nuisance phone calls

door

Not sure if this is the correct place to be asking, but my house is driven demented by the amount of landline phone calls we are getting every day from, mostly, foreign numbers constantly ringing with scam claims like our computer is in trouble, or doing surveys or trying to sell something. We never allowed or gave permission for our landline number to be abused in this way. They always seem to know our names too. Does anybody know the first step in stopping this harassment?

brian_t

door wrote: »

Not sure if this is the correct place to be asking, but my house is driven demented by the amount of landline phone calls we are getting every day from, mostly, foreign numbers constantly ringing with scam claims like our computer is in trouble, or doing surveys or trying to sell something. We never allowed or gave permission for our landline number to be abused in this way. They always seem to know our names too. Does anybody know the first step in stopping this harassment?

Same here.

I don't think that Eircom can do anything on a individual basis as these calls are from outside Ireland (North Africa I think).

I have caller display and just don't answer 002... numbers.

They can get names and numbers from phone books.

muffler

Unless I'm in a hurry I normally play along and keep them talking for as long as possible (its costing them money for the call) and when the game is getting near the end I just tell them to **** off.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I kept a guy pretending to be from Eircom Internet Support hanging on for over twenty minutes last week. I then asked him if he was embarrassed to be associated with such a scam and, surprise surprise, he hung up on me!

keithclancy

My Grandad gets great fun out of these, his record so far is 4 hours.

His latest one is telling them he's going to go get his credit card and then heads out to a restaurant for a few hours.

Came back and they were still on the phone ...

Then comes back and says "Oh ... oh yes ... credit card .. still looking for it.."

Went out and walked the dogs.

Came back and they were gone :P

wmpdd3

Or neighbors are running a business from home and are harassed by these guys, they need the number for business obviously other than that it would be cut of ages ago.

They are so polite and must be marked as a possible victims, the often get 5 calls per day, its is really driving them mad.

They have caller id, but by the time they find their reading glasses to read it the answer machine kicks in and they don't want to lose customers.

Its a different number every time too so a number blocker seems a waste of money.

dudara

Posters - even though I value the humour, please stick to answering the original question.

dudara

No Pants

door wrote: »

Not sure if this is the correct place to be asking, but my house is driven demented by the amount of landline phone calls we are getting every day from, mostly, foreign numbers constantly ringing with scam claims like our computer is in trouble, or doing surveys or trying to sell something. We never allowed or gave permission for our landline number to be abused in this way. They always seem to know our names too. Does anybody know the first step in stopping this harassment?

Are you ex-directory?

slimjimmc

Not much you can do OP to stop the spam calls except change your phone number. To help reduce the chances of it recurring with the new number make sure it's ex-directory from the start and make sure no one in the household uses the land-line number on any websites.

Oryx

The first thing to do is put yourself on the NDD optout list (eircom how to here). This helps stop any Irish calls. Who knows, it might dissuade some of the foreign ones too.

We used to get a lot of them here, but I found that being abrupt to the point of rudeness with a NO THANKS or better still FCUK OFF if you prefer, then hanging up immediately, gets that company to remove you from the list after a few calls. That's been my experience anyway. I get very few calls now. Though I sometimes miss them. They are handy if you've had a bad day and want to give someone an earful.

SpaceTime

Just immediately hang up. Don't even bother wasting your time and energy.

If they ring back hang up again and just keep hanging up.

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do. They route their calls via all sorts of VoIP providers around the world and fake their caller ID.

Lando Griffin

Got the Indian PC doctor at my mothers house, told him that all the Police computers in my station were safe, he hung up straight away and hey tnever rang back again.
At work I just hang up straight away with Sorry no interest, you get used to it, but the most annoying one is the crowd in England who offer you a free gift but its not free.
Pity cant have a spam filter on a telephone.:mad:

SpaceTime

Lando Griffin wrote: »

Got the Indian PC doctor at my mothers house, told him that all the Police computers in my station were safe, he hung up straight away and hey tnever rang back again.
At work I just hang up straight away with Sorry no interest, you get used to it, but the most annoying one is the crowd in England who offer you a free gift but its not free.
Pity cant have a spam filter on a telephone.:mad:

Eircom do actually sell a device that you plug into the line and it has a regularly updated list of caller IDs that are blocked. Basically exactly that : a spam filter for phones.

The problem is that some of these international callers are using so many different caller IDs or possibly just not sending any info at all, that it renders some of these techniques relatively useless.

keithclancy

This might help

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CPR-Global-CPR106-All-in-One-Blocker/dp/B004BTVQ5E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393063363&sr=8-1&keywords=caller+id+filter

SpaceTime

Or from eircom for way bigger price! Lol

http://www.eircom.net/accessories/phones/cordless/callblocker/

Clauric

SpaceTime wrote: »

Just immediately hang up. Don't even bother wasting your time and energy.

If they ring back hang up again and just keep hanging up.

Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do. They route their calls via all sorts of VoIP providers around the world and fake their caller ID.

I generally ask them who is speaking. After they start into their spiel, without answering the question, I interupt them, and repeat the question, until they answer. I keep asking questions until they hang up. Great fun to kill the ad breaks on TV or when there is nothing on daytime TV.

I've even started to recognise the numbers of who is ringing, so I can prepare myself in advance!!

janmaree

They've been tormenting us for years now, sometimes several times a day. I was very polite at first, then I got very firm, then I got very angry, then I got myself a cheap and cheerful dog whistle.........now I ask them to hold on a moment and then whistle for the dog every time they call. It seems to have helped because I don't get to use my whistle nearly as often.

L1011

A dog whistle should be near or completely inaudible over a phone though - they're high frequency, often starting higher than the cutoff for a phone.

Paulw

keithclancy wrote: »

This might help

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CPR-Global-CPR106-All-in-One-Blocker/dp/B004BTVQ5E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393063363&sr=8-1&keywords=caller+id+filter

I got one of these, and since then I haven't had a call. I blocked unknown/private numbers and international numbers. Peace and quiet since.

Mind you, the last time that the "Microsoft" crowd called to help me with my computer problems I held them on the line for a while, as I tapped away on the keyboard, then told them that I was hacking their system and looking through all their files. They quickly hung up.

SpaceTime

BTW, blowing whistles down the phone will not actually result in a loud noise on the other end.

The phone network's digital. There's no analogue connection between you and the other caller. The signal is being digitally encoded so anything above a certain volume is not reproduced at the other end. It certainly won't produce a noise loud enough to hurt someone's ears.

All you'll end up doing is possibly damaging your own phone's microphone.

It may have worked on the old network before 1980 when there were actual physical connections being made by mechanical switching systems. So, you were literally connected via metallic path to the other end and I assume if you blew a very loud noise down the line, it might come out the other end, especially if it was on a local exchange.

These days that's totally impossible and has been for probably 30 years at this stage.

The best thing to do is hang up, and not give them the satisfaction of even interacting.

Just an engaged tone.

janmaree

MYOB wrote: »

A dog whistle should be near or completely inaudible over a phone though - they're high frequency, often starting higher than the cutoff for a phone.

I'm sure you're right.....what I know about that sort of thing isn't worth knowing tbh but I don't honestly mind........it makes me feel better ........and they don't call nearly as often now! Happy days!

SpaceTime

If you have an old fax machine / modem handy plug it in for a while and let it answer. That sometimes will result in your number being removed from the database as they'll have an automatic dialler (i.e. the system calls the numbers and the operators are just presented with the call).

Usually those machines are programmed to recognise fax numbers and delete them from the calling list.

Slapping the phone down immediately may have the same effect though as their system will probably log the line as permanently out of service / busy.

flutered

i had the indian pc doctor today, when he asked me to open my machine i had found my whistle, which has a real sharp loud blast, he got quite a lungful, a neighbour who was having a coffee was in stitches when i explained it to him, the present mrs flutered started smirking as soon as she saw the whistle, as she has used it herself.

Paybel

flutered wrote: »

i had the indian pc doctor today, when he asked me to open my machine i had found my whistle, which has a real sharp loud blast, he got quite a lungful, a neighbour who was having a coffee was in stitches when i explained it to him, the present mrs flutered started smirking as soon as she saw the whistle, as she has used it herself.

I tend to get a lot of "hello I'm calling from microsoft..." I just reply, well I've a mac book...the last time I had the guy say "yeah right you have a mac" got thick with me and hung up.

I logged onto my UPC account and changed my settings, I now have my number hidden from the directory.

Bepolite

Paybel wrote: »

I tend to get a lot of "hello I'm calling from microsoft..." I just reply, well I've a mac book...the last time I had the guy say "yeah right you have a mac" got thick with me and hung up.

Probably because in some parts of the world paying three times the price for an equivalent product because it has a nice logo is seen as madness... :pac:

SpaceTime

Bepolite wrote: »

Probably because in some parts of the world paying three times the price for an equivalent product because it has a nice logo is seen as madness... :pac:

I tried :

"Yes, This is Microsoft.. how can I help you?"

They slapped the phone down.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

SpaceTime

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Internationally, they'd have no idea what "Garda Station" was.

You can have great fun though being completely confused about the start button on your windows!

I tried "I pressed the start button, but now the rain is getting in!!"
What, you're not calling from Velux?!

Paybel

Bepolite wrote: »

Probably because in some parts of the world paying three times the price for an equivalent product because it has a nice logo is seen as madness... :pac:

Ah no I don't actually own a mac! But they can't argue if you say you've a mac and they are from microsoft!