# Getting cold calls or silent calls, etc?



## Erin99 (Aug 22, 2013)

Hi there! (Blimey, the thread title sounds like a spammer. )

I don't know whether this fits in the Tech section or not, but I've just found something useful for those in the UK - and it's free. Most people know about TPS (the Telephone Preference Sevice) that stops you getting marketing cold calls for free. However, silent calls, calls where an automated system randomly dials numbers to pass onto sales people once the line is picked up, aren't all stopped by TPS.

Market research and debt collectors are types that are allowed past this, for example. I've just found where you can stop these calls, too, so I thought I'd share it with you. I'm not sure if you have to register once a year, or if it's a lifetime thing as with the TPS, but register your telephone number with Silent CallGard, endorsed by the TPS: TPS: Silent Calls


Below is Silent CallGard's website. You can either register by phone, or by using the online form. And, what's better, the form doesn't ask for anything other than your telephone number, the same as TPS! 

SilentGard - Register your telephone number

Fingers crossed it works. Seph and I are getting SPAMMED with calls lately, _for people who don't even live here_! (It can take up to 28 days to get fully registered.)


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## Ursa major (Aug 22, 2013)

That's handy, Leisha. 



Usually the calls that do get past TPS don't come with a number attached, at least according to 1471. This morning's did, though; _my_ number.

Cheeky beggars.


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## Erin99 (Aug 22, 2013)

Wow! I'd never heard of that. Very clever, to use a person's own number. Most people would be so confused, they'd pick up to see what was going on.

I hope the site helps you.


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## HareBrain (Aug 22, 2013)

I probably don't get enough of these calls to justify registering, but I'd just like to say that caller display is a godsend. Anything "withheld" or "international" gets left alone.


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## Mouse (Aug 22, 2013)

I just don't answer the phone, problem solved. Or, if I do happen to pick it up they have, like, a second to answer. If nobody speaks, phone goes down.


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## Erin99 (Aug 22, 2013)

Unfortunately, our calls are from 0800 or 0845 numbers, not international. We have caller ID on, but that doesn't help us, except to know not to answer the call. One company calls us twice a day and has done for about two months now - early morning and late at night, sometimes up to 10pm. A quick internet search shows that the number is a well-known, horrid company. Today they phoned again using a new number. Luckily we didn't get to answer it, and another quick internet search revealed the same company. They have the wrong number, idiots! 

At least my phone let's me store numbers, so I've stored them in as "MAJOR SPAM" and "MAJORSPAM2".


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## Ursa major (Aug 22, 2013)

I have, on occasion, told people to phone at a more convenient time (knowing I'll likely not be in).

Well, it is more convenient for me.... (And they can always talk to the answer machine.)




Leisha said:


> At least my phone let's me store numbers, so I've stored them in as "MAJOR SPAM" and "MAJORSPAM2".


Oi!

(Be careful I don't set the demon from August 21st on you, the one who's just emerged from Hell into a flowerbed.)


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## Erin99 (Aug 22, 2013)

Ha! Oh, I hadn't made the connection. 

Hey! Is it you? Are _you_ cold calling us???


(If it is, I'd be more inclined to pick up. )


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## Jo Zebedee (Aug 22, 2013)

I just tell them to remove my number from their list and they legally have to. Simples.


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## Erin99 (Aug 22, 2013)

We've tried - again and again.  Sometimes, places even apologise that they've asked for someone not here, and say that they'll remove us from their lists... then we get calls again shortly after.

We're at our wits' ends!


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## Overread (Aug 22, 2013)

Urgh cold callers! That said I've a simple policy that actually works pretty well on most of them - never EVER answer the phone between around 4pm and 6pm. Most tend to call around those times and if you never answer enough they just give up.

Another method is to should loud and irately down the phone using lots of expletive language - that sometimes works too.

That said I think they are getting more desperate as more people are dropping their land lines and just sticking with the mobile phones since coverage is pretty good in the UK these days and why pay for two phones when all you really ever use is the mobile phone anyway. 


They are a pain and as said the official methods are limited; heck I even looked up and BT charge you quite a bit to have a number blocked and its a repeat charge to keep it blocked (which is dead cheeky in this day and age where its likely a few mouse clicks to enable it).


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## Erin99 (Aug 22, 2013)

A quick post before I rest for the evening:

(HELLO, OR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

The thing is, we don't answer the phone to the worst offender - and they still ring anyway. And they've even sneakily tried using a different number, finally! They haven't given up, even after two months of no calls getting through. I think it's all automated, so regardless that no one picks up, it doesn't bother the company.

And, heh, I don't swear, so unless me shouting "Go away, you pooping poopers!" will do the trick, I doubt going down the expletive route will work. 

But... no landline? I'd never heard of anyone doing that. The landline is the only cheap way I have of making calls, since my mobile is only Pay-as-You-Go and rarely has credit on it (and it's useless, old, and unreliable; right now, I've lost 3G, text, and wifi on it). Skype's been good for calling my family with, though. 

Right! I'm supposed to get off the PC. Bye for now!


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## Overread (Aug 22, 2013)

(HAI and BYE loopycat!) 

I know a good few who are now just using mobile phones on contracts and not bothering to get land line; in fact they only have a line to the house now for the internet (and those who live in towns are all using these TV and internet line packages which I think mean you don't even need to pay line rental!) 

If you've got good reception and you've already got a mobile phone on a good contract many just don't see the point in having two numbers so they drop one - heck if line coverage keeps up the concept of a land line for the telephone might well go the way of the village phone booth and vanish (although I'll note that most of the red one around my way have turned into little village information/tourist points).


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## Vertigo (Aug 22, 2013)

I've been getting loads of these silent calls for the last year or so now. funnily enough I rarely get cold calls; I've been registered with TPS for as long as I can remember and it does work most of the time. But not these silent calls; makes me wonder whether these automatic diallers only check a number against TPS once it's been picked up and passed to the operator, who then hangs up as it flags up as TPS. One of the reasons I suspect that sequence is they are often not silent; I can frequently hear a lot of background noise and on one occasion someone started to speak to me then cut off.

I've often wondered about turning on Caller ID and simply not answering the phone if the number is hidden. Then tell all my friends that if they hide their numbers I won't answer their calls  However I shall certainly give your thing a try Leisha.


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## TheDustyZebra (Aug 23, 2013)

We haven't had a landline in years.

The problem with what the "spammers" are _legally_ not allowed to do is that they don't care. We had a collection agency calling where I work, looking for someone who worked there. They are not legally allowed to call one's place of work. They did. They are not legally allowed to call back if you tell them to quit calling. They did, repeatedly, back-to-back-to-back calls, tying up multiple lines on our switchboard, with, you guessed it, _our number _showing on caller ID. Day after day. The receptionist called the cops, and one of them answered the calls for a while, and they still wouldn't stop. I'm not sure that they ever have, and I don't think the person even works there anymore. It's insane -- what do you do to stop illegal calling when they just don't care?

I feel your pain. When I personally have been bothered by sales or whatever calls, I found the answering machine to be very useful.


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## gully_foyle (Aug 23, 2013)

In Oz landlines just became plain expensive, it didn't make sense to have a landline and a mobile and my internet is a 4G modem. I seem to remember landlines calls were much cheaper over shorter distances in the UK (and I vaguely remember they were free to local areas in the U.S., but that may have been an 80s induced hallucination). Anyway, not being listed was a wonderful by-product of dropping the landline. Once upon a time our wondrous telco used to charge us extra to be unlisted! 

What galls me is they still deliver phone books every year.


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## Boneman (Aug 23, 2013)

If they ask for anyone - usually me, I say "hold on, I'll go and get him" put the phone down and carry on with my work. The longest anyone held on was 32 minutes... They do seem to have stopped, more recently, though the automated ones get through. If you're completely silent, they don't kick in, whereas a human on the other end usually speaks first.


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## Erin99 (Aug 23, 2013)

Well, there was no call this morning, and we've been getting them every day. I'm not going to believe that the CallGard worked THAT quickly, though. Probably just a fluke. We'll see.

Interesting what Vertigo says, that possibly companies check the number against TPS *after* dialling. I've had calls where it's gone silent as I've picked up.

And yes, I'd read about a similar experience to TDZ: the company that harasses us morning and night has done worse to others. One man was chased on his mobile, home phone, and then work phone. For months no one could get the company to stop harassing his workplace, so the boss - bad man!!! - fired him because of it, though he supposedly felt bad for doing so.

Anyway, I wish I could bring myself to put *them* on hold. The worst I've done was interrupt a salesperson and said goodbye (then hung up) after repeatedly telling them I was not interested and them ignoring me. 

And remind me not to move to Australia! Things are expensive enough here.


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## Ursa major (Aug 23, 2013)

Has anyone ever tried something along the lines of:
"Sorry, you've dialled the wrong number -" read out a random, but plausible, number "- but now you're on the line, did you know that Satan wants you for a sunbeam?"​Obviously, I'm using the name of a non-corporeal being whose followers rarely sue or threaten a beheading (which doesn't mean that they won't go a-lopping), but I'm sure the name Satan will help the caller to decide not to phone you so often.

And if the same organistion does call back, you can, after pointing out that it's still the wrong number (you have kept a copy from when they last called, haven't you, because you can then read it out again), ask them where to send the enrolment pack, "which is on special offer until the next full moon, luckily enough, and as a bonus, we give you an extra month to send us a sample of your blood."


No? I thought not.


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## Mirannan (Aug 23, 2013)

Not quite relevant, perhaps, but I'll relate a story about physical cold calling - which is far worse, IMHO. This is from my depressingly distant days at university.

Got warned in advance that a group of God-botherers were going to be knocking on doors in the halls of residence. It so happened that I was a member of the college amateur dramatic society, so I made a quick raid on their props and costume room.

God squadders arrive. My room is lit only by candles (black, natch) standing on a table that had an elaborate tablecloth on it. I was wearing a long black cowled robe and answered the door holding an ornate dagger, which I was idly sharpening. Put on my best unctuous voice; "Do please come in!" with elaborate shooing-in gesture (with the dagger-bearing hand).

I could have sworn they invented teleportation on the spot.


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## Vertigo (Aug 23, 2013)

I really like that tactice Mirannan!

Oh I just remembered another one I got for several years.

You know how companies register keyholders with the police or security companies so they can be contacted if their alarm goes off. Well some years back someone had clearly mistyped their number and *my* number was registered. I kept getting calls (typically in the middle of the night of course) but as I didn't have all the necessary passwords and stuff they wouldn't even tell me what the company was and bizarrely never did anything about it themselves. Eventually I managed to get onto a senior person in the security company and got it sorted but annoying doesn't even begin to approach how I was feeling about this after literally something like 3 years of getting these calls.


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## Erin99 (Aug 31, 2013)

Just an update. I've had a week without any calls from the company who bugged us morning and night! From the morning after I signed up for CallGard, nothing!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Should I dare hope?


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## Erin99 (Sep 5, 2013)

One last update. I've had NO CALLS AT ALL SINCE SIGNING UP TO CALLGARD! Literally, from the next morning, nothing. I so hope it keeps up.


Absolute bliss. The phone doesn't ring early morning and late at night six days of the week!

CallGard, I love you!


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## mosaix (Sep 6, 2013)

Leisha said:


> One last update. I've had NO CALLS AT ALL SINCE SIGNING UP TO CALLGARD! Literally, from the next morning, nothing. I so hope it keeps up.
> 
> 
> Absolute bliss. The phone doesn't ring early morning and late at night six days of the week!
> ...



Well done, Leisha. 

Reading your posts made me wonder if you were being called by some king of weirdo rather than a commercial organisation.

A few years back our 'phone would ring round about midnight, when I answered it would be 'silent'. It wasn't one of those automated calls as I could hear breathing. Obviously some kind of nutter.

This went on for a few months, probably two or three times a week. Finally we hatched a plan. I got my wife to answer and just hang on. After a couple of minutes I said, on the other 'phone, "Okay you can hang up now, we've managed to trace the call." Whoever it was never rang again.

Anyway, thanks for the SilentGuard link, we don't get many silent calls but even the odd one is irritating.


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## ibrooks (Sep 6, 2013)

Have a search on Youtube for Tom Mabe. You almost feel sorry for the cold caller by the time he catches on.

There was an article in the last week or so where a guy had paid for a premium rate number for his home (and it's not a lot of money). He was making a small profit from the cold callers. Apparently it was slightly questionable from a legal point of view over them not knowing about the charge but hell if they had got the number legitimately then they would have been told about it would be my argument. Of course if they have initiated some sort of procedure to get their money back that also means that you now know who they really are.

Iain


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## Erin99 (Sep 6, 2013)

Hi, Mo! Thanks. But nah, I always Googled the phone number when it rang, and it was always the same company. Luckily, the problem seems to have been fixed...

I'm glad you managed to get rid of your caller, too. That sounds scary. It's so hard to think that sort of thing goes on. 




Aaaand...


Welcome to the Chrons, ibrooks! I hope to see you around more. 

And heh! That man was crafty! At least he was getting recompense, albeit he was being very, very cheeky. I'm not sure I'd have the danglies to do it!


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## ibrooks (Sep 9, 2013)

You do wonder how many times he had to try it before he "got" one.


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