13 replies to this topic

[marko]

It really was only a matter of time before someone started thinking up how to target us once it started becoming difficult to keep sending spam emails.   Over the past year or so we've been bombarded with junk mail through our letterbox, almost to the point where I've felt like grabbing the delivery person and ramming the stuff back down their throat and asking them how they like it!!.

But we have a more cunning scam developing now, one which is apparently targetted to our specific needs - how do they know our specific needs?.   Well, any time you've ever agreed to take part in one of those telephone surveys, could be years ago, they have obviously cashed in big time and sold anything that could target you for a specific product or niche such as insurance or even medical products believe it or not!.

Over the past few months we've been swamped with calls about insurance renewals, all from foreign sounding people.

The best one yet came from someone asking what make of TV I had - what?  When I asked who they were they told me they were not the TV license people, but that's not what I asked!!.   I told them to remove my details from their systems and not call me again, but this guy was determined - "no,no, I cannot remove your details,  need to know what make of TV you have". I promptly blurted a few choice words down the phone and hung up.

Strange thing was, a friend had exactly the same phone call that week and was caught off guard and told them he had a Panasonic TV.   Then, a few days later he received another call about his "Panasonic" tv and he wondered how anyone knew he had that make of TV so assumed it was a follow up call for warrenty or something but then remembered about the call he received earlier and put 2 and 2 together, promptly asked not to be contacted again and hung up.

Companies are now realising that if they target you, in the same way advertisers target you through websites and TV programmes, they stand a much better chance of selling you something and that's obviously the new spam ... get some kind of info from you first and then try and sell you something on the strength of it.   It really is becoming a nightmare these days, and its not set to get any better - in the UK they can attempt to "advise" companies not to phone in this way but that's a joke in itself, but when it comes to those "foreign" companies they can't touch them so the phone calls will continue whether we like it or not.

[PCRacer]

You definitly need to be carefull about those pesky phone calls.

My brother surprisingly won a $1000 to be used in shares trading this morning.    

When he told them he was not interested, they just hung-up.  

How about that???!

[John T]

9 times out of 10 these details are passed to 'selected companies and partners' of those insurance price comparison websites.
They ask you to insert a telephone number and you must do so to pass to the next screen. Most of them will accept 11 '0's as a telephone
number but some not. I left my actual mobile number on one of them and was being called up to 8 times a day! If I have to input a 'phone number now,
I usually leave a premium fax line number!

[James (Jim) Hillier]

Good points all.

I have a rather benevolent nature and am a sucker for a good cause. Many years ago I made donations to several charities in response to phone calls...big mistake!!

I now receive around 2 calls per week, every week, asking me for money. They all all very good causes and I feel terrible but it has gotten so bad I now have no other choice but to say NO to them all.

Obviously my name must have been placed on a "soft touch" list somewhere which is, just as obviously, available for anyone and everyone to share. <le sigh>

[Claw]

I don't know if anyone cares ,,but a friend of mines wife once paid a company to call her and tell her that they just block a telemarketer from calling!!
??????????? What's the difference in one from the other?? Proves you can just about sell anything to anybody!! This is not a joke!!!!

[marko]

I've actually stopped donating cash outright, now my wife and I will buy badges, etc, that you find at supermarket tills, like Children in Need, Cancer support, etc, it just seems when you become involved directly with charities you're obviously a soft touch and they even use your details to pass onto other charities who then bug the hell out you !!

[Claw]

Marko,the way I see it is , if you are going to pay someone to CALL you,just to tell you they stopped someone from CALLING you,something must be WRONG with you!!! That woman needs a hobby!!!! If she wants to giveaway cash that easy,,,she knows my number!!!!
Junk phone call to  tell you they prevented a junk phone call. I never think of anything good like that,,I could be rich instead of so good lookng!!!!Lol!!

[marko]

LOL, here in the UK we have a system called TPS (Telephone Preference Service) which is a great free service where you register your details with them and any company cold calling BY LAW has to go through these guys to make sure your NOT on their list.   It's great until you read the fine print where it says they can only regulate UK calls and NOT oversea's calls - which basically accounts for 99.9% of the idiots who call us!!

Normally what I do is this ... if I can be bothered then when someone phones I'll say "yeh, sure I've got time to speak to you, just hold on two seconds would you, until I stick the kettle on and make a coffee then I'll be right with you".   Normally this has the desired result, but if it doesn't then I'll start singing the British National Anthem in the background, again, normally has the desired result.   If they are true die-hard telesales, they'll stay on the line, and that's when things normally get quite interesting - I'll question everything they throw at me ... it's that usually that makes them see I'm just wasting their time.   If I can't be bothered, I'll ask them for their house telephone number so I can call them back at a time that's inconvenient to them - I've never had anyone give me their number yet, but again, it usually has the desired effect!!.

Failing that, just simply leave the phone off the hook, they'll get the message eventually

[Claw]

We also have Caller ID,tells the name and number of the caller.I just look ,don't know them ,,,,don't answer. There's all so Do Not Call List..it doesn't work!!!!

[AlphaCentauri]

There's a do no call list in the US that mostly works to block companies that don't have any prior relationship with you or your creditors. Charities and political organizations are exempt, so they don't get into arguments over free speech, and polling companies are exempt since they need a random sample to be valid. If your spouse is a soft touch at giving money, then refuses to pick up the phone when it's ringing to tell them not to call again, you do get on a lot of lists, though

But there is one company that regularly calls everyone in the US for some credit card scam, using a robocalled voice-over-internet line and a spoofed caller ID number. You can report them, but you might as well report that the person who called identified himself as Santa Claus. There's a law blog that is soliciting information from disgruntled ex-employees about who is running the scam, on the theory that scammers always treat their employees badly. So far no luck, though.