Sick Of These Phonecalls!

[kat1]

Just had yet another call saying that my computer has a bad virus & they are calling to fix the problem. They told me to press the 'windows key & the letter R at the same time which i didn't do. They then asked me what came up on my screen and I replied, 'Scotland Yard Police warning of scammers ringing up and saying that there is a bad virus on my computer, he hung up!!!

[lozzer50]

I invested in a whistle and give a quick blast sometimes !! i am so sick of these idiots ringing at all hours of the day.

[kat1]

Good idea lozzer.

[jd_1984]

Good response, his quick exit tells me it definitely was a hoax/scam call.
How many have you had?
If the number of calls are excessive, report to the police, try and gain as much info as possible - time of call, what is actually said, background noise, accent of the caller etc the fraud squad may investigate or link it to a wider spread or on going investigation.
Also, try telling them that you are very busy (cooking tea, bathing the children etc.....). Tell that you are really concerned and will ring them straight back. They may be foolish enough to give you their actual number, a great lead for the police.

[kat1]

Ok thanks jd. I seem to be getting them every week just lately.

[treetops68]

Or just lay the handset down and let them burble until they ring off. They're paying for the call after all.

[Peter Pedant]

Yeah I found saying 'scam' is like garlic to the Devil !

[whistonian]

No problem for me anymore I got rid of my land line.

[mikey4444]

The difficulty is with being clever or rude with these bl**dy pests is that it won't stop them ringing someone else up, or even you again for that matter.

It had got so bad with me that I now have the home phone "off the hook" all the time now,and have done for nearly 2 years. I have made sure that everybody I know is aware of the situation and they now contact me on my Mobile, which is always on and with me all the time. But nuisance calls calls have now started appearing on my Mobile as well !

The TPS has no teeth whatsoever and is worse than useless. Not sure what the answer is to this modern plague.

[andy-hughes]

I am amazed that people are plagued in this way - I have never ever had a scam call like this.

Is everyone registered with the Telephone Preference Service?

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

I find that and an ex-directory number means my scam calls are zero.

[oliviagrace]

I just tell them I haven't got a computer and put the phone down!!!

[gness]

Shout...Virus!! Virus!! Tell me about it...I haven't been well since Christmas....
Then rattle on and on about your aches and pains without taking a breath..x

[atalanta]

Tell them you are using a Mac.

[boxtops]

I've not had any of these since we registered with the Call Prevention Registry :-)

[askyourgran]

The TPS is useless, they don't filter all the scam callers. I am ex-directory but we still get calls, but we don't answer International - out of area calls.

[SlackAlice]

I'm feeling left out, I haven't had one if these calls for at least 6 months.

Sob!!

[weecalf]

Got a call the other day telling me how to decrease my mortgage .says I how did you know I had one .told him to hold on while I got my bank details he said sorry but we are not allowed on ask for those .i just said well I'm not speaking to you any more unles you take my bank details .he got quite annoyed and insisted he did not want them so I just put the phone down on him

[twix123]

I had one last week that I thought I had already blocked calls from but obviously hadn't. Decided to play along for a while, so told Anne with the American accent that I was hard of hearing and she would need to speak louder. By the third time I had her shouting that she was doing a household survey. Told her that I wasn't selling my house and therefore didn't need a survey.. "No not that sort of survey" she says, "a household survey". "Speak up I cant hear you properly" was my retort. After another couple of 'survey? no household survey! to and fro's, requested that she removed my phone number from all their data bases, which she said would be done. So I terminated the call and immediately added the number to my call blocker.

Unfortunately the TPS cannot regulate and/or stop calls from survey companies or from abroad. Most of the numbers called from are not genuine, but are 'spoofed' using computer equipment to generate the apparent caller number, which is the reason the number is 'unobtainable' when called back!