This is a government initiative!!!

Halfhidden

Administrator
Staff member
Has anyone received a call from a recorded message saying it's a government initiative phone call for people with £5000 debt or more? The professional sounding recorded message says that they can pay the debt and interest is written off?

At this point you are invited to press 5 on your telephone and you're put through to a representative.

First of all this recorded message auto dialler is illegal to operate without the prior consent of the recipient under Regulation 19 of the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003 requires that companies or organisations making automated marketing telephone calls have the prior consent of the subscribers they are calling.

Unfortunately this call is made out side of the UK (usually from India or USA) and therefore isn't subject to our legislation.

Although I'm not stupid enough to press button 5 on my phone, I do know what actually happens if you do. I've found a lot about this call and it's is becoming a national problem. The UK government says that they have nothing what so ever to do with this call and digging about it transpires to be a private company who basically either lend you even more money and therefore increase your debt, place you in a repayment schedule and charge enormous amounts of money to basically managed repayments for your debt or subscribe you to an ISA.
The sales team are aggressive with their ways and continuously phone you up at home and work until you submit and buy their products. There are stories on the net that mobile phones are being targeted as well as ex directory lines.
The Telephone Preference Service is powerless to do anything about this because they can only deal with phone calls from people and are powerless if the call is a recorded playback.
Many people up and down the country are reporting having a call three or four times a day every day. I'm not surprised at all as we are now getting two calls a day every day and sometimes as late as 11pm
You can try and report this abuse to your telephone company but from what I've found out they'll charge you £20 a quater to stop these phone calls.
So let me know if you start to get these phone calls and perhaps something can be done about it if enough complain.
 

Halfhidden

Administrator
Staff member
Incidentally, I found the following website an absolute god send when I'm trying to work out "Who called me".
You know when you get that call and they ask for you by name but you say that your not in ;) You quickly try 1471 to see who called and the number is read back to you but you're non the wiser.
Well, go to this site http://whocallsme.com/
You can look up phone numbers as well as place numbers on the site to warn others.
 

rrrrrrichie

Member
This is a Free message!

I get this call twice a day! "This is a free message, do not hang up!"

I've been using WhoCallsMe for about 3 years now, very useful.

Since moving recently, our new landline has a new number which I have set up as ex-directory and registered with the Telephone Preference Service. Unfortunately, this "new" number used to belong to a guy who liked to be quite liberal with it, giving it out to anyone and any company, as we have had so many calls asking for him. Once I have set the record straight, the caller seemingly unphased, just tries to sell whatever it is they are selling to me! After asking politely to remove the number from their list, they hang up.

Another trick I've learned of is the call that hangs up after you answer, apparently gaining statistics of who is in at which times of day to presumably sell to other companies!

Landlines make me so angry, I rarely give out the number as I like to be able to answer every single call I get without being afraid or getting my time wasted! ::8:::8:::8:::8:
 

CHILLYWILLY

New Member
Yes we fall foul to this attempted scam but fortunately only 2 or 3 times a week. A trick I have found that works if you get persistent calls from tele-sales is not to hang up, just put your phone down and leave it. I have done this now for several years and the number of sales calls we now recieve has fallen dramatically.
 

symons55

Moderator
Being self employed I get a lot of these and do as CW, I usually say "I'll just get him for you" and put the phone on the sofa, or, if it's one of these window type salesmen selling windows and patio doors keep saying yes and no and when they ask for an address give them one of a first floor flat and ask if they can still fit patio doors. ::11: soon the penny drops.
 

treeve

New Member
To be honest I get very few unsolicited calls of any advertising nature. I used to get loadsanutters. But, now TPS, registered with Rapid Dialler Block, not in the Council sold list of voters (disgusting use of personal data), registered with Mori as a do not call, the number is now Ex-directory NQR. So now it all depends on the mood I am in and the amount of time on my hands.
More often than not it is some local office who does not have an up to date register of numbers that they have bought illegally. Often it is some nutter from the States or India, who do not give a fig. Occasionally it is an insurance waste of space.
I do get the odd (very odd) you have won a prize rubbish, which always involves a scam or you buying some trash.
Most times, I run them along, knowing this is costing them money, until I add, 'your product is **** by the way, I know three people who have had problems' ... or there was a Canadian credit card company, spent two of them talking to me 45 minutes until they got top detail as to my earnings !! hee hee. They dropped the phone ....
Then there is the deaf as a post routine or the bad line routine, eventually they give up.
Sometimes I play the heavy and give them a right earful. I often just leave the line open anyway, even with taped messages ... it costs them the full amount for no response.
I have used the loud noise routine as well, some people use a whistle but that can cause ear damage, and after all they are mostly ordinary people trying to earn a dollar.
As to scams, I know them a mile off, and they get a Mr Angry - you are lying to me routine. I get maybe two a month these days, spoilsports, but life is quieter and easier without the fractious numbskulls.
 

treeve

New Member
ps One of my favourites is to have a long conversation, with diversionary topics like weather and politics, talking about the product and the house, then after twenty minutes inform them they will need to speak to the owners ... PHA.
 

fleagle

Senior Member
For the last 18 months, every 4-5 weeks I keep on getting a phone call wanting to know why I have changed telephone providers, yes you can guess it is from B.T. What really winds me up is, I am ex directory yet they have breached confidentiallity by accessing my phone number to contact me. Even when I tell them I am tied into a contract with another company for a set time period they still cannot take that information on board so a month later I will get them phoning me again asking 'Why have I left British Telecom? and they can offer me a better deal (NO THEY CANNOT) I always thought all their offices were in India, however the people who keep phoning me have Irish accents. ::8:::8:::8:
 

treeve

New Member
That is bad. Have you given written instructions that you do not wish to be contacted. I usually find that works with mindless bureaucrats. Even if I am a customer of Whatever Inc., I still have the right to peace. Another point is that if you are Ex Dir, you could also ask (as I have, to be NQR [no query response], which means your number only exists on old and illegal databases, or in scruffy directories. 28 days old. sir, sorry that is illegal. You have right to privacy and your data is covered under the Data Protection Act and the Representation of the People Act. As I explained to a person a year ago, despite them phoning from India, they are under British employ and subject to British Law. I always write to head office or even the person with millions in the bank who own the company or the subranch of the offshoots. I have tracked down multi-millionaires in Bermuda (eg), and a straight letter or email gets the job done, stopping phone and or letters.
 

treeve

New Member
ps .. don't lose sight of the distinct possibilty that they are scam merchants who have no connection with BT. Tackle them direct as to their authority. That also works; I have scared off three such artists, by reporting them to the proper firm.
 

Halfhidden

Administrator
Staff member
This is interesting hearing how abused we all are through the telephone. This was supposed to have been cleaned up with legislation back in the 90s and again more recently, but so long as the phone companies make money from these scams and nuisance calls why bother.
@fleagle I too use to get phone calls from BT asking me to come back. I changed my number in the end. Personally I chuckle when I see their advert on TV
Over 10,000 people come back to BT every month
It begs the question how many are leaving ::11:
 

BayOfPlenty

Moderator
When I get these calls from BT offering me "free evening & weekend calls" (I currently get all standard landline calls included in my monthly package, so why I'd want to get less is a mystery to me) etc, I simply point out that as BT is closing Goonhilly with the resultant blow to Cornwall's economy, they needn't bother asking me to give them my custom.
 

treeve

New Member
First two threads copied across to new thread 'Goonhilly Plans? '
Please continue this query there....
 
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