Anybody else getting bothered by phone calls from supposedly Talk Talk

I've had calls recently asking what Printer and fax machine I have. Fax machine !! Seriously, who uses one these days ?
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Ah I see! I don't have an issue with the landline because it's not even plugged in.
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Ha. Yep I guess that will stop em. :LOL:

I don't have, nor want one, but my `moneyboss` has a mobile & gets the odd junk call (survey, accident claims etc) but she just says "Remove me from your database & stop calling, or i'll report you" then hangs up.
 
Start with " what is your name again?" Then company name, phone number and address. Usually they ask why? Inform then you want to make sure you have the correct details when you report them. A quick hangup usually results.
 
Blank_Canvas said:
I've had calls recently asking what Printer and fax machine I have. Fax machine !! Seriously, who uses one these days ?
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Still use one a lot at work.
T'interwebby isn't always reliable in the markets we deal with :)
 
Ricardodaforce said:
I don't have an issue with the landline because it's not even plugged in.
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I unplugged mine years ago, the spam calls inextricably stopped immediately :D
Marvellous isn't it? :)
 
srichards said:
Anonymous call reject keeps away most of them. Had it for years. Don't get any calls. It blocks any withheld numbers that try and call.

Had one of these fake Microsoft calls years ago. Easier to tell them you have Linux or a Mac or don't have a computer or don't have a phone ;) Latter confuses them completely.
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Some private exchanges show as withheld numbers so I tend to answer them. Stops me missing calls from the doctor (among others.)
 
Only reason I have a landline is because I have friends that still don't have mobile phones or only PAYG basic ones.
It cost them to call my mobile so they can use the home phone, but as said their numbers are on the allowed list
so get through, my works phone is a withheld number, but they don't have the home number
 
Ricardodaforce said:
I never get calls from withheld numbers. All the marketing calls I receive have a visible number, as they have to by law.
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Good for you, the rest of us have to wait till the law takes effect!
 
I've had to change my landline phone number very recently purely based on this. After two years of getting these spam calls by "Talk Talk" on a near daily basis, the final straw came when they were ringing 5 or 6 times a day towards the end where they were driving me to distraction. I've signed up with TPS and have been ex-directory on the old number for two decades and I rarely get these unwanted cold callers (PPI, accident claims, etc) - apart from Talk Talk which was being a right bugger to shift.
 
Ian D J said:
I've had to change my landline phone number very recently purely based on this. After two years of getting these spam calls by "Talk Talk" on a near daily basis, the final straw came when they were ringing 5 or 6 times a day towards the end where they were driving me to distraction. I've signed up with TPS and have been ex-directory on the old number for two decades and I rarely get these unwanted cold callers (PPI, accident claims, etc) - apart from Talk Talk which was being a right bugger to shift.
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Easy fix (£25 ish) http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/mobile-phones/bt-bt8500-review-the-best-call-blocker-yet
 
OldCarlos said:
Easy fix (£25 ish) http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/mobile-phones/bt-bt8500-review-the-best-call-blocker-yet
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HI Carlos.

I had bought a BT hand-free phone which had a single "nuisance calls guard" button but it didn't work as the spammers used withheld numbers as well as rotating numbers so the unwanted calls kept coming in anyway. Also the buttons were too small for my elderly mother to use and kept calling up the wrong numbers. So, I swapped it for a BT hands free "Big Button" phone (using Argos's returns policy) but, that, too, had a major flaw in the form of a one touch button to ring up BT's Helpline which cost £5 a go which could not be disabled and because it is positioned close to the red dial-off button, mother's finger kept missing the "dial off" button and pressing that Helpline button instead and . . . well, you can guess the rest.

In the end, I arranged for the number to be changed and then purchased a pair of cheap lesser known branded "old skool-style" corded extra large buttons phones and set one in the living room and the other one in mother's room with the wires neatly tucked away and the offending BT hands free device is now kept out of reach in my hobby room simply acting as an answer machine. So far, the set up seems to be working well for us now.
 
I had a few of these calls recently and strung them along by telling them I was in following their instructions, after a wee while the caller was a bit upset that they couldn't see any of my input on their screen, I then asked if it was possible for them to pull a bit of the cable coming out the wall to the router back to their end as it too long at mine, silence followed by some choice expletives and the dealing tone.
 
I either swear at them straight off until they hang up or string them along for a while. My best success was pretending to go through the requests as awkwardly as possible (it took him 5 mins to figure out my imaginary computer wasn't turned on). I then got all friendly and complimented him on his English and technical skills, and then asked why with such education he was being such a criminal scum bag and how his parents must be ashamed of him, if he actually had the courage to confess to his poor hard working parents that he tries to swindle vulnerable people for a living. He listened in silence and then replied "@uck off you @ucking @unt!", and hung up. I hope I shamed him into a change of career.
 
Really cannot understand why people feeling the need to waste their time on role playing.
 
johnny8977 said:
Cannot really understand why people feel the need to waste their time commenting on people feeling the need to waste their time on role playing.
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Brilliant response! However I'll take my 10 second response over your 5+ minutes any day. Still, it's your life to waste.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Brilliant response! However I'll take my 10 second response over your 5+ minutes any day. Still, it's your life to waste.
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I can type fast

Also, it's a general discussion forum, where the whole point is to 'talk' about things, and generally waste time.
 
johnny8977 said:
I can type fast

Also, it's a general discussion forum, where the whole point is to 'talk' about things, and generally waste time.
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I was referring to the 5+ minutes you spent role playing call centre operative.
 
If I have the time I'm happy to string them along for as ong as I can. I take the view that for all the time they are wasting with me they are not hitting some unfotunate and less well informed person who may part with their money. If you simply tell them to bog off and hang up, it's like water off a ducks back to them and they just hit the next number. If everyone they called kept them on the call stringing them along for 20 minutes the business model beings to falter and it may have an impact on the number of these calls being made.
 
I have been getting scam calls from so called insurance recovery/claim companies. The pitch is they know you have had an accident [can only have got details from insurance co or car repairers?] and they say you are entitled to compensation....I have had calls both on landline and mobile, sometimes 6 a week. Initially I got really pi**ed off but then changed tack. I would usually reply that I was a care line for those suffering with mental illness or sexual health and I would do my best to keep them on the line. Often they get very apologetic and say 'its the wrong number', to which I reply 'lots of my clients say that, have you a discharge and what colour is it'? Another one I pretended to be in a care home and fairly deaf, anything they said to me I misheard and repeated back either with something rhyming or a question. The he mentioned accident, i replied I wore pads and who told him about my accident anyway, was it the woman in no 16? Another time I pretended to be a transvestite who assumed the call was staged from an ex lover. I then hit on the caller with various offers of sexual services, cause he sounds 'nice'. I am now disappointed that a] the put the phone down and b] the calls are diminishing!
 
My wife has True Call on her landline. It seems to be pretty bulletproof, and I don't think she's ever had a nuisance call on her cellphone. I never answer unknown, private or withheld numbers on my phones at all. Callers can leave a message if they want to.

I'm not interested in playing games with cold callers.
 
I saw on the news earlier that you can register your mobile with the TPS just by sending them a text. Very handy.
 
TPS is basically useless. It only works if the cold callers choose to observe it, since many originate overseas where TPS has no enforcement.
 
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Well, that didn't take long. Changed my landline phone number two months ago and went ex-directory to stop the cold callers getting though. Just had one from a car insurance firm of an offer to put my name onto my mother's name to make for a cheaper quote.

I haven't driven a car in over six years and my elderly mother whom I'm a carer for doesn't even know what one looks like.

I'd love to know how these people get hold of my number.
 
I don't think there's any way to stop these nuisance calls other than buying a phone with the True Call software, which seems to be 100%. They've never bothered me, I don't answer unknown calls, but they used to irritate my wife.
 
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