How can we stop this nusiance?

it depends on how I am feeling as to how I deal with this, sometimes I just hang up, sometimes say a few choice words but one that makes people laugh was this man phoned to say he knew I had been involved in an accident (I hadn't) so I put on a weak old lady voice, as he started to talk I said ' are you my friend?', he stuttered a bit and said 'no' then went back to his script they read from, I let him talk for about 30 seconds then I said 'I had an egg for my breakfast', he paused and said 'what' i repeated, I had an egg for my breakfast', he said 'Oh', then off he went again, once again I let him talk for couple of mins then I said quite loudly 'OOOHH' he said 'sorry???' I said 'I've just wet myself', at that point he hung up and never phoned back.

I was getting three or four calls a day about two months back. Nothing seemed to work until I put my mother’s ancient schoolteacher’s whistle by the phone. I warned them what I was going to do and then blew, not right in to the mouthpiece but it’s a pretty loud whistle. After a week of threatening to blow it the calls stopped.

jenni ?

I have a app on my mobile called TrueCaller. It regularly updates Spam numbers and alerts you if one of them is calling you. Very few get through and you can immediately report and block them so they don’t bother you or anyone else.

As a guest house owner I cannot block or not answer calls in case it is a prospective guest (even International calls).
They drive me mad, there is not a day goes by that I do not get them. Sometimes if I am doing breakfast or changing rooms I get quite rude to them, but I suppose they are just doing their job.
Yesterday I had one that I said I wasn’t interested to, so he called back 4 times so in the end I had to tell him to get lost.

Buy a call blocker and use it. It stops most calls but for those that get through press hash key and 2 and they are blocked as well. The solution is out there.

I am with Chewbacca - wind the b*****s up.
If it's about a supposed car accident I start discussing my "head injury" - they get very excited right up to the point when I reveal that my head injury has caused complete memory loss because I can't remember any car accident and that must be really bad so they must be able to get me thousands right?

The girl from the well documented nuisance call centre in Swansea (I recognised the accent), was soon back tracking when she called me to tell me I was due thousands in refunded PPI and I started jumping up and down shouting whoopee and demanding to know when she was sending the cheque out. Suddenly it was that I could maybe, possibly, potentially be in line for a refund, that might not be in the thousands.

Indian call centres, are my favourite. When they open with stating their name is David, Stephen etc I always ask them for their real name, the one their families call them when they go home.

I had one persistent man re the Microsoft scam who thought he was on to a winner when I put on my confused old lady act. I even told him I wasn't sure if I had a computer at one point - he still persisted and when he mentioned Windows I said "yes I've got windows" at which point he asked me to turn my computer on. I told him my windows were not computerised - they were top of the range uPVC, double glazed, all with locks, but I had to operate them manually. I thought he would have twigged at that point, but he obviously thought I was someone vulnerable that he could take advantage of. The call went on for ages, with my son rolling around on the floor in tears of laughter - at least while I was wasting the scammers time he wasn't targeting someone else.

I'm afraid we're guilty of winding them up a bit. Whoever they ask for is always on holiday to some far place, I've lost count of the times I've been to Outer Mongolia.

That's odd. Since the inception of mobile phones, I've never had cold callers ring my mobile (currently a Samsung S7 Edge) but then, I've never been tempted to have an iPhone nor would I ever have one, not even as a gift.

I have bought a bt phone which has call guardian. They are £50 on Amazon and for that you get two phones including answer phone. You programme in all of your friends and family then any non listed callers will need to identify themself before your phone actually rings, most nuisance calls give up at that stage, particularly the automated ones. If they do give a name you have the option of refusing the call and blocking the number without having to speak to the caller. Best £50 I've ever spent as I was getting these calls in the middle of the night

I feel a bit sorry for the callers - they’re normally just the low paid cogs in someone else’s wheel - so only wind them up or get stroppy if I’m having a particularly bad day. Like the Christmas Eve when I left my mountains of food prep and baking to answer questions about the accident I never had.

I never answer calls where I do not recognise the telephone number. If you do the company know your number is active and will sell your number on. My husband spent a week at home last year and had fun answering these calls and stringing them along. After that the cold calls increased in volume.

My hospital or GP surgery call from a ‘withheld’ number so I always answer them. Unfortunately these cold callers now seem to use a withheld number. It frustrates me no end.

I only answer calls I recognise on my mobile (if it's important they will leave a message) As for my landline, I tell them "whatever you're selling, I don't want thank you" and hang up. Hope I'm not tempting fate but I haven't had many calls recently.

Telephone Preferance service have lauched an app for moble which automatically blocks numbers they suspect are nuisance ones.

We're another household with a BT "Call Guardian" type of phone. Rarely get a cold caller, and if we do, I simply say "no thank you" and end the call. I do feel sorry for many of the people whose job is cold calling, (especially overseas) so I'm never rude to them, just brisk and to the point.

On iPhones, it recognises if I am in a car, assumes I driving and doesn’t put through any call. I can override it at any time- say if I’m the passenger. I block nuisance calls on my mobile. (Only just found out how to do that, duh). At home, the answer machine is on all the time and we have number recognition to pick ‘welcome ‘ callers right away. We have long since broken the habit of rushing to the phone when it rings as if must be answered at all costs.

Get a bt call guardian phone the caller has to say name before call is connected cold callers just hang up themselves as they know you want take there call got one for my mum she went from about ten a day to zero

We have these unwanted calls too here in France. However, when the caller asks "vous parlez francais madame"? I respond with "no......sorry", whereafter my OH enters the number into our call blocker. At the moment we have 92 blocked numbers but we do not have any social media applications so if we did, reading through the above, it would be worse.

BT Call Protect.

If you dont recognise the number don't answer, simple.

The solution on mobiles is simple. There are plenty of apps that block any call not in your contact list. It invites callers to leave a message.

In all the years I’ve been using it only genuine callers not on my contact list have left messages. Works a treat. .

Not sure about the landline, but I just say ‘hang on a minute while I find my hearing aid’ (or some excuse) and just leave them hanging on the line while I make a or similar.

Not had a call for ages..must have taken me off their lists.

I have blocked 17 numbers so far this month, starting to really annoy me! One of them was Everest double glazing - I have never had any dealings with them so the new privacy laws should mean they don't have my details. What is the point of a law that is ignored? If I complained to the police I very much doubt they would do anything about it, yet the fine can be up to £20 million I believe! I usually don't speak, and most of the cold callers just ring off, but it is still my time that is being wasted. I had the same issue with junk e-mails, I tried to unsubscribe to ones that I hadn't subscribed to in the first place, and it led to chaos. I blocked more than 1300 email addresses in three weeks!

If I do answer the phone by a mistake to a cold caller, I tell them that no they can't speak to me (ha ha) - that I've gone to prison for a long time and that they are speaking to the person guarding the house.

TalkTalk have a system where they screen unknown numbers and give me the option of accepting or barring the number. This has cut down most nuisance calls on the landline. I never answer my mobile to unknown numbers unless I'm expecting a call from the GP. I also have an app called Trucaller which recognises and cuts off a lot of international calls from scammers and timewasters, and this seems to have gradually weeded out most of those as well. Unfortunately, scammers are tireless in their search for gullible people who will reveal personal details to strangers - I find asking 'Why do you want to know that?' often gets rid of anyone who manages to get through to me.

I would strongly recommend the call blocker we got for my mum which is called Truecall. You can monitor it from a control panel online. There is an initial cost for the equipment but the endless nuisance calls stopped as if by magic.