What do you do with spam phone calls?

QQQ

I usually say "oh, that's exactly what I need, please hold the line a couple minutes, I will finish the parallel call and get back to you" and put them on hold forever. But they do not wait for longer than half a minute. Is there any more efficient way to discourage them from doing their nasty job? Without spending too much of my own time, of course.

friolento

I only have a mobile phone now, which is set to divert calls from unknown numbers to voicemail. No scammer has yet left any voicemail for me.

DullGreyGuy

QQQ said:

I usually say "oh, that's exactly what I need, please hold the line a couple minutes, I will finish the parallel call and get back to you" and put them on hold forever. But they do not wait for longer than half a minute. Is there any more efficient way to discourage them from doing their nasty job? Without spending too much of my own time, of course.

You dont discourage them... in a lot of cases, given ambulance chasers etc get tarred with the same brush, its an off shore call centre somewhere and its just someone doing their job. Its probably a horrible job to have, I know I did my time doing outbound telesales and I wouldnt wish it on anyone, and they'd love to have a better job but have families to feed etc. 

The person running the place isnt going to care if you keep an agent on hold for 30 seconds, its known you will have a low hit rate but salaries are pittances and its not typically places with good employee rights etc if you dont hit your targets. 

friolento said:

I only have a mobile phone now, which is set to divert calls from unknown numbers to voicemail. No scammer has yet left any voicemail for me.

What do you mean "unknown"? as in withheld or just ones not in your address book?

Given I get legitimate calls from unknown people to my phone all the time the later isnt an option for me. I have tried diverting withheld numbers to voicemail but get the problems like when my GP calls or a complaints handling person in a bank who's WFH etc. They go to voicemail, they leave a voicemail but you cannot then call them back because if you call the GP surgery you've a 20 minute wait to get answered followed by them telling you the Dr tried, you didn't answer so you'll have to go on the call back list again but its full for today call tomorrow. Likewise banks saying the complaints team dont take inbound calls. 

I do have some numbers set to go to voicemail from previous scammers and I have had several messages left saying its HMRC phoning and that I owe tax and must press 5 now else I'll be arrested immediately etc.

CliveOfIndia

There's not a lot you can do, unfortunately.  Sign up to the TPS service, but that doesn't help with calls from abroad.  If I'm at at a loose end I'll play them along ... "Yes, I had a car accident and was killed, but I'm Buddhist so I got reincarnated, so I'm fine.".  But if it's a mobile, just end the call and block the number.

Your solution of playing them along is probably all you can do - "Oh, sorry, 2 minutes, there's an Amazon delivery arrived which I need to sign for" .......

It can be fun to play along with them and waste their time, but there's not an awful lot you can do to stop the calls in the first place - short of making sure you never give out your phone number, which is tricky if you're you're placing an online order from from a reputable website.

LightFlare

We have BT call guardian so never get cold calls

Ozzig

As above, have some fun...

I've had a hot air balloon crash into a building knocking tiles onto my car and giving me whiplash, but I was lucky as the injuries would have been worse if I had been sober, but I'm relieved they called so I can claim.

I've had them agree to two iPhone MAX 14s for free and they'll pay me £40 in Amazon cards delivered in unmarked brown envelopes, when I say agree, not understand sarcasm, pass me to a colleague who clearly had dealt with my sort before.

On a particularly slow day, spoke to three Microsoft helpdesk analysts and let them remote onto my sandbox virtual machine (Windows XP for extra fun) and eventually, they couldn't resist opening the text file on the desktop named "My Bitcoin stuff" only to read a rather impolite message stored therein  
But even then they were still asking me to fill in a "secure online form", which was them opening notepad and pasting in a dozen questions for bank account number, name, sort code etc etc 
To the point I got bored and hung up the phone, their "finance" guy called me back insisting I pay for their services I explained I was intentionally wasting their time so they weren't conning someone who would actually fall for such a poor scam and the response was, they can accept gift cards for payment if the bank was a problem.

badmemory

The only duff call I have ever had on my landline is the Amazon Prime one, as in laugh & hang up.  A friend of mine with no internet actually pressed the keys.  As she is only in her 50s I am seriously concerned about early onset dementia.  However my mobile is a whole different issue.  I've had my number for over 20 years & never used to have a problem.  Then some idiot hit me on a roundabout.  The insurance company insisted on a mobile number.  Since 2016 it has been open season.  At the beginning of any month it rings & rings until the battery is flat.  I never answer but 8 calls in one day from the same number!

Pollycat

Ozzig said:

As above, have some fun...

I'd rather not waste my time having 'fun' at someone else's expense.

As posted above:

DullGreyGuy said:

You dont discourage them... in a lot of cases, given ambulance chasers etc get tarred with the same brush, its an off shore call centre somewhere and its just someone doing their job. Its probably a horrible job to have, I know I did my time doing outbound telesales and I wouldnt wish it on anyone, and they'd love to have a better job but have families to feed etc. 

Ozzig

Pollycat said:

Ozzig said:

As above, have some fun...

I'd rather not waste my time having 'fun' at someone else's expense.

But the point is whilst I'm winding them up they are unable to be on the phone with someone less cynical who might hand over money they cannot afford to.

In fact, I'd argue I'm wasting my time whilst saving others money.

Also, Steve Penk seemed to do alright out of it, in fact, maybe if I record them and....... nope, no I think it's been done before.

Pollycat

Ozzig said:

Pollycat said:

Ozzig said:

As above, have some fun...

I'd rather not waste my time having 'fun' at someone else's expense.

But the point is whilst I'm winding them up they are unable to be on the phone with someone less cynical who might hand over money they cannot afford to.

In fact, I'd argue I'm wasting my time whilst saving others money.

Also, Steve Penk seemed to do alright out of it, in fact, maybe if I record them and....... nope, no I think it's been done before.

Hmmm.
Very altruistic. 

strawb_shortcake

My mobile warns with suspected spam calls so I just press the end button and block