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[burakkucat]

Mid-morning, last Friday, the telephone made it electronic noise signalling the presence of an incoming call. The receiver was lifted and my normal acknowledgement was issued. Silence, then a click and lots of background "yibber-yabbering" was heard.

(Female Asian voice): "Hello."
(Grump Cat, clearly, firmly but slightly tetchily): "Yes?"
(Female Asian voice): "Hello. My name is Jane and I'm calling you from TalkTalk about your Internet service."
(Grump Cat, clearly, firmly and tetchily): "No."
<A distinct pause.>
(Female Asian voice): "Why?"
(Grump Cat, clearly and firmly): "No, you are not calling me from TalkTalk."
<Another pause.>
<Then a click as the call was cleared down at the far end.>

[broadstairs]

That describes very many calls I have had over the past year or two, some of which don't end so politely by merely hanging up  Some times I manage to waste their time by playing along until they realise they are being had!

Stuart

[burakkucat]

Some times I manage to waste their time by playing along until they realise they are being had!

Indeed, that's one technique I occasionally use. 

[speedyrite]

I just don't answer any calls from Withheld ("tell them I'll call them back!"), International, badly spoofed numbers (that contain too many or not enough digits to be valid) or any number that I don't recognise. If it's a genuine and important caller, they will leave a message - almost never happens. Works for me...

[broadstairs]

I just don't answer any calls from Withheld ("tell them I'll call them back!"), International, badly spoofed numbers (that contain too many or not enough digits to be valid) or any number that I don't recognise. If it's a genuine and important caller, they will leave a message - almost never happens. Works for me...

Yes I can ignore those which are obviously wrong but when it appears to be a genuine UK phone number calling then leaving it to the answerphone might mean some calls get missed. For example NHS callers are told NOT to leave messages for privacy reasons, and there are others.

Stuart

[speedyrite]

Yes I can ignore those which are obviously wrong but when it appears to be a genuine UK phone number calling then leaving it to the answerphone might mean some calls get missed. For example NHS callers are told NOT to leave messages for privacy reasons, and there are others.

Stuart

OK I see that there may need to be exceptions for some people & circumstances, so I accept that "my" system is not perfect for everybody! In the past, I considered getting a screening device (I think it was True-Call?). Of course, the whole idea wouldn't be necessary if there wasn't so much phone spam these days. Perhaps this nuisance call filtering service that BT is deploying might help reduce it (at least for BT phone customers anyway) - be interesting to know how effective it is. I saw some stats but reports of "real life" experience would also be useful.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Mentioned this a few times, but the scams calls I get these days often show my own dialling code and what looks like a valid number.   Easy to think 'it must be somebody I know', and answer it.

I suppose it's not too hard, to generate a fake calling ID that is dynamically generated, with first few digits matching the called number and random digits for the r est?

Re NHS, not only do they not leave messages, but (my local surgery at least) withhold their number too, to stop people from worrying about the fact they'd missed a call from a doctor.

Funniest recent incident was from a genuine (Foreign) calling number, scam computer virus.   Nothing new there.   But a few minutes later another call from the same number, this time pretending to be from Telephone Preference Service, offering to help stop nuisance calls. 

On a more serious note, I've heard the TPS scam is taking a few people in, worth mentioning to anybody vulnerable.

[broadstairs]

Recently I complained to TT about the number of spam calls where if answered you got a load of verbal abuse before they hung up. I had a discussion with someone from TT who explained that a lot of recent spam calls were in fact happening to many and varied ISP customers including Sky, BT, Plusnet and others and all correctly identified the ISP in question, he was actually visiting his parents when they had one as a Plusnet customer. He explained that there was a project underway between all of the major ISPs to try to combat this. To be honest over the past 3-4 weeks we have seen the incidence of these calls dramatically reduce, so hopefully something is happening.

Stuart

[Bowdon]

Since I signed up for the BT Call Protect service on March 4th I've only had 1 spam call which I immediately called the BT number and put it on the block list.

The phone used to ring 2 or 3 times a day, including one call that would happen between 8 and 8:30am, waking me up.

So I do recommend this to you guys. TPS didnt make much difference. I was on TPS when those spam calls were coming in.

[broadstairs]

TPS is only any good for UK companies making unsolicited calls, the vast majority of spam calls are from outside the UK and often spoof the caller id.

Stuart