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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to bu towards phone scam callers and wind them up ?

160 replies

mrsfuzzy · 10/03/2015 22:42

i don't think so but you may disagree. this evening i had some foreign sounding guy call up about my 'recent car accident', he wanted details to confirm he had the right person, and advised that i'd be in line for compensation, realising it was a scam, i did not give him any details but let him run with it, and asked how much it would be etc, he was rattling around looking for answers and trying to ask me things about my bank account etc, after about 10 minutes i got bored and said 'oh, by the way, i haven't driven for the past year, and this call has been recorded for the police..' strange how quick he put the phone down. since i started winding them it's surprising how the number of calls have dropped, tps does not seem to work for calls outside the u.k.

OP posts:

Qwebec · 12/03/2015 18:46

A friend of mine had great success with
a) I'm sorry I don't have the time to talk to you, I have cancer and I am dying.
b)When recieving calls from political parties campaining: I was having a nap. You woke me up, don't you understand how distressing it is? I was thinking of voting for your party but how can I vote for you now that I know you wake honest citizens like this?

Here nobody is permitted to change name when married since 30 years. I always get the calls to speak to Mrs DP.

Until now I said Sorry she lives in the Bahamas since 10 years (referring to his mother) They never seem to know what to answer next.

My next plan is to refer to his grand mother who lives in a home for the elderly.

DP worked in a call center for years dealing with customers having issues and calling for assistance. He got so much abuse he is always incredibly kind with cold callers... except microsoft. He demands to be served in french (obligatory here), or explains and the reasons it is impossible that the problem they states exists. They hang up pretty fast.

atticusfinchatemybaby · 12/03/2015 18:52

I once had caller: is this Mrs Atticus?
me: no
caller: who am i speaking to?
me: I'm a burglar. Can you get to the point?I'm kind of in a hurry.

Hurr1cane · 12/03/2015 19:21

3 piss me off. Constantly ringing every day to try and sell me a new phone contract for "my friends or family"

The other day I said "I don't have any family, they all died"

Well you can get a contract out for a friend

"I don't have any friends either, I'm all alone" fake sob.

They hung up. Called again an hour later

Noyournotallowedthat1 · 12/03/2015 20:14

My grandad took a call from a company offering boiler services and insurance policies, she read her script and he said "I'm sorry love but I'll be dead soon" she said "oh I'm sorry to hear that" and hung up

MatildaTheCat · 12/03/2015 20:26

My BFF 's DH is a pedantic type. When 'Microsoft' rang him to warn him about viruses on his computer he got really stuck in. Questioned them on and on, led them on.. He insisted on having their company address and then google mapped the address ( which was a corner shop). He then started quizzing them about the road names right by this 'office'.

I think he had them on the line for a good half hour before sternly mentioning the Police.

My method is to never answer the phone.

Original poster

mrsfuzzy · 12/03/2015 23:03

mners you are an absolutely brilliant bunch, thanks for sharing and by the way, if you pay me enough i'll stop calling you all !

OP posts:

Qwebec · 13/03/2015 01:04

the the buglar one!

Lweji · 13/03/2015 01:29

Taking notes.

I tend to leave the phone on the side, if I've been buggered by silent calls.

Once, they stopped for a bit when I told them they were making fraudulent calls because they keep asking for an odd name, but only if pushed to say who they want to talk to.

In another type of call, they ask for a random person on my mobile (usually for a man) and when I say they have the wrong person they ask which city I'm in. The last was not pleased when I told her that it was irrelevant as I was on a mobile and almost called her stupid.

Finally, recently I got so pissed off with a certain cable TV operator (not UK) that I looked up and rang the main office phone in the evening and told the person answering the phone that I was just calling them to annoy them, as they did to me.
Funnily enough, I haven't been getting many calls since then.

Lweji · 13/03/2015 01:31

Oh, why the main office and not their customer service, as they helpfully suggested?
Because the bloody customer service number is expensive.
The main office is free for me.

CuttedUpPear · 13/03/2015 05:42

I registered with the Telephone Preference Service a couple of years ago and I don't get any of these calls at all.
Not one.
Feeling a bit hard done by now...

PHANTOMnamechanger · 13/03/2015 11:30

cutteduppear, you are lucky - most of these callers are not even covered by the TPS (and are usually very keen to tell you they are not trying to sell you anything, as if that makes their persistent pestering and lies OK)

registering with TPS did cut back on the double glazing etc type callers we were getting, I think we had ONE call that came through to which we mentioned TPS and they apologised and hung up

Oldraver · 13/03/2015 12:01

Dozy M-Cas are the latest ones to bug me... I must of been in a good mood as I said go on then get me millions back then. I'm not very good at paperwork so it took lots of calls from them a while for me to remember to return them.

I got a proposal last week and will be getting £30+ back, their sum is £13... and I now know I wont be bugged by them anymore

happybubblebrain · 13/03/2015 12:12

DD (age 8) runs to the phone every time it rings now so she can make up another story to tell the nuisance callers. We've made it a game. If she doesn't recognise the caller's voice she says "sorry, I've got to go and milk the cat", or "sorry, I'm off to the moon", or "sorry, I'm having lunch with an alien". She makes up a new one every time, it's hilarious.

Oldraver · 13/03/2015 12:18

2old that reminds me...Christmas Eve just leaving to go shopping I get a call from someone with a very heavy accent and I just see red and let rip then put the phone down. They ring again, I berate them for withholding the number.

I then get a call while shopping and it turns out to be a doctor from the Blood Donation people as I had had a injury while donating and she was ringing to see if I was ok. It was her secretary I had balled out.

My Mum did the same to her surgeon who phoned her before her op

poldarkeranddarker · 13/03/2015 12:53

Love the murder crime scene one, thanks.

Threads like this are why I love MN so much.

PoundsToKilos · 13/03/2015 13:03

Ask the for their company website address. Always throws them.
I plan to ask them how I can be sure they really do work for xxx. Where's your head office? Who is the CEO? It never gets that far though as they never know their company website address!

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/03/2015 15:22

Just checking in to report good results with using the "you need to quote the password for me to discuss this / I charge for my time" response: I got called a f*king c*t

Guess that worked pretty well, then ...

Varya · 13/03/2015 15:25

I reel off a choice from a Chinese Takeaway menu, and ask if they have got that correctly, they then ring off.

quicktalker · 13/03/2015 15:26

I just leave the phone on the side with them hanging on the other end

ZingNinjaRoll · 13/03/2015 15:30

ask them if you should wear your red shoes tonight or the blue ones. start having a long whinge about how you think the red ones are prettier but the blue ones are more comfortable

in fact any 1st world problems will do

or start answering in a language you suspect they won't understand (being Hungarian is definitely an advantage! go me! )

spidey66 · 13/03/2015 15:41

I got a call from a cold caller. I asked him for his home phone number and when he asked why I wanted it, I told him I wanted to phone him at home with an unwanted call when he was about to sit down in front of Corrie with his dinner. He replied ''I don't think this call is unwanted MrsSpidey. At that point I told him to F..off and hung up.

ZingNinjaRoll · 13/03/2015 16:10

spidey
@ I don't think it's unwanted

and excellent going both asking for number then telling them to fuck off
well done!

MrsWembley · 13/03/2015 19:55

I used the crime scene one yesterday. Didn't even get to ask for their details as they hung up straight away.

FarFromAnyRoad · 13/03/2015 20:05

It's threads like these that make me positively ITCH for a 'like' button - so many genius ideas here. I'm definitely going to use the crime scene one. I'm also going to get my elderly Dad to read this as he's been plagued recently by the Microsoft fuckers.

Lweji · 13/03/2015 20:08

I'm itching for a cold caller to try them on. All I got today was a genuine wrong number.

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