Could TalkTalk have sold my details?!

SCUD

I moved recently in a new property and had a phone line and Internet contract with TalkTalk.

Believe it or not, once the line got live, in a minute I received a phone call from those agents saying I had an accident which was not my fault!

What scares me more is he was asking about me with my surname and also telling me the address I am living in!

I don't know how to stop these calls as I receive around 3-4 a day.

I am almost sure TalkTalk is involved in a way or another in these calls.

Tropez

Possibly. I know for a fact O2 once sold my details (which is why I left them).

As far as stopping the calls, I can recommend the BT8500 phone. It has a built in call-screener requiring everyone who isn't on the whitelist to tell you who they are. If someone does, it'll ring to announce who is calling and then you can choose whether to accept, reject, permanently block or direct to answerphone.

In my experience though, most cold callers just hang up. I've had the phone for a few months and have not received a single unwanted call. There is an onscreen "missed" call notification if someone does call, so you can always Google the number, and then add it to the blocklist if it turns up to be an unwanted number.

And anyone you add to the whitelist will get straight through without being screened. It's not too expensive - about £49.99 for a base station and second handset - and in my opinion, is well worth it.

savemoney

Numbers get reused all time. Plus lots of companies sadly use automated telephony systems that try any numbers in a given area

Best way is to screen calls with truecall or the new BT phone

JReacher1

savemoney wrote: »

Numbers get reused all time. Plus lots of companies sadly use automated telephony systems that try any numbers in a given area

Best way is to screen calls with truecall or the new BT phone

Neither a reused phone number or an automated telephony system would give the caller the OP's address and surname.

Only Talk Talk sounds like they could have done this.

skiptalker

talk talk have a free number blocking system go into your online account activate it and use on those numbers

TalkTalk

Hi Scud,

If you pop over to the TalkTalk Community and post the details of your issue we can look into your account. We do not share any personal information without your express consent.

Alternatively you can tweet us @TalkTalkCare and we can investigate for you.

Cheers
Mark
Social Customer Care Team
TalkTalk

Exile_geordie

JReacher1 wrote: »

Neither a reused phone number or an automated telephony system would give the caller the OP's address and surname.

Only Talk Talk sounds like they could have done this.

They asked about his surname - without being familiar with how number registering goes - wouldn't the address and number after installation been uploaded onto the system at the same time - hence why he asked for the surname?

Azari

Exile_geordie wrote: »

They asked about his surname - without being familiar with how number registering goes - wouldn't the address and number after installation been uploaded onto the system at the same time - hence why he asked for the surname?

That's rather the point.

Talk-talk would be the only entity that did have all the information mentioned in the OP.

bluenoseam

Should add that I just checked Argos there, they're currently doing the double pack for the 8500 for £50, which makes it significantly more appealing!

(He says as he goes off to buy one!)

Exile_geordie

Azari wrote: »

That's rather the point.

Talk-talk would be the only entity that did have all the information mentioned in the OP.

So BT or openreach wont have any of it and wont be listed in the directory?


How long does that take then because Im guessing(and only guessing) is that:


You ring up phone provider
You agree a date in the future for installation
They choose the number for you and in goes into the database
They come out and connect you on the date you agreed.


Is any of this wrong? I only ask because when we moved it took them 4 weeks to come out and connect us and by then they had our address and im pretty sure they don't allocate you the number on the day do they?


I don't know so this is why I am asking in the hope that your knowledge on how telephony works will enlighten me on the subject

Azari

Exile_geordie wrote: »

So BT or openreach wont have any of it and wont be listed in the directory?

In this case it's nothing to do with any part of BT except the OpenReach subsidiary.

Obviously OpenReach will know the address, but I can't see any reason why they would be given the customer's name as, for a new build, it's only a question of activating the line at the exchange. However, they might have been given it.

But if OpenReach were passing on data I think we'd be hearing a lot more about it.

How long does that take then because Im guessing(and only guessing) is that:


You ring up phone provider
You agree a date in the future for installation
They choose the number for you and in goes into the database
They come out and connect you on the date you agreed.


Is any of this wrong? I only ask because when we moved it took them 4 weeks to come out and connect us and by then they had our address and im pretty sure they don't allocate you the number on the day do they?


I don't know so this is why I am asking in the hope that your knowledge on how telephony works will enlighten me on the subject

Only someone who works for OpenReach can really answer this as it's largely a matter of internal company procedures - which may change and may not even be consistent.

I don't think it's really relevant, though, as (as above) if OpenReach were selling customer data I thing something would have hit the fan a while back.