Having fun with the scammers

Yes it was.

Sorry, it was me who said it.

They know that you will answer the phone. They may not be looking for immediate return on their calls, in other words they may not be wanting you to send them money today. They may be hoping that they can glean more information from you every time they call, and eventually steal your identity. Because they are linked into other databases. They are able to leverage the likelihood of you forgetting what you've told them, and not really paying attention.

Perhaps you might consider how good your attention to detail is when you realise that it wasn't me who said they don't like being told what to do ?

Volver…. What do they gain from re-calling people who talk nonsense to them or sing? Surely if they if they gather information about who answers the call they will note that their scam attempt was a waste of time.

For someone who doesn’t like being told what to do, you sure are bossy

worth a watch.....

Rav Wilding is working with ethical hackers to hack into fraudsters’ illegal call centres to try and stop victims losing out to real-time scams..........

Scam Interceptors

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00164dz/scam-interceptors-series-1-episode-1

I know.
I'm just feeling a bit contrary today.

Oh, okey doke. How clever.

Question in the OP: What do you do when you get these annoying callers.

I'm explaining what you should do and why. Up to everybody if they take the advice, but pretending that engaging with scammers is either fun or clever is not a good look.

Its empty already, by my own fair hand.
I don't engage with them anyway.

I just dislike being told what to do.

My house, my rules.

Fair enough. Be sure to come back and tell us when your bank account is emptied

Notinthemanual

I sing to them. Then they HANG UP. Wonder what they will do with the knowledge that I sing badly.

They'll know that you have enough time on your hands to engage with unknown people so are worth phoning back. They may hear background noise which allows them to place you geographically. Your choice of song will give them an idea of your age and socio-economic status.

There are more thing in heaven and earth, Notinthemanual, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Tell you there is a warrant out for your arrest unless you pay £999.78?

I sing to them. Then they HANG UP. Wonder what they will do with the knowledge that I sing badly.

After spending too much time on here, my ego needs all the help it can get.
My house, my rules.

I'll not be told to have shame in a thread where people think its sensible to engage in conversation with scammers.

Scammers work in call centres too. Scammers are often people from countries for whom even you average UK pensioner is connsidered fabulously wealthy. Are they criminals? Of course they are.

Do little games involving giving them false IP addresses and pretending to be dead help in any way at all? No, they make it worse.

The same people aren't calling you many times a day just for a chat. Their software has identified you as somebody who will engage with them when they call and it is re-trying the number, because they know you will answer and talk to them.

Instead of congratulating ourselves on how funny and clever we are, be aware that every time you say anything at all to a scammer they are learning something about you. Answered the phone? They know it's an active number and that you are happy to answer the phone to strangers. Giving the phone to the 3-year old? They know you have children. Giving out false IP addreses? They know you are savvy enough to understand IP addresses and will use more complex scams next time.

The only thing you are achieving by engaging with them is boosting your own ego. Hang up.

I think some people are mistaking cold callers trying to sell something with scammers who are stealing from the vulnerable. The scammers know what they are doing is illegal and immoral, they are the digital equivalent of Fagin’s boys. To me they are fair game. My son and I used to have a little game to see how long we could keep them on for, nowadays when ‘Microsoft’ phone I give them the IP address of Google.

It's particularly annoying when it's the same people, multiple times daily, and you need the phone to be be free because you're waiting on an important call.

I think of someone takes the absolute liberty of phoning me, uninvited, to try and scam me out of money, then it is up to me how I deal with them.

Don't like it?
Then don't phone.

Why can’t you just say no thank you and hang up. these people are on minimum wage in a call centre and have to put up with constant abuse and time wasters.

Actually these ‘poor people’ are criminals. They are no different from anyone else that makes their living by robbing people. I know someone that lost £10,000 they could ill afford to lose and would have lost their entire life savings if it wasn’t for the bank manager noticing the sudden withdrawals.

Fgs! These people make their living by conning often elderly people. Shame on anyone that pities them.

Elizabeth27 We are talking about scammers not genuine people working in call centres

Why can’t you just say no thank you and hang up. these people are on minimum wage in a call centre and have to put up with constant abuse and time wasters. Keeping them on the line will not stop cold callers but will stop them reaching their targets and mean even less pay. I am sure most of them do not work there by choice.

I just tell them I died in the car crash that they keep insisting I was involved in, they soon depart after that.

youtu.be/KCv_vTIS4ZU
Tiny Tim ?

This one is mildly amusung
youtu.be/CuVFcizDwqw

Don't think I'd have the patience!

Anybody remember watching Sally Lindsay in
Cold Call?

It's shocking how quickly they managed to part her from her money.
The people working for the main man knew exactly what they were doing.

I wouldn't mind watching it again. Hope it's back on soon.

snowberryZ

^Just hang up^

Where's the fun in that?

You don't get scammed?

That's quite a good thing.

Just hang up

Where's the fun in that?