Do you play along with those 'have you had an accident' cold calls? 😜

[JFDIYOLO]

I usually have some fun … then I spotted a twitter thread and have been taking notes for next time cos I really must up my game!

Some favourites:

'I did the same. Told them I must have amnesia from the accident and I'd like to claim. So they asked me for details, I said I couldn't remember but if they knew I had an accident, they could tell me what happened. Just went round in circles after that till they hung up.'

'I once told an ‘accident’ company during a scam call that my ‘injuries’ had involved decapitation. They continued the call…
I was happy to waste their time and gradually explained that I’d lost my ability to see/hear/speak etc. They just didn’t get it… 🙄'

'Saying you've had both of your legs bitten off by a Giant Crocodile, normally shuts them up.'

What are your favourite answers?

I do know all this! But no way do I want to be sucked into any of it, so I don't ever give them any useable information.

And its true they have stopped, as did the PPI ones which were equally annoying, there doesn't seem to be a current in thing in cold-calling. I just get the odd EE or whatever scam call now, a couple of times a year.

😂😂😂

Not the accident calls, but one day when I decided to play along with one of the "problems with windows on your computer" ones.

I messed around for a while then when he realised he got really aggressive. He said I know where you live, your address is ..... and the account is under the name of Mr Scrooples. I know all about you and I have people near you. You'll regret messing with me, and hung up.

I was pregnant and at home with my toddler and my elderly mother at the time and it really scared me. They had obviously bought all the details including the address and were actually nowhere near me, but it really freaked me out. I just hang up now!

That's how you can tell that both were essentially selling a legal product - albeit using annoying and questionable means. When the law changed so they couldn't get a payout for you (from which they could take a share), or so they couldn't claim expenses from the defendant, they stopped.

Save your wrath for the actual scammers.

I agree with this. I have no patience for these calls, so the best thing to do is hang up and get on with my day, not faff about for five minutes with my clever story that they in no way will have heard before....

i havent had one for ages
last time i said have i? really?

There are lots of other jobs at the moment that don't involve scamming people. Fuck them.

I'm still not sure whether I'm ashamed or proud of that moment

If you're not sure, I'd go with ashamed.

And some of you have a really puerile sense of humour.

Just hang up and block.

I know they are technically cold callers not complete scammers, but their highly dubious sales tactics are preying on the vulnerable too so they get nowhere with me. The tactic of saying "I am calling about the accident you had" invites me to tell them about the one I had in 1987 or whenever, not my fault if they can't help that far back is it? Anyway, as we've said, it's academic as they have stopped now.

Haven't had a scammer call in ages, probably because we don't use our landline any more.

The last one I remember, the chap launched into his spiel and I cut him off and asked if this was all a ruse to get access to my computer. He actually said "How did you know??" So I told him that I'd been getting multiple of these calls every day for weeks and I was running out of energy to keep messing with them.

Now I'm going to go and watch some Kitboga on YouTube.

No. I’ve got the filter thing on my landline whereby callers have to be wait to be accepted (caller announce?) and I can ‘ok’ certain numbers so that they bypass the filter next time (like family etc). It has stopped a lot of auto dialler things spammers as they cannot announce and get cut off automatically and obviously those who can announce just get declined anyway.

I don’t engage with those callers anyway, it’s not my idea of fun.

@AndrexPuppy - I’ve been looking into one of these. Can you tell me what make / service you have. Thanks.

It’s a BT service I think, DH sorted it. BT Call Guardian, it’s called.

That doesn't work because they use different numbers each time they call.

It's not big and clever to enter into a game with them. It just means you'll get called again and again. Just end the call instantly.

We used to have that, it was quite useful, till BT essentially disabled our landline.

@AndrexPuppy thanks!

I tell them it was a terrible tragedy because I died. That really throws them off the script.

Clearly it doesn't, as this thread shows, they'll hear it and other oh so clever replies a hundred times a day.

I used to get loads telling me that my computer had a virus. I just said, "Oh, if I give you my credit card details, you can take the money and I'll install the free anti virus myself."

Click...

I also had one on the line for ages, I told him I was having to stir my cheese sauce and left the phone on the desk. After about a quarter of an hour, he was still there and I said that I'd have to go, to collect my daughter.

Fuck them, they chose to do a scumbag job.

I find if you say “Christ Jesus our saviour” instead of Jesus Christ it seems to put people off even more.

I use it a lot when I want to be left alone - cold callers, creepy men sitting next to me on public transport, boring people at parties etc…
it’s a great way of cutting any conversations dead without being offensive.

I don’t recommend it for doorstep callers though, it turned out the last people very much had embraced Christ Jesus in their heart and looked like all their Christmas’s hadn’t come at once when I asked them. It was a very difficult situation to wriggle out of, I had to say “as you came here to spread the word and I don’t need convincing I think you would be better off moving on to other sinners!”

They trotted off happily and I learnt a very important lesson!