Getting nuisance callers cross!

sunseeker excellent. Thank you

I had two calls on Wednesday morning from foreign sounding gentlemen who said they were from Talk Talk and had detected a problem with my router. They wanted me to press Ctrl and R and enter some program name so they could show me the problem. The first caller told me his name was Charles and the second was Brian. I played dim and said I had no keyboard on my tablet. That sent Charles into a frenzy of exasperation. I asked Brian why he couldn't just send me a new router and eventually he put the phone down. Both callers followed the exact same script. I checked the number of the second call (001148600052) on Google and found lots of complaints about it. One suggested the number was Australian. There was a third call during the morning but I didn't reach it in time and didn't check the number.

I've had several of these calls. I get amusement from remaining totally silent, but not putting the phone down!

I have various tactics for answering these calls, sometimes I just don't say anything, they eventually hangup, sometimes I answer in Turkish (not many will speak Turkish), sometimes I ask them to make an appointment and my consultancy fees are £500 per hour, I've tried the 'I'm DCI Smith and you've called a serious crime scene' etc and once I told the guy not to tell lies and told him he was breaking my heart as he was destroying his chances of getting to heaven, then I started singing 'You'll never get to heaven if you break my heart'. As you may be able to tell I have a lot of time on my hands......

I've strung the "Microsoft" guy along a few times. Generally until they want me to visit a website in Russia or somewhere else I don't trust. One quick brush off I've used is "If you want sex I'll need your credit card number". One I intend to use sometime is "Which computer? There are several in the cyber crime unit".

Granby, I tried the totally silent version for a while, especially when I received a second call in a day but stopped after sending family members into panic when they called and got the treatment. I don't have caller dosplay.
missedeke, talking in Welsh has had callers nonplussed, too!

The best thing to do is buy one of those devices which "intercepts" calls. We bought a Truecall unit about 4 years ago now and you programme the numbers you want to be able to get through, anything else gets a recorded message basically asking them if they wish to proceed. Most don't bother. That way we lnow when the house phone rings, it's usually someone we actually want to speak to. You can also look up online the numbers who have called you and check that you haven't barred someone accidentally! Ceertainly these devices are worth their weight in gold nowadays!

The best call before we installed this device was when we were getting several calls a week from someone saying that there was a problem with your computer. My husband answered the next call and politely told the caller not to bother him, there was no issue and we had no desire to talk to him. Seconds later my mobile ran - from the man who was building a pc for us wanting to know why my hisband wouldn't talk to him! OOPS!

My daughter had a brilliant idea. When her son was about 3 he loved chatting on the phone but his speech wasn't good.shed put him on,and he'd chat away until THEY put the phone down! Oh how we laughed!

I've never had this one, but some years ago we had "Are you interested in computer training"? DH immediately answered "Absolutely, dear, what training can I offer you? I can recommend my "Building your computer", a whole lot of programming language courses and we can arrange "How to ensure your programme is bug-free Software Testing". We never heard again.

If it's one of those " something wrong with your computer" ones, I have started asking them if their mother knows what they do for a living. If they enter into a conversation I tell them she needs to know they are a criminal. Sometimes the phone goes straight down, sometimes they actually listen !

I had a call from a kitchen company who wouldn't take no for an answer. I explained it was a rented house and they would need to speak to the landlady. When they asked for her details I said The Queen, Buckingham Palace, London. We were in a RAF married quarter. They hung up, can't think why.

My OH often answers the phone in a loud shouty voice pretending to be a Chinese takeaway "wha you wan? " "special fry ri?"? "Noodle?", "swee sour pok? ", Very non pc but he can keep it up for a while. Nuisance callers hang up pretty quickly. If it's anyone that really wants to talk to us, they ring our mobiles.

A while ago I had a call regarding solar panels - I politely told the caller that I live in a Park Home (solar panels can't be installed on them), the rude response I got from caller was "we don't deal with Gypsies" & he slammed the phone down. How rude - I was fuming - a lot of people mistakenly believe these are Gypsy sites when these days the opposite is true, the homes are owned by people from all walks of life (I was a Civil Servant), others have been Landscape Gardeners, worked in local industry (Westland Helicopters being one).

Luckily I have caller display so I only answer family, friends & local numbers. I don't answer any others & answering service kicks in quickly, same with my mobile.

I never answer calls with an unrecognised number ...just make a note of it from the phone display and check it online ...always on the 'liste rouge' ...not known to anyone ! OH answered the phone one morning when I was out ....someone said 'You have a problem with your computer' (now he doesn't use a computer ...bought himself one to learn on, couldn't find the on button, or, as he said, the 'button marked 'click' and so he gave up !.....) anyway, that morning the guy said 'you have a problem on your Orange (our provider) computer ....so he duly took the phone into my office, and told the called (quite genuinely) ...sorry, my wife has a silver computer and a black one, but I cannot see an orange one .....no idea why they hung up on him .......but I might just use the same tactic !

Upon receiving the calls about the computer I ask them to hang on while I get my husband as he's a police inspector and he knows more about these scams than I do. He isn't and he doesn't but they don't hang around for him to come to the phone.

I believe they are scam calls intended to get you to give them info or just turn on your PC which would allow them to take money from your account .
My DIL just tries to sell them PPI when they call her , it is quite funny to listen to . I have on occasion said Mrs so and so (me) is dead which stops them in their tracks . I am not superstitious so it doesn't worry me .

For anyone interested you can see many videos of scammers getting short shrift if you look on Youtube. Sadly, last year while I was abroad my partner fell hook, line and sinker for the Micosoft man scam. She lost about €200 but the bank reimbursed her. She said she had never heard about these people. So now she also knows that she really mustn't try to help someone get $20M from Nigeria, as that's a scam too!

We have our landline ringer switched off and only use our mobiles. If I get a no I dont recognise on the mob I don't answer it.

BBbevan - I thought it might have been me you were referring to but perhaps it was sunseeker. Which ever we both had a laugh ! My line was that I went into senile old woman mode (rather too easy !!) and asked if he was going to come and cleam my windows as they were covered in bird shit. Absolutely true at the time as there was a starlings nest above them. I kept going for quite some time until the line went dead.

Had yet another of these today. If I have time I string them along and sometimes say some Welsh words. - that totally confuses them. A few times I have profusely thanked them and said I would pass hos name on to my son - MD of Mic rosoft (he is not !!) and it's them who hang up then.This morning I was going out so told him to stop lying. Go away and do not ri ng again. He was still babbling when I put phone down.

I have to answer withheld numbers in case it is the Doctor , OT Physio etc , I do the senile bit when it is a scammer

MadGrandma

Having caller recognition I don't usually answer numbers I don't recognise but the other day International showed up so I answered thinking it was my niece from Barbados. It really amused me when this chap asked if I would like my oven professionally cleaned because I only have a small worktop mini oven.

I ansered a call from a solar panels salesperson. Why didn't we want solar, they said. I answered, 'Because we'll be dead before they're paid for..'. No further calls.

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