Telecom Protection Service 02030045597/08719891414

SpammyTheSpammer

This bunch of scallies called me this morning and told me that they had been informed by BT that I had been receiving a lot of unsolicited calls and that they could help.

They were a pukka/legit organisation, all affiliated to BT and government and all that and were all dead aware of the cold calling rules and could sell me a solution for only £.... per month.

Unfortunately, I did not catch the actual amount because I was too busy laughing about the fact that they had cold-called me, on my TPS-registered number, to sell me something that I did not want.

:rotfl:

OK, so who are the "Telecom Protection Service" - I see that they are well connected for there are many web pages about them:-

First from the Actual (Real) TPS themselves:-
http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/news1.html
"the above are commercial organisations, all of which charge consumers for a service that is unregulated"
"You may also wish to raise your concerns with your local Trading Standards if your experience of the effectiveness of the service for which you have paid any of these companies doesn't reflect the claims made on the respective website."

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/02030045597
"Very sneaky and dishonest. The call themselves the Telephone PROTECTION Service so that they can say they are the TPS without breaking the law. They hope to fool people into thinking that TPS is not a free service, which the real TPS is, and getting them to pay for a service which does not exist. They cannot, of course stop ALL nuisance calls and do not know how many, if any, calls you have been getting. As you say, they cannot see the irony of making a nuisance call offering to stop nuisance calls!"

http://www.tellows.co.uk/num/02030045597
" She said they (and I thought it was from BT) could prevent overseas calls for 50p per week. I pointed out that this was a sales call and against TPS. She said it was just a service they were offering. I suspect a lot of elderly people will be taken in on this one."

"Perhaps the most evil scam I know. Pretend to be a government body, steal £80 from vulnerable people to supposedly stop nuisance calls.Oh and making a nuisance call in the first place. Told the lady caller she should look into her heart but she shrugged it off. Heartless criminals!"

"Identified I'd been receiving nuisance calls, er doesn't everybody these days. Would registered with TPS , told him already on it. Would send me a device to stop international nuisance calls. Wanted paying. Told him his call was an unsolicited nuisance call so what did he reckon his chances of extracting money from me were? A right bunch of scammers."

http://conversation.which.co.uk/technology/tps-scam-telephone-preference-service-nuisance-calls-cpr/
"One Which? member told us that he was offered a call blocker from the official-sounding Telecom Protection Service for 50p a day. That works out at over £180/year."

"A number of companies, including CPR Global, Stop These Calls and the Telecom Preference Service (another name for the aforementioned Telecom Protection Service) also offer call-prevention services. They claim that for around £40 a year they can stop nuisance calls by circulating their own do-not-call lists. It sounds appealing, but the official TPS has told us that these companies make ‘exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of their service’, while Ofcom is investigating potentially misleading claims on one company’s website."

I do believe that I have found another crusade....

SpammyTheSpammer

http://www.unknownphone.com/search.php?num=02030045597
"Telecom Protection Service. These shysters have just conned my elderly mother-in-law out of £79.99 for this crappy little device."

"Natasha called me at 17.02, concerned to hear we had been receiving a high volume of unwanted marketing calls on our number. So what they were going to do was to put this number on a higher level of protection which would stop the calls for good. When I asked who had reported the problem from my household, or was this just another cold call, she said they had a high number of complaints from our postcode area. So, to clarify, i said she was cold calling me, which the real TPS just wouldn't do. The young lady got very defensive and told me she was doing her job and this wAs no scam, it really would work."

Interestingly, this last one is almost identical to the script that I was fed, the only difference is that my cold-caller claimed that they were
allowed to call TPS numbers, as they were affiliated to the TPS. Pork-Pie anyone?

Justnan

Someone calling themselves Homeprotect Service of West Sussex have just managed to convince my elderly mother to pay for a service that she is already registered for (for free!). Nothing short of con artists. Trying to get money back under distance selling but wont hold my breath. (They also quoted a price and debited her account by more and stated they were ringing on behalf of BT):mad:

SpammyTheSpammer

I do not think that Home Protect Service is connected to Telecom Protection Service. The only connection is that they both seem to use similar tactics in:

• focusing on the elderly
• claiming to be BT approved/associated
• ignoring the TPS calling restrictions
• selling a product of dubious quality
• at excessive cost

So the are both con-artists.

SpammyTheSpammer

http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/520538-really-really-boring-totally-pointless-snippets-information-thread-xxii-212.html

"Just had a scam telephone call from someone representing the 'Telecom Protection Service' claiming they can block all those unwanted marketing calls from both within the UK and India by paying them a small sum. All that was needed was a password and credit card details. Are they that stupid to think folks could fall for that line?
Anyway in case you're interested/want to take note:

The call originated from 02030045597
Their validation service can be contacted on 0871 989 1414

When dialled, the 0203 number responds with 'Not in Service' "

AlanT-BN

Home Protect also conned my 78 yr old mother out of £69.99. She realised she had made a mistake and wrote back cancelling her order (31st January). No response and no refund. She has contacted her bank who are looking into a fraud claim. Does anyone have any other advice in getting a refund out of this lot?

SpammyTheSpammer

Have you tried passing this matter to your (or your Mother's) Trading Standards group? The device is widely reported as useless and action from them could cause this dodgy company to issue a refund to get TS off their back....

Whoarethey

My wifes 86 year old father was called today by CPS, who told him he had already been subscribing to their service for 2 years and wanted to give him a better deal, however, he needed to provide his bank card details once again, which he did. They have not been subscribing to this company at all.
When he told my 84 year old mother in law, immediately after the call, she got in touch with their bank to made them aware and ensured that no money had been taken, their bank cards have now been cancelled. however, this means that 2 housebound elderly people cannot even order groceries until the new cards arrive.
My son who is a fraud analyst has now advised that they need a fraud flag to be raised on their account an we are going through this process now.
Now, my father in law has only recently been released from hospital and cannot walk more than a few feet without oxygen, my mother in law has parkinsons and something of this nature is likely to put both in hospital or even worse kill them.
So it seem that this very upright company is not averse to causing harm by lying and theiving and their disgusting employees are happy to leave vulnerable people in peril in their quest for money.

gadgetmind

Some very elderly neighbours have been conned out of around £70 by "Telecom Protection Service". They were told that the real TPS had gone out of business and that they would now start getting lots of selling calls.

Well, part of that is true!

I'll be working with these neighbours to get a refund or at least not pay any more money.

SpammyTheSpammer

The evidence is pretty clear - that "Telecom Protection Service" is nothing more than a bunch of scheming, thieving liars who prey on the elderly.

I have passed these details on to the TPS, the Information Commissioners Office and my MP.

Let's get these scum closed down, like we did with the SAS FIRE AND SECURITY bandits who acted in a similar, illegal, way.

Dennis_Richards

Got a call from Telecom Protection Service today. Verified calling from 02030 045597 by Caller ID while he was still on the line - he didn't bat an eyelid.

Much the same as everyone here. They'd heard that I was receiving a lot of spam calls, and off he went - very fast and confident sales patter. Brief mention of 'registering with their service' (I'm already registered with the real TPS, and I told him so).

But then it was all about their call blocker, which could reliably block spam callers, while still allowing friends, family, doctors, hospitals etc. through, even if their number was withheld. The twist was that their device could distinguish between 'calls dialled straight off the internet, from an IP address' and calls from real phone lines. As it happens, I know a lot about IP addresses, and a fair bit about telephone technology. So I asked how that was possible? What signal, other than CallerID, is passed down a standard residential phone line, to distinguish calls from an IP dialler? He blustered and he waffled, and assured me several times that it was possible - but hadn't a clue how the technology worked. If BT themselves can't do it... (and not to mention that many legitimate businesses will use IP diallers by now: wouldn't we all love a database of the IP addresses the spammers dial from?)

I agree with the comments already posted: this is a scam, and a pernicious one. I'll be reporting the call to Trading Standards.

A note on the real, genuine TPS: it works brilliantly, and does exactly what it says on the tin. Which is to prevent calls from genuine, legal, honest traders who honour their obligations to check their call-out lists before dialling. And lets all the others through....