Yet another new scam

[Grebe]

we had new one today.  Strange number on the caller ID, (they never look right).

 

Message starts " This is acall from VISA, a £600 debit has just been made on your card please press 1 to contact us...

 

 

[smiler]

Not a scam but a cold caller....

While visiting my mother in the UK I answered a call from a chap with an Indian accent a while back......

Him...  We are installing house insulation in your area with large discounts. May I ask if you have loft insulation?

Me...  Yes thanks

Him... May I ask how thick it is?

Me... About 8 foot

Him... That's not really thick enough sir, you need at least 20cm

Me... F**k off

Click

[Taslim]

You'r more polite than me.

[Jennifer McM]

There must be a way to stop these calls, wonder if somehow it's up to the phone provider?

 

Had one today, she told me she was sad to hear I'd had a car accident! Must admit, the way I yelled obscenities through the phone, must have hurt her ears! 

 

 

[MtB]

7 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

There must be a way to stop these calls, wonder if somehow it's up to the phone provider?

 

Had one today, she told me she was sad to hear I'd had a car accident! Must admit, the way I yelled obscenities through the phone, must have hurt her ears! 

 

 

 

Its the same as with the political threads on here.

 

If you don't like them, don't pick the phone up 

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

7 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

There must be a way to stop these calls, wonder if somehow it's up to the phone provider?

 

Had one today, she told me she was sad to hear I'd had a car accident! Must admit, the way I yelled obscenities through the phone, must have hurt her ears! 

 

 

Of course there is but what government would make the telecos jointly libel for damage caused by the messages they take money to pass on. Likewise with web or email based scams or sale of faulty/fake goods. It is not going to happen.

[Jennifer McM]

5 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Its the same as with the political threads on here.

 

If you don't like them, don't pick the phone up 

 

 

But, but, but..... I might miss something 

[Jennifer McM]

7 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Of course there is but what government would make the telecos jointly libel for damage caused by the messages they take money to pass on. Likewise with web or email based scams or sale of faulty/fake goods. It is not going to happen.

Yes, you're right!

 

If I were to blow a loud whistle down the phone, for sure I'd be done for damaging someone's eardrum. It's the way of world these days 

[Tony Brooks]

3 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

Yes, you're right!

 

If I were to blow a loud whistle down the phone, for sure I'd be done for damaging someone's eardrum. It's the way of world these days 

I find that I am becoming more and more sceptical as the years go by and to be honest would be more likely to turn a real bargain down because I have learned simply not to trust any person I do not personally know, company, organisation etc. far too many seem to think half truths and downright lies are acceptable these days.

[Murflynn]

when my wife answers the call on our landline and the caller from an unknown number asks to speak to Mrs....... the wife says "oh! she died".  The caller usually immediately disconnects without even expressing any condolences.

 

 

[Tumshie]

56 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

There must be a way to stop these calls, wonder if somehow it's up to the phone provider?

 

Had one today, she told me she was sad to hear I'd had a car accident! Must admit, the way I yelled obscenities through the phone, must have hurt her ears! 

 

 

I don't use the landline in the house for telephone calls just broadbands so what I'm about to suggest only works with a mobile I assume. 

 

If I get a phone call from a number I don't know I don't answer it, I don't have an answer thingy active so I expect if its a genuine call I'll get a text; but I google the number straight away and if it's one that has been used for cold calling/texting or scams they often show up on a search or on a 'rate this number' type site, if they do I just block them, apple make this really easy with and iPhone but I assume android phones have something similar. 

 

I went through a faze where I got a steady stream of these scam calls and texts and I googled and blocked all them; they all buy and share from the same lists and those lists are worthless if the contain numbers that are inactive, because I never answered the phone my number was classed as inactive and I stopped getting the calls and I haven't had one in years now. 

 

It might feel good to have some witty comeback for the annoying person on the other end of the phone but the less you say the better.

 

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Tumshie
to remove and extra word and because I can't spell

[MtB]

1 hour ago, Jennifer McM said:

Yes, you're right!

 

If I were to blow a loud whistle down the phone, for sure I'd be done for damaging someone's eardrum. It's the way of world these days 

 

I doubt it. The compression electronics would moderate the volume down to that of normal speech.

 

 

[zenataomm]

 

[nb Innisfree]

We're still getting calls for my FIL who died in 2010 aged 83, I wonder how long it will go on. They get his surname correct but not his Christian name. 

[magictime]

7 hours ago, Jennifer McM said:

Yes, you're right!

 

If I were to blow a loud whistle down the phone, for sure I'd be done for damaging someone's eardrum. It's the way of world these days 

And you try stabbing a postman's hand when he puts a piece of junk mail through your letterbox and see what happens! Goddamn bleeding-heart do-gooder pinko liberal lefties with their so-called 'human rights'.

[Mac of Cygnet]

8 hours ago, Jennifer McM said:

There must be a way to stop these calls, wonder if somehow it's up to the phone provider?

 

Had one today, she told me she was sad to hear I'd had a car accident! Must admit, the way I yelled obscenities through the phone, must have hurt her ears! 

 

 

 

Our phone provider (Plusnet) provides a free feature (Call Protect) which screens out almost all these calls.  We now get about one a month.  You can tailor it to your specific needs, but we just let it work 'using their regularly updated list of unwanted/scam numbers.

[nbfiresprite]

2 hours ago, nb Innisfree said:

We're still getting calls for my FIL who died in 2010 aged 83, I wonder how long it will go on. They get his surname correct but not his Christian name. 

I'm still getting junk mail addressed to my parents, they been dead for over 20 years. Even when marked 'Deceased return to sender' and posted back. I had a letter from the DWP requiring that she attends a 'Back to Work appointment', she had died two years before.    

[pearley]

7 hours ago, nbfiresprite said:

I'm still getting junk mail addressed to my parents, they been dead for over 20 years. Even when marked 'Deceased return to sender' and posted back. I had a letter from the DWP requiring that she attends a 'Back to Work appointment', she had died two years before.    

My father was an unpaid director of our company. Because his NI number ended with a certain character we received a form from some government department asking various questions. The header said to return the form if unwaged. However we got the form every year. Then he stopped being a director so wasn't an employee but still got the forms. So I screwed them up and threw them in the bin. So then I received a new letter threatening me with prosecution if I didn't complete the form. But I wasn't prosecuted and the forms came every year. Then Dad died. So the next form that came I wrote deceased on it and returned it. Next year another form. That's when I got angry and phoned the number in the form and told the man on the other end what I thought of them and the fact they obviously never read them. He promised I wouldn't get one again.

 

Then the next year I got another form!

[Boater Sam]

I have been known to wrap a small brick in the complete unwanted mail or officious official forms, then brown paper, and post them back to the sender. With a Green Shield stamp if you have one else none at all.

Bet you never get another.

[Murflynn]

any junk mail enclosing an pre-paid return envelope should be returned to sender - in the wrong envelope.  So Velux windows gets the stuff for Co-op funerals and SAGA gets the stuff for Hilary's Blinds.  They have to pay the postage.  If we all did this it would become so expensive for them that it would stop.

[MtB]

4 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

any junk mail enclosing an pre-paid return envelope should be returned to sender - in the wrong envelope.  So Velux windows gets the stuff for Co-op funerals and SAGA gets the stuff for Hilary's Blinds.  They have to pay the postage.  If we all did this it would become so expensive for them that it would stop.

 

Wow, you sure know how to "stick it to the man".

 

Bring on the revolution!!

 

 

 

 

[nbfiresprite]

1 hour ago, Murflynn said:

any junk mail enclosing an pre-paid return envelope should be returned to sender - in the wrong envelope.  So Velux windows gets the stuff for Co-op funerals and SAGA gets the stuff for Hilary's Blinds.  They have to pay the postage.  If we all did this it would become so expensive for them that it would stop.

Someone has time on their hands, Time to go out and do something less boring instead.

[Lily Rose]

For the home phone, when I needed a new triple handset system a few years ago I bought one with a built in voicemail system. With this we no longer answer the phone until the caller has started to leave a message, at which point we either accept the wanted call or ignore the unwanted call. It is much less disruptive from the beginning but over time (and quite quickly) the number of unwanted calls has reduced significantly.

 

With the mobile I am now starting to ignore calls from withheld numbers or numbers I don't recognise, unless I'm expecting such a call. If it's important they normally leave a message. I'm hoping that in time the number of "I understand you've been in an accident?" 'robot' calls I get will reduce. I have played along with them in the past to waste the time of the real human it eventually goes through to but I'm bored with that now and it probably just encourages more such calls anyway.

 

 

[Chris Williams]

I once worked for a cold calling company.  Sometimes I would call an old lady, who obviously hadn't spoken to anyone for days, and here I was trying to sell her windows.  Against company rules, I would talk to her about the weather or something.  It can be an uncomfortable job.  being told to "Go back to your drugs" is not pleasent.

[Slim]

On 27/08/2019 at 15:35, Murflynn said:

when my wife answers the call on our landline and the caller from an unknown number asks to speak to Mrs....... the wife says "oh! she died".  The caller usually immediately disconnects without even expressing any condolences.

 

 

After my wife died some years ago I fielded many such calls. Not once did I get the 'human' response "sorry". In the end I just hung up without comment.