Over the past few months we have started to receive increasingly frequent phone calls on our landline phone (which seem to be coming from from India) trying to sell us things, eg loft insulation, insurance etc. The number shows up as "international" or "unavailable" on the phone and there is always a delay before the caller speaks. Also, they always ask to speak to the householder. I know we can just put the phone down but the number of these calls has now reached a nuisance level and they are really very intrusive. Does anyone know how to get these calls stopped?

Thanks.

Try registering here: http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

If you have already registered then I don't know what else to suggest

If the calls are from overseas, then it's highly unlikely that they will pay any attention to UK or EU regulations, unfortunately.

Owainsutton is right. I have registered with the Telephone Preference Service on more than one occasion and it makes no difference at all. My strategy is to lift the receiver, say Hello, and if there is no immediate response, or there is a tell-tale silence before the operator realises I have answered, I put the phone down. At least they can't call you back straight away because the calls are generated by computer, but I agree, they are very annoying.

I turn the call round, and try to sell them a garden building! The poor overseas folk are totally off guard, can't get back on script, and it actually counts against them because they have targets to complete phone calls in a certain way, and in a certain time, and they have no chance as I patiently explain to them that I can offer 30% off a sectional concrete garage before the end of the month!

Oh how VERY pleasing, stetenorve!!

Have a sticker.

Bx

Yes, these seem to have become a nuisance recently as UK operators are meant to comply with TPS - unfortunately it is voluntary. It really requires a concerted complaint to OFCOM to deal with this, but I don't see it happening yet.

My mum has been logging these - she had 14 of them a couple of weeks ago.

I spoke with her landline supplier and they said there was little they could do if the call originated outside of the UK.

Some are just sales, others though are scams, so best thing is to not get involved with the call at all.

My understanding was that registration with the TPS makes it illegal to make unsolicited contact, and it gives somewhere for you to complain to (regardless of whether that makes a difference!). It makes it illegal for companies you have given your details to to sell them on to other companies for the purposes of selling stuff (Assuming you haven't or don't give permission - always check whether that little box needs ticking or unticking).

I've had quite a lot of interaction with Trading Standards recently with my job and they say always to flag up what is happening if you're registered with TPS, if only because if scammers are contacting you, they are contacting someone else, and eventually will happen to someone who is vulnerable and if they don't know about it, there is nothing they can do.

But I agree for most people it is a nusiance that you're never going to wipe out completely. (There are certain things that TPS can't do, detailed when you sign up)

And it is worth saying regarding companies that take advantage of vulnerable people, there may be local charities or other services that can intervene on your behalf (I've written stern letters with my employer's fearsome logo which has at least a temporary effect, and we let Trading standards and the police do the rest if it has come to that).

Only for calls trying to sell you something and only where the call centre is in the UK. Unless they changed it since I signed up.
Anybody notice that some places didn't call with a sales pitch but to ask if they could call later with one......?

Then there are the nuisance calls from your energy suppliers, BT, the bank, firms you get stuff from but don't want them calling you offering other products .....

If it's a scam, you can always tie up their time by pretending to be a combination of oblivious, gullible, and hard-of-hearing. Every minute spent failing to scam you is a minute they're not using to scam somebody else...

I once made the mistake of taking part in a telephone survey, which was only supposed to take two minutes, but actually took nearer twenty.

I was promised all sorts of freebies for taking part, but all I got was nuisance calls, until I got hold of the [UK based] company who was selling my number, gave them a rollicking, and told them to remove my details from their database, or otherwise face legal action. The calls dropped off after that, to the point that we rarely receive any now.

However, if I do receive one, I usually say something like "Welcome to Swell Box Limited; your call is important to us. For sales press one; for technical service press two, etc". They usually hang up before I get to "for Accounts press five".

Otherwise your only option is either to change your number, or not to answer international calls unless you are expecting one.

SB

I interrupt them by saying "could you hold on a minute.." then laying the phone down without hanging up and go and do something else. After about ten minutes of waiting they've usually gone and don't call back.

The other thing I do is ask them to repeat everything they say. Boring but effective

If it's a UK company, such as double-glazing, I ask to speak to the supervisor and then calmly lose my temper. I was at my elderly parent's house one day during a dramatic family crisis and they called at 4.30pm on a SUNDAY asking about new windows!!! I was given a grovelling apology and promised they would never call again.. and they never did.

We're registered with TPS and don't get these calls at all now here at home. But I rarely answer the phone anyway unless it's my OH (we have caller display).

We don't have caller display.
I was very cross to find out that when I bought a phone with this facility it didn't mean I could use it!!
Can't ignore the foreign based calls without knowing that they are....

For the ones who start by asking if you are the house owner the quickest way to get rid of them is to tell them it's a council house.
I tell them that Mrs sbhoa isn't in and I don't know when she'll be home.

Often the staff in the call centres give improbably European names: I have a friend who gives a similarly incongruous one in the opposite direction, and then waits for the first bit of the spiel, before leaving the phone dangling whilst going off to make a cup of tea. Not perhaps fair on the one caller, and callcentre jobs are absolutely soul-destroying to do, but at least diverting for the individual who might otherwise just have been somewhat annoyed...

Does anyone else get the "This is an urgent message regarding your PPI" calls? I don't even have any PPI / finance!

About twice a week. Scam.

We get them about twice a day!!

I always tell callers, including doorstep salespeople, that the house is rented, and that the Landlord lives abroad. They soon loose interest.

Mind you, we had a visit from the Jehovah's Witnesses one Sunday lunchtime shortly after we had come home from church.

Their opening line was "when did you last read your Bible?" I looked at may watch, and said "oh, about an hour ago; I'm on the Reader's rota". For once they couldn't think of anything to say


SB

Yes, and it drives me potty! Also the ones about the government grants available for loft and cavity wall insulation. Not many people use our landline now, but with elderly relatives living some distance away, I daren't not answer the phone in case it's urgent.

We used to get a lot of double glazing people, but they are easy to get rid of - I just tell them that I'm currently unemployed, and they lose interest.

Same here. Just signed up to TPS and hope it works.

I do remember once getting a call from a man telling me that I had had a car crash and could claim compensation. When I told him I didn't own a car and had never been in a crash the man just told me that I was mistaken and had been in a crash .



The worst thing is that recently they called OH on her mobile.

I don't know if TPS covers that...

I get calls about claiming for my recent accident (which I didn't have).

I get texts about this. Once I've claimed the thousands owed to me for my PPI and my recent accident I'm going to be able to afford my cavity wall insulation and my new windows

As for the phone calls, I like Lottie's idea of simply leaving them on the line - costing them time and money. But with any luck I won't need to do it as I haven't had a call for a while - I know we're signed up with TPS, but we've had no international calls either.

My sister was getting regular calls about the problems detected with Microsoft on her computer. She used to let them get so far, pretending she was doing what they asked, right up to the point where it was about to cost money, and then tell them she had Apple (or even, at one point, that she had no computer at all). They were very cross with her and haven't called her for a long time now. She does miss them

I was "a bit" abrupt with mine when they called me on my mobile at work in a meeting with some new offer. I suggested they put it in a letter so I could read it at my leisure.

I do this sometimes; I find it really irritating to pick up the phone and find no-one at the other end.

Seeing as they can apparently detect problems remotely I sometimes ask them if they can tell me which programmes I have open at that time.

Nor do we. But we have an answerphone and we use it.

A friend of mine managed to keep a double glazing firm on the phone for nearly half an hour - discussing all the conservatories they could build supply and build for her, before they asked her address - which is on the 7th floor of a tower block!

Yes, that's another thing.. if I get 'genuine' calls from service providers such as TalkTalk (who we are with) or the fuel companies I ask them immediately to put everything in writing... I'll interrupt their 'script' for this too.

They never do

I use and give out my landline so get quite a few calls on it everyday. My parents purely have a landline for internet access and use their mobiles - think that is getting more common.

We don't very often get double glazing but I do live in an area where we still get the "rag and bone man" every Tuesday morning without fail.

My previous flat's phone number was one digit off the local takeaway. I used to just not bother to answer, after a while, as anyone who really needed me used my mobile and the landline was only for internet.

I get these too. I tell them I don't have a computer....that's when i bother to speak before putting the phone down.
Is this one a new way of hacking into your computer? Seems that way to me.

I think a lot of us find it difficult to just hang up, but after the first couple of times it gets easier. I would like to waste the time of these people, but I have better things to do with my own time.

Just letting all calls go through to your answer phone (I mean a local one, not an answer-phone service provided by the phone company) is a practical solution. If you recognize a friend's voice, or a company that you really want to talk to you can pick up right away.

I was getting a lot of nuisance calls on my mobile a couple of months ago - possibly 10 a day! I ignored them most of the time, but the one time I did actually answer I was very nearly scammed out of a considerable amount of money before I realised the caller couldn't be my bank (stupid, I know...).

I registered my mobile number with TPS and have had considerably fewer calls.

I have registered with the Italian version of TPS but most of the calls come through anyway. One phone company calls everyday to ask if we want to switch to their service. I have even told them that we would never switch because they are so annoying and ignore our requests not to be called - they call anyway. What really annoys me, and perhaps this is an Italian thing, is people phoning to say they have heard our house is on the market (it isn't). Sometimes they even ring the doorbell or stop me in the street to ask this!

Do you also get those automatic advertisements that start as soon as you answer the phone? They are particularly annoying as they go on for ages and even if you put the phone down you can't cut them off - really frustrating if you want to make an outgoing call.

Our office fax number is the same as the fax number of our local GP surgery, with only a '2' and '5' transposed.

We are forever receiving faxes from various hospitals with confidential medical reports about people we may know, and even post mortem reports.

I usually take the faxes into the surgery and hand them over to the Practice Manager, but there seems to be little they can do.

I have complained to the hospitals concerned, but the response is usually along the lines of 'so what; somebody dialled a wrong number; anybody can do that; what do you want us to do about it?' They really don't seem to care.

Now; what would the tax man say if I dialled the wrong number when filling in my tax return? Or indeed, what would PC Plod say if I accidently dialled the wrong number into my Cruise Control?

(Oops. Sorry officer. I must have put an extra '1' in by mistake. )

SB

A well known local department store has the same number bar one digit as the local hospital. We used to get quite a few calls for the hospital when I worked in the store - when the switchboard couldn't work out which department the caller wanted they used to put them through to "Personnel" which is where I worked.

However, now I find it quite useful (having an aged parent prone to needing to go to hospital), because I know the hospital number automatically and don't need to look it up!!

I only answer the Number unavailable calls as a couple of friends use skype to call (they live abroad). I think I'll be asking them to text first or some thing in future as I had a really nasty one of these calls yesterday. When the caller asked for me I asked "Who's calling?" After several rounds of this where I asked the same question (politely) he told me "It's the guy who's gonna xxxx you, "female dog."

I was really shaken, as you can imagine. Still feeling a little upset.

Next time, post them to the Information Commissioner's Office insead. And maybe a copy a newspaper into it, too.

Badstrad

What a pathetic individual! Just think what an idiot he was for having the "courage" to try and frighten someone over the safety of a telephone line. I have also had calls like that in the past so I can really sympathise but remember it's not personal - he's just an idiot.

Hear, hear

I think I might have arranged a meeting with him, then sent my very big, muscular, brother, and a few of his friends, in my place.

Apparently, when the calls come from abroad, they usually call by computer a few times first. If you answer the phone, they then know when you are available, and a person will call back at the same time on another day. The computer calls are the ones which you answer to silence, followed by the dial tone. I was told that if you get that, press the hash key several times, which will throw your number out of the dialling computers memory. I don't know how true that is, but I always do it, and I no longer get as many of those calls.

That's not the cause of the silent calls - it's the computer failing to connect you to a free operator (it's a waste of time, i.e. money, for operators to sit listening to ringing tones hundreds of times a day). http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2010/03/sile...-million-fines/

In a previous incarnation I recorded the automated scripts for my then employer. When I phoned through to other departments hearing myself apologise to me for being held in a queue was one weird experience!


Well done, SB!


I get plenty of those, usually for solar panels - including one whilst I was reading this thread! Usual response to this is "My in-laws had solar panels fitted recently, and have calculated that it'll take 25 years for them to recover the costs, so no, I am most definitely not interested".


jo.clarinet, barry-clari, CJB - last Carousel rehearsal?

Unacceptable - report it. Harrassment is a criminal offence whereas unwanted phone calls per se are not.

The memory still reduces me to giggles!

My usual response is to sound really angry and say: "Are you calling from outside the UK? If not, you have just committed a criminal offense - goodbye!". My family now know the anger is faked, the sons used to get upset it sounded so good!

I don't find that quoting MPS, or number being ex-directory cuts any ice. Some claim that the numbers are computer- generated, which means they can't do anything about it / aren't breaking any law etc etc. I don't believe that exempts them, but obviously they don't recognise these things or they wouldn't be calling you / me.

What I've found much more effective is pretending I think they've called up to book a music lesson. It also amuses the rest of the household. Telling them they've come through to a business number has gained an apology a couple of times recently. Worth a try.

Another nuisance I 've experienced this year was getting conference calls in error - one afternoon from 5 or 6 different people in quick succession. Clearly my number had been given to someone by mistake - but that went on for several weeks.

Not true at all. UK based call centres have to check numbers against TPS and will get fined for offences. Son#1 had a gap year job in an insurance company that cold called people in the UK to try to get them to buy health insurance. He worked in IT, which had the responsibility for ensuring that their systems were adequate and used up-to-date data.

Thank you. I shall try that. However, I'm not sure whether I would be acting unlawfully by passing the faxes on to another party?

What worries me more is that I am after away for several days at a time, so if a medial report is urgent, it could be sitting on my fax machine for a week or more whilst an anxious patient is waiting for it.

SB

I can't see how this could be the case - you have no legal duty to protect this personal information, but the sender certainly does.