Scam calls.

[Pattree]

TPS only works for British based callers. My land line gets almost daily calls from overseas but always via a British number. The display suggests when it might be a nuisance.

There is only one caller from UK. He is my “Local Energy Advisor” and wants to talk about my solar panels. He just ignores any reference to TPS and carries on until I put the phone down.

TPS is toothless unless I can demonstrate actual distress.

It’s not just the scam call, it’s the interruption to whatever I am doing, the break in concentration and the diversion.

I get occasional scam calls in my mobile but as I never answer that, it doesn’t worry me.

 

[Silverclaws2]

I'm signed upto that and still get the very odd occasion when one tries their luck.
As soon as they start their spiel I just ask "Have you ever heard of the Telephone Preference Service? Because if you had you'd know its actually illegal to coldcall me"
I think there's only been one time when the caller tried to continue the call after that point. And I asked them to never contact me again.

I don't give out my number to all and sundry mind, nor do I give out my e-mail addy to shops when they ask for it "For an e-mail receipt'.

So I have to fire my printer up to print a receipt out? Naaa, I don't think so pal"

With only the cell phone to use these days I have one rule; if the number calling is not in my address book I don't answer as I look at this way, my cell phone is my front door and I don't have to answer it if I don't want to. Others that need access but can't give me a number to put in my address book I ask to email me instead and if they can't do that then they're lost

 

[Laurentius]

I have noticed recently that a lot of them seem to come from French numbers, I answer them in French that puts them off, I am not sure that French is taught much as a second language in the Indian sub continent where the accent betrays the scammer to come from.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Last February my mum fell prey to a scam call about her computer. Fortunately the bank blocked their attempts to steal her money, because she was talked into providing card numbers and full access to her PC. Then they spent about an hour copying her entire hard drive before they chose to hang up. Caused a lot of stress and concern of identity theft. There were scans of my passport and birth certificate on her computer.

It wasn’t like I had not had talks with mum about scams, or that she is unfamiliar with most of the phone ones. They caught her when she was distracted with a hook about Microsoft subscription accounts. I look after her computer and she didn’t know if I had something set up, and she didn’t want to bother me at work. . They used false urgency, and because she was in a hurry she humoured them rather that hang up.

Older folks have memory of a time when service businesses would indeed initiate phone calls. Now of course it doesn’t matter if you are paying a company thousands per year, you have to call them, then fight through recorded messages to talk to a person. It took over an hour to reach the bank fraud line. So the mere fact that someone has called you should be a red flag!

At the start of October Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10. Expect scammers to use this as the basis of calls.

 

[slowworm]

As someone who also looks after their mother it's easy to see how they can be scammed. It's an area where the government needs to do far more as I think it is very complacent. Each time it messes around with things like the winter fuel payments a load of scams are sent out.

Also having an elderly relative that can fall ill and get taken to various hospitals means I can't ignore strange phone numbers.

I've found the TPS does not block all our scam phone calls. I thought the scammers use software that just randomly calls numbers and when they connect they are put through to a scam handler? That's why you often don't hear anyone for a few seconds at the start of a call.

I only say hello and if they are a scammer I put the phone down.

 

[Chris]

TPS only stops legitimate companies from cold calling you - it relies on people following a code of practice rather than physically blocking calls coming to you. It’s the telephone equivalent of a ‘Keep Out’ sign on your gate, which likely doesn’t deter burglars all that much.

 

[oldtimer]

We get spam calls at our place in France. Telling them we only speak English gets rid of them. In England we tell them we only speak French.