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 think I’m correct in saying that, if you block a caller on your mobile or landline, it alerts the caller’s system to the fact that the line is ‘live’. That means that their system will register it as live and they’ll call again from one of their many other numbers.

I sometimes get those calls on my mobile about accidents I haven't had. I always block the number and that stops them for a while until they phone again with a different number. It does seem to make the calls less frequent.

My phone rang one day last week.
Hello?
Can I speak to Marthajolly1?
Who want's her?
This is ?? Legal Dept.
Sorry, I havnt had a car accident.
Pause - Oh, your still going along with that are you?
But I haven't had an....
Do you know what, I really don't care - the line went dead.......
I was speechless. Time somebody got themselves a new job.

Trouble is the blocked callers just try on another number? I get lots of these calls on my mobile and also try to block as many as I can, but they seem to have multiple numbers to try from?

My answer is either Who's asking ? /why ? or I just replace the receiver without saying a word.

You should be able to block callers on an iPhone. Click on the caller id and then on the “i” logo on the right, scroll to the bottom and you will find “block this contact.”

We hardly ever get these calls on our landline.

If I get a call on my mobile from an unfamiliar number I don't answer it. If it's genuine they leave a voicemail. If no voicemail is left I block that number even though I know they can use another one.

At least I don't waste any time speaking to them and they have wasted their own time calling me.

We invested in a 'Call Guardian' phone system. Recognised callers (family etc. can be programmed in (by you) and ring as normal) all others have to announce who they are and you can choose to answer, send to answerphone, ignore. We were getting dozens of cold calls and it is amazing how few we get now - less than one a month, can thoroughly recommend it

I have a very loud whistle which I blow down the phone when they call. I think I was taken off their list after a few times of blowing my whistle. It would really hurt their ears.

‘Change.org’ is running a campaign against nuisance callers.
I signed it yesterday. Worth a try!

BT’s free Call Protect is very efficient. It must be, because since it was introduced in December we’ve had about three nuisance calls.

The land line isn't an issue for me it's the mobile that is a pain in the butt. The landline has very few nuisance calls plus it takes me forever to hobble to the phone on crutches and unless it's someone who really wants to talk to me they'd give up before I got there anyway.
The mobile rings just long enough for me to answer it so is answered in haste, if I'm at home that's not a problem I just have to learn to ignore it when in the car driving.

Talk talk gives me a pretty comprehensive call blocking service.
No extra charge.
I now have no cold calls at all.

I just say "not interested thank you" and put the phone down. If you wish, just put the phone down without saying anything.

The last 3 weeks have been silly season for cold callers to my phone. I know I can just hang up, and I do, but it`s so annoying when I drop what I`m doing to come back in here tom answer the phone. A couple of my family are "number withheld" so if that`s on screen I have to answer anyway.

LOL Chewbacca it's bloody distracting and will make me have a sodding accident, maybe that's what the want. I swipe to answer and just leave them talking to themselves, I have managed to stop them on my landline but the mobile really bugs me because I used to ignore anything that showed up as a private number or witheld but can't do that anymore because my GP, and both hospitals I'm currently under all withold their numbers

Just go along with it FF, obviously not when you're driving though! Tell them you're hard of hearing and they must speak up but LOUDER; keep "misunderstanding" what they say and ask them to repeat themselves over and over again, only louder; pretend you don't speak English; tell them they've called the number for the Cat's Protection Society and what is the breed of their cat? You can have lots of fun hearing them get more and more frustrated until they give up.

I too get loads on my mobile usually when I'm driving about accidents I'm supposed to have had, which I haven't so no clue how to stop them either.

I'm almost sorry to say that my cold callers seem to have given up on me. I used to quite enjoy winding them up, one way or another, and I became quite good at it. Wonder why they don't call any more?

I get one cold call about every couple of months and I can live with that.

I don't often answer numbers I don't recognize, but yesterday, I decided to answer all the calls we had. I have a call blocker by the phone, it has a big red button to press if the call is a nuisance or unwanted call. The first call was a legitimate request to speak to DH, from a magazine he subscribers to. Thereafter, the calls were supposedly from BT internet, Microsoft, and Talk talk. All telling me that my internet was to be cut off. I pressed my big red button and blocked those! So far today my phone has been quiet.

I simply have the landline switched off.

Rarely get cold-calling on my mobile - if I don't recognise the number then I don't answer. If it's a genuine caller then they will leave a message.

You can't stop them. I only ever answer if their caller ID shows as someone I know - I might miss a few calls but I'd rather that than being plagued by cold callers.

You can't. We are on the 'no cold calling' list but it is only effective in the UK. The calls we get are all international.