"...calling from diesel claim..."

Mildly_Miffed

Am I the only one getting a lot of these calls?

They're coming to my landline from totally random UK phone numbers, either landlines from around the country or mobiles. Sometimes the caller ID comes up as "nuisance?", more often not.

Always the same script - bored voice, always Indian accented (probably a subcontinental call centre, hence outside the scope of TPS).
"Can I speak to Mildly?"
"I am calling from diesel claim..."

I've given up interrupting them to firmly but politely say "Thanks, no thanks, please remove me from your list. Bye." <click>.

I now either just immediately hang up or tell them VERY firmly and impolitely to remove me. I'm an incurable optimist, and live in hope that one of them actually will.

Do they seriously think this is a business model likely to win over waverers?

Herzlos

It's just a numbers game. Through enough staff being paid pennies to call enough people and you'll get some success. Even if only 1 in 1000 follow though, that's still thousands of leads.

I tend to just put the phone down somewhere and waste more of their time, because just hanging up on them lets them try the next number faster.

forgotmyname

Have a chat about your diesel car already breaking down and failing roadside emissions checks that you almost on first name terms with the traffic
emission cops.

Tell them yes you need as much compensation as you can get but speed is of the essence because you need to order something electric and exotic.

Give them made up names and keep asking questions about how much and how long because speed is of the essence, keep repeating yourself
but ask as many questions as possible also.  See how long you can keep them on the line and not hassling others.

I had one of the Microsoft Scammers call and he stayed on the line for over 20 minutes whilst we looked for the PC, he asked if it was a laptop
and when I said no its a huge beige box that is very very heavy he hung up.

ThorOdinson

Starting to wonder if it's even worth having a phone number anymore. At least for voice calls, SMS is still useful.

Bigphil1474

OP, it's not the callers, it's your number. You must have played fast and loose with it at some point. We have a landline that we basically get for free. The only time it used to ring was when the OH's chemist had got their prescription in, and that was automated. We moved house and they moved chemist so the phone hasn't actually rung in over 7 weeks. Never put your landline down on any form or website unless you want scammers calling you. At least on a mobile you can filter better.

Herzlos

Not necessarily. I was getting junk calls more or less from the day our phone line was activated, because it must have belonged to someone else prior.

I also wouldn't be surprised if there are attempts at just calling random numbers since it's got as much value as a bought list.

Mildly_Miffed

Oh, it's definitely targetted. They have my full real name.

We've had this landline number since we moved in eleven years ago.
We've never had spam call issues before this.
We don't have spam call issues from anybody but this lot.

And, no, I've never given any details to the diesel claim ambulance-chasers.

As for mobile - we don't have any signal (at all, any network) here in the heart of rural. Yes, there's wifi calling, but...