Not had any scammers for a while, but as other have said, it used to be fun to wind them up or get the kids to talk to them, they still laugh about the woman that called trying to sell us pomegranate juice, she was hilarious .
If it sounded like a genuine call centre person, I would always give a polite reply and hang up. My SIL worked at a call centre for a while when she was at Uni, it’s a tough gig, no need to heap more misery on them.
Funny thing about some scam calls that the answer machine picks up, scrolling through the list ,you get a sound like they are auto dialling a number. I always delete them as soon as I hear the ring tone (then block) ,but what’s going on there?
There's an infamous one if you are a small business owner, where you are contacted to thank you for your order of Drugs Awareness books you have "agreed" to sponsor for local primary schools. Obviously, you haven't, but they try to say they paid for the printing costs and start trying to get details to invoice you, and threaten you with debt collection agencies. I've always just hung up on them, and reported them to Action Fraud. Some people have become very stressed dealing with these particularly nasty characters.
I let any unrecognised number go to the answerphone, which has a recording of me saying “Hello? Hello? Hello? You are very faint, please speak up, Hello? Hello? Mum, are you holding the phone upside down? Hello? Hello? Oh, sorry I forgot, I cannot hear you because this is a recording. Please leave a message after the tone”.
It used to be better on my last phone as I could hear the callers, now I just get a recording of them hanging up. One cold caller did laugh and say “Well done”.
I usually string along the car crash calls. I confirm I did have a recent incident (absolutely true) and I ask them to explain what they can do for me, when they get to the part about claiming off the other parties insurance I just reply "I didn't realise deer had insurance"
Overseas callers struggle with that.............
There’s an infamous one if you are a small business owner, where you are contacted to thank you for your order of Drugs Awareness books you have “agreed” to sponsor for local primary schools. Obviously, you haven’t, but they try to say they paid for the printing costs and start trying to get details to invoice you, and threaten you with debt collection agencies. I’ve always just hung up on them, and reported them to Action Fraud.
Gawd yes I remember those - we used to get them from the 'local fire brigade' saying we'd agreed to sponsor a calendar.
Because a genuine caller would hold a large amount of your personal information and are legally required to keep that confidential.
They need to make sure you are the right person before they discuss any of your personal information. GDPR fines for failing to do this, and discussing your STD test results with your co-worker who picked up your phone, would be substantial.
Yes I know all that, but why do they expect me to hand all that info over when they are providing NO PROOF at all as to who they are? And why do they not understand that I may not want to give it out? One of their departments might sent me a “beware of phishing attacks, don’t give info away, don’t sign up to anything which is masquerading as is” but then another department is phoning me up and getting shirty as I’m following their - very wise - security advice!!! Doesn’t make any sense!!!
If I’m expecting a call - say about an appointment for an engineer visit (Sky a good example) and they can state what has been arranged so far I’ll gladly go through their verbal checks.
I don't use a landline phone, not for a long while now, and the barring/blacklisting feature on android seems pretty good - my pixel even says 'suspectes spam call' when it get called by one.
Normally, I'll google a number I don't recognise if they don't leave a voicemail, and then block it.
One new thing though i've noticed, is spoof mobile numbers calling me, had 4 in the last few days, all the same 0791******* aside from the last 3 digits.
Highly annoying.
Another odd/alarming one I had the other day, was on 020 number, looked like a london landline.
I called it back, withholding my number, and it went through to a sky talk-shield thing, so I can only assume it was a spoofed number that went through to some random persons house when i called it back.
I'm feeling left out as I've not received a single scam call in months. I do get a text probably once every couple of months telling me something is wrong with my bank account and to click a link. However it's yet to be from a bank I have an account with.
Yes I know all that, but why do they expect me to hand all that info over when they are providing NO PROOF at all as to who they are?
Because of all the stuff you said “yes, I know all that” about.
They HAVE to identify you first, by law. To protect your personal data.
It’s not their choice.
I like to string them along too, Last 'Have you had an accident in the last five years?'
'yes, coming out of Tesco's car park last week, I thought it was a fart but it was more. How much can I claim?'
Silence then line goes dead.
Neal glover - but to ask you for personal data when they have phoned you goes against basic security. I never do it and never will.
I love stringing them along if they've had the audacity to call up and disturb me. its now a buzz when they get the supervisor/ manager as they think they've got a big money claim case but when my car crash tale with lots of people and lots of damage turns out I hurt my head and can't remember anything else they generally get shirty! at least I've saved a few other s a few calls...
The only people who call us on the landline these days are the in laws.
We get a couple of international / unrecognised numbers a day. Don't answer after getting a few of those Windows virus calls. If it's important people will leave a message right?
FiL got the Amazon Prime call a few times. Luckily he was wise to it.
Just had some bloke trying to sign me up for some Lotto type scheme at an address I've not lived at since 2007.
He asked if I do the lottery and I said "not currently". He asked if I had done it in the past and I said "yes but I stopped when I went to jail after I got caught stealing to fund my serious gambling addiction".
He hung up... not sure why.
😉
Also had the flip side of this, school were ringing all parents to see to check on the kids home schooling. They were a bit surprised at the lack of phone pick ups, not really surprising when it comes upas withheld number of caller display.
I get a text telling me there have been problems processing my mobile phone bill every couple of months, usually about 2 weeks after it's gone out of my bank account. Always a dodgy link to click
I've started to get the National Insurance number one once or twice a week. Different number each time. I've got bored of hanging up so thought I'd waste their time instead.
They hang up very quick as soon as it's obvious you're having them on so there's a good game to be had here !
Getting bombarded with calls in the past few weeks. Never answer but googling the number always throws them up as scammers
I kept getting "I'm calling about the car accident that wasn't your fault" type calls, my record for keeping someone on the phone taking down notes is a paltry 12 mins 17sec. They put the phone down on me when I eventually explained that my vehicle's closing speed was 88mph and that I wanted to claim for repairs to my flux capacitor.
Worth it though.
Just switch to BT and use Call Protect.
Get very few and those that are not blocked I play with them, then log on and block the number.
I had a particularly distressing call the other morning, picked up the phone after failing to recognise my Mother-in-laws number.
I always know I've done well when the supervisor comes on to call me a "****ing prick".
Most satisfying.
I'm getting a lot of scam Uber "please text to cancel your ride" texts. Presume if you text then you get charged for a premium text.
It should be really easy to report and block a scam number. A real one click kind of thing Phone co. has no interest or incentive to put in effort into doing it, and fails to do so, leaving someone more trusting than me to pay the price.
Call guardian on our landline stops them. If it's not a number we have programmed in, they have to leave a message to say who they are and the phone then rings. Genuine calls get added to the permitted numbers. Not had any calls on the landline. Current ones are royal mail and Hermes texts - you owe £2.99 postage ones.
I had the RM £1.99 parcel text the other day, and the Hermes one a day or so before that. The RM one was very, very convincing, the whole design was very accurate and looked exactly like a Royal Mail text should look, it’s easy to see how people fall for them.
If my bank calls, which is a very, very rare occurrence, it’s normally my account manager who calls, and as she calls on a withheld number it goes directly to my voicemail, she leaves a message for me to call her personal mobile. Avoids any misunderstanding, I recognise her voice even before she gets to say who it is. About the best security going, I reckon.
We were getting quite a lot of scam calls, maybe 2 or 3 a day. I said to my wife if you don’t recognise the number (most likely it’s only her mum calling) then answer the phone but say nothing. If it’s someone genuine they will speak immediately, if it’s an automated bot calling it will go dead after a while as it will assume it wasn’t connected rather than playing the scam message or connecting us to the scam call centre in India or wherever.
I wasn’t expecting this to have a massive effect as it never has before when we’ve had an issue but it’s been amazing, after a few calls where we were silent they have virtually stopped completely!
Signing up to TPS doesn’t really have a great effect nowadays.
It should be really easy to report and block a scam number. A real one click kind of thing Phone co. has no interest or incentive to put in effort into doing it, and fails to do so, leaving someone more trusting than me to pay the price.
There is, forward it to 7726.
^ reminded me, the PPI guy asking if i had a bank account with........he kept suggesting bank names and i kept saying "erm, dont think it was them..." - he had a really really long list of banks, i'd guess 3 sides of A4
recently i got my mobile number spoofed - i had a couple of different numbers missed calls, so called the latest one back... i got through to a very cross scots guy trying to tell me that he didnt even have an overdraft! got to the bottom of it and then changed my voicemail message to "this is SOOBalias, my mobile number has been spoofed by scammers, it wasnt me that called you, I didnt leave you a message, If you know me you know how to contact me"
They HAVE to identify you first, by law. To protect your personal data.
It’s not their choice.
What, by encouraging everyone to give out personal details over the phone to random people who have called them?
Mmmm, great.
Signing up to TPS doesn’t really have a great effect nowadays.
The thing about criminals is, they're criminals.
What, by encouraging everyone to give out personal details over the phone to random people who have called them?
Mmmm, great.
That was my point. I know they have to identify me correctly to comply with the rules but to do that they are expecting me to hand over personal information which they themselves have told me not to share!! And they get really shirty when I won’t tell them. They also don’t seem to understand why I won’t tell them either. There is literally no way of knowing who they are, but they seems to think that saying “I’m calling from xxxxx” is some sort of cast iron guarantee that they are legitimate.
It’s weird!
I had a look online and apparently it’s common at the moment. They get you to press one of a selection of numbers, once you do it connects you to a premium rate phone line then you’ll be billed god knows how much a minute while you listen to whatever recorded bullshit they play you
I know it was a few months ago but for fairly obvious technical reasons (it's an incoming call the first party initiated) you can't then get charged. I see this posted all the time but literally nobody has ever had it happen to them. Because it can't.
You can ask them for letters from your password. Works with all my banks. Obviously a last line of defence after ringing them back on different line, with known number etc.
