Just got told to F Off by cold caller.

[mummmy2017]

I do laugh about this.
I get a man saying from credit investigations calling.
So I ask him if he got up this morning and is proud of how he was going to scam people, how he can face his family knowing what his job involved..
He told me to F off and hung up...

My child is laughing at me..

TBF the thread title does say cold caller rather than scammer.

You both sound pretty rude tbh. Why not just say you're not interested and hang up rather than harangue a stranger about how he's earning a living?

I know, people are so judgemental about confidence tricksters.

I stole some elderly woman's life savings yesterday; when we got to the end of the call she wasn't the least bit greatful for the two hours of my time she'd wasted chatting about her cats. I've asked for a transfer to phishing emails rather than put up with any more rudeness on the phone.

Queen it is a pity we can't have a report button, that would then mean that phone companies have to investigate and remove the line, but there are millions of scammers...the person must be making some money for the company or they would be sacked, so just imagine how many they need to scam each day to keep that job.

Last year I had an international call from "BT" regarding broadband issues. We had genuinely been having issues and had been onto BT several times.

I was suspicious but not 100% sure it was a scam. They wanted me to do a speed check from my PC, so I asked them my name which they knew, my address which they also knew. So asked them for my BT account number which they couldn't give me for security reasons 🤔. Knew for sure it was fake then.

Asked for last 4 digits which they gave me, but didn't match my BT bill, so tried to tell me it was an internal number and they couldn't see the number I saw as it was a different system. The even transferred me to their supervisor to confirm they were really BT 🤣

I told them I wasnt clicking on anything from a cold call and I would call BT to confirm and it them got nasty and he called me a "mother fucker" in a low deep menacing voice 🤣. I thought I'd misheard (I'm a bit deaf with severe tinnitus), apologised and asked him to repeat it which he did again. I laughed and told him that was physically impossible, he should get some throat sweets for that voice and asked him how his mother was and if she was proud of him.

I had a further 2 calls in the next couple of hours trying to convince me I was actually a mother fucker. Quite entertaining really and a least they weren't scamming someone else while they took their frustrations out on me.

I pretend to be a Chinese Takeaway

This reminds me of my mother whose number was a digit different from a taxi company and she would get lots drunks calling. She always promised that the taxi would be there in ten minutes then pray for rain.

he called me a "mother fucker" in a low deep menacing voice

Keep an old Acme thunderer handy for such a charmer.

Queen
One of the "Microsoft" chaps I had was lovely.
His English was impeccable.
I told him to go get a real job with a bank call centre rather than the criminals he worked for.
He told me his real name and which city he was actually calling from.
I hope he did get a job with a bank.

LOL one yesterday said he needed 60 seconds of my time - I said ok I’m timing you! Then have him 10 seconds warning and counted down!!! Quite funny he was panicking
I've also done this, GreenTulips

I've never had a scammer, but when we get the 'i'm calling because you've had an accident that wasn't your fault' ones I reply with the opening lines of Ashes to Ashes - yes, my name is Alex Drake. I've just been shot and that bullet has sent me back to 1981. I may be one second away from life, or one second away from death.

My son gives them to Life on Mars one - my name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident, and I woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home'

I usually string along the Microsoft scammers until they are about ready to scream and then tell them I have Linux. Also love to do the same to ambulance chasers - I tell them a long story and when they say they can help, I tell them they can't because I died in the accident. Lots of swearing from the last one. I am very hard of hearing so lots of asking them to repeat what they said, several times over. For most others my usual response is fuck off.

Why not just say you're not interested and hang up rather than harangue a stranger about how he's earning a living?

Don't be ridiculous. They are scum who are planning to steal from you - so should be treated as such. Why do you think, they want remote access to your computer? They steal bank details etc. Zero sympathy for scum.

I had one recently from 'Open Reach'. They went through the script "your broadband etc etc", I asked why Open Reach were ringing from a mobile number, she replied "Who the f..k are you to ask me that?" I started laughing and put the phone down.

Yes I find it so depressing that they are told to use a fake name and try to convince you they're called "Stanley" or something (while at the same time I recognise they could actually be called Stanley)

I've also had a chat with one once and asked his real name, he was lovely and said it was unusual for anyone to ask.

They are people. Yes some of it is criminal scamming (though some cold calling isn't, it's just nuisance selling) but the organisers who set up the scam are the "burglars". People who work for them as an employee may not even fully understand that it's illegal, I don't know. Even if they do they may have little choice. I bet a lot of people would do a dodgy job before seeing their kids starve or go without medicine, if it came to the crunch. Maybe even some of us.

Plus it's hardly the same as a burglar in your house since you can actually put the phone down and be safe. Of course vulnerable people are the most at risk though, when they don't understand what it is.

When insurance accident claims parasites call I tell how I was beheaded by a low flying jelly shark.

My dad had a call like that asking for the home owner. He said hold on I'll just go get him... and lay the phone down and went back to watching TV. No idea how long the caller held on for.

His other favourite is pretending to be a bad line and making screatching noises down the phone!

I had a scam call recently and contacted the company directly to report fraudulent calls... but I'm a little more grown up than my dad... plus I'd ruin it by bursting out laughing

I always have the best intentions of n=being polite and saying not interested but never works as I like winding them up.

My latest persona for calls is the reincarnation of Shirley Temple. I offer to sing the Good Ship Lollipop to them or Animal Crackers in my Soup. Strangely they aren’t interested and hang up.

So it's ok to steal from people because the scammer needs a job? Take the Microsoft scam as an example, it's risible to suggest that they don't know it's illegal and they are attempting to steal from people who may be no better off than them. If someone is going to die from hunger I vote for the scammer.

Saying you’ve got 60 seconds or 2 minutes works brilliantly with chuggers I find. They waste the whole time asking how I am and what am I doing that day the time is always up. I smile sweetly, say times up, bye bye and walk off.

QueenKuba, they got at my husband at a time when he was ill and worried to distraction about our suicidal daughter: we spent a very worrying month thinking they might be able to hack in and get at the money that was all we had to live on. It was really no different to if they'd sneaked into the house at night, except that that would have done less harm as we don't actually own anything very valuable.

This week I've been ill with flu and dragged out of bed 9 times to answer the downstairs phone: I have to because I have elderly parents and my father had a fall last week: I can't not go however crap I've been feeling.

I think there's something very wrong with your thinking if you believe it's ok that these scum will steal from vulnerable people because they are poor and need a job.

You got off lightly. I once got told "I will fuck you,I will fuck your children, I will kill your husband and I will take all your money you English slut!"

But you don't know anything about their life - why would anyone do that soul-destroying job unless they're desperate

Likewise the callers have no idea who they're scamming but it's unlikely to be a multimillionaire with a massive home and a surplus of cash. More likely it's Ethel down the road who receives her now-departed husband's remaining pension to boost her own meagre income and can't tell a scammer from a tin of spam because she's been raised in a generation where people simply didn't scam one another in such a duplicitous way.

When scammers only scam people who can afford to lose the money, I'll feel sorry for them. Til then they can shit off and if my 8 year old sings his entire Disney back catalogue at them when I hand him the phone, that's their problem.

I absolutely don't think it's OK.

I feel compassion for them as human beings that that is their job (though I realise some of them will be heartless bastards, some will just be desperate) - that's different from thinking it's OK. I think they should be stopped, and prosecuted, of course I do.