To ask how you respond to phone scammers?

[pixiebaby23]

I've had two in as many days. Calling from abroad (Indian accents) but claiming to be representing UK companies and wanting to help me with a virus on my computer.

I string them along in the hope it's taking up time they could be using to scam vulnerable people.

They get angry with me when they realise what I'm doing - but still they stay on the line.

Aibu to ask what you do, aside from hanging up? (Which I do if I am short of time).

In response to the "I'm calling about your computer ma'am" ones I always say "I haven't got a computer, you must have the wrong number, byeee."

If its my mobile

Haven't heard of scammers calling mobiles too much ... it costs them far too much.

The reason they target landlines is they don't have to pay the termination charge.

It's the same reason you won't get too many letter scams. The cost of postage makes it non viable.

I just hang up without speaking although once i did tell them no one has computers anymore then hung up

The computer virus ones I say 'that's odd, I don't have a computer/internet etc' and they usually swear and hang up

The 'our records show have you been in a car accident' calls I say 'oh no! Am I hurt? Have you informed my family? Am I in hospital? Am I allowed visitors? flowers? Some hospitals don't allow flowers...' I go on and on until they hang up

Such fun

I get spam calls on my mobile daily actually. Can post you the numbers if you like

I either play with them a little or sing obnoxious songs until they give up. The last one was very persistent and sat through I am Henry the 8th I Am and half of Pokemon before he gave up.

I can tell if it's the talktalk scam callers because the caller display just says "international". They once called me 14 times in one day. I now answer with "Surrey Police online fraud detection. Please wait while we verify your number." They hang up

I put them on hold and it usually pisses them off so much they hang up but it annoyed one of them too much and he called me 'a whore' who he was going to 'rape and murder' as he 'knew where I lived' lovely man.

I've just had a scam call on my mobile while reading this thread. I don't answer strange numbers on my mobile after dh was stung by one of those numbers that costs you ££ as soon as you answer.

I don't have a handset plugged into the landline as I got sick of the 20+ scam/marketing calls a day.

I used to politely say "no thanks, can you take this number off your list" which they always promised to do.

If I got a second call from a company I used to play along as long as I could or give the phone to dd2 who could talk the hind legs off a donkey.

As much as I'm tempted to I'd never blow a whistle down the phone to a scam caller, no one deserves the potential long term consequences.

I got so angry with one of the "accident you had" ones I asked loads of questions and he put the phone down on me.

I googled the number and phoned back (it was a Sunday. It was raining. I was bored) and asked again and again who were they where were they calling from. What government data base that they said they were going to block my number

Small victory 😂🤣

Also. Make sure you register with the TPS for both landline and phone. It's dead easy : secure.dma.org.uk/cgi-bin/session.pl?reg_option=m_tps

We get the computer scam calls here in belgium, sometimes at silly o'clock in the morning, so I think there's an emergency! I just talk to them in Flemish, and they get most frustrated that I can't speak English.

Annesmyth123

TPS is useless if it's a scammer or company from abroad.

all it does is put you on a 'do not call' list for legitimate U.K. Companies.... and as I work in the industry I can confirm that many of them ignore it as it's overused and under policed.

Sorry to shatter any illusions. The only way is to block unknown or overseas calls, and that usually means the doctor can't get through as they use unknown numbers often. or get an answer machine and screen.

If a legitimate uk company is ignoring tps registration and calling someone who is on the list they are breaking the law.

It isn't going to stop them all. But it might help a bit.

Agents calling about claiming if you've been in an accident.

"How did you know!? It was my best pair of underwear! It went everywhere I can tell you"

Or

"Well yes as a matter of fact, I tripped on a spaghetti hoop in the shopping center yesterday! Right in front of everybody, handbag went flying and all my tampons fell out! I wasn't wearing any pants either! Sooo embarrassing"

Keep giving them TMI untill they hang up.

My husband deals with them best

"Accident?? Who's had an accident!? Oh my God are they okay? "
"NO sir it's about your accident"
" My accident?? Someone's injured coming to see me?? Oh jesus I'm going to ring an ambulance!"

Hey gets them really worried that he's gonna ring police/ambulance. It's so theatrical as well. Hilarious to watch!

I say yip ok yeah hang on i dont have a computer put the phone down. And im never a home owner when they call to sell me whatever, there is a tax office scam going about HMRC is going to sue you both me and mum got it last week if my dad had answered he would have pressed 1

I've started pretending I can't hear them properly. Asking them to repeat stuff and mishearing it.
"Are you interested in trading in stocks?"
"Do I need any clocks?"
Etc etc. I go on and on.

I told them not to phone and got told by such an arrogant man that he would call back when I was in a better mood.

I find annoying them is the only thing that works. They haven't called back...

I used to say when they called and said they were calling in connection with my recent accident "Which accident was that, then?". They always hung up.

Since I got a new phone with BT call Guardian and an app called call control on my mobile, I've had no cold calls at all. The mobile phone app even screens out junk text messages and you can set the call Guardian thing so that unknown callers have to announce who they are. Junk callers will just hang up, but genuine callers will usually announce who they are and you can pick up the phone and speak to them, or they are invited to leave a message

DH just offloads his 'frustration of the day' onto the poor buggers!

Putting a small child on the phone works. The other day my 3 year old answered before I could get to it, started telling the pest that he was eating toast and watching chipmunks... By the time I took the phone off him the person had hung up

I string them along also. Kept one for 40 minutes last week who was trying to get my card details! Idiot!

If it's just a double glazing/accident claim call, I politely tell them that we're TPS registered and not to phone again.
However, if it's a scammer, I ask them if their mother knows that they're a liar and a thief, which never fails to make the caller extremely angry (and in turn makes me feel very pleased).

These days I just hang up and don't engage, and then block the number.

I used to tell them the person they were asking for was dead. One of them rang back the next day and I said they weren't in. He then pointed out that yesterday I said "I" was dead - couldn't answer why he'd called back if that was the case...