How can we stop this nusiance?

On my land line, which hardly anyone I want to speak to uses, I just leave the phone off the hook for about an hour & hope that stops them bothering anybody else for a while! (The warning noise you get doesn't last long & I usually stick the handset under a cushion! Once I forgot all about it till well after the battery had run out!) I don't get many nuisance calls any more. Perhaps the industry has a black list? Some new home phones from BT say they can block all international calls to your number which should stop the ones coming from overseas.

We bought a call blocker for about £50 from a 'well known auction site' and it has really done the trick.
We enter numbers that we are ok about receiving onto the 'white list' and they will get through immediately.
If anyone calls from 'withheld' 'unknown' etc. numbers they are intercepted by a very official voice telling them that our number 'does not accept cold/sales etc. calls but if you are a genuine caller press zero, hang up and redial'.
When a call is intercepted we get a bleep on our phone and the number is displayed.
Nuisance call centre staff haven't got time to faff about pressing zero and redialling so we hear no more.
If it's a genuine caller we can accept and whitelist them for the future.
It hasn't happened yet but should a nuisance caller get through we can block it then.
It doesn't stop them trying from a different number but they get the same interception so again give up!

Exactly if it’s genuine they will leave a msg. I very rarely answer the landline during the day or early evening (when people are expected to have come home from work).

Clod

Buy a whistle and use it
I haven't had a clod call for a couple of years.

Asking to repeat themselves .Why do they put down the phone before me?

I'm afraid I enjoy winding them up. I like to see how long it will take for them to hang up on me and believe me they always do. I start off being really interested then lose the plot halfway through and ask them to start again... and again and again. I am now getting less and less calls so hopefully it's working.

Get the Truecaller app and it blocks all spam. The odd one gets through but it alerts you and you can then block it

I do not agree with whistles or being rude to the caller, I do not think many people work in a call centre as their first choice of employment. They are on minimum wage and what an awful job where people are rude to you all day. Just not answering or saying no thank you is enough.

Grankind
... a tack I used last week when they rang on account of my 'Microsoft computer' and potential trouble therewith was to sob 'Oh not my microsoft computer too. I have had so many problems etc etc,' the caller rang off within 10 seconds

They just rang me back and then rang me back when i screamed down the phone

I had one the other day of the 'you have had an accident' type. I asked the young man if he didn't think it was a despicable way for him to earn a living and how could he sleep at night knowing he was defrauding people. Funnily enough he hung up!

It’s the ones that call from a local area code that annoy me the most. I don’t answer numbers that I don’t recognise or withheld numbers. However local ones you think it is somebody local. I don’t know how they manage to do that

Police HMRC and often local authorities, some businesses and hospitals, do not show their numbers.

Simple. Don’t answer if you don't recognise the number. If it’s important they’ll leave a message and you can call back. . If I answer by mistake because I think I recognise the number I end the call without speaking as soon as I realise my mistake. Works for me.

Just answer the phone, say Oh hang on a minute, and put the handset down on the table and walk away.
It drives them mad - they can't make another call till you hang up.

Apparently these people sometimes use fake phone number generators, so are actually ringing from a completely different number. This explains why they keep ringing from seemingly different numbers each time. We are registered with the Telephone Preference Service and I tell people this and that they are breaking the law (they are supposed to check BEFORE they phone). I have reported quite a few to the TPS, also to the Information Commissioner's Office for breaching Data Protection Regulations. They can fine companies for this, and sometimes do so. However, if they use a number generator then the company and number don't match, so they can't trace them.

Mobiles install a call blocker app

Simples!

I’ve recently been getting nuisance calls on my mobile, I blocked the number but they then called from another, so I blocked those too. Only thing is they still seem able to leave voicemail (which I don’t now bother listening to) I get a text saying voicemail left, but no message saying missed call, so I assume it is these pests. Wondering how I can switch off voicemail as i rarely get a real one and anyway a real caller can try again later or send me a text.

I certainly wouldn’t recommend blowing a whistle, razzmatazz. Apart from possibly permanently damaging someone’s hearing, I believe it’s an offence. These people are annoying but for some, it’s the best job or only work they can find. It’s not the job of choice for many.

We went through a period of nuisance calls on our landline and if my DH answered he would just say 'no thanks' and put the phone down. One day I answered and the call went like this:
'Hello Mrs ---- I am calling about your BT account...'
We haven't got one so I then asked lots of questions speaking very slowly - I asked her name and then where she had got our number, and then what position she held in the company, where she was calling from etc. - all in a very sweet old lady voice. At one point I said 'Hang on a minute, I think there's someone at the door' and Bang! the phone went down. Result!!!! There are advantages to being retired and having lots of spare time. Haven't had any more calls since, but it gives me time to work on my sweet old lady voice!

When I had a landline I never answered it because of this. I only answer my mobile when it has name of person calling or expecting delivery as they tend to call ahead.

I had a call on my mobile from a private number which I answered, turned out to be a "cold call", by the time I'd torn a strip off him he was apologising & said he would remove my name

Indian call centres, I often can't understand what they're saying & tell them so then I put the phone down.

Funniest I had was some-one about solar panels, I patiently explained that as I live in a Park (Mobile) Home we can't have them, his response was "we don't deal with gypsies" & he put the phone down on me

I don't answer any number that I don't know, most of mine are in my contact list, both landline & mobile, I block them on my mobile, get very few on my landline as I don't disclose that often

There are only 3 people who use the landline & they don't call very often so I am always expecting a cold call if main phone rings.
I'm afraid I tell them to P**S off ( if I have run in from the garden!) Or I just hang straight up as soon as I hear the voice.
We were getting loads & at the same times of day too but I have noticed there are far fewer recently. I've started not answering now so hopefully there will be even less soon.

The more you answer the more you will get, try not to answer at all, if it is a genuine caller they will message or leave a voice mail. If you answer you are on a list that your number is live. I have a friend that worked in a call centre.