Unwanted phone calls

If I do not recognise the number. I pick the receiver up and stay silent for about 5 seconds. Usually at the end of that time, I hear a very slight click because at the end of the line is voice activated recorded message and as no voice activates it, it clocks off.

If I do not hear he click I just say 'hallo' and usually someone answers and it is the garage or the dentist, nurse or someone I want/needto talk to but whose number I do not recognise.

I get these regularly, I either pretend to be rather batty or simply hand-up, depending on how mischievous I'm feeling.

We got Call Guardian on our landline phone. We don’t get any nuisance calls now.

I take Monica's approach. But if someone actually does speak and it is a cold caller, I'm afraid I ask to speak to their manager, and that results in an instant cut off!

We stopped answering the phone if we didn’t recognise the number. Once you answer you’ve indicated a live number. If it’s genuine the caller will leave a message. Register for BT’s Call Protect, you don’t need to be a BT customer. We rarely get a call on the landline now as friends and family use our mobiles.

I got a phone that makes the caller announce themselves before they get through, and it has cut out nuisance calls. It is a BT phone, which wasn't expensive.

After you have accepted a call from someone, you just press a button to agree to accept them from now on, so it's only first-time callers who have to announce.

SueDonim

We got Call Guardian on our landline phone. We don’t get any nuisance calls now.

ditto.

I’ve got one of those Doodlebug. You can also block calls so they won’t bother you again.

The majority of the time, unless I'm expecting a call, I simply don't pick up at all and then dial 1471 for the number which I then google. I'd say 70% of the time this results in the number being reported as being a scam call.

Doodledog

I got a phone that makes the caller announce themselves before they get through, and it has cut out nuisance calls. It is a BT phone, which wasn't expensive.

After you have accepted a call from someone, you just press a button to agree to accept them from now on, so it's only first-time callers who have to announce.

yes, i have it, that's Call Guardian.
not expensive, bought in robert dyas, widely available elsewhere.
no problems since.
have just blocked a number from a misdialled. used to get a lot of those. so much simpler not to be invaded, and have to persuade them that no they did not dial the number they wanted because that is not my number. so many argue.

We do have BT call protect but still got lots of nuisance calls. These scammers have a bank of numbers they can use.

Now we have Call Guardian. I bought the BT one from Amazon. £32. It has an answer phone too.

Callers have to say who they are (this is recorded). The phone then rings and asks if you want to accept the call from (recorded message)
Press 1 to accept it once
Press 2 to accept it every time
Press 3 to block every time

Brilliant - well worth every penny. Stopped 100% of nuisance scam calls.

We are signed up to the telephone protection service, but we do get genuine calls for DH's work, or recently all kinds of cardiac rehabilitation staff whose numbers we do not recognise, including calls from abroad.

Letting a number ring through to the answer phone lets people know the line is working. As I said I do as above, or if I am almost 100% sure it is a cold or scam call. I answer the phone (silently) and immediately cut the line

You can have loads of fun with these people if you’ve got the time. You Tube has some really good ones.

I registered with call protect. Not 100% effective but near as. ?

Just leave the handset near to the TV and let them natter away to themselves

Monica wrote:
We are signed up to the telephone protection service, but we do get genuine calls for DH's work, or recently all kinds of cardiac rehabilitation staff whose numbers we do not recognise, including calls from abroad.
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the beauty of Call Guardian is that you don't miss out on those wanted unknown callers.
they ring, announce themselves, your phone rings, you answer it, hear their announcement which is recorded, and only then choose whether to speak to them, or block, or ignore.

in my experience scammers never bother to leave a recorded announcement of themselves.
i used to be plagued with wrong numbers, from schools; now if i am feeling generous i will talk to them, explain their misdialling. but even then they often ring straight back.
they will not accept that they have dialled incorrectly.
so now i mostly don't accept the call, just block them.

Had my 2nd jab yesterday, felt really tired so went to bed early and crashed out into a deep therapeutic sleep, only to be woken 45 minutes later by a text pinning into my mobile at 10:30. It was a scam telling me a Mr foreign name was accessing my bank account and to stop it I needed to contact a bank from the link given. Needless to say I blocked the number and deleted. So annoying the one night I needed to sleep.

My friend harangued one of these callers asking how they could be so dishonest and what would his mother think if she knew. It was a call from overseas as they often are and the bloke actually apologised to her !!

We were waiting for a call from the hospital, the phone rang twice and both times it was a scammer, I told them to " go forth and procreate ".

For months now we’ve only had the recorded message ones, where they tell you that you owe money here or there, usually to the taxman or national insurance, and if you don’t press 1 now, and so conveniently give us all your credit card details, you will be arrested.

Dh did once press 1 and yell, ‘F*ck off!’ to relieve his feelings, but alas I doubt that anyone ever heard it.

I had a big problem with Amazon yesterday. First a call on my house-phone supposedly from Amazon which said I had just spent £340 on something. If I wanted to check this was right then press button 1. So I didn't of course. Then tried to access Amazon on my pc and was locked out. My password was weird, twice as many dots as usual. And I couldn't delete it, nor change it in any way. The dots stayed there.
Meanwhile I began to get numerous texts and emails from Amazon saying that someone was trying to get into my account. But I wasn't sure if they were genuine so ignored them. Eventually I managed to change my password (which is not obvious and easy, I found).
I haven't found the courage to try it this morning but I will in a minute. I hate things like this.

P.S. I have now just tried to get into Amazon and it worked, but only after a message from Amazon asking to confirm my identity. Hopefully all is well now.

P.S. I checked and had not spent £340, luckily.