Nuisance Telephone Calls

Kept a man selling conservatories on the phone for twenty minutes and then at the very end when he thought he had got me I said I lived in a flat on the seventh floor, he put the phone down on me!

Also when asked by another if I needed double glazing I said I didn't have windows or doors because I lived in a cave, his response was WOW!!

Very satisfying

I'm convinced my details are amongst the thousands stolen from Talk Talk last year. Since early this year we have been plagued with calls from India claiming to be from Talk Talk and that our computer has been hacked. We have had hundred of these calls from a variety of different numbers - some of which are actually UK numbers - which we subsequently block. However our phone only had the memory to block 35 numbers so we had to clear the memory and start again.
Unfortunately, I accidentally blocked my elderly mother in laws number and was unable to unblock it - it must have been a fault with the phone- so have now had to buy a new set of phones!
Talk Talk are pretty useless. They have guidelines for dealing with these calls but the bloody phone still rings, if it's not an already blocked number. Most of their advice is common sense anyway.
Mind you, if I am not actually busy, I pretend that I am a child and I am going to fetch 'Mummy' and then I leave them on hold. Sometimes I ask them (in French) if they speak French - it confuses the hell out of them. Oh well it gives me a laugh....and if I didn't laugh, I'd cry!

Not a phone call but this morning I recieved an email in my junk mail purporting to be from HMRC telling me i am entitled to refunds for overpayment over the last 5 years.???
I have not been a British taxpayer for 24 years but I did try to check up on my UK pension status about a month ago.
I don't believe in those kind of coincidences.
As an aside I will recieve £1.68p a week from August 2020.

We bought a phone from BT called Call Guardian, one of the best things we ever bought. It enables you to block individual numbers as well as whole groups such as 0800 etc. If family and friends numbers are in your phone, so to speak, they can get straight through no problem. Can't remember how much it cost but certainly not expensive and worth every penny.
Incidentally my brother-in-law had one of those "I understand you have had an accident" calls, he replied yes he had and he had been decapitated! He hasn't heard from them since!

Some of the tips on here are brilliant! BGrannie1, we also run a B&B but bookings are via Booking.com, so we don't need to answer all calls. We're with TPS and have caller display on our phone line. Easy to identify and deal with potential scammers. We get very few cold calls nowadays.

Aggie, being ex directory simply means your number is not in the directory and cannot be given out by directory enquiries. If your sister's number does not come up on caller display it means she is making anonymous calls, a service she has requested and possibly pays for. She can override this if she wishes her number displayed e.g. When calling you. Tell her to do so.
Unfortunately hospitals and the like can withold their number. It saves their switchboard being bombarded with calls.

Just put the phone down tiredoldwoman they'll find someone else to harass.

We've got a BT phone that will only put through calls from numbers it recognises. Anyone else has to say who they are and that's the point at which the nuisance calls hang up we don't get any now, it's lovely!

tiredoldwoman.....definitely a fishing call that will lead to a scam. They prey on people's fears and lack of knowledge of IT. Do not bother to get upset - just ignore them.

Calls are from both Asian man and woman, on this no.0017182134766. info on Google says that people have checked with BT who have said they're not genuine calls.

You can google these numbers. This is a possible scam, someone wrote on Google " received call from asian woman purporting to be from BT stating my broadband had been hacked. They asked for their name, asian woman said she wasn't authorised to give it in case she was talking to wrong person. They also asked her to ask them their security questions, again she couldn't provide.
They suggested to her that the call was a scam and she would be reported, after some shouting the asian lady told them to 'f* off'.
If the number rings again I would blow a whistle down the phone, they won't call again.

The number the call came from was 0017182134766.

Just had a phone call from an Asian woman telling me that my phone has been hacked and did I know anything about the millions of E mails being sent from my computer ? I was horrified , then suspicious , I'm glad I had to tell her that I've got an appointment in a few minutes , she was insistent that I go to my computer now and she would direct me . I'm away out now but she's going to phone back tomorrow !! Help !

I have to answer all calls with number withheld as my Sister is exdirectory and the Doctor and the hospital too . If I answer her I always sound nervous , or so she tells me , it makes her irritable !!

I have a BT phone which allows you to block any numbers you want. I've blocked the double glazing firm who fitted our windows because they kept ringing asking if we wanted more work done. International calls were also a nuisance, they're blocked too.

Heather51 Do you not know you can call barr any caller you don't want even an undisclosed number from calling again.
I contacted my service provider who told me a simple way to do it Try contacting your service provider they will assist you.

Best ignored.

Anya, never said they were!

Mumsy they are not all genuine callers. Some, like the 'windows' one are scammers out to fleece you.

These calls are a real pain. Unfortunately running a B&B I have to answer all calls, but I do sometimes string them along along the lines of Kittye. Don't often have the time now. A friend has a BT Guardian call screener thing, she feels a lot safer and more comfortable now. I'm not sure if you have to buy the 'phone to have it or if it is a service one can add to the bill.
www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/home-phones?s_intcid=con_intban_dmedia_devices_8600content4

Anya yes I'll try that one. I normally say no thank you and put phone down. Last year the son of some friends of ours fell for the pc scam and it cost him a few hundred pounds. He is in his 40s what hope for us oldies? I had a text on my mobile this morning, it was a ppi company. Where did they get my mobile no from? Only friends and family have the no. I don't even know it myself?

I rarely get them possibly because I dont give companies my phone number and Im x directory. I had a neighbour who used to answer the phone to cold callers and say a variety of things making out he was a chinese takeaway to a sex shop! One day when I was sitting with him whilst his wife went shopping (he had parkinsons) the phone rang and he answered it and told the cold caller to call back as he was in the middle of having sex with his neighbour

Yes we get annoyed with cold callers but we should remember that these callers are people who are just doing their job and earning a living and not sponging off the government.

A friend of mine used to say sweetly, 'Can you hang on a tick?' - and then go and get the vacuum cleaner and put it full blast by the phone...

We get very few nuisance calls any more, though I did have one the other day asking about the accident I hadn't had. I nearly always just say no thanks, very quickly but nicely. I'm influenced by the fact that a dd had a holiday job in telesales many years ago - she didn't last very long. As she said, it's not much fun being told to f*ck off all day long.

Our main problem is with autodiallers: its just a recording. As soon as the tinny voice says 'hello' we hang up (and often swear especially as I've usually had to hobble to the phone). These can come in batches throughout the day then a gap of days then start again. Grrrr

When they ask what Windows version you are using say 2.10 (two ten). They will assume you mean 10 and ramble on, when they finally realise there was a version 2.10 back in 1988, they will rung off.

And the lady who says "now that winter`s here" is finally correct, she was calling all through the hot, sunny summer weather!