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..

The tragedy of this is that there are so many people who are taken in by these scammers (usually elederly, vulnerable people) and lose money they need to survive.

I also got a call for my son regarding his credit card. They asked to speak with him, so naturally I handed over the phone. I think he was about 10 months at the time

I think most mumsnetters are savvy enough to spot the Microsoft/BT/accident scammers and give them short shrift. What worries me is that there are clearly still enough people who dont recognise these calls for what they are to make it worth the scammers while to get knocked back a hundred times before they happen upon someone who believes them.

I once had one of the very nasty ones pretending to be from my banks fraud department saying my account had been compromised, but not to worry, they were going to protect my money ....... That one was was worrying, I knew it was a scam, but they were very believable ......

As an experienced telemarketer myself I have no truck with those who make unreasonable calls or behave unprofessionally.
If I get "car accident" ones I tell them as politely as I can that someone, somewhere along the line is lying because I have never learned to drive.
I've had a couple of BT internet calls recently so I have explained to them that I do not use BT and asked why I might need to know about this. A reasonable response, if it were true, might be "We offer a cheaper service" or "Our coverage is more reliable/faster than that of our competitors" but this is not what you get. I simply asked one of the callers the reason I needed to know about the service explaining again that I did not use BT, well, I found it hard to make out what he was saying in his Asian accent but he was definitely telling me to shove something somewhere!

if they sound foreign, I inform them that we have people living off foodbanks in my area and that if they scam people aroung here , they might be stealing from people who are already starving. Also I have taugth the kids just to say "fuck you" to cold callers. Funnily enough, we don't get that cold callers anymore.

The vast majority come from outside the UK so TPS doesn't work.

The PPI and accident ones are bots now so it makes no difference if you swear at them.

I had one the other day ask for my company name on my mobile which is unusual, and they way he pronounced my company name was hilarious. But I've no idea what it was because as soon as he asked if this was x company, with the weird pronunciation, I just hung up.

I am getting so many of these just now. One has a ridiculously long phone number which can’t be real. I googled it and nothing at all came even close.

It’s the ones that hang up when you answer - why?

If you ask where they got your number that generally stops them. One was merrily telling me that it was from a public ally available directory - hang on mate, you called my mobile number and I was always ex directory on my landline so what are you talking about?

It drives me nuts, especially when they call your landline at 7:30 - who calls that early unless there’s been a death in the family?

It was better when DS was little. He’d pick up and listen then say ‘you do know I’m a kid, right? You aren’t disposed to be talking to children...”

The scammers I will swear at because they aren't working for anyone and deserve what they get.
Other cold callers I'll say no thank you, politely.
At least they are working, you can't win sometimes.
I've worked in call centres, it's sole destroying when people accuse you of scamming and you are legitimate.

Oh, I've also worked with Asian agents, African's and Indians.
you don't know they aren't English in an English Call Centre.

@mondaysaturday I think you'll find most of us here, if not all, are signed up to TPS. Not that it helps. We get calls from telephone something service, pretending to be a tps type company. My dh told them they were scammers, not phone our number again, and hung up. They phoned the next day, same name (Mike) and I raised my voice a bit when I told him that my dh had told him to never call this number again yesterday! That was 4 days ago now and haven't had one agai. Yet.
I've not had people be rude to me on the other end. I hate it when there is either no one at the end of the line, or when I ask them who is calling, they disappear.

I am in two minds about the callers. On one hand I hate that they are conning vulnerable people, and on the other hand I wonder what its like where these people live and if its truly the only job they can get. I wish the people who run these companies could be made to pay.

I hated the programme on bbc2 a year or so ago about the call centre. Just such an awful environment and I felt the employees were taken advantage of due to the low availability of jobs in the area.

I bought my mum a doro smartphone when she went into hospital. Unfortunately she was very sick and didn't recover. No idea how anyone got the brand new number but we were inundated with scam calls from London. Even when I told them that she was on her deathbed they kept trying. It was awful. They deserve no sympathy.

I pretend Im 8. Sometimes I cry down the phone, other times I tell them all about my favourite TV character. Once I kidsplained what a floppy disk was. It's fun!

Oh, I've also worked with Asian agents, African's and Indians.
you don't know they aren't English in an English Call Centre.

You can tell by the delay on the line. Plus as I am with TPS if they are calling from a UK call centre, the call is illegal - if they are not calling from the UK then it's a scam attempt, either way, they can feck off.

@Flippityflo

Phone numbers are reused, not very many are 'brand new' these days.

I had to get BT to reallocate one once because the one they gave me used to be a fax line for a company and I got about 200 calls a day, and at night, of a fax line screeching at me! That was depressing. Worse than scam/cold callers in fact.

My favourite one was a scammer who, when I told him I knew it was a scam, admitted it was. Then said he would provide me with all the details, I could report it to the police then we could share the reward! He was most put out when I said we wouldn't get a reward

We now use Talk Talk's screening service which has completely cut out the cold calls and scammers. You set up a list of numbers who can be let through - family, friends etc. Anyone else has to give their name and you decide whether to accept the call. Scammers just give up so I don't even have to bother about rejecting their call.

bloodybridget I've had one sing "fuck you, fuck you" to me - wonder if it was the same chap.

Sometimes I just hang up (think I will use the excellent "repent your sins" suggestion first from now on first, though!) but if it's a bit of a slow day I will string them along for a bit - mainly because if they are speaking to me, they're not scamming someone else. My favourite was the lovely man from "BT" who insisted my internet was compromised. I told him I didn't use BT and also worked in IT so knew what he was telling me was rubbish. Also could he prove to me he was from BT. He told me in a shocked voice that he wasn't going to do that as "you could be anyone, madam". When I laughed at the irony of that, he switched from calling me madam to motherfucker in a flash and went into a real rant, which just got worse the more I laughed at him. Poor fella. The stress really can't be doing him much good!

The one I really remember was in a previous job. He obviously didn't listen to the usual telephone answer verbal bumpf but my incredulous tone when I said "you DO realise that you've called a police number?!" got him putting the phone down pretty smartish.

Monday
I've been registered with the TPS for decades
but these ones are not from the UK

occasionally I do get a UK one and just ask to be put through to their TPS compliance department

I like using the
"are you the homeowner"
no I am the bailiff live

DH has a tendency to start muttering about mopping up all the blood

QueenKubauOfKish

But you don't know anything about their life - why would anyone do that soul-destroying job unless they're desperate. A lot of the calls come from India where there are even less welfare rights than here.

When I told one gentleman from Microsoft that he was wasting his time and money, as well as mine, he informed me that he had lots more money than me!

I agree that most people on MN will only be annoyed by these calls and not taken in but some people must pay up or they wouldn't do it. I recently received a recorded message which was quite threatening "Somebody has taken legal action against you and there will be serious repercussions unless you phone xxxxxxxxxxxxxx to stop the action". I'm not sure if the accident ones are scammers or opportunists/ambulance chasers?

The PPI and accident ones are bots now so it makes no difference if you swear at them.

If you answer the bot questions properly you get put through to a real person to swear at.

They annoy the heck out of me but usually just fold washing, clean the loo or empty the dishwasher while they rattle on, nowhere near my PC.

Funniest one was a woman phoning me about some amazing ( expensive) cream that I could have a free trial of if I signed up for auto-delivery and I could cancel after the trial if I wanted (though I bet it wouldn't cancel the set up). Most likely wouldn't get the Free Trial either

She was so obviously reading from a script.
I asked her if the products were tested on animals

Oh they are fully tested , safe ......
But what's your animal testing policy?
Oh they are fully tested ...

Then she told me it got deep into the layers

Oh which layers? Epidermis or dermis?

Oh it goes deep into the layers of skin

Dermis?

Yes deep into the layers

In order to penetrate the dermis it needs to be a medical grade , are these products prescribed y a Dermatologist?

They go deep into the ........... Yes , Yes , layers (That you know feck all about)

I told her my doorbell went and put the phone on the side .
15 minutes later she was still "Madam, are you there Madam^ ?

If I keep them on the phone . Any of them, I stop them phoning someone else .

PS, with the BT ones I always ask for the job number. It really confuses them,

there is no job number madam,

but there must be a job number, BT don't do anything without a job number,

no madam, believe me there is no job number

I don't understand, how can I give feedback or make a query if I don't have a job number, can you check again and ask your supervisor

I assure you madam there is no job number.

Are you quite sure, how will BT be able to check on the progress of the fault if it can't be tracked with a job number........

There is no job number madam.

Well, to be honest dear I don't see how we can proceed if there isn't a job number........

Christ OP, you're not having enough fun with them.
I've had ones who are clearly a scam artist. I've asked them to hold on a minute before as I'm cooking or answering a door. Then I will leave them on the side and see how long it takes them to twig they're being wound up. My record is ten minutes. Or one time, I waited a bit then turned my radio up really loud. They swore too.
We also used to have a competition in the family for those ones who ring about an accident to see how long you could spin them a ridiculously implausible story before they would twig and get angry. We had "yes, my car was hit by a cow in the road who was shagging another cow" we also had DD who had seen something on the news about an animal being transported by helicopter, she said it had fallen on her as she walked the dog (not that we have a dog).
Way I see it, they harass and rip off people all the time so they deserve it.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD if they hang up when you answer I think that's because they're ringing 10 numbers at once and someone else answered before you.