Surge in Nuisance Calls

[Petrushka]

Is anyone else experiencing a surge in nuisance calls since Christmas? Scrolling through my calls listing after I come home from work every day I'm finding the same unwelcome numbers calling. One number in particular, 0208 4334287, has now taken to calling in the evening and weekends as well and on the odd occasion when I've picked up the phone a voice says 'hello' and the line goes dead. What's the point of that? Internet research tells me it's a marketing survey outfit. I did once get in and manage to say 'Chief Constable's Office here' before the call was terminated but there's usually never anyone there.

As I'm out at work all day, it's little more than a minor inconvenience but to an elderly person living alone it would be a torment. I'm registered with the TPS (a toothless tiger if ever there was one) and resent having to cough up around £40 for a call blocker. Someone mentioned BT Infinity is good for call blocking but I'm loath to deal with them after they diddled my late parents with exorbitant charges.

Any political party who promises to deal with this menace will get my vote!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is anyone else experiencing a surge in nuisance calls since Christmas? Scrolling through my calls listing after I come home from work every day I'm finding the same unwelcome numbers calling. One number in particular, 0208 4334287, has now taken to calling in the evening and weekends as well and on the odd occasion when I've picked up the phone a voice says 'hello' and the line goes dead. What's the point of that? Internet research tells me it's a marketing survey outfit. I did once get in and manage to say 'Chief Constable's Office here' before the call was terminated but there's usually never anyone there.

As I'm out at work all day, it's little more than a minor inconvenience but to an elderly person living alone it would be a torment. I'm registered with the TPS (a toothless tiger if ever there was one) and resent having to cough up around £40 for a call blocker. Someone mentioned BT Infinity is good for call blocking but I'm loath to deal with them after they diddled my late parents with exorbitant charges.

Yes - agree with all that. (Except that I haven't encountered the 0208 number yet - something to look forward to, no doubt. )

Any political party who promises to deal with this menace will get my vote!

But not this!

[mercia]

one or two suggestions here for that particular number

http://uk.whocalledme.com/PhoneNumber/02084334287

[Frances_iom]

one or two suggestions here for that particular number

http://uk.whocalledme.com/PhoneNumber/02084334287

the number you see on your calling line identifier for nuisance calls is seldom the actual calling line number as it is easily faked - BT (or whoever is your provider) knows the actual number as they bill it but like all commercial companies why worry about illegal activity if they get paid - the so called 'market research companies' are another scam to skirt the law - however politicians being the honest crowd they are, exempted themselves + party from any laws banning nuisance calls so expect a plague on your house to follow soon.

[Petrushka]

one or two suggestions here for that particular number

http://uk.whocalledme.com/PhoneNumber/02084334287

Interesting comments which are similar to those I found on another website. I'll try one or two of those suggestions if it gets too much. Trawling through some of the comments on various numbers makes for hilarious reading at times.

[umslopogaas]

I'm signed up to TPS and find it very effective, but I still get one or two nuisance calls every day: I suspect they originate overseas and are therefore beyond the reach of TPS. My phone tells me the number that is ringing and if it says International I just dont answer. Genuine callers will usually use the answerphone, nuisance callers never do. The only downside is that my phone bill goes up, because I have to pay for all the return calls!

[Mary Chambers]

As I'm out at work all day, it's little more than a minor inconvenience but to an elderly person living alone it would be a torment. I'm registered with the TPS (a toothless tiger if ever there was one) and resent having to cough up around £40 for a call blocker.

I suppose I count as an 'elderly person living alone', and I find them no more than a bit of a nuisance. I answer the phone if it's convenient (I can always check afterwards to see if it's a number I know) and if it's a cold call I just cut it off.

Some days I get about six, some days none. The only time I feel really cross is when the call is before 8 in the morning, which has happened very occasionally.

I suppose I might get more if I wasn't with the TPS, but I agree they seem a bit useless.

[Lordgeous]

i agree they seem to be increasing. Its got to the stage where I dont answer the phone any more unless its a number I know, and I've never answered Withheld, Unknown or Overseas numbers anyway. (Thank goodness for caller ID!) If a number looks as though it might be genuine I look it up on one of the reverse phone directories, if spam I store it as such in my phone or mobile. I cant believe how persistent some of these companies are - you get to know their (undoubtedly automated) calling patterns, and yes they sometimes start in the early morning now. I don't cut them off, just let them ring out, in case that encourages them. Finally, yes TPS is useless!

[richardfinegold]

We got rid of our "land line" for this reason. We also have a service here that was suppose to block those calls. There was a drop for a few months and then the volume picked up again.
Everyone we know was calling our cell number even if we asked them to call our land line. 95 percent of the land line calls were nuisance calls so we dropped it and we are saving money in the process.

[mangerton]

Yes, every evening when I come in from work the answering machine says there are messages - usually two or three. The messages are almost always silence. If I dial 1471 and hear "Sorry the last person who called withheld....." I just hang up. If a number is left and no message I don't return the call, even if I recognise the number.

[James Wonnacott]

I'm on TPS at home so I get very few except ones that come up as "International" and I just don't answer them.
I have an Android mobile and have put on an app called blocker: each time a get a nuicance call I add the number to blocker ( I have about 40 numbers now). Blocker detects the number, answers the call and drops it without me even knowing. That way they pay for the call but they never get through.

[MrGongGong]

I'm a great fan of Sid and Surge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVayI5kdoF0

[Petrushka]

I'm a great fan of Sid and Surge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVayI5kdoF0

I prefer Surge Prokofiev and Surge Rachmaninov.

[Petrushka]

There are numerous devices to be had which block calls such as this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/CPR-Capacity...ll+blocker+cpr but really don't see why I should have to spend good money to stop people doing something that they shouldn't be doing anyway. On the other hand, I'll get some peace.

Hilarious review on the above by someone called Whoosh.

[MrGongGong]

I think the game with these calls is to see how long you can keep them talking (if you have the time)

I did get one of the folks from "Microsoft" to admit that, Yes, they were trying to scam people.
I find the surrealist poetry tactic also very effective
Some of the UK ones from legal folks are trying to find people who suffered hearing damage in factories so a "HELLO, SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU" approach works well.

Random words work well with the automated things as it totally confuses the speech recognition software.