dodgy phone calls

[Yaka]

Rite i have often heard of people who hand over their details to utter strangers who are running scams and then get ripped off.


bout 5pm my phone rang and as i wasn’t home my sister picked it up, someone with a very bad accent was asking for me and the guy claimed he knew me , my sis asked who it was that was calling me, after repeatedly asking who was calling the guy, the guy would ask for me in response after me sis got angry the guy on the phone said royal air or something similar then hung up. When i got home she told me what happened and said it sounded like an over seas call and told me not to give my details to anyone calling me.

Should i be scarred? apart from a couple pf releatives over seas i know no one out side the country.

 

[S-Gray]

Could just be someone whos playing a bit of a prank on you...

if it was a bad accent maybe it was someone who was immitating a nationality but not doing well?

Did she/you think of dialing 1471 to see the number?

 

[Yaka]

yeah me sister tried but siad it was blocked

 

[Sir Frizz]

Don't be scared, it's probably some twat trying to sell something, in which you may have let your number slip. If it keeps up, inform the police and issue a harassment claim...or something.

 

[Tom]

next time press a few buttons on the phone to make some beeps, say 'tracking activated', and let them do the talking. That's the advice I got from BT when I had a similar problem with silent phone calls.

 

[mank!]

Except the phonecalls aren't silent

It's probablly just a random cold caller trying to sell you something. I get them all the time, and often they're foreigners (some callcentres are based in India I believe) and if you try 1471 it just says you can't get the number.

 

[Maljonic]

If he calls back, say you want three dozen boxes of the stuff by nine a.m. tomorrow pronto; or you'll come over there an kick his arse... then hang up.

 

[old.ignus]

I got a phone call from an american woman once claiming that I'd won a competition I'd entered and would recieve a free holiday, "Could we have your details please?" she asked, "can you bollocks" I asked and put the phone down. A few seconds later I got a call about double glazing, and then one about mobile phones. This phone has been unplugged since then.

 

[mank!]

I just hang up when I ask them who they are.

 

[Yoni]

if you ring and complain to bt they give you a number to ring which takes you off all advertising lists iirc

 

[Maljonic]

The funniest one is when BT phone you up and say, 'Incoming call from BT, please hold the line.' That really cracks me up; they call me and put me on hold! Of course I put the phone down.

 

[mank!]

Originally posted by Y0ni
if you ring and complain to bt they give you a number to ring which takes you off all advertising lists iirc

Doesn't work My number's ex-directory and I get two or three a day usually.

 

[Summo]

Sounds like it could have been a sales call from Ryan Air?

 

[Yaka]

thats what i thought but me sis says the accent like some from afrika ra rather than an irish one. would speak english. a fair few people round here have been scammed with one or two geting calls in which people have been told all thier detials to them and the person then tell em only thing is missing is the passport number an bank stuff. the local paper has been full of thing like that over the past few months.

any ways called the coppers and they told me to invest in a shredding machine just in case and have givien me a number to call staright away when this person calls me.

 

[WPKenny]

There's something called Telephone Preference Service. It buts you on a list of people that don't want to receive these type of calls. These people don't want to waste their time paying staff to ring people who've already said in advance they're not interested. Ask BT about it or something. I've done it for our house and in the past year we've got...hmm..NO junk calls.

EDIT:
Oh and turn off CLI for your number. When we make outgoing calls our number appears as "Private Number". Companyies grab your number that way too. Of course a lot of ISP's rely on you having your CLI. It took me a while to figure out why a dial-up I was trying to use when our dsl went down was rejecting us. You just tell your PC to put a code in to enable CLI for that call only.

 

[Yoni]

Originally posted by mank!
Doesn't work My number's ex-directory and I get two or three a day usually.

the number worked for me - we were getting between 10 / 20 dropped calls a night I rang to complain they gave me a number saying it is prolly call centers trying to sell you stuff - ring this number and it should sort it out and hey bingo no more annoying calls

 

[mank!]

Perhaps it's my ntl-ness :\

 

[GDW]

Sounds to me like it was Xavier and one of his scams

 

[mank!]

subtle

 

[Any]

Register online at http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tpsr/html/default.asp

 

[Gumbo]

I understand cold calling centre software now is dialling, say, 30 numbers at once, then putting them through to an operater as soon as they are connected. when there are no more operaters and you answer it just rings off. This is the reason given to me for a whole bunch of times when I've picked up the phone recently to just hear it go click and then silence.

This practice should be instantly outlawed and anyone caught using such a system castrated/womb ripped out with a garden rake.

Also after trying all the clever responses to window sales calls and the like, such as trying to sell them something back, pretending to be portugese etc. I now just say, 'Fuck Off!' and put down the phone. It's oddly satisfying, and the, 'They're only a poor teenager with an evening job' sympathy motherfuckers can kiss my arse!!!

 

[Daffeh]

Originally posted by Gumbo
I understand cold calling centre software now is dialling, say, 30 numbers at once, then putting them through to an operater as soon as they are connected. when there are no more operaters and you answer it just rings off. This is the reason given to me for a whole bunch of times when I've picked up the phone recently to just hear it go click and then silence.

so thats how they do it...i get pissed off having to go answer the phone only for it to go dead.

i also hate when they know your name...so i think they might be someone important for my dad and tell them to ring later....then find out it was for bloody windows, or selling some other bollox.

 

[Big G]

Speaking from call centre experience, they may be told not to disclose who's calling unless they are actually speaking to that person. The internet bank i work for are instructed not to disclose to someone who's calling - if the person isn't available, they suggest to call back later.

I think it's rude, offensive and invasive.

Gaz

 

[1tchy trigger]

Originally posted by Gumbo
This is the reason given to me for a whole bunch of times when I've picked up the phone recently to just hear it go click and then silence.

...or have you ever considered that your wife/girlfriend is having an affair?

 

[Gumbo]

Uh Oh

 

[icemaiden]

The reason you sometimes get a dead line is because the dialler system and the computer systems that the ppl calling use work slightly out of line with each other. By the time someone in call centre hears what to them is the first ring, it's actually been ringing for 2mins or so on the other end of the line. If it's a sales call then by law they have to disclose who they are and what they want within the first 25 secs of the call, or they can get fined.
As for phoning BT up and asking for cold calling to be stopped - i don't quite see how that would work as the data comes mostly from catalogue companies that sell the data on to call centres with BT having no control over the call centres, the data and in a lot of cases the customer. The list thingy however does work.

 

[Xtro]

On a side note - try asking Directory Enquiries for "the Occupier" in Huddersfield.

A man changed his name by deed poll to T H E Occupier as he was constantly pissed off with letters addressed to that name. He lives in the Wonderful Wurzel Peace Pond too btw.