Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

Pyxis

This was an interesting twist on the cold calling/trawl for live numbers scam thing.

Since I read that just answering a unknown call can confirm your number is live, and so generate lots more unwanted calls, I have switched off my answering machine to my landline.
So when I see a number I don't recognise, I don't answer it. If it's convenient, I key the number into google to see what comes up.

I had one just now, a mobile number. Keyed it in, and a name came up straight away! Plus something called Uk.community.com which, on googling that, is a very similar name to a foundation dealing with charities.

Clicking on another entry led me to this MSE thread....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5363559

which is self-explanatory.


So they're either just looking for live numbers, or are touting for charitable donations.


I wasn't sure whether to display the name and number on here, as a warning to others. I will if people think I should.


What threw me a bit was that such cold callers have rarely been from mobile numbers, so I was in two minds whether to answer it.
And I've never had a person's name come up before, after a google search for the telephone number.
Glad I didn't, though!


It's a bit irritating, because I subscribe to the telephone preference service, and I rarely, if ever, give any online firms/societies/departments etc. my landline number.

Jazee

We have one of those call blocker phones. Cost about £50 but no one even tries to cold call anymore.

Pyxis

Jazee wrote: »

We have one of those call blocker phones. Cost about £50 but no one even tries to cold call anymore.

How do they work?

Is it like the old BT Call Barring facility? There was a fee for that.
You waited for a call, then after it rang off, you keyed in a code and it barred it.

There was another one, but for that one you had to key in all the numbers you wanted to be let through, and it barred the rest. That was really for vulnerable elderly people, and isn't so convenient for the likes of you or me who might be wanting a tradesman or a shop to call!

The trouble with keying in a code after you've had a call is that you can't be sure it isn't legitimate, but if you answer it, or have an answerphone do so, you're alerting the scammer to the fact that it's a live number, and then your number gets sold on.

vivatifosi

Cold callers are a nightmare. They not only disrupt households. Where I work our number is blocked from coming up on people's phones so that they don't call back on our individual phone numbers but go through the main number. Hospitals etc do the same.

People though, don't answer the phone very often if they don't know who the call is from, so you can be trying to call someone urgently and need to speak to them and don't get through. They are so worn down by cold calls they don't answer the phone to anyone. This is not good when they've left their car keys in your library and you are about to close and trying to help.

Pyxis

vivatifosi wrote: »

Cold callers are a nightmare. They not only disrupt households. Where I work our number is blocked from coming up on people's phones so that they don't call back on our individual phone numbers but go through the main number. Hospitals etc do the same.

People though, don't answer the phone very often if they don't know who the call is from, so you can be trying to call someone urgently and need to speak to them and don't get through. They are so worn down by cold calls they don't answer the phone to anyone.

Yes, this is precisely my worry.
Especially now I don't even dare have the answermachine on.

Jazee

The call blocker works by asking everyone who calls to announce who they are. Cold callers don't bother as they know you won't answer it, and they then seem to take your number off their lists.

When I first got the phone, I could see whole lists of numbers who'd been trying to call, but now there's only about one a month.

You can bypass the announcement thing by keying in the numbers of friends so they just show up on the screen and you know it's them.

Genuine calls will announce who they are, and if you're not there to answer the call, that's when the answer phone kicks in.

Hope that's helpful.

GDB2222

Three cheers for Argos customer service! I bought an Asus tablet, refurbished, from their ebay website in February. It's never been quite right, as it overheats and drops the wireless connection. I have finally decided enough is enough. I just phoned them, and they said they will refund me, and they've sent me a free return label.

LydiaJ

chris_m wrote: »

I want, and expect, a receipt, if paying by card so that I have something to take out of my wallet at some point and log in my finance records so that I know what I've spent.

I wouldn't bother if paying by cash because I only bother to record cash in my records when I take it out of my bank account, not when I spend it.

In our local Co-op, the tills print two receipts - one with the last four digits of the credit card and a whole load of stuff like the authorisation number and merchant ID and so on, and one that itemises what you bought. I've started telling them I just want the short one - for typing into my financial spreadsheet I just want to know that I spent £x in the Co-op, and which credit card I used for it, but I don't need the itemised list because I'll know that it must have been on food and other consumables (toothpaste, loo roll etc) because it doesn't sell anything else.

SingleSue wrote: »

With youngest, it was when HE decided he was going to show what he could do, didn't matter how much I knew he could do, the shutters were well and truly down. I do remember it being extremely frustrating, we all knew how bright he was at home but because of all the stuff going on at school, he wasn't comfortable enough to let the shutters open and even when he did, they shut him down again as he was going off topic, or they hadn't reached that bit yet or a myriad of other excuses.

I think for him it was when he finally realised what he wanted to do in life and then consequently, how hard he was going to have to work to pull himself up to that level. It also helped with the change of school, going to a college where he was allowed to find his own level instead of it being assumed due to his disabilities and statement and streamed into the lower ones, from the moment he arrived there, he got his determined head on.

He has worked incredibly hard to get that report, he has no social life, everything is about getting his grades up and keeping them up so he studies and researches for several hours a day after college. He even had a girl interested in him (not that he actually cottoned on, he thought she was just being nice) but he dropped her like a lead weight when she said study could wait, that it wasn't important but going out to the cinema was.

He is very very focused on where he wants to be, his ultimate aim and getting to university is just one of the first steps.

I agree with Sue. DS seems to have just hit that point - he's realised that the universities he wants to apply to are going to want to see an impressive list of GCSE grades, so if he wants to keep to his plan of applying there, then he's got about 6 or 7 months to make sure that those GCSEs are as good as he wants them to be.

He's in Y11 now. He'll do maths and English GCSEs on the new system (grades 9-1) and all the others on the old system (grades A*-G). Because of the change, the school have decided to stop putting the top two maths sets in for additional maths. DS is unimpressed with the decision and planning to do ad maths anyway, self-studied with a bit of help from me. Fortunately when I talked to the head of maths at my school about it, he not only advised me as to which syllabus would be best for DS to take, but offered to lend us the relevant text book and revision book for it as well.

ukmaggie45

Fab news Sue about your youngest! :j :beer: :j

I never answer our landline these days. Even DWP has OH's mobile as I don't deal with telephone very well - my brain works too slowly to comprehend and be able to answer. I'd get shot of landline, but it's a compulsory bundled in with Virgin broadband.

Pearly mist all morning, clearing around lunchtime. Stupendous sunset this evening! Here's a couple of pics.

IMG_9314 by Maggie, on Flickr


IMG_9324 by Maggie, on Flickr


Still recovering from the colonography, and also still waiting for the results. Not a very happy bunny about that! Guess we'll try phoning GP again on Wednesday, when it'll be 2 weeks since it was done.

No news from DWP on MR either. We phoned them and they are "working on it". :rotfl: Both GP and Counsellor's letters went off on 8 Nov... I think next time we phone we should check they actually made it onto their system.

All this waiting is doing my head in!

My nice news is that I've bought an original cartoon (as featured in The Grauniad) by Martin Rowson as a Crimbo prezzie for OH. It arrived today but I didn't make it to the door in time (rolls eyes) so OH will have to pick it up from the sorting office on Monday.

ivyleaf

That's lovely, Lydia, what a helpful colleague :T