Who’s been dishing out my phone number?

Good morning and how are you? The phone goes down.

I cannot remember when I last received a phone call that was not relevant, personal or business. I haven't received a scam phone call for 5 or 10 years.

Come to that except for the occasional one on GN, I cannot remember when I last had a scam email or any approach online either. I do not make any conscious attempt to evade scammers and their like, but I do not save any passwords online, nor allow any company to keep my details for future use. It is marginally inconvenient withe companies I do business with regulalry, but a lot more convenient that untangling myself from a scam.

One of my cousin's husbands speaks fluent Welsh. She says "I'll just get my husband" and he talks to them in Welsh. That stops them in their tracks.

Oh KKOB I so enjoyed your response really made me laugh. My late father used to enjoy " playing games" with cold csllers etc.he made quite a sport of it.

I get a few scam type text and voicemail messages. I just delete them. I font get that many actual scam calls now. I too don't have a landline anymore couldn't see the point when it was going digital anyway.

I never answer unrecognised calls. If it is important and really for me the caller will leave a message. I block them after checking on ‘Who called me’ site.

I never answer any calls unless I know who is calling. If they are genuine they leave a message and I ring back ( if I want to speak to them). Eventually they ease off and I now only get 1 or 2 a day ,usually the same old number. Originally I was getting a dozen a day, very annoying.

25 years ago my dad died and then my mum lost her only sister to cancer . Mum was only on a basic pension at that time but kindly she made a donation to the MacMillan nurses in memory of my aunt. That opened the flood gates . She kept getting phone calls asking for money. She sent some that she could little afford but the communications pestering her continued.
They rang one day when I was there and she passed the phone to me . I told them what I thought of their pestering and bullying of an elderly lady with not enough to live on let alone give to charity. They agreed to take her off their list thankfully. I wouldn’t give a penny to them since and would give to Marie Currie nurses instead , who do a lot more actual nursing for cancer patients.

Could you offer to make a one off payment using your cash card? So few people carry cash that I can well understand that nowadays, one off collections work better without having to collect, cash and keep secure sums of money.

But I do agree that all kinds of organisations are pressurising us to pay by direct debit. There is one group I belong to that i am three years behinsd in my subscription, because they want me to sign up to a direct debit and I refuse to

I was told by my mother that it was Very Rude not to identify myself as soon as someone picked up the phone. “This is WW, may I speak to so-and-so.” I therefore never say who I am until the other person has said who they are and if relevant why they’re ringing. I can then easily say Oh I’m sorry I don’t have time to discuss that, goodbye.

The local air ambulance is always at B&Q asking for a direct debit. I offer a one off cash donation, they aren't interested

When asked 'May I speak to?' I politely ask, 'Who's calling?'

Used to have a few before landline was removed. Very rare on mobile.

KKOB

I've had the 'we're calling about the accident' calls and my usual reply is 'yes, unfortunately I was fatally injured'. It sometimes takes quite a while for the penny to drop.

Haha! I must try that!

Dreadwitch

Everyone sells your data... Have you used your number on here to verify anything? If so then they sold it, so for any other forum, social media or website.
I don't even trust banks or other official businesses not to sell data. I got a brand new phone with a new number, I'd had the phone 2 days and only given the new number to my family yet the spam calls and texts started.

The spammers don't even need to know who you are or anyone to sell data to them. They ring through an automatic dialling device which works its way through a list of phone numbers, such as the phone book. While the scammer is talking to you, his phone is starting to ring the next number on the list, or it just changes one digit of the last it rang. It could go from 000 000 0000 to 999 999 9999 if it had to. If no-one answers it just moves on to the next.

If you are paying attention to how they greet you, you will notice that the caller hardly ever knows your name, and their first words are usually something like "This is your bank." - Not the name of the specific bank, just "your" or "the" bank.

Thank you so much SpanielCuddler for the information about Who Called Me! I did not know that existed and is very helpful.

On an iPhone you can block callers who are not in your contacts. Any such calls go to voice mail and anyone who is a genuine caller can leave you a message.
I imagine there is a similar function on other phones.

Witzend

TBH I’ve had a couple of others very recently, from what would seem to be foreign call centres, so almost certainly scams. I just said No Thanks straightaway and put the phone down.

But today there was one I assumed to be a scam call - a very unclear, evidently foreign accent so put the phone down - but they called back - it was my dental practice, asking if I could come 10 minutes earlier for my appt. on Friday!

When you got there, were they running on time? :-)

Astitchintime

I have had two calls on consecutive days from Age International asking for a monthly donation. Their approach is lengthy and intense to the point of being hostile, if I don’t pledge a donation people will die or suffer injury, starvation and persecution! It got to the point in the second call that I had to cut them off……..the pressure was just too much and it was clear they were reading from a script and not allowing me to ask any questions. It was really hard sell!
Don’t get me wrong, I do donate to charities on a monthly basis, Alzheimer's UK, RNLI, LNAA, and I often supplement those donations by buying their raffle tickets so I have no conscience about refusing Age International.

That is an unacceptable selling method, what a horrible experience for you.

If you want to complain to the charity their details are here:

www.ageinternational.org.uk/contact/

Everyone sells your data... Have you used your number on here to verify anything? If so then they sold it, so for any other forum, social media or website.
I don't even trust banks or other official businesses not to sell data. I got a brand new phone with a new number, I'd had the phone 2 days and only given the new number to my family yet the spam calls and texts started.

I've had the 'we're calling about the accident' calls and my usual reply is 'yes, unfortunately I was fatally injured'. It sometimes takes quite a while for the penny to drop.

I used to get similar calls quite a while ago but thought charities were no longer allowed to do this.
I was very surprised to get a thank you letter for a donation to Save the Children this year. I have sent a donation every year but never had a thank you before - my nieces and nephews could learn from this!

AuntieE

I may be missing something, but why do you assume that someone has been dishing-out your phone number.

There are such things as online directories, and by typing in a name you can find a telephone number.

You may have missed quite a lot, Auntie.

I'm not in any online directories. In ye olde days of paper telephone directories, I wasn't in those either.

My phone number is registered (free) with the UK Telephone Preference Service. Takes seconds and its free.

No legitimate UK business or charity cold- calls TPS-registered numbers.

www.tpsonline.org.uk/

I get regular calls about my solar panels. I don’t have solar panels but often the caller won’t have it. “Am I sure?” “Your husband had them installed and didn’t tell you”. “They are there and you haven’t noticed”. Just how stupid do these people think I am, I never noticed a team removing part of my roof to put solar panels on it or traipsing through my home to go up into the loft to work in there.

Same happened to me , when I didn’t want to give my date of birth on a supermarket car park the charity person said oh go on I won’t tell any body how old you are . I said you don’t need all my personal details , I think I was going to join a charity lottery , he said he had to confirm I was over 18, I asked him if he had sight problems, I am 70 ha ha