessarily have to put your phone number 'out there' to get this kind of attention from scam callers - some are happy to use war dialling to find live numbers, but I'd guess the majority come from customer submitted data - and not always via the internet.

Tactics vary depending on the personality of the called party. Some just put the phone down, some swear and abuse the caller, some blow whistles. For me, I keep a set of completely spoof data (name, address,email,credit card) by the phone on a postcard and use it to string them along for as long as I can - just for sport of it.

phoneguy

ticking-over wrote: »

Last year I got the phoneline and broadband reconnected and within 3 days of connection we were getting between 4 and 9 calls a day from various call-centres including the infamous fix your computer calls.

I once had a similar thing. I turned out that buried in BT's small print was a right to sell on your data. The first caller (within an hour of connection) was trying to sell me a 'milkman'. I asked where the hell they had gotten my name and number. "Oh, we buy them from BT."

It materialises you have three options with a new BT line. Be in the phone book, be unlisted but available through directory services, or be ex directory. Only ex-directory will stop your data being sold to other parties by BT for profit.

Furrtiv

Oh I've been getting the computer ones too! And yes, we're ex-directory and don't knowingly give out our numbers, also registered with the TPS, etc. It just makes me laugh to string them along too, but I'm going to steal some of the funnier ideas on this thread for next time they call, especially the one about the TV/PC being used to spy on people's thoughts! lol

warwicktiger

My favourite:

Phone rings...
Good afternoon, Able Carpet cleaning, Phillip xxxx speaking, how may I help you?
(Dare I say, Indian voice) "Hello, is that Mr xxxx?"
Yes
"Thank you, my name is Alex, I would Like to talk to you about your computer for business"
Yes, it told me yesterday you would call me
"Pardon, your computer told me I would be ringing you today?"
Yes, it said yesterday someone called Alex would ring soon
"What kind of computer is it you are using?"
It is a Saint Peter
"What kind is that please?"
A special one, it was blessed by a priest when I bought it
"You are really mad Mr xxxx"
Then he hung up on me, how rude!