Getting nuisance callers cross!

I get at least seven of these calls a day,even though I am ex directory and on the preferential list. What I don't understand is how these people get your details.They have my name and number but glad to say wrong house number.Most of the time I hang up on them now.

This thread has been both upsetting and hilarious at the same time.
I also have had many of these calls and have used a lot of the things that people have said.!
The scammers hate it and eventually do stop for a while.
I have also been told i am stupid and another call told me to F-Off, when i said they were not kosher and i would report them.
I do not have caller ID or an answerphone as i am a BT low user.
So i do answer my landline as i am that nosy and also frightened of missing any calls from my family who live abroad.

Buddie am so glad to see that you have had these calls too. Not that I would wish them on anyone but it sets my mind at rest to know that it is not just me that gets them. Thank You.

Granny23, I have had that long silence followed by Goodbye on numerous occasions so it has been around a while.

I agree with NfkDumpling that it is annoying to come back to numerous recorded messages from these people. I don't think the family understood how often these calls occur until they heard the messages when they visited. Of course, they are somewhat truncated as the recording starts before the Beep!

The most amusement I have had recently was a call where there was clearly a lot of banter going on in the background and it was some time before the caller realised the call had been answered. His mind was clearly on what was going on around him though. I left him to it with the phone off the hok until he hung up.

We had a call yesterday from what looked like a legitimate number but also said international. Checked on Google and it was Microsoft scammers.
DH has taken to entering those with numbers into our phone list and he names them rude words prefixed with scam

Recently I have had a number of calls when the caller asks for someone with another surname but always starting with the first two letters of ours. I suppose they have poorly programmed databases.

More worrying is that I have had, over the past few months about one call a week where I say Hello, there is a pause and then a female voice with a local accent says 'Goodbye' and hangs up. The 'Goodbye' sounds identical each time so I reckon it is a recording. I have found these calls quite unsettling but hope that it is simply something that happens when they ring multiple numbers and more than one answers. Anyone else had this?

We have number display and didn't pick up if it was a 'foreign' number or withheld, but that always doesn't help now as it can be changed to a local number and doctors and hospital are withheld numbers. So now I just pick up and immediately hang up if it's a recording which it usually is. Not answering or hanging up immediately without speaking if they don't sound kosha seems to have got us taken off most lists.
What annoys me is coming back to several messages on the phone and finding the first two are lengthy recorded messages. Our answering machine doesn't have a 'skip' facility.

I have caller ID on my phone and never answer if it's a number I don't recognise. Haven't spoken to a cold caller in years!

I have been getting calls about the government scheme for replacing your boiler. I usually say that it is very kind for them to offer to replace my boiler for free but explain that I have an Rayburn which works as my boiler and as they cost around £10,000 to replace I don't think the government would replace it. Of course what they want is for you to take out a loan to replace the boiler!

Just say 'yes' to everything they say.......it drives them round the bend!
I've even done it when we've had guests with us, put the phone on loudspeaker and all listened to them losing the plot!
I can get huge amounts of amusement by winding them up, they're making unsolicited calls, I'm not being rude to them, but I'm wasting their time and money

If it's a sales call I turn it around and try to sell them something and this can be quite amusing if I'm feeling a bit bored.

If it's the computer call I just say I don't have one.

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I have had hours of fun with these fellows. I've done the singing, the dotty old lady ( again, too easy!) the deafness, the " I'm sorry, she's dead", and many more. My favourite now is that I can't have a computer, because that's how the aliens get into your house.
What they are trying to do is talk you through a process which will give them remote access to your pc.

answered...

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.

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.

MadGrandma

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 .

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 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 !

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.