To ask where they get this so-called information from?

[JessieMcJessie]

Approximately once a week I get a call from someone saying "I have been informed that you have been involved a traffic accident that was not your fault".

Every time I say "No, absolutely not, please remove my personal details from your records" and hang up.

I presume that this is just speculative and they have not been "informed" of anything of the sort. Therefore, is it not against some sort of cold- calling regulations for them to state such an outright lie?

Today I actually asked "who has informed you of this?" And was told some nonsense about the "driving and accident Authority" or some such fictional organisation.

AIBU to wonder how these calls can be allowed?

[wasonthelist]

I tried the "I died" line, the bloke on the phone said soemthing very offensive to me, then hung up.

This shit could be stopped if anyone in government cared about it, but they don't.

[StStrattersOfMN]

Same as Molly, we like to string them along with all our horrific injuries, gruesome details, then tell them we died. That or we enjoy a Bec conversation along the lines of "Have You Found God?", and refuse to speak to anyone who hasn't. They don't ring us very often.

Anyone got any good ways with the bloody boiler phone calls?

[Vvlgari]

I ask them if I died in the accident.

[CrohnicallyAspie]

Thing is, you don't need to be naive or stupid to get caught out. I had one, a week after I really had a car accident, and it was also the first time I had had someone call up saying 'we were informed you were in a car accident' so yes, I believed them at first and started talking.

It was only because they got the location of the accident wrong (thought it was in the same county as my home address, guess they go on the basis of probability) that I twigged, strung them along a bit more, then gave them an earful about having lied to me.

[tabulahrasa]

"Thing is, you don't need to be naive or stupid to get caught out. I had one, a week after I really had a car accident, and it was also the first time I had had someone call up saying 'we were informed you were in a car accident' so yes, I believed them at first and started talking."

Yeah, I didn't think once because I had had an accident the week before and was waiting for an update from the insurance...

But I'd reversed into a parked car, so they tried to persuade me to give them my DP's details do they could contact him about sueing me for compensation as he was my passenger

[MrsJoeyMaynard]

Usually when I get these calls, I start by asking them who it is they're trying to contact.

They've never once given the name of anyone in our house.

Usually they just repeat "the person who was in an accident" so they're clearly just fishing.

[MrsJoeyMaynard]

Also, when DH really had been involved in a (minor) accident, the legitimate callers about it tended to start the conversation with "this is [name] from insurance / car hire company", rather than leaping straight into the whole "we've been informed that you were in an accident" line.

[CrohnicallyAspie]

The call I had, they used my actual name, and said we're from xx company, calling on behalf of your car insurance regarding the accident you had. Or something like that, anyway.

Like I said, they were very believable and it's only because they got the accident location wrong that I twigged. I then asked them to forward me some written information to my address (so I could read through and determine if it was a scam or genuine).

I said 'you have that on file, don't you' and the woman replied 'oh yes, it's number 1, my old street' (I had moved just a couple of weeks before, obviously my insurance company had my new address!)

And that's the point I went ballistic.

Anyway, the point is the woman had my actual details, I am not sure where she got them from, it could have been from failing to tick a 'no marketing' box or something and they were sold to a dodgy company.

[BMW6]

I tell them I've already received compensation of £300,000 and don't need any more. Completely stumps them.

[PatMullins]

I had one about a mortgage from when I would have been 12 years old