Purely for Info' 08003896818 Caller Identified

AdrianHi

In addition to this number I had until recent been getting called twice a day from another number operated by LBM Marketing.
I got pretty tired of this and with a bit of a dig on the internet there is a way to "break the spell" but that involves actually talking to them and lying about the "super" deal you already have on a mobile phone contract that they cannot possibly beat. Cannot be bothered with all that.

Well after a month of being pestered I finally seem to have got rid of them permanently another way.

They ring up, you answer, if you say nothing or hang up the computer system dialling you never actually connects you to an operator and it will just try again another time.

What you need to do is answer, make a noise, cough, say "hello", what ever, and the computer registers the sound as someone there and connects you to a sales rep.
Now you just put your phone down on the desk (don't hang up!) or on speaker phone so you can listen in while the sales rep. is calling "Hello..... helllo....... helloooow" and eventually gives up and ends the call. This is costing them time and money, the very thing these wretched automated systems are designed to save. After about 5 goes at this the phone calls stopped :cool:

There is no polite way to handle this, they are being invasive and rude calling you like this IMO so I have no qualms about treating them this way.

custardy

Hespie wrote: »

but I just had a call from this number, someone called Darren said that it was about my Alliance and Leicester account, and that he needed to ask some security questions.

I refused to answer any questions and he said I should call the number on the back of my card. Having been scammed back in May, I was obviously concerned but when I called the number, I was told it was no longer available. Well suspicious by now, I called my bank on the normal number only to be told that there were no flags on the account, nothing to worry about. But there is, isn't there?

Have A&L passed my details on to this company? How else do they know I have an A&L account?

I called the bank back to register concern about The Listening Company having too much info on me from (I assume) A&L. What else can I do to make my annoyance known? Any advice please?

you can thank A&L for that
i worked in a call centre years ago while studying
the amount of data on screen can be scary
the worst was calling people who had taken a car loan out and were being offered a deal for something(cant recall now)
loan company had sold on the address,phone number,loan amount and car type!!!!

NH2004

I had a call yesterday, the lady on the other end of the phone claimed to be from Alliance & Leicester. She told me that they had reason to believe that my credit card had been compromised, checked with me on transactions that I had carried out with the card recently, and advised that the card was best cancelled and a new one issued.

When I hung up, I dialled 1471, and the number given was 08003896818.
I googled it and came across this thread and many others saying it was a scam.

Being a bit concerned I rang A&L credit card customer service today, to check if they had called me, and that they advised to cancel my card. they confirmed this to be correct.

So now I'm confused, why are they calling from 08003896818?

custardy

NH2004 wrote: »

I had a call yesterday, the lady on the other end of the phone claimed to be from Alliance & Leicester. She told me that they had reason to believe that my credit card had been compromised, checked with me on transactions that I had carried out with the card recently, and advised that the card was best cancelled and a new one issued.

When I hung up, I dialled 1471, and the number given was 08003896818.
I googled it and came across this thread and many others saying it was a scam.

Being a bit concerned I rang A&L credit card customer service today, to check if they had called me, and that they advised to cancel my card. they confirmed this to be correct.

So now I'm confused, why are they calling from 08003896818?

outsourced call centres

brightonman123

if acting for BT, sont they have to check if nu,bers 'generated' are not on a blocked number list (ie, ex directory, hospitals, etc)

robsta_2

just had a quick scan of the internet as i have started getting calls from these again (happens every few months for a couple of days but ive learned not to answer).

Anyway, found The Listening Company's website and their published phone number is 020 84841000.

So why not ring them 4-5 times a day and either let it ring twice or hang up when they answer, and then they might start to realise how annoyong it is.

BFG_2

robsta wrote: »

Anyway, found The Listening Company's website and their published phone number is 020 84841000.

So why not ring them 4-5 times a day and either let it ring twice or hang up when they answer, and then they might start to realise how annoyong it is.

i did this for 10 mins....asking did they want a BT credit card, then life insurance, then a watch, then a funeral plan. Same bloke everytime...eventually he said 'I presume you've had a few unwanted calls from us, would you like me to deal with that for you?'

so it works.although probably can just ask him directly... !!!!!!!!!

spora

i used to work in a call centre (sorry to everyone i annoyed) and the TPS system only covers those who are trying to sell stuff. I used to do market research so we were meant to ignore the TPS message and callback having unwithheld our number. So if they are just asking questions or doing research than the TPS system wont stop them from calling.

edit: and being ex directory doesnt help either because most places randomly generate their numbers so they are not getting them from any directory

SacMac

NH2004 wrote: »

I had a call yesterday, the lady on the other end of the phone claimed to be from Alliance & Leicester. She told me that they had reason to believe that my credit card had been compromised, checked with me on transactions that I had carried out with the card recently, and advised that the card was best cancelled and a new one issued.

When I hung up, I dialled 1471, and the number given was 08003896818.
I googled it and came across this thread and many others saying it was a scam.

Being a bit concerned I rang A&L credit card customer service today, to check if they had called me, and that they advised to cancel my card. they confirmed this to be correct.

So now I'm confused, why are they calling from 08003896818?

I just had a call today purporting to be from MBNA - exactly the same story as above, just a different card. Would definitely suggest that they are outsourcing their calls.

cl41re_r

I called the number of the listening company above (the people who make the annoying calls to us - on 'behalf' of the companies) and asked them to take my number off their list so that they will not keep calling me, the guy said that he would try and put me through to someone - they were, however, not available, so he took a message and I justsaid that I do not want to be called by the company again, ever, and gave my number (hope that wasn't a mistake!!!) and he said ok and would ensure that the message is past on...

I will see what happens and report back...

Good luck!