scammers programme on Wednesday night

This thread reminded me of my mum who loved getting calls for conservatories. She was very enthusiastic about getting one then dropped into the conversation that she lived 6 floors up. ?

Sometimes I just say nothing and see how long it takes them to hang up. Other times I play “ games”. My favourite is pretending to go and get my husband....and in the meantime, my “ child” comes to the phone and starts talking gibberish. Great fun!?. I haven’t had any calls for ages though, certainly not this year.

Thank you everyone for your very funny stories. Goodness knows we can do with cheering up. I think I have tried most of the suggestions from the Windows one to "Have you got a mother? Is she proud of having a son who is a criminal?"

However, while it is easy to have fun winding up these crooks I think we have to be aware that some older people, perhaps on their own and not so confident as others, are genuinely frightened by, for example, the prospect of having their internet or phone cut off within 24 hours.

I once had a scammer, claiming to be from my bank's security department and with the usual instructions that as there had been a suspicious transaction, in Hong Kong, on my account I should immediately transfer my balance to a new account. He was so persistent, ringing throughout the evening, that in the end I just took the phone off the hook. The only thing that slightly concerned me was that he knew the balance of my account to within a few pounds! A lucky guess? I contacted my bank the next day just to confirm that everything was in order, but it does make you wonder where he got his information from.

i always tell the scammers i am locked in the house and my carer makes all the decisions and then ask in a very timid little voice.....would you be my friend, i can tell you where i stay and we can talk at the letterbox....lol. if my son is visiting he always says,,mummy is out and i am not supposed to answer the phone..lol xx

My daughter answered the phone and proceeded to 'sell ' a garden shed. Even asking the caller if they could collect it. We were in hysterics and the caller completely confused.

I start speaking Gaelic, confuses the hell out of them.

I had one call a few years back trying to sell a pre paid funeral plan for £3K which guaranteed your chosen funeral package arrangements at a fixed price, no matter how far ahead in the future. He was very plausible, spoke about rising cost of funerals
above annual inflation rates, which meant any cash savings for this purpose could be whittled away, and about the burdens that could be created for family. I can see vulnerable elderly people could easily fall for this. Although the money paid into the 'plan' is ( allegedly) invested in a trust, the salesman was unable to explain how the costs of all the funeral plans sold could be guaranteed, as it would be unlikely that the trust fund would remain solvent to meet all of its obligations in the future if, as stated, the cost of all the future funerals is rising well above above rate of inflation or ordinary investment returns especially taking into accounts the costs of employing the salesmen in the first place.

OMG how you have cheered me up. Realise I haven't laughed like this for a while. Thankyou to all you all . We need more of these posts. So so good

Millie22. You reminded me of what happened many years ago, when we changed our landline number. The phone rang, and a lady asked if she was speaking to the family planning clinic. I almost died laughing, because I had five children.
It turned out, like yours, to be two very similar numbers.

I thought it was a new programme, but when watching it realised most of it has been on before, but just updated with some lockdown additions.

I get regularly on my emails I am due to renew my TVlicence this month and pay it online definitely wrong date and month .The Amazon goods one too can be a good fake

This has been entertaining! I'm actually looking forward now to my next call so I can try out your strategy.

these all made me laugh ,i used to get quite a lot of these scammers till i came up with `,as soon as they started talking ,i said ,`oh is that you son ,well you forgot to bring my pension back also where is my shopping ? i will give you another list,i then proceed to give them a lovely shopping list ,,But they hang up on me !!,how sad is that ,and they never did bring me the shopping ,,mean things