So I had a car accident about a year and a half ago - it wasn't my fault and I suffered whiplash from the accident which meant I had to take a few days off work. I claimed personal injury compensation through my insurance at the time and received the money just a couple of months after the accident. However since then I have received the odd phone call from companies saying I'm eligible for compensation yadda yadda....each time I tell them I have already claimed and that's it. Recently though these calls have become more and more frequent to the point where I can get 7 or 8 calls a day. What makes it worse is that they are from a private number so I am unable to block them (as far as I know anyway). I don't know if they are all from the same company as I rarely answer them, but I have on the odd occasion to tell them (politely) to f*** off and stop calling me however that seems to work for about 1 day and then the calls start again. This has been going on for around 2 months now. Is there anything I can do to stop these calls or am I resigned to having to change my phone number? I really don't want to have to do that as I have had the same number for about 10 years and getting the new number to all my family, friends and work contacts would be a real pain.
I spoke with these people not long ago and since doing this, all dodgy/scam text messages/calls have stopped. http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html
I get nuisance calls about 4-5 times a day, the only thing we could do was get caller ID and not answer the phone if we didn't recognize the number Occasionally I answer some for fun, my particular favourite is the "Hello sir we're calling from windows" I either play the "Does my typewriter have windows" or "How can my double glazing get a virus" till they hang up on me.
I second suragh's recommendation, I use TPS for all my numbers and whenever I get a call from a marketing department I simply say: "Sorry, you do not have permission to use this number, it is part of the telephone preference service. Please remove my number from your records. Goodbye." I rarely here back from the same scam and the scams that do come through are infrequent, less than one a week. If I do receive a call from a similar type of promotion I make sure not to let them speak insisting on getting their name, company they work for and location so I can report them for illegally using my phone number for a marketing/sales call. I guarantee that you'll never hear back from them if you take those details and threaten to report them for their illegal activity.
TPS doesn't solve everything. We've been registered with them for as long as I can remember and we still get nuisance calls. IIRC TPS can't do anything to companies outside the UK. Check with your provider, you may be able to block all private numbers with a setting somewhere, I know we can and we're with TalkTalk. Maybe also try telling them that you're no longer living at the address and you're Mr Smith. If they ask to speak to you by name, just ask who's calling and what it's with regards to. When they tell you, inform them that they've already called and you've told them that the person in question has moved and you're Mr Smith. Might f**k up their records a bit.
I don't even have my landline plugged in for this very reason. It's purely there to afford me access to the world wide web. Anyone who needs me can get me on my mobile.
This is on my mobile line BTW. I have registered it with TPS now so we shall see if that does anything.
If they try to tell you your TPS subscription has run out, they're lying. Business have to re-register every 3 months, households are registered for life.
Have had the same thing for months ppi or accident claim I found the only sure fire was is to be so rude and abusive they wont call you back. Even had one I had to be so rude to his supervisor phoned me back for insulting his employees to witch he got insulted and have never heard back from them again.
I stuck my head through the phone and bollocked the face off a foreign nuisance caller yesterday afternoon after getting a survey call every day for a fortnight without fail between 4-5PM. It's 6 now and he hasn't called yet today, so I think he got the message. Malc is right, be as rude and abusive as possible. They will get the message.
When they call for windows and doors I just tell them I live under a rock! It's quite annoying, so we just let the phone ring, or pickup and hangup. It's gotten pretty ridiculous, sadly my parents won't allow us to get rid of the landline since my dad doesn't own / use a cell phone / a lot of family and friends do still call our home phone.
Abusive responses are why most telemarketing is now done by robot. Advertisers know we hate them for calling, but still they come (Uullah!). I now have a phone that doesn't even ring for withheld or international calls. If any do get through, I tell them (In my best BBC accent), "I'm terribly sorry old chap. I'm afraid I don't speak a word of English.", then hang up. This can be expanded by feeding "I don't speak English" into Google Translate and picking any language at random to use. Although one time I got a guy calling me back & getting abusive, so I wound him up something rotten. Once he'd gotten a full head of steam going, I quietly said "Did you know your supervisor is standing right behind you?". At this point the line went dead.
I just say "This is a U.S. Government phone line. Remove this number from your calling lists." and hang up. Never recieved a second call, just adjust for your locality.
Getting at least one a day on the home phone, also get the odd one one my mobile (as well as the odd SMS), and on my company mobile. All are registered with TPS, but these companies don't seem to care - TPS have no teeth. If anyone can come up with a real solution I will salute you.
Did you hear about the guy a few months ago who successfully sued a company for nuisance phone calls? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20068927 I suggest you play along next time they call, find out the name of the company(ies), an address or phone number, then lodge a case with the small claims court for the cost of your time dealing with their phone calls.
I have caller ID so my current answering method is "Your through to Dave at Human Resources how can I help" That works. Or answer as telesales etc they get annoyed really quickly when you try to sell them products.
TPS and Silent call are only any good if the people calling you are from the UK as 99% are not in the UK now they are usless
I use the foolproof method of not plugging in the landline, and blocking the numbers of any unwanted calls to my mobile using the standard Android functionality the first time they call me. I never, ever get any spam calls any more. It's utterly foolproof as far as I'm concerned.
Except when they hide their numbers so you are unable to block them...unless you can block calls from private numbers somehow?
You certainly can There are a number of apps for Android that make it very easy, I'm sure the same applies to other systems too.
