To ask your favourite ways to waste scammers’ time

[Chouxchou]

I had a call today which was a recorded message telling me my national insurance number was going to be deleted (?) unless I paid some kind of fine or some shit. I had the option of pressing 9 to speak to an ‘agent’ but I was on my way out so just hung up. Please give me some creative ideas to waste the maximum amount of their time if they call back. I would like to think I am doing someone more vulnerable a favour by keeping these arseholes on the phone to me for as long as possible.

Read*

Cecily- no one on here have recommended treating cold callers and scammers the same way. The closest it came to that was a pp who countered a point I made earlier about a window salesperson who was giving it the hard sell and i agreed they can be guilty of ripping customers off - this is well known. Not the same thing as you're suggesting though. Most people I think would treat cold callers with a 'thanks but no thanks' attitude.

^I started reading the thread yesterday and noticed a few posts on the early pages which were definitely examples of winding up cold callers rather than scammers.

Scammers on the other hand....its funny to wind them up and think of ingenious ways of doing so. And no, they arent 'just doing their job', they're engaging in criminal activity which would probably come with heavy prosecution if they could be caught.

Yes, I agree these people are criminals and definitely not just doing their job. The more of their time you can waste, the less time they have available to scam vulnerable people.

My current favourite response is to say that unfortunately we're getting a lot of scam calls so i need to ask them to prove they aren't a scam caller. Surprisingly, even though all I'm saying is "yes, but how can you prove this?", it does take them a long time to realise that I'm seeking actual verifiable evidence and takes up a lot of their time that they then don't have to spend with a vulnerable person. That feels really satisfying. My other favourite is just to talk in a weird way such that they eventually give up.

I don’t care how low paid someone’s job is. That’s not an excuse to be part of a racket who defrauds vulnerable people. These scammers know exactly what they’re doing. And I wonder how many of them would be happy for their parents to be approached in the same way? Not many I’d like to bet.

I’ve done cold calling for a double glazing company when I couldn’t get a job anywhere else. I hated every minute of it, and if I e.g. got someone who sounded very elderly for instance I used to say “hello, I’m calling from double glazing?” That way they knew from the outset what I was calling about and had an immediate get-out of the call. But the company I worked for was legit. I never obtained anyone’s money under false pretences. There’s a difference.

Some fucker has spoofed my sodding number. Cue eleventh million calls and texts a day ‘who is this?’ I had a missed call’ ‘Keith - Keith? It’s uncle Bill. Can call me back later, son?’ (I am not Keith nor have an uncle Bill).

It is driving me demented. And I don’t even know which creature is doing this.

I have no sympathy. They will get no mercy if I ever do find out who is going this. My phone company says ‘change your number’

Funnily enough, I’ve had no calls today yet... feeling a bit lonely, not having my phone burring constantly...

I had the same voice Mail the other day.

I usually pretend to be the local take out and then get irate when they won’t give me their order.

@Sadiecow what are you on about?! Read things properly!

@KittenKong

Some fucker has spoofed my sodding number. Cue eleventh million calls and texts a day ‘who is this?’ I had a missed call’ ‘Keith - Keith? It’s uncle Bill. Can call me back later, son?’ (I am not Keith nor have an uncle Bill).

It is driving me demented. And I don’t even know which creature is doing this.

I have no sympathy. They will get no mercy if I ever do find out who is going this. My phone company says ‘change your number’

Funnily enough, I’ve had no calls today yet... feeling a bit lonely, not having my phone burring constantly...

When I was around 19, I regularly got calls from older sounding taxi drivers asking for me by name. Apparently I was getting free rides home from a night out and giving my number out for a date. Every single one got very aggressive and called me a lying bitch (white bitch, slut, whore and other racist derogatory comments) when I politely told them that they had been scammed and I actually worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday night shifts so was definitely not out getting drunk. It was very upsetting tbh.

It went on for months and clearly was someone who had my name and number. I never did manage to get a description but did find out they were in the next town.

I’ll often put the phone by my dog and tell her to “speak”. One is very chatty and will go on for hours

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

One word of caution... I believe there was a scam where if you pressing the number they prompted you to on your phone you were connected to a high-rate premium number and could unwittingly incur a huge telephone bill. I'm not sure if this is true or, if it was, it has now been prevented.

This has NEVER been possible in the UK. The only way to connect to a premium or foreign number is for you to dial it or use callback for a missed call.

@beccahamlet

They are human beings who are doing What must be a really horrid job. I try to be polite and kind to them.

So it’s ok to commit fraud if your poor? Is there a minimum annual income that qualified for this? Asking for a friend…

OP is not talking about someone trying to sell double glazing over the phone. OP was referring to those who make calls purely to steal from and defraud people (such as “you need to pay this fine or your NI number will be deleted”). Elderly and vulnerable people fall for these and part with lots of money out of fear. I don’t care how poor the people are. It’s theft.

I had someone try to scam me through a gumtree add last night. I just kept asking them questions, and to explain further because I was very intrigued as I had never heard of this gumtree courier service before. They eventually blocked me 🤣

@Cookiecrumblepie

I used to work in a call centre and hated my job, but it was the only work I could get. I don’t understand why you want to be nasty to the caller, they’re not running the ‘scam’ or whatever they’re calling about. What a horrible little power trip you are on, stepping on those doing a low paying job while thinking you are doing society a service.

If you work in a call centre running an actual scam, you are criminal scum, and deserve all the rudeness and abuse you get. Just because you did not design the scam and are only receiving a wage doesn't mean you are less culpable - just as a getaway driver is just as responsible as his mate who went into a bank with a shotgun.

If you work in a call centre making cold calls to people who have not invited you to call, even if it is for genuine sales or to solicit charity donations, you are being extremely rude and the same rudeness in return should not be a surprise. If you call again after being specifically asked to remove my name and number from your database, then you are breaking the law and can expect to be treated as such.

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion

I had someone try to scam me through a gumtree add last night. I just kept asking them questions, and to explain further because I was very intrigued as I had never heard of this gumtree courier service before. They eventually blocked me 🤣

The first and last time I tried selling something on Gumtree I was inundated with scammers. Wanting me to courier the item here there and everywhere - a low value 2nd hand item of which you could have bought 3 brand new for the cost of couriering it overseas ... yes, of course you want it for your sick nephew in Amsterdam ...

Ignored them and eventually got a local cash buyer.

I'm tempted to do a Drag Me To Hell old lady voice and threaten to put a curse on them.
Bet that would shut them up.

I've never had the guts though.

What I recommended to my mum was
To hang up if it's recorded but if it is a person just keep saying what to everything they say. They repeat themselves a lot before giving up. I think her record is 16 what's so far!

My dad just puts the phone next to the tv
Shame he’s deaf and has to have it on full volume
I think the record was the whole of neighbours and 5 minutes of the next program

Keeps him amused

@SquirryTheSquirrel I've put quite a few things on gumtree over the years but that's the first time that's ever happened. This wasn't an expensive item either, but they obviously got fed up with me in the end 🤣. It was a slow night!

@Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel what are you on about? Read the OP properly 🙄

@Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel it asks about SCAMMERS!!! Not people working in call centres.

These days I do a mix of "Hang on, I'll get my husband", talking to them about Jesus or demanding their card details so I can bill them for the time I've spent listening

My ex had an even better one when they said "It'll just take a couple of minutes". He'd count them off on his watch and tell them at intervals "You have such-and-such left, better hurry"

Best of all though was home swapping with some American friends, when I told their bank that actually my friend was in the UK being ennobled by the Queen, and that infuture they must refer to him only as "Sir Ray"

They did it too, which thoroughly confused Ray until I 'fessed up

My DS does a fantastic impression of an Indian cold caller and he just gives it right back to them complete with calling them ma'am even if they are male. They soon hang up once they are faced with someone who insists his washing machine is made by Volkswagen.

If you work in a call centre making cold calls to people who have not invited you to call, even if it is for genuine sales or to solicit charity donations, you are being extremely rude and the same rudeness in return should not be a surprise. If you call again after being specifically asked to remove my name and number from your database, then you are breaking the law and can expect to be treated as such.

These UK companies are the reason foreign call centres ring us over and over and won't stop until you answer their questions. I was harassed every single day by a call centre based in Egypt. "Peter", "Michael", "Rachel" etc would call me at least 6 or 7 times a day. "It will only take a minute of your time madam!". I said no every time. I started out nice. I tried being rude. I swore. I wasted their time with inane questions. I used whistles. I put them on hold. And In almost every single phone call I requested that they take my number off their system.
I think they had my number flagged as a multiple calls a day number and mess with her instruction because they wouldn't take no for an answer.

After about 4 months of this shit and screening calls with my answer machine (terrible for my business) I found out they're an information mining company and head office was in the UK. They ask a load of questions about things like insurance renewals, utilities, phone, tv and internet suppliers, what washer, dryer and cooker you have etc and any reply at all (negative or positive) is them getting an invite for a UK company who buys their mined information (aka permission to call bypassing UK cold calling laws because they said the words "electricity supplier") to call you.

My final call from them came after I sent a demand to the UK company that they call their foreign call centre off. I allowed them to ask their questions and said no comment to each one thinking their info would be useless. I had 6 months of calls from every UK company out there that were even slightly related to any of the questions asked.

Call centre work is shit but it's their bosses keeping the dodgy foreign call centres going and calling you KNOWING they're bypassing UK laws. I try to be nice to them but you call me more than once and I WILL have my fun.

Love some of these! I had the car phone warehouse idiots yesterday, I said oh no it’s not for me I don’t have a car to put a phone in?! They then asked about my phone and I said I don’t have one(even though I was talking on it!) frustrated Indian voice said oh right and hung up!!😸