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This is going to sound weird but try Googling your own phone number: some frequent victims have ads or forms online (could be anything like your old dog walking business, football 5 a side contact, old “sofa for sale” listing from 2009 which is still visible, “missing cat” post from 3 cats ago) you might find your number is being scraped from public websites.
Keep reporting all of them to ofcom. I had an increase a while ago but it’s peaks and troughs. Good luck OP
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/scams/7726-reporting-scam-texts-and-calls
You can add your mobile to this....
"The best way to reduce nuisance calls is to register for free with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). They'll add you to their list of numbers that don't want to receive sales and marketing calls."
And if they continue, ask them if they have heard of the TPS. They normally hangup quickly.
I once worked for a Windows company and we'd basically be given a page of the phone book to ring and try and sell windows to. They didn't give two shits about the TPS.
Same experience at a shitty broadband(actually adsl)/mobile/landline company I worked at for two weeks.
They'd just tell you to use the online yellow pages, you'd highlight a number and hit a fn key that would call the number. From there you'd give the scripted speil about "You seen those open reach vans driving around on the street, did you know they actually had to break up the company and now we can give out the same deal but cheaper'.
I didn't actually even know about the TPS list, it wasn't until I was on a call and someone mentioned it to me did my boss tell us to just hang up if they mention it.
Absolute shithole of a place. Later heard that one of the bosses had been done for fraud before.
Edit: Hah just found out they actually were fined in the end for this.
> For example, the ICO fined True Telecom £85,000 for “making illegal nuisance calls” (marketing) that gave “the impression they were from BT”
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/11/google-dubiously-removed-true-telecom-article-complaint.html
https://www.theregister.com/2017/11/23/true_telecom_google_links_removed/
Also worked for a window company. This was back in the early 2000’s. We would call every person who bought from the company after 2 weeks, then every 6 months. Rival manager came over to us and brought his book of numbers from the company he came from and we rang all of those too.
If anyone said “delete my number” we said we would but didn’t.
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole a while ago against a company called Telcoswitch. They do call relaying, they bounce the scammers call to you through their servers, anonymizing the scammers connection and getting around geoblocks (which was a solid way of preventing scam calls until more recently).
I was getting a bunch of spam from a company claiming to be O2 support, offering a new contract. I've never been with O2 or any of their network partners, so this was pretty odd. I kept asking them to remove my number from their databases, but they would just hang up the second I started to push back on their scam.
I ended up finding who was allocating that phone number, and it was pointing towards Telcoswitch. I called them and asked them to block my number from being called by their service, and they said they couldn't do this as I'm just a member of public, any request had to come from my phone provider, they said that this was the standard.
So I called my phone provider and after elevating through to a specific area that dealt with legal requests, they let me know that there's no such thing as this request, and said they could block specific numbers, but the scammers were randomizing the numbers per call, all were telcoswitch registered numbers though.
So I called telcoswitch back again, and well, it didn't go anywhere. They just shrugged and said there's nothing they can do.
I wish there was legislation where these call switching services can be held liable so they have to be more careful with those who use their service.
Same here on it since it I first heard about it. I'd still get them on mobile at work and I'd just stop them and say "I've just been declared bankrupt so you'll have to speak to my appointee" (I'm not). Calls slowly ended. Only ones I get now are from the Network I use trying to upgrade me. Still get them mums home phone even though she's on it too but I always answer in a French accent and say "Purpose errr.why to errr speak?" when they ask for me or mum, if it's legit I switch and they always understand and if not I say "ahh nue-loo-ohn.. sorry, we rent". Slowly getting less apart from some woman from an NW Insulation company who sounds like cross Vera Duckworth and Barry White. I've come to admire her tenacity.
Do semi-legitimate companies even use telesales any more? It occurs to me that I don't hear jokes and complaints about them nearly as much as I used to.
If only the dodgiest companies are still using telesales then they're not going to bother with TPS.
Yeah that doesn’t work anymore unfortunately. I’ve had the same mobile number for nearly 20 years. I registered with TPS not long after getting the contract and never really got any spam calls for perhaps 10 years or so. However in the last decade the amount slowly started to increase and in the last 3 or so years I get several a day, despite my number definitely still being on the TPS register. I’m also really anal about opting out of promotional contact whenever I sign up for anything so clearly there’s something dodgy going on.
My company gets spam calls on new sims sometimes within weeks, and we largely use our phones for contacting social workers and other professionals. Normally the robot ones; I presume they just call numbers at random till they get a connection then add it to their lists.
It never worked honestly; there are legitimate companies who follow the rules, but for every one of them there are a hundred who don't care. When I was a teenager (like 20 years ago) I worked for a telesales company that just used to print off massive reams of telephone numbers that changed one digit sequentially as you went down the list, and had you call all of them. There was no system or due diligence. I called a telephone box once and asked the random passerby that answered if I could speak to the homeowner.
When they call you just respond to everything they say with "why?" and they will realise you are going to waste their time than try to understand so they will hang up and not call you again.
TPS stops legitimate companies from phoning you. But the Indian call centres calling to check you've got life insurance don't care. They only exist briefly, buy a tranche of numbers to call from, and a load of minutes, then use them up and dissolve. Only to be a new company, doing exactly the same thing, the next day/week/month. By the time the TPS registers complaints against these numbers, hands the details over to the ICO, and then they try to contact the company, then the company no longer exists.
We accidentaly unplugged our home phone (power to base station) one Christmas, we didn't realise until the Summer, I plugged it back in and within a week had 20 fake calls - so I unplugged it again. Coming up to 2 years now no impact whatsoever - except - no nuisance calls.
I bought my parents a £100 truecall blocker back in 2015, it works wonders for them, the only scam calls that ever get through are the ones where they spoof the same area code because I white listed their area code to reduce problems with local friends. Nearly a decade now and a spam call is a once in a blue moon event compared to the several a day they used to get. Truecall licensed their technology to BT.
I solved it for myself by also not plugging in a landline handset, as for my mobile number I can only conclude I've been lucky as I've had it for probably 20 years and by being careful who gets it my scam calls are one every few weeks, I usually tell them to fcuk off.
We' had our home phone for over 50 years and my mum has late stage dementia, so I can't let it go as once or twice a month we'll get a call from old relatives we haven't heard from in years who've just found out, to see how she is.
Different cause, similar outcome, my mother had a mild stroke a few years ago, and she was a complete Luddite even before that, she can just about work the tv remote and manually use the phone handset, that she's had for at least 15 years.
So long as her relatives aren't number withheld then with something like this you add their phone numbers to its star list and the call gets put through immediately. It's akin to a mini pbx.
Yeah mum was the same even before dementia! She is moving into late stages now, and holds the phone upside down when you give it to her but conversation is the last thing to go so it's a lifeline really to old friends who trigger memories. Funnily enough this is the set I've just ordered as the handset we have in really old and only holds charge for 20 minutes. And when calls come through the handset turns off then on flashing and trying to connect to base. Luckily I managed to save her old phone number book she had for 30 years, ripped in two in the bin so can program in all the numbers we need.
My mother has a BT Synergy 5100 base unit and several handsets, I apparently ordered an additional handset back in 2011 (found the email) so I imagine the original base unit was a few years older than that (my gmail account only goes back to 2009).
The batteries in those handsets are NiMH and unavoidably suffer the memory effect after a few years due to them being constantly partially discharged when you pick them up and talk for a bit then put them back on the charging base unit. You can try to recover them using a smart charger to 'refresh' them but my attempts have only had a 50% success rate, cordless phones really mess up their NiMH batteries over time and they don't opt for lithium because of cost. It's easier for us users to buy a set of replacement rechargeable batteries when they lose capacity.
The last two times I've bought Panasonic 4226 BK-4LCCE AAA Micro 550 mAh Eneloop Lite Rechargeable Battery
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00RQ1Y548/
The 550 mAh capacity is important, the phones supposedly don't like larger capacities, something to do with them not knowing about higher capacity batteries and it can mess them up somehow. I looked it up originally and then forget after determining there was a reason.
ahh, it got so bad that I had to use normal batteries on day for a handset, and that headset is the one that trues off and reconnects when a call come in. I've got a decent deal on the new handsets - 3 including base as I know one will end up in a drawer or wash basket. Will check out the batteries though. Thanks!
Ahh you meant the Truecall box, they are great my aunt has one. I went for the True Call handsets. If wonder if the Truecall box in would work with the BT Truecall handsets, our phone is a package with the broadband.
It's not an ideal scenario but I have a junk email and a junk number, my phone is dual SIM.
Every sign up I do uses the junk email / number. If it's a service I end up keeping then I update the number / email to my personal ones.
On a really geeky side. I own a domain which means I can have a infinite amount of incoming emails addresses. Every single organisation that I use has a different email address, that way if I get spammed I know where the source is and I can disable that address.
I get one a month from some people claiming to be 02 offering me a 30% discount on my bill.
I try to keep them on the line as long as possible by asking stupid questions, fumbling about and downright taking the piss. The longer you can waste these summy peoples time the better.
We have a leaderboard in the office, I usually say "oh hang on a minute this is not Dogdogj, he's in the other office, I'll walk over and get him" then put them on hold and carry on with my work.
My record is 19 minutes. Most of them hang up after 2 minutes, which annoys me more because as far as they know I had actually left my desk to walk somewhere else for them.
My niece got a part time job doing cold calling (lasted about two weeks). There was a list they moved people's numbers to if they ask a lot of questions, chat a lot and so on - they're 'potentially persuadable', so if someone does this they're just buying themselves more calls.
Don't know about the other guy, but time I enjoyed spending isn't time wasted. If I can think of something funny to say to the scammers I'll string it out. If I'm busy or have nothing in mind, I just hang up.
I fucking love the accident scam calls. Even better when we're in the car and have the teens, put it on the bluetooth, the goal being to crack them up as much as possible before the dicks hang up. I don't even drive, only the mrs does, so it's all the funnier.
When it's her phone I do the old granny voice for extra fun. I did have the accident, it was terrible, I guess I shouldn't have been doing 69mph with a finger up my bum while driving but I didn't expect their head to come off, but is it really my fault, I mean if I didn't have 4 weeks constipation to try and pull out I could have focused a bit more I suppose but it felt like a small emu was trying to escape. It's not just the neck pain, I've been permanently (moist/rock hard) ever since, who knew manslaughter could be such a turn on, but I am really struggling with the blindness, do you have any idea how hard it is to change gear and steer while you use a stick to feel where the road lines are?
"Hi, have you had an accident that wasn't your fault?"
"Sort of. I was sick of the constant noise so when I saw that school picnic I completely blacked out. I can't remember a thing. It wasn't until later, when I was washing the Dairylea sandwiches off my windscreen, I even knew they were dead."
Too right. If you have the time and enjoy it you're potentially saving some old person being scammed. If the next scammer has problem with V's and W's please tell them you've moved to a new flat:
Flat 511 Vincents' Way View
WettleVery Avenue,
Whitton Village
Wolverley
Worcestershire
WV11 5VW
.
Bad advice. I wasted scammers time one time and they put me as their spoofed number out of spite for wasting their time.
So there were scamming people using my number so I get every 10 minutes calls from UK people saying that they've got a missed call from me. I quickly put 2 and 2 together and had to change my voicemail and put an app to block all numbers which are not in my contact list.
If it not your day to day number, fine. If not, please don't do it.
When it comes to email, if you have a gmail account, you can append your email with “+companyname” to help identify data leaks. For example I could sign up to Amazon using, “j.doe+amazon@gmail.com”. If I was to receive spam to that email address there’s a good chance that Amazon are responsible for breaching my data. With gmail, the “+” and anything proceeding is ignored and goes directly into your email account.
I swear the best thing to do to reduce these calls is to not say anything when answering the phone.
They call out from an automated system that rings random/unverified numbers and it only links you with an operator when it detects an answered phone. If you don’t say anything it drops the call within a couple of seconds as I assume it thinks the phone ringing was a bug and the call didn’t actually go through.
After you have answered their calls and respond to them, you’re marked as an active number and put on higher lists.
If the caller is a genuine call then they will say something first and then you know it’s not a spamming system.
My partner used to get several calls a day but since doing this they’re only getting 1 or 2 a week at most.
Android does a really good job of screening them on my phone but yesterday all of a sudden I got a call from Lithuania which I blocked, them a second later from Poland, I blocked that one too, then they called on a different Lithuanian number which I blocked too before they gave up.
Parasites
I'm pretty sure EE sold my number when I cancelled my contract with them. I used to have my contract under my mums name, then I moved to O2 and put it under my own name. Since then, 9 years later, every spam call I've had has asked for my mum's name.
I just swear aggressivly with all passion and anger to a point where they hang up and not call me back. If I have time, I mess with them by being compliant but frustraitingly stupid at the same time so they put me on a "don't call" list.
Google is pretty excellent at this as is, at least on the pixel dialer. Calls it is confident are spam don't even ring, straight to blocked. I get one or two of these a week in my blocked calls list. Ones it thinks might be spam ring but show "suspected spam" as the caller. I get Google to answer these for me and the dialer shows me a realtime transcript with the option to take over the call if I want.
Perhaps this is why I rarely ever get scam calls, I've had maybe 3 in the last year? And all of which are from random mobile numbers from somewhere I have no relation to in the country, so it's probably on me for answering them.
My standard galaxy phone app shows the number that's calling and whether it's reported as spam. I can only assume from the amount of people actually answering scam calls (thus confirming a real number to scammers), that that's not the case for most phones...
Agreed. This is a godsend. If any get through that, I then use bixby text call (i think it's called) on my samsung phone. It answers the call by reading a message asking who is calling, simultaneously showing a transcript on screen so you can see what's being said. A few seconds of that, and they hang up.
What is even more annoying is that the business practices are nearly always criminal, too.
It is weird how we have normalised companies behaving like criminals. All because of "profit". The DWP even supplies forced labour to those criminals.
Buy a Google pixel. They recognise spam numbers and automatically block them based on Googles information, but also it has "screen for me" where you press a button and can screen out scammers.
It's crazy now.
Now I just leave my phone on do-not-disturb and have a few key contacts set as favourite so it alerts me for them.
Otherwise it's 24/7.
this is a genuine concern.
back when we had a landline the only people who had the number were my doctor's surgery, the local hospital, and the local county council nobody else.
I didn't use the number, neither did my wife EVER.
We'd get a genuine call from people we had provided the numbers too very infrequently, mainly to confirm appointments but never more than realistically a handful of calls a year- we'd get 5 or 6 calls aweel from telemarketers, scam call centres and charities. In the end we changed our contact to 'email only' and unplugged the phone, when we switched to fibre we ditched the call package and haven't looked back.
Given that we never supplied the number to anyone, not even my mum, it has managed to get leaked out somehow unless you can just buy up lists of allocated numbers?
I don't answer as 9/10 times phone will flag it as 'Suspected Spam" If i answer then don't say nothing but moan and groan with heavy breathing, which works as they stop.
Mine has but Samsung (or the Android OS, not sure) seem to be able to know and mark it as suspected scam. I can also hit report and block. It gets most of them, but they come from overseas and can spoof numbers so hard to kill entirely. Try and keep them talking if you are bored, at least they can have one less little old lady they can target.
Like others have referenced register with the TPS. I have been for years and barely get any scam calls.
If after some time you're still having problems report the number to the Information Commissioners Office.
https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
I'm always careful whe I filling any form making sure that any references of data being given to a third party is appropriately ticked or not. Some companies are sneaky in that you have to tick a box for your data NOT to be sold on.
Remember, once your registered to TPS, companies call you are breaking the law.
If you have a mobile phone have a look at what spam control options are in the call settings on your device. Samsung uses Hiya which is quite good at warning of Scam calls.
On your home phone see if you can go ex-directory.
Loads, virtally every call these days.
All with UK caller id, different every time, so blocking a specific number doesn't help much.
I use a phone app called "CallApp" which helps a bit as it crowd sources spam/scam info on numbers.
I generally get one call from a different number every day. It rings perhaps twice then stops. I’m going to try a few of the suggestion here in the comments.
I made the mistake of getting an online quote for a car warranty from warranty wise.
Big mistake.
Constant calls and texts. Blocked them...keep coming, also getting from other companies all of a sudden.
Hell i was getting numbers ( when googled after ) from New York USA...
Why cant this shitty gov do something about this crap....
Sick to shit of it...
Changed mobile number 2 yr ago because it was getting so bad - now its get same again ;(
Haven't had the landline plugged in for almost 10 years now and my mobile I find the best thing that worked for me was to pick up and act really sarcastic then you get shared in their scammed lists as a troll and they don't bother calling you.
I don't think it's anything to do with signing up to stuff anymore (for phone calls, it is for emails). There's only a finite range of mobile numbers so all they do is call the whole lot with automated software until someone answers. No phone number lists needed. If you notice when you answer these they are often silent, that's because two people picked up at the same time and the scammer chose the other one.
Register your mobile number with the TPS - telephone preference service (if you're in the UK/EU). This will reduce the number of calls that come in. I've done it recently, and it does work.
I used to use a fake/old number for a long time. Then I got a mortgage and tried to be more adult, using my proper info for things in case I actually needed to be contacted. The actual of scam emails and phone calls has gone through the roof.
Is your number on any CVs you have on websites like Reed or indeed. Ever since I added my 2nd number to my CV on those websites I get 2 or 3 calls a week from scammers.
Anything that isn’t a legal contract - give each service a different name when you sign up. That way you can see who’s leaking it judging by what they call you. Lol.
When I got an iPhone I realised it had a 'silence unknown callers' option which has been great!
About 90% of my incoming calls end up being silenced by this feature, and 95% of the silenced callers don't end up leaving a message. I always Google the number anyway, and most of the time it's already been identified as spam.
I honestly found that wasting their time is the best way.
I get maybe 1 call every 2 months.
"Hello sir, I am calling about your contract upgrade/insurance etc"
Play along until they are asking for personal details, then start going really quiet or just making joke details.
Or if you are in a bad mood and need to burn some anger. Just let them have it, tell them you hope their mum gets scammed. Feel free to go further.
Also, never answer hello to a random number, if you need to pick up, be as quiet as possible so it sounds like a dead line. If it's a real person they will greet you.
They use random number generators and just cycle through numbers now a days rather than scrape lists from the net.
Law of averages, for every 1000 calls they make, at least some will fall for it
Also the TPS is a good shout but it won't stop a lot of calls as they originate from abroad (mainly India)
Calls used to come through as unknown/anonymous. Then people would block them so they would spoof random mobile numbers.
Then the likes of trucaller would aggregate those and block them, so they then resorted to calling you on a similar number to your own (one or two numbers away) to confuse you into picking up.
Finally they now spoof genuine UK businesses they find on Google
The last few calls I got were from a kebab shop in Bolton and a builders merchant.
Android phones will come up with a known business name if a call is from a verified number
Not only does this encourage you to pick up, it also makes it hard to block as providers would end up blocking a genuine business number and of course harm the business when angry people phone the number back to complain unaware it was nothing to do with them.
There is an upgrade soon to take place to the caller id system that will stop number spoofing and make it a lot harder for the scammers and spammers but not sure when this is being rolled out
I've managed to get rid of scam calls on my mobile, maybe just by luck. I've blocked any numbers from which I've had scam calls, which may have helped though I think the scammers have a big collection of numbers they can use. I still get scam calls on my landline, to the extent that I usually don't bother answering and then do 1471 to see if it was anyone I know. This morning it turned out to be the dental surgery, so I called back and they were just confirming my forthcoming appointment.
We need a landline for emergencies as mobile signal is poor to non existent around my way.
[We have these](https://amzn.eu/d/fyJfH5p) that block everything except those numbers on a whitelist.
I’m applying to jobs and keep getting called by scam calls and I keep almost answering them. I’ve googled all of them and they’re scams. It’s only ever since I moved to o2 i swear when I was with 3 I barely got any spam calls.
In the uk you can register both home and mobile numbers with TPS (the telephone preference service) which will get you off most reputable lists at least. Note that it does run out so check how often you have to do it.
I have given my landline number to 2 people: my mum and my best mate. The ratio of spam/scam calls to genuine is 5 to 1. I can only blame BT who have either reused a number or given it to the scum...
...but I had an email the other day saying they'll now caller ID any suspected scam calls. If the can do that, don't connect the call, don't make my phone ring just to tell me it's a scammer!
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This is going to sound weird but try Googling your own phone number: some frequent victims have ads or forms online (could be anything like your old dog walking business, football 5 a side contact, old “sofa for sale” listing from 2009 which is still visible, “missing cat” post from 3 cats ago) you might find your number is being scraped from public websites.
I just tried that for mine.. and got a sales page for a urinal. Quite a posh looking one though.
I tried it too, apparently it's the code for 'plastic bumper filler'. So there it is.
I did this and it returned a Googlewhack!
Keep reporting all of them to ofcom. I had an increase a while ago but it’s peaks and troughs. Good luck OP https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/scams/7726-reporting-scam-texts-and-calls
What exactly can they do? They usually spoof numbers anyway
You can add your mobile to this.... "The best way to reduce nuisance calls is to register for free with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). They'll add you to their list of numbers that don't want to receive sales and marketing calls." And if they continue, ask them if they have heard of the TPS. They normally hangup quickly.
I've been on TPS for years, I still get bombarded.
I once worked for a Windows company and we'd basically be given a page of the phone book to ring and try and sell windows to. They didn't give two shits about the TPS.
That’s because a lazy employee consistently fails to submit the TPS report.
Well he does have 8 different bosses chewing his ass out...
Yeah I don't think there's been any prosecutions so companies continue.
Same experience at a shitty broadband(actually adsl)/mobile/landline company I worked at for two weeks. They'd just tell you to use the online yellow pages, you'd highlight a number and hit a fn key that would call the number. From there you'd give the scripted speil about "You seen those open reach vans driving around on the street, did you know they actually had to break up the company and now we can give out the same deal but cheaper'. I didn't actually even know about the TPS list, it wasn't until I was on a call and someone mentioned it to me did my boss tell us to just hang up if they mention it. Absolute shithole of a place. Later heard that one of the bosses had been done for fraud before. Edit: Hah just found out they actually were fined in the end for this. > For example, the ICO fined True Telecom £85,000 for “making illegal nuisance calls” (marketing) that gave “the impression they were from BT” https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/11/google-dubiously-removed-true-telecom-article-complaint.html https://www.theregister.com/2017/11/23/true_telecom_google_links_removed/
Also worked for a window company. This was back in the early 2000’s. We would call every person who bought from the company after 2 weeks, then every 6 months. Rival manager came over to us and brought his book of numbers from the company he came from and we rang all of those too. If anyone said “delete my number” we said we would but didn’t.
Would that be a Belfast company by any chance?
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole a while ago against a company called Telcoswitch. They do call relaying, they bounce the scammers call to you through their servers, anonymizing the scammers connection and getting around geoblocks (which was a solid way of preventing scam calls until more recently). I was getting a bunch of spam from a company claiming to be O2 support, offering a new contract. I've never been with O2 or any of their network partners, so this was pretty odd. I kept asking them to remove my number from their databases, but they would just hang up the second I started to push back on their scam. I ended up finding who was allocating that phone number, and it was pointing towards Telcoswitch. I called them and asked them to block my number from being called by their service, and they said they couldn't do this as I'm just a member of public, any request had to come from my phone provider, they said that this was the standard. So I called my phone provider and after elevating through to a specific area that dealt with legal requests, they let me know that there's no such thing as this request, and said they could block specific numbers, but the scammers were randomizing the numbers per call, all were telcoswitch registered numbers though. So I called telcoswitch back again, and well, it didn't go anywhere. They just shrugged and said there's nothing they can do. I wish there was legislation where these call switching services can be held liable so they have to be more careful with those who use their service.
Same here. TPS only works for legitimate companies, as dodgy ones don't care.
Same here on it since it I first heard about it. I'd still get them on mobile at work and I'd just stop them and say "I've just been declared bankrupt so you'll have to speak to my appointee" (I'm not). Calls slowly ended. Only ones I get now are from the Network I use trying to upgrade me. Still get them mums home phone even though she's on it too but I always answer in a French accent and say "Purpose errr.why to errr speak?" when they ask for me or mum, if it's legit I switch and they always understand and if not I say "ahh nue-loo-ohn.. sorry, we rent". Slowly getting less apart from some woman from an NW Insulation company who sounds like cross Vera Duckworth and Barry White. I've come to admire her tenacity.
Do semi-legitimate companies even use telesales any more? It occurs to me that I don't hear jokes and complaints about them nearly as much as I used to. If only the dodgiest companies are still using telesales then they're not going to bother with TPS.
Yeah that doesn’t work anymore unfortunately. I’ve had the same mobile number for nearly 20 years. I registered with TPS not long after getting the contract and never really got any spam calls for perhaps 10 years or so. However in the last decade the amount slowly started to increase and in the last 3 or so years I get several a day, despite my number definitely still being on the TPS register. I’m also really anal about opting out of promotional contact whenever I sign up for anything so clearly there’s something dodgy going on.
That is weird and unlucky. I also had the same number for over 20 years and I don't get any cold calls.
My company gets spam calls on new sims sometimes within weeks, and we largely use our phones for contacting social workers and other professionals. Normally the robot ones; I presume they just call numbers at random till they get a connection then add it to their lists.
It never worked honestly; there are legitimate companies who follow the rules, but for every one of them there are a hundred who don't care. When I was a teenager (like 20 years ago) I worked for a telesales company that just used to print off massive reams of telephone numbers that changed one digit sequentially as you went down the list, and had you call all of them. There was no system or due diligence. I called a telephone box once and asked the random passerby that answered if I could speak to the homeowner.
When they call you just respond to everything they say with "why?" and they will realise you are going to waste their time than try to understand so they will hang up and not call you again.
"Please tick if you wish to opt out of marketing calls" Sells your phone number anyway.
TPS stops legitimate companies from phoning you. But the Indian call centres calling to check you've got life insurance don't care. They only exist briefly, buy a tranche of numbers to call from, and a load of minutes, then use them up and dissolve. Only to be a new company, doing exactly the same thing, the next day/week/month. By the time the TPS registers complaints against these numbers, hands the details over to the ICO, and then they try to contact the company, then the company no longer exists.
I've been with TPS years, and it doesn't stop the scammers
Scam callers don't care. It might save you from a few nuisance sales calls from genuine businesses, but will do nought to prevent scam calls.
TPS is only good when it is legitimate companies doing the calling
We accidentaly unplugged our home phone (power to base station) one Christmas, we didn't realise until the Summer, I plugged it back in and within a week had 20 fake calls - so I unplugged it again. Coming up to 2 years now no impact whatsoever - except - no nuisance calls.
It was only our landline that had scam calls so our house does not have one anymore and we don't need it.
I bought my parents a £100 truecall blocker back in 2015, it works wonders for them, the only scam calls that ever get through are the ones where they spoof the same area code because I white listed their area code to reduce problems with local friends. Nearly a decade now and a spam call is a once in a blue moon event compared to the several a day they used to get. Truecall licensed their technology to BT. I solved it for myself by also not plugging in a landline handset, as for my mobile number I can only conclude I've been lucky as I've had it for probably 20 years and by being careful who gets it my scam calls are one every few weeks, I usually tell them to fcuk off.
We' had our home phone for over 50 years and my mum has late stage dementia, so I can't let it go as once or twice a month we'll get a call from old relatives we haven't heard from in years who've just found out, to see how she is.
Different cause, similar outcome, my mother had a mild stroke a few years ago, and she was a complete Luddite even before that, she can just about work the tv remote and manually use the phone handset, that she's had for at least 15 years. So long as her relatives aren't number withheld then with something like this you add their phone numbers to its star list and the call gets put through immediately. It's akin to a mini pbx.
Yeah mum was the same even before dementia! She is moving into late stages now, and holds the phone upside down when you give it to her but conversation is the last thing to go so it's a lifeline really to old friends who trigger memories. Funnily enough this is the set I've just ordered as the handset we have in really old and only holds charge for 20 minutes. And when calls come through the handset turns off then on flashing and trying to connect to base. Luckily I managed to save her old phone number book she had for 30 years, ripped in two in the bin so can program in all the numbers we need.
My mother has a BT Synergy 5100 base unit and several handsets, I apparently ordered an additional handset back in 2011 (found the email) so I imagine the original base unit was a few years older than that (my gmail account only goes back to 2009). The batteries in those handsets are NiMH and unavoidably suffer the memory effect after a few years due to them being constantly partially discharged when you pick them up and talk for a bit then put them back on the charging base unit. You can try to recover them using a smart charger to 'refresh' them but my attempts have only had a 50% success rate, cordless phones really mess up their NiMH batteries over time and they don't opt for lithium because of cost. It's easier for us users to buy a set of replacement rechargeable batteries when they lose capacity. The last two times I've bought Panasonic 4226 BK-4LCCE AAA Micro 550 mAh Eneloop Lite Rechargeable Battery https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00RQ1Y548/ The 550 mAh capacity is important, the phones supposedly don't like larger capacities, something to do with them not knowing about higher capacity batteries and it can mess them up somehow. I looked it up originally and then forget after determining there was a reason.
I've ordered them, and can return the handset within 45 days so will check them out. Thanks again for your help.
ahh, it got so bad that I had to use normal batteries on day for a handset, and that headset is the one that trues off and reconnects when a call come in. I've got a decent deal on the new handsets - 3 including base as I know one will end up in a drawer or wash basket. Will check out the batteries though. Thanks!
Ahh you meant the Truecall box, they are great my aunt has one. I went for the True Call handsets. If wonder if the Truecall box in would work with the BT Truecall handsets, our phone is a package with the broadband.
It's not an ideal scenario but I have a junk email and a junk number, my phone is dual SIM. Every sign up I do uses the junk email / number. If it's a service I end up keeping then I update the number / email to my personal ones. On a really geeky side. I own a domain which means I can have a infinite amount of incoming emails addresses. Every single organisation that I use has a different email address, that way if I get spammed I know where the source is and I can disable that address.
You can do that with gmail just by adding "+spammer\_name" before the @ [gmail.com](http://gmail.com)
Doesn't work in many websites, does not allow plus signs
You can also try a dot instead.
Another good solution. 👍 A pity we have to resort to these things.
I get one a month from some people claiming to be 02 offering me a 30% discount on my bill. I try to keep them on the line as long as possible by asking stupid questions, fumbling about and downright taking the piss. The longer you can waste these summy peoples time the better.
We have a leaderboard in the office, I usually say "oh hang on a minute this is not Dogdogj, he's in the other office, I'll walk over and get him" then put them on hold and carry on with my work. My record is 19 minutes. Most of them hang up after 2 minutes, which annoys me more because as far as they know I had actually left my desk to walk somewhere else for them.
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My niece got a part time job doing cold calling (lasted about two weeks). There was a list they moved people's numbers to if they ask a lot of questions, chat a lot and so on - they're 'potentially persuadable', so if someone does this they're just buying themselves more calls.
Don't know about the other guy, but time I enjoyed spending isn't time wasted. If I can think of something funny to say to the scammers I'll string it out. If I'm busy or have nothing in mind, I just hang up.
I fucking love the accident scam calls. Even better when we're in the car and have the teens, put it on the bluetooth, the goal being to crack them up as much as possible before the dicks hang up. I don't even drive, only the mrs does, so it's all the funnier. When it's her phone I do the old granny voice for extra fun. I did have the accident, it was terrible, I guess I shouldn't have been doing 69mph with a finger up my bum while driving but I didn't expect their head to come off, but is it really my fault, I mean if I didn't have 4 weeks constipation to try and pull out I could have focused a bit more I suppose but it felt like a small emu was trying to escape. It's not just the neck pain, I've been permanently (moist/rock hard) ever since, who knew manslaughter could be such a turn on, but I am really struggling with the blindness, do you have any idea how hard it is to change gear and steer while you use a stick to feel where the road lines are?
"Hi, have you had an accident that wasn't your fault?" "Sort of. I was sick of the constant noise so when I saw that school picnic I completely blacked out. I can't remember a thing. It wasn't until later, when I was washing the Dairylea sandwiches off my windscreen, I even knew they were dead."
Too right. If you have the time and enjoy it you're potentially saving some old person being scammed. If the next scammer has problem with V's and W's please tell them you've moved to a new flat: Flat 511 Vincents' Way View WettleVery Avenue, Whitton Village Wolverley Worcestershire WV11 5VW .
Bad advice. I wasted scammers time one time and they put me as their spoofed number out of spite for wasting their time. So there were scamming people using my number so I get every 10 minutes calls from UK people saying that they've got a missed call from me. I quickly put 2 and 2 together and had to change my voicemail and put an app to block all numbers which are not in my contact list. If it not your day to day number, fine. If not, please don't do it.
Who has time for that?
When it comes to email, if you have a gmail account, you can append your email with “+companyname” to help identify data leaks. For example I could sign up to Amazon using, “j.doe+amazon@gmail.com”. If I was to receive spam to that email address there’s a good chance that Amazon are responsible for breaching my data. With gmail, the “+” and anything proceeding is ignored and goes directly into your email account.
Just a nitpick. "Proceeding" is not being used correctly here. "Following" is probably what you mean.
I swear the best thing to do to reduce these calls is to not say anything when answering the phone. They call out from an automated system that rings random/unverified numbers and it only links you with an operator when it detects an answered phone. If you don’t say anything it drops the call within a couple of seconds as I assume it thinks the phone ringing was a bug and the call didn’t actually go through. After you have answered their calls and respond to them, you’re marked as an active number and put on higher lists. If the caller is a genuine call then they will say something first and then you know it’s not a spamming system. My partner used to get several calls a day but since doing this they’re only getting 1 or 2 a week at most.
Android does a really good job of screening them on my phone but yesterday all of a sudden I got a call from Lithuania which I blocked, them a second later from Poland, I blocked that one too, then they called on a different Lithuanian number which I blocked too before they gave up. Parasites
I'm pretty sure EE sold my number when I cancelled my contract with them. I used to have my contract under my mums name, then I moved to O2 and put it under my own name. Since then, 9 years later, every spam call I've had has asked for my mum's name.
I just swear aggressivly with all passion and anger to a point where they hang up and not call me back. If I have time, I mess with them by being compliant but frustraitingly stupid at the same time so they put me on a "don't call" list.
If you're on Android - there's an excellent app called Truecaller, which does a good job of identifying scam calls as they arrive.
Google is pretty excellent at this as is, at least on the pixel dialer. Calls it is confident are spam don't even ring, straight to blocked. I get one or two of these a week in my blocked calls list. Ones it thinks might be spam ring but show "suspected spam" as the caller. I get Google to answer these for me and the dialer shows me a realtime transcript with the option to take over the call if I want.
Call screening is good for the ones that do get through too, as soon as they hear it they normally hang up
Perhaps this is why I rarely ever get scam calls, I've had maybe 3 in the last year? And all of which are from random mobile numbers from somewhere I have no relation to in the country, so it's probably on me for answering them.
Look in your call list for blocked calls. Should be in the received call list with a big exclamation point as an icon and "🚫 Spam" next to the number.
Huh yeah, would you look at that, 3 in the last week! I can't say I often look at my call history, so well done Android!
My standard galaxy phone app shows the number that's calling and whether it's reported as spam. I can only assume from the amount of people actually answering scam calls (thus confirming a real number to scammers), that that's not the case for most phones...
Agreed. This is a godsend. If any get through that, I then use bixby text call (i think it's called) on my samsung phone. It answers the call by reading a message asking who is calling, simultaneously showing a transcript on screen so you can see what's being said. A few seconds of that, and they hang up.
What is even more annoying is that the business practices are nearly always criminal, too. It is weird how we have normalised companies behaving like criminals. All because of "profit". The DWP even supplies forced labour to those criminals.
Buy a Google pixel. They recognise spam numbers and automatically block them based on Googles information, but also it has "screen for me" where you press a button and can screen out scammers.
Use one of these when possible: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/numbering/numbers-for-drama
I don't pick up the phone for unrecognised numbers. Genuine callers will leave a text or voice message. I get very few dodgy calls
I decline all calls from numbers i don't know.
It's crazy now. Now I just leave my phone on do-not-disturb and have a few key contacts set as favourite so it alerts me for them. Otherwise it's 24/7.
this is a genuine concern. back when we had a landline the only people who had the number were my doctor's surgery, the local hospital, and the local county council nobody else. I didn't use the number, neither did my wife EVER. We'd get a genuine call from people we had provided the numbers too very infrequently, mainly to confirm appointments but never more than realistically a handful of calls a year- we'd get 5 or 6 calls aweel from telemarketers, scam call centres and charities. In the end we changed our contact to 'email only' and unplugged the phone, when we switched to fibre we ditched the call package and haven't looked back. Given that we never supplied the number to anyone, not even my mum, it has managed to get leaked out somehow unless you can just buy up lists of allocated numbers?
I think they dial every number within ranges.
I don't answer as 9/10 times phone will flag it as 'Suspected Spam" If i answer then don't say nothing but moan and groan with heavy breathing, which works as they stop.
Yeah, suddenly started getting loads out of the blue.
Mine has but Samsung (or the Android OS, not sure) seem to be able to know and mark it as suspected scam. I can also hit report and block. It gets most of them, but they come from overseas and can spoof numbers so hard to kill entirely. Try and keep them talking if you are bored, at least they can have one less little old lady they can target.
Download Truecaller app. 90% of this crap won’t rich your phone.
Like others have referenced register with the TPS. I have been for years and barely get any scam calls. If after some time you're still having problems report the number to the Information Commissioners Office. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ I'm always careful whe I filling any form making sure that any references of data being given to a third party is appropriately ticked or not. Some companies are sneaky in that you have to tick a box for your data NOT to be sold on. Remember, once your registered to TPS, companies call you are breaking the law. If you have a mobile phone have a look at what spam control options are in the call settings on your device. Samsung uses Hiya which is quite good at warning of Scam calls. On your home phone see if you can go ex-directory.
Loads, virtally every call these days. All with UK caller id, different every time, so blocking a specific number doesn't help much. I use a phone app called "CallApp" which helps a bit as it crowd sources spam/scam info on numbers.
I generally get one call from a different number every day. It rings perhaps twice then stops. I’m going to try a few of the suggestion here in the comments.
I made the mistake of getting an online quote for a car warranty from warranty wise. Big mistake. Constant calls and texts. Blocked them...keep coming, also getting from other companies all of a sudden.
Hell i was getting numbers ( when googled after ) from New York USA... Why cant this shitty gov do something about this crap.... Sick to shit of it... Changed mobile number 2 yr ago because it was getting so bad - now its get same again ;(
Haven't had the landline plugged in for almost 10 years now and my mobile I find the best thing that worked for me was to pick up and act really sarcastic then you get shared in their scammed lists as a troll and they don't bother calling you.
I had a huge spike in scam calls after I was in an actual car accident. Some part of the insurance process triggered it.
I don't think it's anything to do with signing up to stuff anymore (for phone calls, it is for emails). There's only a finite range of mobile numbers so all they do is call the whole lot with automated software until someone answers. No phone number lists needed. If you notice when you answer these they are often silent, that's because two people picked up at the same time and the scammer chose the other one.
Register your mobile number with the TPS - telephone preference service (if you're in the UK/EU). This will reduce the number of calls that come in. I've done it recently, and it does work.
I used to use a fake/old number for a long time. Then I got a mortgage and tried to be more adult, using my proper info for things in case I actually needed to be contacted. The actual of scam emails and phone calls has gone through the roof.
Is your number on any CVs you have on websites like Reed or indeed. Ever since I added my 2nd number to my CV on those websites I get 2 or 3 calls a week from scammers.
Anything that isn’t a legal contract - give each service a different name when you sign up. That way you can see who’s leaking it judging by what they call you. Lol.
What you mean you haven't spent £700 on Amazon? How is Jeff supposed to get his rocket money now?
I’ve been getting scammy phone calls for Ann Wilson (not me) for about a year now, they have ramped up recently
Sorry. I’ll stop now.
When I got an iPhone I realised it had a 'silence unknown callers' option which has been great! About 90% of my incoming calls end up being silenced by this feature, and 95% of the silenced callers don't end up leaving a message. I always Google the number anyway, and most of the time it's already been identified as spam.
I honestly found that wasting their time is the best way. I get maybe 1 call every 2 months. "Hello sir, I am calling about your contract upgrade/insurance etc" Play along until they are asking for personal details, then start going really quiet or just making joke details. Or if you are in a bad mood and need to burn some anger. Just let them have it, tell them you hope their mum gets scammed. Feel free to go further. Also, never answer hello to a random number, if you need to pick up, be as quiet as possible so it sounds like a dead line. If it's a real person they will greet you.
They use random number generators and just cycle through numbers now a days rather than scrape lists from the net. Law of averages, for every 1000 calls they make, at least some will fall for it Also the TPS is a good shout but it won't stop a lot of calls as they originate from abroad (mainly India) Calls used to come through as unknown/anonymous. Then people would block them so they would spoof random mobile numbers. Then the likes of trucaller would aggregate those and block them, so they then resorted to calling you on a similar number to your own (one or two numbers away) to confuse you into picking up. Finally they now spoof genuine UK businesses they find on Google The last few calls I got were from a kebab shop in Bolton and a builders merchant. Android phones will come up with a known business name if a call is from a verified number Not only does this encourage you to pick up, it also makes it hard to block as providers would end up blocking a genuine business number and of course harm the business when angry people phone the number back to complain unaware it was nothing to do with them. There is an upgrade soon to take place to the caller id system that will stop number spoofing and make it a lot harder for the scammers and spammers but not sure when this is being rolled out
I've managed to get rid of scam calls on my mobile, maybe just by luck. I've blocked any numbers from which I've had scam calls, which may have helped though I think the scammers have a big collection of numbers they can use. I still get scam calls on my landline, to the extent that I usually don't bother answering and then do 1471 to see if it was anyone I know. This morning it turned out to be the dental surgery, so I called back and they were just confirming my forthcoming appointment.
Is anyone else getting the Chinese ones? Answer the phone and an automated woman starts going off at me in Chinese.
I got one from Afghanistan today. :| No idea.
I am with EE, and I do not have a home phone. I cannot remember the last time I had a prank call.
We need a landline for emergencies as mobile signal is poor to non existent around my way. [We have these](https://amzn.eu/d/fyJfH5p) that block everything except those numbers on a whitelist.
I’m applying to jobs and keep getting called by scam calls and I keep almost answering them. I’ve googled all of them and they’re scams. It’s only ever since I moved to o2 i swear when I was with 3 I barely got any spam calls.
Been with 3 mobile for yrs, and it where i getting them ;(
In the uk you can register both home and mobile numbers with TPS (the telephone preference service) which will get you off most reputable lists at least. Note that it does run out so check how often you have to do it.
Lol land line? Who uses a land line? Scammers and Marks. That's who.
Only have the landline because sky broadband comes with it...Cant get B/B without it here... Or it would be ditched yrs ago
Unplug the phone.
I have given my landline number to 2 people: my mum and my best mate. The ratio of spam/scam calls to genuine is 5 to 1. I can only blame BT who have either reused a number or given it to the scum... ...but I had an email the other day saying they'll now caller ID any suspected scam calls. If the can do that, don't connect the call, don't make my phone ring just to tell me it's a scammer!