Cold-Calling Scams

11 Jun 2011

Does anyone else get the phone calls saying they are computer technical support and they can fix the problems and virus's that have infected my computer dunno

I have had a few but just had the funniest 1 ever.
I know these are a scam so decided if they are gonna try and waste my time I would try and do the same back to them so I just went along with it for 10 minutes. When finally the person on the end of the phone asked what was on the screen I replied:
Me : It says that I shouldn't listen to the person on the phone as they are from a call centre that like to try and extort people out of money
Him : Fuck you
Me : Pardon
Him : Go fuck your mum
At this I put the phone down.
Followed by him phoning me up twice more telling me to go fuck myself.
Had a search and found the following link which I found funny as well.

On a serious note though, these people are saying that they get your details from Microsoft (ermm I don't think so) I wonder how many people actually fall for this scam ?

11 Jun 2011

Quote by Meeko
Does anyone else get the phone calls saying they are computer technical support and they can fix the problems and virus's that have infected my computer

Not since I started asking them what they were wearing. Works well for double glazing, debt management companies and all the other cold callers.

11 Jun 2011

Yesterday I had a call from a company saying they were a life insurance middleman. They contact customers on behalf of the customers life insurers to make sure you are getting your moneys worth. They then asked me who held my insurance lol

Sorry was it not they who told you to call me rolleyes

11 Jun 2011

I got one today, he was foreign and couldn't even pronounce my name...I said im very sorry but I can't understand you so please get someone English to call me bye.
Another good one is to say can you just talk to the baby for aminute while i finish something....then leave it half and hour and say thanks ,thats great bye. lol

11 Jun 2011

luv the cold callers as soon as we hear em
we just say to hold on while i get the owner then leave the phone on the table by the tv or radio, then after a few mins quickly pick up and if they still waiting tell em wont be long,,,,, after several mins they go...
or on sales calls we tell em we also sell avon, tupperware etc and request their details.

12 Jun 2011

Guys, one way to prevent cold calling is the Telephone Preferential Service, it does work and if you get calls from call centres then just tell you're registered with the TPS, they take you straight off their call list. It does help prevent me from being terribly rude to them too, especially after a night shift..... lol

Go take a look;

12 Jun 2011

Devon,
Agreed Telephone Preference Service is very good, just mention to caller 'have you every heard of Telephone Preference Service'and they usually can't 'hang up' quick enough, funnily enough they never call back again.
Also found both the Fax Preference Service and Mailing Preference Service have stopped an awful lot of 'junk' over the years, so would recommend all 3 services would be useful for UK based peeps to register with.
:thumbup:
As for Meeko's original post, had one of those months ago (well reported in the specialist computer press) and managed to keep them on the phone for 20 mins without actually letting them anywhere near our systems, etc. They eventually twigged they were being 'played' and hung up, but meant all that time we kept them online they weren't pestering some one else lol

12 Jun 2011

Here's a great way to deal with telemarketers!!

12 Jun 2011

Listening to that reminded me of a Scottish prank call lol

12 Jun 2011

Quote by sexydevoncouple
Guys, one way to prevent cold calling is the Telephone Preferential Service, it does work and if you get calls from call centres then just tell you're registered with the TPS, they take you straight off their call list. It does help prevent me from being terribly rude to them too, especially after a night shift.....
Go take a look;

TPS is brillaint at getting rid of all the 'legal' UK callers, but it doesn't have any sway over the off shore callers. :-(

12 Jun 2011

Quote by Cubes
Guys, one way to prevent cold calling is the Telephone Preferential Service, it does work and if you get calls from call centres then just tell you're registered with the TPS, they take you straight off their call list. It does help prevent me from being terribly rude to them too, especially after a night shift.....
Go take a look;

TPS is brillaint at getting rid of all the 'legal' UK callers, but it doesn't have any sway over the off shore callers. :-(
A police whistle vigorously blown into the receiver is pretty effective. I imagine it's illegal - but so should cold-calling be.

12 Jun 2011

Recently I had a call from a young girl, who wanted to discuss my legal case with me.
I have no ongoing legal cases, but I played along, and asked her which case. She said the insurance case for my car.
I do not have a car, hence have no car insurance.
I asked her what my name is.
She said that's what she needs to clarify.
I pointed out that she is claiming to be dealing with a case, of which she knows nothing, not even the person's name. I pointed out this was silly.
Her reply:
"Shut up, you swot".
My reply:
"Are you 12?"
It was funny at the time. I kept her talking about all sorts of shit, til she put the phone down. I suspect her mum caught her running up a considerable phone bill and clouted her.

12 Jun 2011

I never answer my landline. Only have it for broadband and sky TV. It's always those recorded messages, so I no longer bother. BT were useless all the times I complained. So I just don't use the phone.
The silly call I mentioned above was to my mobile.
I don't normally answer calls that do not have a number attached. On that particular day I was bored and hoping it was a silly caller lol

12 Jun 2011

The best thing with cold calls is tho tell them you need to answer the door or turn the oven down and then just leave them to it. if everyone did the same and wasted 5 minutes of their time it gets to the point of not being financially viable to do it- and then we might get some peace :twisted:

12 Jun 2011

Some Great Ideas. We registered with the TPS a few years ago and the calls stopped but have started to increase again.
Might try Leaving them waiting for a while on the end of the line, waste there time for a bit.
Other things I have tried in the past is to throw them off track as I have been led to believe they are reading from a script that they use on everyone. When asked if I was the home owner I have told them no I was a burglar and thought I would just answer the phone in case the call was important and leave a message for the owners when they come back. I have tried the polite way and even spent 20 minutes one evening pretending I was gay and tried my hardest to chat them up (good job I aint cause my chat up lines on blokes are worse than the ones on the ladies :giggle smile

Think in future I will let Shi answer the phone and just let her talk them to death and recon they might give up then :lol2:

12 Jun 2011

Quote by Andy_Jules
We used to pay for BT to block all anonymous calls (anonymous call rejection) but after a time we found it wasn't 100% effective with some calls still getting through.
We are ex-directory, we don't give our home number out freely and never include it on any forms or documents but we still get dodgy calls.
We registered with the telephone preference services which initially helped but as time has gone on we've found we still get canvassing calls? It's all well and good telling a cold caller that you're registered with TPS but they've still called you so it kind of defeats the object.
Our best defence has been the Truecall unit, it can be a little quirky but for £90 it's well worth the money, we now have it set to block all calls except those on our approved list and of course emergency services can get through anyway so we're pretty OK with it.
Andy

You know this just sounds like a hell of a lot of effort to go to just to avoid some phone calls dunno

It takes two seconds to pick up the phone interrupt the first sentence with "Not interested" and put it down again. If it keeps ringing pull the jack out. Guess you have a mobile? If its that important the people that need it normally have it and will call that.

12 Jun 2011

Pigeons are a good way of avoiding cold calls, and if you get peckish well ......
rotflmao

15 Jun 2011

Quote by brucie
i keep on getting texts saying im due compensation for my accident. how the fuck did they find out i shat myself on the tube last week????

cctv coverage on trains used in telly programmes ... oh how we laughed at you

15 Jun 2011

Quote by brucie
i keep on getting texts saying im due compensation for my accident. how the fuck did they find out i shat myself on the tube last week????

cctv coverage on trains used in telly programmes ... oh how we laughed at you
did you think it was funny when i wiped my arse with your husband's tie?
yep cos i know he left it under a radiator at yours to go with the rest of your cloates