Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

Those 'We heard you were in a car accident' cold callers

145 replies

notwonderwoman · 14/02/2018 11:58

Not really AIBU because I don't really care but ...I've been getting so many of those strange cold callers telling me I've been in an accident I've started to have a bit of fun when they call. It's been going on for about 18 months now at least and I can't get rid of them.
This morning one called me up and I started singing 'Baby one more time' by britney down the phone to them. The sour voiced woman still kept asking me if I'd been in an accident I said maybe I bumped my head? And kept singing. She hung up.

The other day another one called me, I tell them they really should get a better job and they are worth more then working for a sham company (the companies don't even exist if you google them) and she still kept asking the same questions. Poor love.

Another one called me up when I was on the toilet. I'll let you guess what I told them.

How do you deal with them?

OP posts:

JaneEyre70 · 14/02/2018 12:21

I'm always uber polite but ask for their name, say I appreciate they are just trying to earn a living but I didn't ask for the call and do not want any in future so if I'm not removed from their database, I will complain using their name as I know the call is recorded. Works very well.

NoSquirrels · 14/02/2018 12:22

Oh they’re so annoying. If you’re really really rude to them they give up though (until the next time!)

RooDaisy · 14/02/2018 12:22

My dear Nan used to blow a whistle down the phone, I thought this was brilliant. She had been mithered to death by cold callers, even after registering on TPS!

YeahInnitYeahInnitYeah · 14/02/2018 12:22

If I tell them I was never in an accident they ask if it was my partner or a family friend! They may as well just phone and ask if I know anyone who has ever been in a car accident and ask for their contact details...
I now just tell them I don't remember anything about the accident because I suffered amnesia.....

ValMc1 · 14/02/2018 12:23

The best I have had was I totally agreed with them, and told them all about my accident at work, how I had fallen of a ladder and been injured - they got quite excited and asked if I told my employer - I told them that they know as I had fallen on top of them and they had been injured too. The call lasted for quite a while and they eventually sent me higher on the chain to speak to their supervisor who quickly realized I was winding them up when I gave my name as Mickey Mouse - I was very bored that day. Another thing I do is ask them to hang on as I have something to do quickly, and leaving them sitting there for a while - it can take them a long time to hang up. Think I need to get a life.

bluebells1 · 14/02/2018 12:24

Do you realize that they don't know your name?

They keep calling me and start with " I am so and so from x company calling about a car accident. We understand that you were in a car accident. Is that right?"
And I ask " Well, who do you want to speak to?"
Them "Could you kindly confirm your name?"
Me: "Really? You don't know who you want to speak to?"
They hang up. Always.

Bettyswitch · 14/02/2018 12:24

Register online with TPS (telephone preference service) its free, u can use it with landlines and mobiles.
Ive never had a cold caller since!

NoSquirrels · 14/02/2018 12:24

The worse bloke I ever had withered in about the National Accidents Database and how he was calling with the permission of the MadeUp Government Agency and just needed me to “confirm a few details” and was so ANGRY with me about all the logic holes in his story. I mean, it’s not my fault he had a crap script to work from!

lazymum99 · 14/02/2018 12:25

The last one I got I told them yes I had been in an accident and unfortunately I was decapitated and enquired if they had ever talked to just a head before. They hung up.

IwantedtobeEmmaPeel · 14/02/2018 12:26

I've had a few & during the last one I asked When was the accident? Was I badly hurt? Do you think I should go to hospital? etc, the foreign caller got very angry with me and told me is wasn't a laughing matter and I agreed with him that it wasn't cos I could be badly injured and he put the phone down on me . Funnily enough I haven't heard from them for several months now. Just the callers trying to speak to my deceased Mum & trick her into handing over personal details - fuckers. I hate the bastard cold callers who target the elderly.

yawning801 · 14/02/2018 12:26

I don't get them that often but I know someone who eventually said "Well that would be a miracle since I don't drive or have a car!"

GreenTulips · 14/02/2018 12:26

They gleam your details from the car insurance comparison sites. There's a box to tick if you don't want these calls - in very small print.

Worth noting

bigbluebus · 14/02/2018 12:27

I stop them mid flow, inform them I'm registered with TPS so they shouldn't be calling, ask them to ensure my number is removed from their contacts list (they never do) then put the phone down and ring 1572 and add them to my blocked calls list on BT Call Protect service.

HateTheDF · 14/02/2018 12:28

I was once called a liar when I said I hadn't been involved in an accident

Tequilamockinbird · 14/02/2018 12:29

I had one last week who told me I was 'very cheeky' before hanging up on me.

I only asked for more details of the accident (when/where etc).

They are scammers but I'm the cheeky one?

beluga425 · 14/02/2018 12:29

"I have signed up to the Telephone Preference Service, this number has been recorded. You are calling illegal.."
Then they hang up.
Used to say various hilarious things until it got boring.

AlbertaSimmons · 14/02/2018 12:30

My response to cold callers is just to say "Do I know you"? When they say no, I say "don't call me on my personal phone then". Nine times out of ten they say "Oh yes, sorry" and hang up. Sometimes they say that they don't know me but they need to talk to me about XYZ - I say, no you don't and don't call me again. Then I block the number. The End.

LRL2017 · 14/02/2018 12:30

A friend once had a call about having a second mobile and before he realised he was saying it he said why would I want two mobiles as I only have one arm!!!!! Needless to say they rung off pretty fast and didn't know what to say!

Gatehouse77 · 14/02/2018 12:31

I find the 'Microsoft' ones the most aggressive and rude.

Sometimes I play along for a while and act really dumb.
Or I'll tell them we only have Apple products. They then insist I've got a license for Microsoft (truthfully, I've no idea if we do or don't. DH is the technical one and deals with all that). I then ask them to provide more details, they get angry, I start laughing.

The car ones I ask where they got their information from and to remove me from their database.

The automated ones I leave to play out so it's costing them money but not me.

NotASingleFuckToGive · 14/02/2018 12:31

Answered the phone to a man who said, ^"I'm contacting as we heard you're a Mum now- congratulations!"
In my fog I thought it was my friend, said thank you and explained my DS had been born last week, was just home now etc. before remembering to actually ask who it was!

He then said "I'm calling, as this is an issue many people don't like to consider. Have you thought about how your family would cope without you if you died?" and laid it on thick about sudden death, illness, and statistics on the trauma which financial hardship causes when young children lose their parents.

DS was only a week old. I'd had a PPH after he was born, and the call came the evening I was discharged from hospital. DH had to take the phone off me because I was in floods of tears and ready to sign up with them incase I died and left DS without a Mum. Cunts.

prettybird · 14/02/2018 12:31

They are often automated responses until they think that they have "hooked" you - that's why the replies are often impersonal and inappropriate.

That's why if you say nothing when you answer and wait for them to talk, the line goes dead - as they have nothing to respond to.

If I do engage, my favourite is to say. "Which accident was that as I've had a few?", which gets them initially very excited and then increasingly frustrated as I ask for more info so that I can narrow down the supposed incident.

Rebeccaslicker · 14/02/2018 12:31

EmmaPeel - so do I, but I almost feel sorry for the ones who get my elderly DF.

He told the last one to "fuck off" because he was a "massive fucking scammer", and I don't know what he said to bupa, but the rep actually called him back to say, "mr slicker, were you born with your head up your arse, or did you put it there yourself?" 🙈🙈

MichaelBendfaster · 14/02/2018 12:32

I once said to one of them 'I've never driven a car in my life.' There was the briefest of pauses and then he said hopefully, 'Could you have been a passenger?'

I had to give him credit for that.

IwantedtobeEmmaPeel · 14/02/2018 12:33

The last one I got I told them yes I had been in an accident and unfortunately I was decapitated and enquired if they had ever talked to just a head before. They hung up. Brilliant I will use this one if they call again.

rememberthetime · 14/02/2018 12:34

I got one this morning and the number was withheld - I didn't think they were allowed to do this?

I now know not to answer "number not available " calls.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6