My best scammer wind up to date.

My brother used to tell them that the person that they wanted to talk to were outside in the garden but would go and fetch them, then put the phone on one side. After 15 minutes or so, he used to go back and ask if they were still there, apologise and say that the person was on the way, but couldn't hurry as they couldn't walk very quickly, then put the phone on one side. He kept one person stuck on the other end of the phone for nearly an hour! As the call hadn't been ended, even if they had put their phone down, they wouldn't have been able to call anyone else!

That's a good one. I wouldn't have the patience for that. I just ask them if their mother knows what they do for a living and is she proud of them ?

Fabulous ,Vampirequeen. We need to beat them at their own game . My latest fun has been to pretend I'm really deaf and when they say it's Amazon or whoever, I say Who ? Oh Hello Susan' and they say 'This is Amazon and I say 'Oh good, Susan, how is your Mother keeping' It's really hard keeping the laugh out of your voice !!

Some brilliant responses to those awful scam calls.

Laughed so much at the response by Bluebellwould when she was cold called.

That is the best thing I've heard in ages, I hope I can remember some of it for the next call I get.

Me too. My best one was from someone allegedly from my bank.
Caller: Is that Mrs stewaris
Me: Yes
Caller: I have a special offer for you.
Me: Ok fire on
Caller: I just need to go through some security with you.
Me: Why? You called me so you know who I am.
Caller: But I have a really good offer for you.
and take it from 'Ok, fire on'.
It went on like this for about 20 minutes until he decided to hang up. Never did find out what the special offer was.

I confess to not having read all of the responses, so apologise if I’m duplicating. However you may be doing yourself a great disservice by speaking for so long on the phone. What they do is to learn your voice pattern, by computer, and then they can use your own voice to order things you don’t want, speak to your bank (perhaps) . This is then recorded, and it’s very difficult for you to claim that you didn’t say these things because they’re actually using your own voice. Frustrating though it is you’re better off hanging up quickly. Another point is not to use the word “yes”. If they ask if they’re speaking to X just say “Speaking”. Then when you realise it’s a scam just hang up quickly

I had a scammer ring me saying I had been in an accident, I played along for about twenty five minutes before I said I know you are a scammer and she hung up.
When I told my daughter about it she told me off for being so bored

I had a broadband scam call telling me my computer had a virus - so I went in to melt-down! I screamed, I cried, I sobbed - in fact I quite got carried away with it all. I wouldn't let them get a word in edgeways, although I was begging them to help me save my data, paused, and then calmly said, "Thank you for telling me about your virus, can I get you a coffee and a Paracetamol"? Stunned silence and they hung up.

Jim Browning is the Internet alias of a London-based software engineer from Northern Ireland whose content primarily focuses on scambaiting and exposing scam call centres. His YouTube explanation of how scams work, and in particular his recording of accessing the scammers computer is hilarious - well recommend that you take a look

Laughed so hard I was incoherent reading them to dh.

Caller - about the car accident you had recently
Me - oh yes The car accident
Excited caller - oh yes, and it wasn’t your fault?
Me - oh dear, but it was all my own fault. I should have been looking where I was going but I couldn’t find anywhere to put my vodka while I lit my fag. Never having driven a hi spec Subaru before didn’t help. I knew I should have gone for the Ford escort but the Subaru had the keys in. No need to hot wire. I know I’m looking at more time in jail ......

I have used other versions of this. No licence, banned from driving, just out of prison. Driving with handcuffs on. Most importantly - it was my fault

Some ask if I know who’s car it was, did I have a passenger, am I sure it was my fault, have I admitted liability - so desperate for a ‘catch’.

NEW SCAM ALERT

I AM A MEMBER OF MARTIN LEWIS'S SITE I HAVE HAD 2 EMAILS WHICH LOOKED GENUINE ABOUT BIT COIN.THANKFULLY I CHECKED MARTINS SITE TO SEE IF HE WAS TALKING ABOUT IT.HE WASN'T.I LOOKED MORE CAREFULLY AND NOTICED LEWIS WAS SPELT A LOWER CASE l.I HAVE SENT THE EMAIL TO THEM.I HOPE THEY WARN THEIR MEMBERS

I had a scam call, most times I just hang up or sometimes use a rude word, this time I didn't.. He said 'Hello', I replied (in what I call my old lady voice, sort of doddery sounding ) 'Hello, are you my friend'?, He said 'Oh erm No,' then I let him carry on with his script for a few seconds, then I said 'I had an egg for my breakfast', he said 'what', I repeated 'I had an egg for my breakfast', he said OK', once again I let him carry on for a min, then I said quite loudly 'OOOH I've wet myself', he hung up and has never called back, I wonder why, lol

I had one yesterday, from Albert, with a very heavy Indian accent. He wanted to know if I had been troubled with scam callers. I said yes. He asked when was the last time I had received one of these calls. I said Well just now actually from you - then hung up.

How stupid do they think we are!

We had a spate of "accident" claim calls and had a few ideas for how to deal with them but, just off the cuff, my husband won , hands down. He managed to sound really old and doddery and strung them along before finally "admitting" he'd had an accident ten minutes ago because the carer was late that day...... stunned silence, then a dialling tone

I'm loving all these scamming the scammer stories.

Last year I got a call about my 'recent car accident'.
Knowing this was a scam, I was bored and had plenty of time on my hands, so I proceeded to tell them all about the accident I'd had right outside my front door with a police car (true story).
I was asked whether I'd had any passengers...yes, was anyone hurt... yes, did the other driver acknowledge responsibility... yes, the more times I gave them extra ammunition to throw at the person whose fault the accident was (the police officer, yes, still true) the more excited the caller appeared to get.
Then after almost 45 minutes we got to the crux of the matter...
How many months ago was this accident?
Oooh, well, that would be.... 11 x 12 is 132, it was July and it's now November, so that's (counts on fingers...) August, September, October, November, 4, so that would be 132 + 4.... 136.
Pardon?
136 months
What?
You asked how many months ago the accident happened
Yes?
Well, it was July 2009, so that's 11 years and 4 months ago, so that's 136 months!
She swore at me and said she'd be reporting me for wasting her time (who to, I'd love to know), then slammed the phone down on me.

That was the most fun I've ever had with one of these scammers but I've taken some notes from all the stories I've read here and will give them a go with future calls!

Had a scam say message on answerphone (but no number)press1to hear message non .Friend had phone call supposedly Bank of England transferred 18 times to Nigeria she was really frightened that they had taken all her money she reported it we told her it was a horrible scam

I usually just pick up phone, keep silent if it's a scam call they usually hang up, but if its a recorded message I start talking when they have made a comment ie, we have noticed that a withdrawal of £600 has distantly been made from your account. My response (talking to a robot voice), wow I don't have £60 never mind £600 in my account. The other one I get a lot is "this us amazon, we are taking £79.99 out of your bank for your prime access" don't have amazon prime, nor do I wont it at that price!! We have this year bought a new landline phone with call blocker, I reckon we have more blocked numbers on it than bone fide friends and relations numbers.

One morning, half asleep in had a call from a number I didn't recognise, terrible line, silent call, all the hallmarks of dodgy.

I called them a few choice words along the lines of what I thought about them and hung up. A few seconds later it rang again, same number - it was my chiropodist!

PennyWhistle Jim Browning is an absolute star and I thank heaven he is on the side of the angels. Imagine the havoc people with his skills could wreak if he was a scammer!

Thank you for the laughs along the way. I have had several of these calls and do respond accordingly. The accident one is me asking which one they are referring to, my washing machine guarantee is when I ask which washing machine they mean. One call I pretended I was the cleaner, I went on in my doddery voice that 'she' the home owner had gone out to get bread and left me with all the washing up, the ironing and I went on a rant about how badly I was treated by 'her' and that she didnt care about my feelings. I could hear muffled laughter at the other end so I suggested that I get my lady to call them back or perhaps they call again. They didnt.
I now have many more ideas for my next round of calls, so thank you.

I absolutely love winding them up too, sometimes I shout ‘mummy I think this lady wants your bank details again, !!’ Or I’ll say excuse me how have you obtained this number this is a homicide case and I’m going to have to ask you for your name & phone number !! Both times the phone goes dead immediately. It depends how busy I am whether I play along or not.

I once answered the phone in what must have been a rather pathetic voice, probably tired. The cold caller said: hello, is your Mummy or Daddy there? I had a lovely long conversation with them about how I was at home all alone and I thought they'd gone on holiday. They rang off

I tried that but I’m far too soft, it was a very pleasant Indian lady I was called by, after about 5 mins she said you are not going to buy anything are you, no I said. Then for some reason I said where are you calling from, Bangalore which apparently is the call center capital of India, we spent a pleasant 10 mins chatting about country, family and the way we both live. I think she was probably a supervisor most agents would not be allowed to chat like that.