Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Just got told to F Off by cold caller.

205 replies

mummmy2017 · 06/04/2019 12:44

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..

OP posts:
LakieLady · 08/04/2019 12:24

I was at DP's one weekend and he spent 45 minutes discussing the purchase of a conservatory with a cold caller.

Right at the end, when he was asked if he had any questions, he said "Just the one, really. How is the conservatory held up?". This caused a birt of confusion, so DP had to explain that he lived in a 3rd floor flat and was curious as to how the conservatory would be supported.

There was a long pause, as the caller tried to work if he'd phoned a complete nutcase or was having the piss taken out of him.

motheroftinydragons · 08/04/2019 12:24

I sing down the phone at them. Usually that 'the lion sleeps tonight' song that was on Friends. I love singing.

Sadly, no one else loves it when I sing. My three year old says my singing is 'horrible mummy!'

'A-weema weh a-weema weh a-weema weh a-weeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy' etc Grin

FrancisCrawford · 08/04/2019 12:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PCohle · 08/04/2019 12:40

Jesus Christ could you be more patronising?

Thank you so much for your stunning insight that not everyone is who they say they are on the phone. God knows how I was coping before you told me this.

Do you think this is why I am paying for 37 line rentals without actually having a landline?? Do you mean that when my bank call me I shouldn't blithely give them my PIN number, mother's maiden name and NI number for luck? Mind blowing.

acatcalledjohn · 08/04/2019 13:13

Yes I know, I'm not with Sky or BT. I still don't think their calls are akin to scams. They just really want me to consider line rental.

But a lot of them claim to be calling from those legitimate companies. Especially now in a world where GDPR is so big, companies like BT can no longer just cold call people to sell them stuff. And what does that leave?

The scammer who CLAIMS to be from BT.

Long live GDPR. It's made it really fucking easy to determine that the calls that remain nowadays are scams.

Even if they do claim to be BT.

Because they are not.

FrancisCrawford · 08/04/2019 13:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PCohle · 08/04/2019 13:54

Yes it is better to be safe than sorry.

That's why I said "I err on the side of politeness and just hang up", not err on the side of politeness and give them my credit card details and access to my life savings Hmm

FrancisCrawford · 08/04/2019 14:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PCohle · 08/04/2019 15:21

You didn't experience the calls I'm referring to - I did.

I don't know on what basis you feel you have more information than me, the person who actually spoke to the caller, by which to determine that they were definitely scam calls.

AryaStarkWolf · 08/04/2019 15:31

This thread is hilarious. A Cold Caller generally doesn't mean a scammer where I come from, just a tele sales person. I don't those that said they felt sorry for them meant they felt sorry for scammers

Original poster
mummmy2017 · 08/04/2019 15:40

Not all cold callers are scammers, but all scammers are cold callers..

OP posts:
AryaStarkWolf · 08/04/2019 15:42

Not all cold callers are scammers, but all scammers are cold callers..

Clearly, still though if someone said Cold Caller to me I would always think tele sales before scammer, usually people just say scammers when they're talking about scammers

Original poster
mummmy2017 · 08/04/2019 15:52

Cold caller actually refurs to someone calling uninvited....
This is the technical name for it...
So no matter how you put it this was a cold call.....

OP posts:
FrancisCrawford · 08/04/2019 15:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
mummmy2017 · 08/04/2019 15:57

Our other favourite is when I get offered a little an to say wow so pleased, I want a million pounDD.

OP posts:
AryaStarkWolf · 08/04/2019 16:04

Cold caller actually refurs to someone calling uninvited....
This is the technical name for it...
So no matter how you put it this was a cold call.....

I'm not saying it wasn't, bloody hell, I'm just saying that people clearly thought you meant a tele sales person when they said they felt sorry for them, obviously no one would feel sorry for a scammer

PCohle · 08/04/2019 16:12

I don't think "credit investigations" sounds genuine, I just didn't read the OP closely enough. Take me to MN jail Grin

Like others I read "cold caller" in the title and didn't assume this was synonymous with scam.

FrancisCrawford · 08/04/2019 17:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PCohle · 08/04/2019 17:14

Yes, I read the title which says "cold caller" and skimmed the OP, focusing largely on what the OP had said to warrant being told to fuck off rather than the nature of the call which I, mistakenly, thought I had already gleaned from the title of the thread.

I think the OP using cold caller (in the title) and scam (in the OP) is confusing, although I now appreciate many people seem to feel the two are fairly synonymous. If she'd said "just got told to F off by scam caller" I would not have misunderstood/ made the mistake/ my reading comprehension may have been better - however you'd like to characterise the nature of my cock up.

I'm not really sure why you think anything I've said contradicts itself? Or indeed why you're that interested in how I managed to misunderstand a MN thread Grin

TalkinPaece · 08/04/2019 17:37

Cold calling is effectively illegal under GDPR
therefore cold callers = scammers

and any who say they come from big well known companies are 99.9% likely to be scammers

FrancisCrawford · 08/04/2019 17:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Connieston · 08/04/2019 18:03

I was in a call centre in my early 20s and I hung up on someone because they were braying about how shite my life must be. Just hang up and block.

Tunnockswafer · 08/04/2019 18:29

I had an elderly relative who lost thousands to one of these scammers. In their 90s which must have been obvious on the phone, scammers don’t care.

PCohle · 08/04/2019 18:59

I did ask why on Earth you were so interested Francis!

I'm not sure what you think I'm claiming to be right about? I've been perfectly upfront that I misunderstood the OP.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 08/04/2019 19:07

Often they phone (and I can tell by the delay on the phone its a scam from abroad so escapes the TPS)

"Hello, am I speaking to Mr James 70isaLimitNotaTarget ?

I reply "Yes that's me" (I'm quite obviously female)

And often they don't even stop their blurb. Confused